Moses Monweal McCormick (March 12, 1981[1] – March 4, 2021), also known as Laoshu (from Chinese: 老鼠; pinyin: lǎoshǔ, transl. mouse) or Laoshu505000, was an American YouTuber and language coach.
Moses McCormick | |
|---|---|
 McCormick in May 2020 | |
| Born | Moses Monweal McCormick March 12, 1981 Akron, Ohio, U.S. |
| Died | March 4, 2021 (aged 39) Phoenix, Arizona, U.S. |
| Occupations | |
| YouTube information | |
| Channel | |
| Years active | 2008–2021 |
| Genre | Entertainment |
| Subscribers | 1.23 million |
| Views | 220 million |
| Last updated: May 2025 | |
| Website | imabouttolevelup |
Language learning
editMcCormick gained popularity by speaking several languages with native speakers that he met in public places, and uploading the videos on his YouTube channel.[2][3][4] He called this activity "leveling up".[5]
McCormick taught language lessons remotely over the Internet,[6] over time developing his own language learning method, which he called FLR (Foreign Language Roadrunning).[7][8] According to his YouTube biography, "When I first began language learning 20 years ago, I noticed that most language books and classes did not teach students how to prepare for real world conversations. In an attempt to solve this issue, I developed my own method, The FLR Method."[9]
The foreign language in which McCormick was most fluent was Mandarin Chinese. He also spoke around twenty languages at a basic conversational level, including Japanese, Vietnamese, Cantonese, Korean, Somali, Spanish, and Swahili.[2]
Death
editMcCormick died on March 4, 2021, in Phoenix, Arizona, at the age of 39, reportedly from heart complications.[7][6][8]
References
edit- ↑ Moses McCormick on X
- 1 2 Ha, Thu-Huong (May 8, 2017). "An American conversant in 20 languages delights strangers in their native tongues". Quartz. Retrieved July 23, 2021.
- ↑ Kim, Eddie (July 9, 2019). "How This YouTube Language Wizard Taught Himself to Speak Dozens of Languages". MEL Magazine. Retrieved July 23, 2021.
- ↑ Lewis, Benny (June 21, 2015). "6 myths that prevent people from learning multiple languages". Business Insider. Retrieved July 23, 2021.
- ↑ Lewis, Benny (July 23, 2012). "Language leveling up: Moses and Benny speak a dozen languages in Columbus Ohio". Fluent in 3 Months. Retrieved July 23, 2021.
- 1 2 Thalen, Mikael (March 6, 2021). "Popular language YouTuber 'Laoshu' dies". The Daily Dot. Retrieved July 23, 2021.
- 1 2 Ke, Bryan (March 8, 2021). "YouTuber Laoshu505000 Who Spoke Over 20 Languages Passes Away at 39". Yahoo! News. Retrieved July 23, 2021.
- 1 2 Thobejane, Lethebo (March 5, 2021). "Professional Polyglot, Moses McCormick Has Passed Away". Latest News South Africa. Retrieved July 23, 2021.
- ↑ "Laoshu505000 - YouTube". YouTube.
