While we're on nationality, I have to say I find it hypocritical in the extreme that you wrote a long angry blog post about problems you have with Americans, which include overzealous marketing. And then you make ridiculous claims like "fluent in 3 months".
I saw your ChinesePod video after three months of study and it wasn't even remotely fluent. As tokenadult said, other than the intro it was slow and heavily accented.
In fact, I would go so far as to say the average college aged student I've met who has done an intensive program such as IUP in Beijing or ICLP in China not only has better reading skills, but also larger vocabulary, clearer accent and more fluid speech.
To clarify, I'm not saying you didn't manage to learn a good amount in three months. ICLP and IUP are top programs and very intense, and you're definitely ahead of the average university student who isn't in a great immersion program. Why the over-the-top claims? It's completely possible to make a successful language learning business without them. Just look at Steve "the linguist" Kaufman (a pretty good Chinese speaker, btw).
As the Chinese women pointed out, you have a good habit of boldly speaking the languages you are trying out. 「我覺得你有一個很好的習慣。 就是，你的目的是在用語言。你學一點以後，你馬上出去用和別人說話。而且，你很勇敢。」 (The transcription into Chinese characters from the soundtrack of the video is my own. The English translation was already provided as captions on the YouTube video, which I was listening to, but not watching, as I typed my first reply.) I had never heard you speak English in person and only in snatches of quoted speech while listening to the video, so I didn't place your English accent to a particular country among the countries you have visited in your world travels. I see now from looking at the linked videos that the Chinese woman in the interview has HUGE experience in speaking Chinese to foreigners with very little proficiency in Chinese, and has strong English of her own.
I'll comment for onlookers that according to Chinese social-science surveys, barely more than half the population of China is conversant in Modern Standard Chinese (Mandarin), the official language of the country.[1] So Mandarin is a very "fault-tolerant" language, as many people who speak it in China are speaking it with other people with a poor command of the language.
I saw your ChinesePod video after three months of study and it wasn't even remotely fluent. As tokenadult said, other than the intro it was slow and heavily accented.
In fact, I would go so far as to say the average college aged student I've met who has done an intensive program such as IUP in Beijing or ICLP in China not only has better reading skills, but also larger vocabulary, clearer accent and more fluid speech.
To clarify, I'm not saying you didn't manage to learn a good amount in three months. ICLP and IUP are top programs and very intense, and you're definitely ahead of the average university student who isn't in a great immersion program. Why the over-the-top claims? It's completely possible to make a successful language learning business without them. Just look at Steve "the linguist" Kaufman (a pretty good Chinese speaker, btw).
Benny speaking Chinese - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VOmG-ufK0UI
Steve Kaufman - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hmXVN2t2seE