YouTuber Laoshu505000 Who Spoke Over 20 Languages Passes Away at 39

March 8, 2021

Moses McCormick, a YouTuber polyglot known as Laoshu505000 who spoke more than 20 languages including Japanese and Mandarin, has passed away at 39.

McCormick, who had 1.1 million subscribers, died on March 4 from a heart complication, according to The Daily Dot. His family has set up a GoFundMe to have the late YouTuber’s remains transported from Phoenix to his hometown in Akron, Ohio.

“Moses Monweal McCormick was a beautiful brother, son, father and friend,” McCormick’s sister, Susan Nushawn McCormick, wrote. “He touched the lives of so many all over the world. His dedication and passion for not only learning but, teaching a plethora of Languages.”

McCormick made his last Instagram post on March 4 to show his progress on his Sinhalese writing.

Who was Laoshu505000?

McCormick was a famous YouTuber who talked to strangers in their native languages.

In 2018, one of McCormick’s viral videos shows him visiting a Chinese restaurant and speaking to the staff in Mandarin.

Another viral video in 2019 features McCormick striking up conversations in a supermarket with strangers using their native languages, including Japanese, Mandarin and Arabic.

McCormick started studying different languages around 20 years ago.

“I noticed that most language books and classes did not teach students how to prepare for real world conversations,” his YouTube bio says. “In an attempt to solve this issue, I developed my own method, The FLR Method. The videos on my channel show the progress that I have made with different languages of the years by using FLR. I hope you are inspired by my content, and that you decide to learn a new language as well.”

According to several reports, McCormick could speak more than 20 languages.

Tragic Loss for the Language Learning Community

Fellow YouTuber Xiaomanyc, whose real name is Arieh Smith, posted a video on Saturday to talk about how McCormick inspired him to learn new languages.

Smith described the late YouTuber as the “original language learning YouTuber” while showing a screenshot of a video McCormick posted around 12 years ago.

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“He really inspired countless people, me included… I think that he exposed a lot of people, including me, to just the idea of trying to connect with somebody else’s culture by learning their language. He wasn’t just like Spanish, French kind of guy. He really just went deep into other cultures and other languages.”

Smith added that McCormick helped him become more confident in learning other languages such as Mayan and Wolof.

Many of McCormick’s fans on Facebook shared their heartfelt condolences. They also shared messages about how McCormick inspired them to learn about different cultures and languages.

Some fans also took to Twitter to pay tribute to the late language learning legend.

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Feature Image via laoshu505000 (left, right)

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