How NOT To Suck At Language Challenges

The term “Language challenge”, you may have noticed, is cropping up all over the place!

Typically lasting either 30 or 90 days, you come together with other learners from around the world to set goals, support each other and learn a language fast.

That's the theory at least.

In language learning challenges, as with anything else, there is the potential to waste your time and even set yourself back.

Get it right, though, and you can genuinely catapult your level in your target language into the stratosphere.

In this post, I'm going to draw on my experience in the first Add 1 Challenge (back in 2013) to show you exactly how to make language challenges work for YOU.

I know this because in my first language challenge I made a lot of mistakes…despite being a fairly experienced language learner.

Suddenly finding yourself in a new environment can really throw you, even if it does happen to be online!

I worked too hard, tried to outdo myself, and took it all a bit too seriously…

…and ended up burning out!

Luckily I managed to turn it around and wrote about how I did it in this post about learning Cantonese.

I don't want this to happen to you, so read on…

9 Keys To Success In A Language Challenge

1) Don't Aim Too High

Small steps forward in the right direction are infinitely better than shooting for an unachievable goal and burning out or beating yourself up for not reaching it.

“Be fluent” is not a good goal. “Have my first 15-minute conversation with a native speaker” is.

Modest goals, by being achievable, create space for you to actually enjoy the learning process and help you avoid the kind of stress that leads to you becoming demotivated and even giving up.

2) Don't Do Things That Aren't Sustainable In The Long Term

Sure, you could study for 3 hours every night during the challenge, but you won't be able to keep it up for long (the inconsistency villain will persuade you to take an extended break after!). 

Rather than aiming to do as much as possible during the challenge, instead aim to develop habits and routines that you can sustain beyond the end of the challenge.

This means focusing on approaches to studying that can fit around your lifestyle. Don't try to make your lifestyle fit around your language learning – it won't last long.

3) Don't Set Goals, But Do Know Where You're Headed

I've found that traditional goal setting in language learning doesn't work for most people. Although this is counter-intuitive (goal setting is very powerful for most things) the reality is that you can't really control what you learn. You can, however, control the kinds of activities that might result in learning.

By focussing on the process, and not worrying about the product, you will get much further along than if you're constantly obsessing over “Have I learnt my 20 words for today?”

I call this methodology Sprints and have written a detailed explanation of it here. It has helped a lot of people move forward in their language learning and I highly recommend reading this post if you often find yourself confused about what to do.

While a 30-day language challenge can help you get started, sprints help with the longevity of your learning.

4) Aim To Experiment As Much As Possible

It's by trying new things that you will eventually find what really works for you. I've often found that one small discovery can change the way I learn languages altogether.

This is yet another application of the 80/20 principle – most things you do will make no difference whatsoever, so learn to set them aside and keep pursuing those that will.

5) Talk As Much As Possible With Other People Also Involved In The Challenge

We're social beings and shouldn't exist in bubbles. You are the average of the 5 people around you.

Firstly, there's the moral support and motivation to carry on that you can get from other people in your language app challenge.

You can learn so much from what other people are trying, and you should always remember that it only takes one person to give you one idea that can change your direction totally.

So whether you're doing the Babbel language challenge or the Italki challenge make the most of the other learners doing the same!

6) Take The Opportunity To Push Yourself Outside Your Comfort Zone

Try things that you wouldn't otherwise. Scared of booking that tutoring session on LanguaTalk? It's now or never, and it certainly won't get any easier once the challenge is over.

7) Announce What You're Doing To Friends And Family

Accountability is a big deal. In fact, telling people publicly that I'm learning Arabic has been a huge motivating factor for me in those moments when I'm less than up for it.

I know, for example, that when I head to next year's Polyglot Gathering in Berlin I'll be quizzed (in a nice way): “So Olly, how's your Arabic?” If I say that I haven't gotten very far with it, I'll feel rather foolish!

8) Speak With Native Speakers More Than You Currently Do

Speaking is probably the one thing you don't do enough of if your aim is ultimately to be fluent in your target language.

Let's be honest, if you did enough speaking you wouldn't need to join a challenge for a language learner.

And this means that you need to go into the challenge understanding that the elephant in the room really is speaking – you're going to have to find ways to speak more, and services such as LanguaTalk really are the best.

If you haven't started speaking your target language regularly with people yet, it really is much easier and less daunting than you think, and I've written a guide to getting started which will help you with this.

9) Don't Ever Compare Yourself With Others

It's not about how good you get in your 90 day language challenge. Don't fall into the trap of comparing yourself to other people or their level. Everyone is at different stages and will end up in different places. That's fine.

What matters is what you learn for yourself, and, ultimately, what you carry forward to the weeks and months after the challenge is over.

As such, don't worry one bit about “his Japanese is better than mine” or “her accent is more convincing than mine” – it may well be, but it doesn't matter, because you should only worry about how far you've come and what you've learnt (any negative self-talk is just the comparison villain putting you off – don't let her!)

Kick Start Your Learning With A Language Challenge

Follow these guidelines and you'll be way ahead of the pack.

Just how serious are you about moving forward with your target language?

If you think you could benefit from a motivational pick-me-up, then here's what you should do right now:

If you want to succeed, join a language challenge that keeps you motivated. Whether it's the iTalki Language Challenge that runs every few weeks, the Babbel 30-day language learning challenge, or Duolingo's daily quests, find what works for you!

Good luck, and most importantly, enjoy!

Image 1: alexkphoto

Image 2: jennyxyoung

Olly Richards

Creator of the StoryLearning® Method

Olly Richards is a renowned polyglot and language learning expert with over 15 years of experience teaching millions through his innovative StoryLearning® method. He is the creator of StoryLearning, one of the world's largest language learning blogs with 500,000+ monthly readers.

Olly has authored 30+ language learning books and courses, including the bestselling "Short Stories" series published by Teach Yourself.

When not developing new teaching methods, Richards practices what he preaches—he speaks 8 languages fluently and continues learning new ones through his own methodology.