Learning French and German Every Day for Three Months – Lingoda Language Marathon!

Disclosure: This is NOT a paid and sponsored post but I do have a promo code at the end which you can skip.

So here I am, taking part in the Lingoda Language Marathon , full marathon for three months. That’s taking one hour of language lessons every day for three months, no excuses to miss it otherwise you are disqualified.

It has been less than a week since I decided to start learning. I started off doing an introductory ‘lesson’ 1-1 taking place on a video conference platform. This was not so much a lesson but more like a hour conversation with someone to talk about myself a bit, my motivations to take up the lessons, history, and we got into one of the classes. It turned out that I needed to start from the beginning A1.1 for French, so here I am.

I decided to go ahead and purchase the 3 lesson introductory week for 20 euros. This was a group lesson with up to 4 other people however in the two group lessons that I have been to, has been with one other person. You are provided with a PDF (generally about 30 pages) of study material to work on during the hour. The teacher is a native speaker, so you learn how to pronounce the words, the rules, and so on. With one other person, the teacher takes turn practicing although I don’t know what it will be like with 3 or 4 other people. It is recommended that you take 15 minutes at least to go through the material first, look up the objectives of the courses and what to learn, and also (of course) spend some time to learn in between the classes.

After each class, you rate the teacher and provide feedback and in turn the teacher provides feedback to you albeit it has been largely quiet brief.

So far, I have been quiet happy with the experience and was actually considering to take 30 lessons per month, or more. Then I ran into the Lingoda Language Marathon but only by sheer chance that I decided to one day look at their Instagram account as I don’t follow them on social media. I was really excited by the prospect and the fact that I had already taken the group classes and I was already considering doing a subscription made the decision making process easier to take part.

Tomorrow, I am sitting in the German introductory 1-1 conversation to talk to someone at Lingoda and determine where I sit, but since I have been on-off learning the language, I want don’t want to start from the beginning but I do have some brushing up to do. I asked their Support if I can take part in two languages for the marathon providing that I use two emails and two account without being disqualified and they said it is perfectly fine, so here I am, doing both French and German group classes.

It is quiet a jump, since I have never done language tutoring before. I’ve done self-learning using various resources but I just feel inadequate both in terms of skills and motivations. I think that having a social community, taking part in a shared common goal, and betting my money into the study has given me some motivation to better myself and hopefully we will see more results in a few months’ time!

Below are my promo codes:

FYUVJH for a discount off – feel free to use it, I will also have a few free lessons in exchange also.

Digital Nomads and Language Learning

Digital nomads typically flit in and out of countries, either staying there for merely weeks at a time or even months but definitely not years.

One of the downsides is that digital nomads don’t stay long enough in a place to pick up a language.  Either that, or they pick it up in bits and pieces as they return back to their favourite country or countries.

I lived in Germany and I greatly regret not doing more work at the language, knowing that I will soon be leaving this great country in a couple of months.

For many years, I have been on/off in learning German on my own using free resources online.  And yet, despite being here for nearly a year I haven’t attended any German learning courses nor am I able to go in lengthy conversations in the German language.  I am able to understand, just normal / simple talk, with the likes of shopkeepers who cannot speak English.

Living here in this country and not being disciplined in learning the language has been the greatest digital nomad regrets that I’ve had in a long while.

Yes, I know, digital nomads don’t ‘typically’ learn the language in the country that they live in.  But, I use digital nomadism as a tool to live a life that I want.  And one of the features that I want in my life is to pick up new languages.

There is an upside to feeling this regret though. And that is, it has made my resolve to learn new languages even stronger.

In the next few years, I’ll be living in (plans as of writing at least) France, the Netherlands and Norway.   And I fully intend to learn the languages in these countries*.

Yes, I will be reaching various proficiencies. Ideally I would like to be fluent in at least 2 to 3 other languages.  I’d consider fluency to reach at the least B2 to C2 level equivalency.

So, I either just try to learn the languages and have a better life nomading in these regions or I don’t make the effort learn the languages and have a harder life.  Having already been through the motions of living in Germany with basic German skills, I don’t intend to go through this type of experience ever again.

As an FYI, I’m already bilingual. And from age 11 to 12 years old, I was taught Latin and ancient Greek as part of my elementary school curriculum. My high school offered Japanese as a second language, which I had taken up about 4 to 5 units.  I’ve been exposed to new and various languages for a long time now, however growing up in a country town Australia, I really only just stuck to being bilingual.

We will see how things go in the next few years!