20-hour language course is certainly short compared with what many study programs can offer. Imagine that you might spend the whole hour learning the alphabet and telling people about your name, your hometown, your occupation, etc. in a language course.
If you join a course with many students, your learning pace can go only as fast as the slowest student. That might not be efficient for some students. The solution is either to do self-learning or to take a 1-on-1 course.
Honestly, I am not a big fan of language class, however, there is an activity called the Italki Challenge that looks so interesting that I decided to give it a try. It is about learning any language in 20 hours and I have just completed it.
The Achievement
I feel much more confident in speaking Portuguese now compared with before, and I have also proven that I can hold conversations only in Portuguese, not just once but for the entire 20-hour lesson. That is such an amazing experience that I have ever had.Well, of course, I used a dictionary sometimes or asked it in Spanish since my tutor also speaks Spanish, and she is teaching it too. So, if any of you would like to have a Spanish course, you can also contact her. Here is her Italki profile.
Besides my tutor, I also had the chance to speak Portuguese for a while with a Sao Tomean friend. That was my first time speaking Portuguese offline. It certainly gives a different experience when you are speaking face-to-face with a person who stands less than 1 meter from you.
After finishing the Italki Challenge, I started to take learning to a higher level by reading about programming and engineering in Portuguese. The reason is simply because I am working as an IT engineer.
Next Challenge?
The last Italki Challenge was not the first, so I believe that there will be another Italki Challenge in the near future. I strongly recommend you to take part in it, learn any languages, widen your knowledge, talk with people from other parts of the world, gain experience, and be a world citizen.Did you also finish the Italki Challenge? Share your experience with us in the comment box.
Photo credit
By Robert Nyman (Car and bicycle facedownUploaded by tm) [CC BY 2.0], via Wikimedia Commons
By r2hox from Madrid, Spain (Lisboa 2012/B111Uploaded by tm) [CC BY-SA 2.0], via Wikimedia Commons