Is it possible to pick up a language in a month?

Hello! Bonjour! 你好! السلام عليكم

I have a love/hate relationship with languages.

I hate learning them.  I hate struggling in class. I hate finding a way to wrap my brain around a foreign language for 4 hours a week. I hate how my throat refuses to manipulate itself to make the ع and ح sounds in Arabic. I hate how I know I’m slowly losing my Cantonese mother tongue. I spend 3 weeks in Waterloo and 3 days at home only to sputter out my Cantonese like a 12 year old girl. Scratch that, 12 year olds probably have better Cantonese than me. Let’s settle for 6 year old girls.

Then there’s the love side.

I love talking to people in their mother tongue. I love exploring places and picking up the language I hear. I love spending time with people, learning about their culture and picking up their language. I love that I can walk around and pick up bits and pieces of an Arabic poster. Although it’s a pain in the ass to learn in class, I love learning new languages.

But the real question is this: Is it possible to pick up a language in a month?

Recently, my friend blogged about Duolingo – an app that helps you learn a new language. The best part? It’s free!

So starting April 13, I’m challenging myself to learn one language in one month. My goal is to be able to fluently introduce myself, exchange pleasantries, and count to 10. I’ll document my journey so stay tuned for my weekly progress updates!

Does this challenge interest you? If it does, feel free to join me! Otherwise, be sure to leave suggestion in the section below as to which language I should learn on Duolingo.