Week 3

This week I have begun working on my 20time project!  I began my rough draft of my 30 day challenge and began investigating different tools I can use to help others learn Portuguese.  I found Duolingo, which is an app that I can get on my phone.  It has mini lessons that begin with very simple words and builds with each lesson.  It recommends doing two lessons a day, so I will begin doing these daily lessons next week.  I also found podcasts on iTunes that are extremely beneficial for learning languages.  They have ones in Portuguese that show a conversation in the language, and then break down the word meanings in English.  It will be very helpful because it’s important to hear the language spoken in order to learn it.  I have begun to create my website online and have started to format it.  I have not created my official page yet that I will post on Pinterest, but I plan to do so within the next two weeks.  Furthermore, once creating the page, I will attempt to complete the plan in order to see whether it actually works or not.  Then, I will edit the page in order to make it as accurate as possible.  

Proposal: 30 Day Language Challenge

[learning Portuguese and encouraging others to do the same]

Needs and Opportunities

According to Psychology Today, only 20% of people in the United States are bilingual.  This means that 80% of people in the U.S. strictly speak English, which is extremely limiting in this extremely diverse world that is rapidly becoming smaller and smaller through technology.  It is becoming increasingly important to learn other languages in order to be a more functioning member of this interconnected world.  Furthermore, for those of us that are English teachers or are aspiring to enter into this challenging profession, it is absolutely imperative that we learn another language in order to fully understand what it takes to master a language.  It is also imperative because in order to teach ELL students most effectively, we should understand ourselves the challenges that come with learning a new language.

Audience / Clients / Users

I am going to create a 30 day language learning challenge!  This challenge will make language learning easy for anyone who is willing to tackle the challenge.  I will advertise this challenge using Pinterest.  I will create a visual image that gives a glimpse of the challenge and when users click on the image, it will be attached to a blog that explains the challenge in detail and explains why it’s important to learn a language. 

Timeline

Week 3 (May 29th)	Language Goal: master top 100 Portuguese phrases Create Blog and first post- Why learn a language?
Week 5 (June 12th)	Language Goal: Finish half of the Semantica Portuguese lessons Create image and begin advertising on Pinterest.
Week 7 (June 26th)	Language Goal: Complete all Semantica Portuguese lessons Blog Goal: 2nd blog post- Explain challenge in detail
Week 9 (July 10th)	Language Goal: have five minute conversation in only Portuguese Blog Goal: 3rd blog post- My experience learning Portuguese (tips and tricks)

Product

At the end of this project, I will be able to have a conversation in Portuguese.  I will have created a 30 day challenge that challenges others to learn a language of their choice, supplemented with a blog that documents my personal experience learning a second language.   

Reality Check

All of the online resources I will use to learn Portuguese are free, so I will not need an extensive budget. Advertising on Pinterest and creating a blog will also be free.  However, an appropriate reality check is that I will not be completely fluent in Portuguese by the end of this project. However, I would like to have a good start on learning the language and at least be able to have a small conversation in the language. 

Conclusion

I am so excited for this opportunity to learn Portuguese and help inspire others to do the same.  I have wanted to begin learning this language ever since I went on a mission trip to Brazil over Spring Break and absolutely fell in love with the culture, the people, and the language.  I realized the incredible opportunities that exist outside of the United States, but the one thing that stops most people from these opportunities is the language barrier.  I would like to learn Portuguese so that one day, I can move to Brazil to teach English there and I would like to help others see how beneficial it is to learn another language.