italki Team Language Challenge Week 5 Update

italki Team Language Challenge Week 5 Update The italki team is taking  the 2015 New Years Language Challenge How much Chinese can they learn in 20 hours? 3 members of the team at italki are taking the language challenge to improve their skill in Mandarin. Each of them will have 20 hours of lessons between January and February. Can you do better than them?  Check out their original Public Video Pledges that they made at the beginning of the Challenge  here. Week 5 Updates Aimé, Intern Week 5 I did it!  I finished all 20 hours of the italki Language Challenge, and I finished early!  It was hard, and sometimes I really had to force myself to make it to my sessions, but you know, it was worth it.  Since I was a bit rushed, it was hard for me to find time to study on my own and improve between sessions, so I think the others will be able to make use of the time left to improve even more. I didnt make my original goal of having a conversation in Chinese, but I really mastered my introduction.  When I first started, I could hardly say a single thing, and I know I still need to improve on my listening, but in one of my last sessions, my teacher  told me, You know, you just spoke Chinese for a whole minute.  I didnt say a thing that was all you.  I feel so proud of my progress. I want to encourage everyone else to keep going and find the time for your sessions.  Put in the time.  I gotta say, its definitely effective. Josie, Services Week 5 I have now completed 17 hours! I have three more sessions and will be finished on Saturday.  However, I didnt complete my goals for the week.  Its been a hectic week, and I really have been terrible at making new vocabulary flash cards For this week, since I will complete my sessions, I want to make sure I write down all of my new vocab.  Its probably close to 100 new words I need to write down and learn, but Im confident that I can do it!  I plan to reward myself with REST! I will take a few days off from having sessions, and maybe have some chocolate To all the other challengers, I want to say, Keep going! You are close!  Even if you feel like you havent improved, you definitely have.  Its definitely worth sticking it out until the end. Karthik, Data Scientist Week 5 (Note: I posted this after I made my video intro which I did late last week) I have completed 10 hours!  I took about 3 hours worth of lessons this week.  I  almost met my goals for this week.  I wanted to get to 5 hours, so Im 80% there. My new goal is to do 10 hours this week.  I will reward myself with ice cream if I reach this goal! To anyone else struggling to fit in your 20 hours, look how far I am from my goal.  But, Im not giving up. If you have the time this week, see if you can surprise yourself and meet your goals. italki Team Language Challenge Week 5 Update The italki team is taking  the 2015 New Years Language Challenge How much Chinese can they learn in 20 hours? 3 members of the team at italki are taking the language challenge to improve their skill in Mandarin. Each of them will have 20 hours of lessons between January and February. Can you do better than them?  Check out their original Public Video Pledges that they made at the beginning of the Challenge  here. Week 5 Updates Aimé, Intern Week 5 I did it!  I finished all 20 hours of the italki Language Challenge, and I finished early!  It was hard, and sometimes I really had to force myself to make it to my sessions, but you know, it was worth it.  Since I was a bit rushed, it was hard for me to find time to study on my own and improve between sessions, so I think the others will be able to make use of the time left to improve even more. I didnt make my original goal of having a conversation in Chinese, but I really mastered my introduction.  When I first started, I could hardly say a single thing, and I know I still need to improve on my listening, but in one of my last sessions, my teacher  told me, You know, you just spoke Chinese for a whole minute.  I didnt say a thing that was all you.  I feel so proud of my progress. I want to encourage everyone else to keep going and find the time for your sessions.  Put in the time.  I gotta say, its definitely effective. Josie, Services Week 5 I have now completed 17 hours! I have three more sessions and will be finished on Saturday.  However, I didnt complete my goals for the week.  Its been a hectic week, and I really have been terrible at making new vocabulary flash cards For this week, since I will complete my sessions, I want to make sure I write down all of my new vocab.  Its probably close to 100 new words I need to write down and learn, but Im confident that I can do it!  I plan to reward myself with REST! I will take a few days off from having sessions, and maybe have some chocolate To all the other challengers, I want to say, Keep going! You are close!  Even if you feel like you havent improved, you definitely have.  Its definitely worth sticking it out until the end. Karthik, Data Scientist Week 5 (Note: I posted this after I made my video intro which I did late last week) I have completed 10 hours!  I took about 3 hours worth of lessons this week.  I  almost met my goals for this week.  I wanted to get to 5 hours, so Im 80% there. My new goal is to do 10 hours this week.  I will reward myself with ice cream if I reach this goal! To anyone else struggling to fit in your 20 hours, look how far I am from my goal.  But, Im not giving up. If you have the time this week, see if you can surprise yourself and meet your goals.