Whether you are starting a language, stalled in your current language, or just love fun language challenges, this is the post for you.
I have collected all of the language challenges I could find all across the web and gathered them here!
Free Challenges:
Here are all of the free challenges that cost no money to participate in!
My Personal Favorite:
Tadoku – A great reading challenge. There are multiple rounds per year and you just read as much as possible within each round’s time frame. You are then ranked on a leader board. Based on the idea of Tadoku – that you can build a reading habit in your TL by starting to read easy books and working up to harder and more interesting books, improving your language level the whole way.
Other Language Challenges:
Language Jam – Currently not active, but the creator does say she will make an active challenge again soon! The idea is that you are given a random language you have *never* studied before and you must study this for one weekend (48 hours) to the best of your abilities. At the end of 48 hours, you show/post what you managed to learn!
Super Challenge – A great long-term reading and watching challenge. The goal is to watch 100 films (90 minutes each, on average) + read 100 books (50 pages each, on average) in 20 months. If this seems too intense, no worries! You can complete a “half” version which is 50 films and 50 books in 20 months. If you are feeling pretty crazy, you can even complete a “double” version!!
The Output Challenge – Seemingly in response to the challenge above (on the same site), this challenge focuses on output in your TL rather than input (like reading and listening above). The goal is to write 50,000 words (or 1 NaNoWriMo novel) + create 50 hours of recorded speech in 12 months. You can choose to do audio only or writing only as well.
The 6 Week Challenge – Seems to be a very loose “give your all for 6 weeks” type of challenge for beginners and low-intermediate learners. Here is an example of the November 2021 challenge scores! It seems that their website community is largely inactive, but their twitter is quite active! A great option for someone who wants to push themselves, but wants to lay it out in their own way!
The 34 Hour Challenge – Duolingo has claimed that 34 hours on their app is equivalent to one university semester in a foreign language. This challenge is studying for 34 hours (one hour per day, as suggested on the blog, or custom) with Duolingo and then taking a placement test afterwards, to see how much you achieved.
Peppa Pig Project – Very loose challenge that just encourages you to just watch as much Peppa Pig in your TL (links are on the challenge page!) as possible. I think this could be made into a nice challenge with any animated TV show – not just Peppa Pig! I personally would like to do this with Avatar: The Last Airbender in Spanish 🙂 I would recommend setting definite guidelines though. For example: 1 hour of Peppa Pig (or another show) every day for 30 days. This can be increased (or decreased) as needed and can really help get some great listening practice in.
Accountability Thread:
This is not a challenge, however if any of the challenges above (and below) do not peak your interest – just make your own! You can use this thread (or a Tumblr account in the “Langblr” community, or another social media account, etc) to help keep you accountable for your own goals. This is one of the most important aspects of learning a language. Consistency and routine are crucial. Creating some goals or habits and using an accountability partner or thread will help you achieve amazing results – guaranteed!
Free Language Challenges on Tumblr:
Here are the challenges that are specific to Tumblr (a great language learning resource, by the way!!). You do not need a Tumblr account just to complete these challenges, but you do need one to be a part of the community for the challenge! Each challenge has it’s own hashtag that you can use. This will help keep you accountable, when you post and use said hashtag. However, you can also just pick a challenge and complete it offline, on your own! 🙂
My Personal Favorites:
Langblr NaNoWriMo – I am obsessed with this idea. It is a language take on the famous NaNoWriMo where you try to write 200 words (of the same story) in your TL every day for the month of November. At the end, you should have a 6000 word story in your TL! The goal is to try to not edit it excessively and to not look up words too often.
100 Day Challenge for Langblrs – My other personal favorite for this list! A 100 day, 100 prompt challenge where you will learn, watch, memorize, translate, read, write, etc., all in your TL. You choose one prompt each day. You do not need to follow them all in order. Great language challenge to shake things up in your language learning!!
Prompt and General Language Challenges:
100 Hour 40 Day Language Challenge – Another great challenge. The goal is to study your TL for at least 100 hours within 40 days. Ideally you would split the time between the four pillars of language learning: speaking, writing, reading, and listening. Day 0 is the introduction post, days 10/20/30 are the update posts, and day 40 is the wrap-up post.
Subtitle Challenge – Very fun little challenge to pick a scene from a movie/TV show/etc (anything with audio!) and “subtitle” it in your TL!
30 Day Langblr Challenge – A 30 day prompt based challenge where you speak or write about said prompts. You can then get constructive criticism, or offer some, once posted. Topics range from hobbies, to animals, to dreams!
14 Day Langblr Challenge – A two week challenge with prompts every day. Some, like day 1, are just asking for background on what language(s) you are studying and why, and some, like day 12, are writing or reading in your TL!
1 Month, 1 Language – A loose challenge where you make your own study rules and just attempt to improve over one month. Its recommended to update weekly, but irregularly or at least at the end of the month with the final summary is okay!
Vocab Related Language Challenges:
30 Day Kanji Challenge – Learn 3 new kanji and 5 new words using that kanji every day. At the end, you will have learned 90 new kanji and 150 new words!
June and July “Build Your Vocab” Challenges – Now discontinued, but there are two months of daily prompts to build your vocab. On day 1, you translate the list into your TL. The rest of the days, you pick 5-10 vocab words to learn, based on that day’s prompt!
90 Day Vocab Challenge – A simple 90 day challenge to learn 12 words per day, or 1000 words total! You choose whatever vocabulary you wish to study on your own.
55 Day Vocabulary Challenge – This is a vocab challenge where you pick 5 words that relate to the daily topic to learn. The topics range from “love” to “bedroom” to “book genres”!
Paid Challenges:
Here are some challenges where you do have to pay in order to complete them.
italki Language Challenge – This challenge is to complete a certain number of hours of lessons on
Signing up for this challenge is free, though you will have to pay for each lesson you take. How much that is depends on the tutor you have chosen for your TL.
Lingoda Language Sprint – Only offered for English (Business or Regular), Spanish, French, or German. It is a 3 month challenge where you choose your intensity and then complete lessons on their site. If you attend all classes, you will win back 50% of what you paid with the Sprint and 100% of what you paid with the Super Sprint. The Super Sprint is 30 classes in each 30 day period (no doubling up on one day) and the Sprint is 15 classes in each 30 day period.
Lingoda classes are small group classes (3-5 people they say) completed online and offered 24/7. I have never used Lingoda, but it seems the prices are $200-250 for a Sprint and $375-450 for a Super Sprint (it depends on the language). These sprints do fill up fast, so if you would like to take part in this language challenge, be sure to sign up ASAP or head to their website for the waiting list!
Have you done any of these challenges already? Or do you have a challenge that I missed?? Let me know if the comments below! 🙂
If you decide to do a challenge here: good luck! If you need any accountability partners, leave a comment below. I or a fellow reader will help keep you on track!!
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Let’s be friends! 🙂
It’s clear you spent a lot of time researching these, thank you! It’s so nice to have them all in one place to reference 🙂
Thank you so much Melissa! You are SO welcome. I’m really happy this helps you 🙂