Kudos to Launchpadders for pioneering a new way to master a foreign language.

Despite A’s in high school and college Spanish, the title above is courtesy of Google translate.  Transcripts notwithstanding, like most traditional students I never mastered a foreign language and dreaded the classes.

Our Launchpadders — plus two elementary Eagles who have joined the Foreign Language Quest — are choosing a different path.  Without a teacher, they are learning to speak Spanish by  — speaking Spanish.   Armed with tools like Duolingo and Modern States, Launchpadders fearlessly engage with native speaking peers on sites like WeSpeke, accepting a bit of early grammatical stumbling as a way to make friends and learn about different cultures.

How is it going?  Here’s what our customers report:

• I love that we immediately started speaking Spanish.
• I really like how Duolingo lets you move at your own pace.
• My favorite thing has been the launches where we’ve been forced to take ourselves out of our comfort zone with improvisation – in Spanish.
• Benny Lewis’ tools have been super helpful for beginning to “hack” my way to fluency. 

And let’s not forget that Launchpadders who pass the CLEP test at the end of the Foreign Language Quest may earn up to nine hours of college credit.

Viva la revolution!