How These Beginners Learned A Brand New Language In 21 Days

Is 21 days really enough time to form a healthy habit from scratch? That’s what we set out to test at the start of the new year. After the last of the confetti was swept up and the empty champagne bottles recycled, we wanted to see if people would make a resolution and stick to it. Thus, the #Babbel21 challenge was born. Many of our social media followers joined Babbel USA staffers to learn a new language quickly — in only 21 days. What insights can we take away from their language-learning journey? Here are some highlights from three of the most dedicated challenge participants.

Gene — French Learner

Gene was passionate about learning French from the start (and his photos were beautiful)!

Salut! I’ll be leaning French via @BabbelUSA & doing the #Babbel21 challenge! pic.twitter.com/7Z3wH4lAsq

— Whirling Gene ✊🏽🌈 (@TheWhirlingGene) January 2, 2018

His reason for learning French? Following his dreams, of course. Très bon !

I’m doing @BabbelUSA‘s #Babbel21 Day Challenge to keep me motivated to do at least one lesson a day & hopefully, by Day 21, I’ll be in a nice groove & keep going further. It’s been a dream to learn to speak Francais & I think this might be the perfect time to make it a reality! pic.twitter.com/ZeEKY6yvNv

— Whirling Gene ✊🏽🌈 (@TheWhirlingGene) January 9, 2018

Check out his progress at the end of Week 1.

Short and sweet but I tried!! @BabbelUSA’s #Babbel21 Day 7

Bonjour! Je m’appelle Gene-Manuel. J’habite a Guttenberg, NJ. Salut! pic.twitter.com/31jOCXhIcl

— Whirling Gene ✊🏽🌈 (@TheWhirlingGene) January 8, 2018

And Week 2!

Salut! C’est lundi et je n’ais pas grand chose à dire. Bonne journèe à tous! @BabbelUSA’s #Babbel21 Day Challenge • Day 14 (Post a video speaking in your language.)#FrenchLessons pic.twitter.com/BeDNhseuEY

— Whirling Gene ✊🏽🌈 (@TheWhirlingGene) January 15, 2018

By the end of the challenge, he had really come a long way. Fantastique !

It’s the last day of @BabbelUSA’s #Babbel21 Day Challenge! Je suis triste que le défi se termine. Bonne chance à tous! 🤞🏽😘😘#FrenchLessons pic.twitter.com/Fm0Eu1gDhF

— Whirling Gene ✊🏽🌈 (@TheWhirlingGene) January 22, 2018

Lexxie — Spanish Learner

Both Lexxie and her bitmoji (the cartoon version of her seen below) were very excited to learn Spanish.

#Babbel21 learning Spanish! Going to crush it in 2018 pic.twitter.com/foi0Okd26n

— Lexxie Dugan (@Leximus28) January 3, 2018

She’s learning Spanish to connect with relatives and to become an even better third-grade teacher!

I will be able to talk with my two sister-in-laws in their native language! Also be able to communicate with my students parents! #Babbel21

— Lexxie Dugan (@Leximus28) January 18, 2018

We loved her Week 1 recap video, mostly because of her adorable study buddies.

Day 7 of #Babbel21 A mistake but fun to make! @BabbelUSA pic.twitter.com/dkL2UUl9WV

— Lexxie Dugan (@Leximus28) January 9, 2018

Week 2 was just as cute!

End of week 2! #Babbel21 #Petsofbabbel @BabbelUSA pic.twitter.com/f9xnmNo2cJ

— Lexxie Dugan (@Leximus28) January 16, 2018

By Day 21, she made a lot of progress but admitted she has some more practicing to do. ¡Muy bien!

@BabbelUSA día viente y uno! This was a lot of fun! Can’t wait to see what’s next! #Babbel21 pic.twitter.com/OglCyG1b1M

— Lexxie Dugan (@Leximus28) January 23, 2018

Thomas — German Learner/Babbel Staffer

Babbel USA’s very own content producer Thomas was brave enough to take on German. His dachshund friend came along for the ride.

Hallo! This month I’m taking part in #Babbel21, and for the first day I’m introducing myself. I’m Thomas and I’m holding a wiener dog in this picture because I’ll be learning German! Follow me on this three-week journey. #babbel #german #language

A post shared by reddevlin but german (@reddevlang) on Jan 2, 2018 at 8:33am PST

He’s a total bookworm and hopes to be able to read some German lit. If he keeps at it, there may be a Metamorphosis in store for him!

For #babbel21 Day 16, we’re talking about what we plan to do with the language after the challenge. I’ll need to get through a lot more lessons, but I hope to eventually start reading books in #german, like Kafka and Rilke. Before getting to real novels, I’ll have to start with Germany’s famously weird children’s books. Here’s to that guy who cuts children’s thumbs off! #languagelearning

A post shared by reddevlin but german (@reddevlang) on Jan 17, 2018 at 6:53am PST

In just seven days, he made incredible progress! Someone’s gunning for a promotion.

I hate taping myself so I can’t entirely promise the audio works! Day 7 of #Babbel21! #german! #languagelearning!

A post shared by reddevlin but german (@reddevlang) on Jan 8, 2018 at 6:31pm PST

By Week 2, he was using much longer sentences and his pronunciation was improving.

#babbel21 Day 14! It took me 45 minutes to get even a slightly respectable version of this so I’m doing GREAT. Or as they say in #german, schadenfreude. #languagelearning

A post shared by reddevlin but german (@reddevlang) on Jan 15, 2018 at 6:02pm PST

By the end of the challenge, his German was quite good. Sehr Gut, Thomas! We’re impressed.

Happy #babbel21 Day 21! As you can tell from the video, I’ve come a long way, but I still have a while to go before getting near fluency at #german. I’m relieved I don’t have to film myself anymore though! Here’s to the start of a long journey #languagelearning #pleasedontwatchthis

A post shared by reddevlin but german (@reddevlang) on Jan 22, 2018 at 6:50pm PST