{"id":5729,"date":"2017-01-09T16:42:33","date_gmt":"2017-01-09T16:42:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.utalk.com\/news\/?p=5729"},"modified":"2026-08-20T20:29:08","modified_gmt":"2026-08-20T19:29:08","slug":"language-learners-take-new-years-resolutions-to-extremes-with-utalk-challenge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/utalk.com\/en\/news\/language-learners-take-new-years-resolutions-to-extremes-with-utalk-challenge","title":{"rendered":"Language learners take New Year\u2019s Resolutions to extremes with uTalk Challenge"},"content":{"rendered":"

Hundreds of people across the world are taking New Year\u2019s Resolutions to a whole new level in 2017 by joining the uTalk Challenge, which offers the chance to learn a new language free every month for a year.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Challenge gives participants free access to 10 topics in a language of their choice (from over 130 available) on the uTalk multi-platform app. If they complete the 10 topics, they can choose a second language for February \u2013 and so on.<\/span><\/p>\n

This year\u2019s Challengers will be hoping to follow in the footsteps of Patricia Ochman from Toronto, who last year learnt 12 languages including Greenlandic, Samoan and Dzongkha. Patricia, an avid language learner, shows no sign of slowing down and has already made a start on her first language of 2017 \u2013 Hebrew.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThis year I\u2019ve decided to take requests, so I\u2019m starting with a suggestion from my close\u00a0friend to learn Hebrew,\u201d she explains. \u201cI think having a \u2018designated cheerleader\u2019 for the month will make the challenge even more interesting!\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Darren Cameron from Bristol also made it all the way to December in 2016, finishing Bulgarian just before Christmas and moving swiftly on to Afrikaans on January 1st<\/sup>. It\u2019s fair to say he\u2019s happy with his choice of language: \u201cI\u2019m officially in love with Afrikaans! My favourite word of any language – so far – is now aartappelskyfies (<\/em>which means chips).\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

uTalk chairman Dick Howeson is delighted with the response to this year\u2019s Challenge, which is the biggest yet. \u201cIt\u2019s great to see so many people are inspired to learn something new for 2017. We can\u2019t wait to hear how they all use their new languages over the coming months.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

As for Dick, he\u2019s learning Hindi this month as uTalk is developing some exciting partnerships in India. \u201cKnowing even a few words in a language shows respect and can help create a great connection. Learning Hindi will certainly be a challenge \u2013 but I\u2019m up for it!\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

It\u2019s not too late to sign up for the uTalk Challenge. To register visit utalk.com\/challenge<\/a> and enter your details. Good luck!<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hundreds of people across the world are taking New Year\u2019s Resolutions to a whole new level in 2017 by joining…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_kad_blocks_custom_css":"","_kad_blocks_head_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_body_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_footer_custom_js":"","_kad_post_transparent":"","_kad_post_title":"","_kad_post_layout":"","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false,"_kad_post_classname":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1591,794],"tags":[300,750,315,738,333,222,1393],"class_list":["post-5729","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","category-utalk","tag-afrikaans","tag-challenge","tag-hebrew","tag-hindi","tag-language-learning","tag-new-year","tag-utalk-challenge"],"acf":[],"lang":"en","translations":{"en":5729},"taxonomy_info":{"category":[{"value":1591,"label":"News"},{"value":794,"label":"uTalk"}],"post_tag":[{"value":300,"label":"Afrikaans"},{"value":750,"label":"challenge"},{"value":315,"label":"Hebrew"},{"value":738,"label":"Hindi"},{"value":333,"label":"language learning"},{"value":222,"label":"New Year"},{"value":1393,"label":"uTalk challenge"}]},"featured_image_src_large":false,"author_info":{"display_name":"Richard Howeson","author_link":"https:\/\/utalk.com\/en\/news\/author\/richard"},"comment_info":0,"category_info":[{"term_id":1591,"name":"News","slug":"news","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":1591,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":0,"count":5,"filter":"raw","cat_ID":1591,"category_count":5,"category_description":"","cat_name":"News","category_nicename":"news","category_parent":0},{"term_id":794,"name":"uTalk","slug":"utalk","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":794,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":0,"count":78,"filter":"raw","cat_ID":794,"category_count":78,"category_description":"","cat_name":"uTalk","category_nicename":"utalk","category_parent":0}],"tag_info":[{"term_id":300,"name":"Afrikaans","slug":"afrikaans","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":300,"taxonomy":"post_tag","description":"","parent":0,"count":4,"filter":"raw"},{"term_id":750,"name":"challenge","slug":"challenge","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":750,"taxonomy":"post_tag","description":"","parent":0,"count":34,"filter":"raw"},{"term_id":315,"name":"Hebrew","slug":"hebrew","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":315,"taxonomy":"post_tag","description":"","parent":0,"count":3,"filter":"raw"},{"term_id":738,"name":"Hindi","slug":"hindi","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":738,"taxonomy":"post_tag","description":"","parent":0,"count":3,"filter":"raw"},{"term_id":333,"name":"language learning","slug":"language-learning","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":333,"taxonomy":"post_tag","description":"","parent":0,"count":50,"filter":"raw"},{"term_id":222,"name":"New Year","slug":"new-year","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":222,"taxonomy":"post_tag","description":"","parent":0,"count":20,"filter":"raw"},{"term_id":1393,"name":"uTalk challenge","slug":"utalk-challenge","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":1393,"taxonomy":"post_tag","description":"","parent":0,"count":7,"filter":"raw"}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/utalk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5729","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/utalk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/utalk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/utalk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/utalk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5729"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/utalk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5729\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10823,"href":"https:\/\/utalk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5729\/revisions\/10823"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/utalk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5729"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/utalk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5729"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/utalk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5729"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}