Get Your Head in the Game: 2014 World Cup of Languages Contest! Posted by meaghan on Jun 9, 2014 in Archived Posts
Imagine if the Super Bowl lasted an entire month, featured teams from every corner of the globe, received more than 3 billion views worldwide, and only came around once every four years.
That, friends, is the FIFA World Cup™, with less American “football” and a whole lot more fútbol. Even if you aren’t a fan of the sport, there’s plenty to love about the World Cup. Much like the Olympics, it is an unparalleled opportunity to put aside political and social differences, root for your home team, and explore another country and culture. And when that country is Brazil, what’s not to love? Olé! This international pageant of athleticism is also a celebration of excellence, passion, unity, and tradition on a global scale.
That’s why we’re hosting our own 2014 World Cup of Languages Contest! We want to bring language lovers from around the world together and give you the chance to support your favorite language, start learning a new one, and have fun doing it…for free!
We’re kickin’ it World Cup style (pun so intended). 32 languages have qualified for this year’s World Cup of Languages, broken in to the Groups shown below. During our Multilingual Madness tournament, we simply had you vote for your favorite languages. This time around, we’re kickin’ it up a notch (gosh, we’re so punny!) In the World Cup of Languages, your job is to score points for a language by learning it! Here’s how it’ll work:
Starting Wednesday 6/11, you will see a form at the bottom of this blog post. Fill out the form to receive an e-mail with further instructions on how to access a free account in Transparent Language Online for the duration of the competition!
Once you’ve logged in to your free account, the game begins! You will have full access to all of our Transparent Language Online learning materials in any of the 32 qualifying languages. For every minute you spend logged in and learning a language, that specific language will receive 1 point! At the end of the Group Stage, the 2 languages from each Group with the most points will move on to the Round of 16, and the process starts over. The surviving Group members will face those of other Groups, bracket-style, in the same setup of the FIFA World Cup™ schedule. If your language is still in the running, you can keep on learning and scoring points for your team! If your language was eliminated, you can add a new one to your account and keep playing along in support of another team.
- Group Stage: Thursday 6/12—Friday 6/27
- Round of 16: Saturday 6/28—Wednesday 7/2
- Quarter-Finals: Thursday 7/3—Monday 7/7
- Semi-Finals: Tuesday 7/8—Friday 7/11
- Finals: Saturday 7/12—Sunday 7/13
- Winner declared on Monday 7/14!
So, the winning language is determined by most minutes logged by you, our lovely language learners! But how do we pick a contest winner? When signing up, you’ll be able to make your prediction of which language will win this year’s World Cup of Languages. Make sure you pick wisely, because we’ll be selecting an individual winner from the pool of entrants who guessed correctly! (Note that you can predict a winning language, but choose to learn a different language during the competition. Because, let’s be serious, sometimes you just know your home team isn’t going to win the whole thing!)
What’s up for grabs, here? The winner will receive an extended 6-month subscription to Transparent Language Online in the language of their choice, as well as one free 90-minute Transparent Connect tutoring session in the language of their choice!
So, bookmark this page, tell your friends, and start stretching! Head back here on Wednesday 6/11 to fill out the form and receive all of the instructions you’ll need to get going! Happy language learning, World Cup entrants, and may the odds be ever in your language’s favor!
Build vocabulary, practice pronunciation, and more with Transparent Language Online. Available anytime, anywhere, on any device.
About the Author: meaghan
Meaghan is the Marketing Communications Manager at Transparent Language. She speaks enough French and Spanish to survive, and remembers enough Hausa to say "Hello my name is Meaghan, I'm studying Hausa." (But sadly that's it).
Comments:
Skrivanek Group:
Meaghan, what a brilliant idea! I’m so glad we came across your article in time, barely. We’ll be sure to share the world on our networks. Such a creative idea and for a great cause. We can’t stress enough on the importance of such events and what this website continues to do.
Peter Heathcote:
I would like to learn italian (Group D)
meaghan:
@Peter Heathcote The entry form is live now! Buona fortuna!
Jorge:
@Peter Heathcote I’m with you. Go Italian!
murray:
@Jorge Anch’io! But how long does it take for the email to arrive?
meaghan:
@murray Ciao Murray! Our records show that you received the e-mail. Were you able to find it? It will be coming from Meaghan McGonagle, and may end up in your Promotions or Spam filter in gmail.
murray:
@meaghan I found it! It was tucked into my “promotions” folder. I’m all signed up!
meaghan:
@murray Glad you found it! Happy learning. 🙂
Aline Lefrancois:
I would like to join group H. We can win it!
meaghan:
@Aline Lefrancois That’s the spirit. The entry form is now live, and Group H is waiting for you. 🙂
ngoglobaal:
Great Project!
ngoglobaal:
Greedy to fill out the form and to receive all of the instructions needed to get going! Supportig group B for Esperanto to win the competition!
meaghan:
@ngoglobaal Happy to see Esperanto getting some love. The entry form is now live whenever you’re ready to sign up!
Robert:
@meaghan At first I thought it was only the languages of the countries who are actually in the World Cup and I thought “Brilliant idea, shame Esperanto isn’t included.” Imagine my delight when I saw it was! Its a fantastic idea and I think it will be good fun.
meaghan:
@Robert We’re all about spreading the love to less common languages, especially Esperanto! So glad you’ll be playing along. 🙂
Bev Maule:
Sign me up !
meaghan:
@Bev Maule Sorry for the wait, Bev! The entry form is now live, so you can sign up when you’re ready!
Gio:
Excellent idea, but where is the form to sign up?
meaghan:
@Gio Thanks, Gio! Sorry for making you wait, but the entry form is live and the World Cup of Languages is a go!
Laura:
where is this form that we need to fill out, to join the game??
meaghan:
@Laura Sorry for the wait, Laura! The entry form is now live so you can sign up whenever you’re ready. Happy language learning!
Simi Silva:
Group B – I would like to learn Hindi
meaghan:
@Simi Silva Hi Simi! If you fill out the form at the bottom of this blog post, you’ll receive an e-mail with downloadable instructions to help you sign up and start learning Hindi!
sami khan:
Pushto
Laura:
sing me up! swedish here I come!:)
meaghan:
@Laura Hey Laura! The sign-up form is live at the bottom of this blog post, so you can sign up whenever you’re ready! Lycka till! 🙂
Carlos:
Spanish – Portuguese, the big match of group A xD
Laura:
i don’t know the class code for swedish? where can I find it??
meaghan:
@Laura The class code for each language is just the name of the language itself! So for Swedish, it’s just “Swedish”! 🙂 The only exception is Haitian Creole, whose class code is just “Haitian”. It’s all in the instructions you’ve downloaded, so be sure to look through that so you don’t miss anything important!
Laura:
@meaghan yes, I’ve read the instructions, but when I typed Swedish it said it’s incorrect! :/
meaghan:
@Laura You’re absolutely right! Sorry for the frustration. We just fixed it, so you should be able to sign up now using the Swedish class code. Let me know if you run into any other problems.
j:
Are you supposed to automatically receive the sign-up email once you fill out the form on this post? If so, mine seems to have gone astray… ?
meaghan:
@j Hi J! Your e-mail is showing up in our “ineligible” list, which means you’ve asked not to receive e-mails from us anymore at some point. If you’ve ever unsubscribed from our e-mail list before (perhaps after downloading an eBook or signing up for a trial), you won’t receive ANY e-mails from us, for better or worse! Are you able to sign up with a different e-mail address? If not, I’ll send you the instructions document manually. 🙂
j:
@meaghan Hi Meaghan, wow, thank you for checking that! Hm, I suspect I may have signed up previously & then done a purge of all my mailing lists… If you could send me the document manually, that’d be much appreciated (I assume then I could still sign up while being on the ineligible list?). Many thanks!
meaghan:
@j Sent! It may end up in your promotions tab, depending on how you have gmail set up, so watch out for that.
reza:
please register me in esperanto course,thanks
meaghan:
@reza Hi Reza! To register, you’ll need to fill out the form at the bottom of this post. You’ll receive an e-mail with instructions on how to access the Esperanto course!
Jorge:
Where’s the fill form? I can’t find it 🙁
Jorge:
@Jorge Nevermind, I found it… I can’t believe I couldn’t find it S:
meaghan:
@Jorge Glad you found it! Happy language learning!
Alex:
I’m up for some happy language learning.
Tugce:
Hi,i wanna be in this contest. But havent received an email yet. Is it because i filled out the form a little bit late? Dont wanna miss the world cup of languages 🙁
meaghan:
@Tugce Hi Tugce! You can fill out the form and sign up at ANY point during the World Cup of Languages (now until July 11!), so don’t worry about that. Our records show that the e-mail was delivered to your @hotmail.com address. Be sure to check your spam filter and any other filters you may have. The e-mail will be coming from Meaghan McGonagle. 🙂
Laura:
I haven’t received an email from either account I’ve entered on the form. Sometimes nothing happened, and other times I got a message saying the email was invalid.
meaghan:
@Laura Hi Laura! Your e-mail address is showing up in our “Ineligible” list because you unsubscribed from our e-mail list at some point in the past. When you choose to unsubscribe from us, our e-mail system automatically blocks e-mails from going to you, even if you ask for them, which can be frustrating! I’ve just manually sent you a copy of the sign-up instructions to your aol.com address. 🙂
Benard:
I just took over the information about your special activity to the Facebook page “Farang Can Learn Thai Language” (https://www.facebook.com/groups/faranglearnthai/) with link to your enrollement page.
And I enrolled myself for Thai of course.
Thai language should have many supporters I hope.
Tiffany:
Hey so I received an email with instructions on how to sign up and log in after I filled out the form. However, when I go to the link it states “server not found” or “web address invalid” WHAT NOW???
Tiffany:
@Tiffany I am so sorry I just kept doing it over and over, and it finally worked. I apologize.
meaghan:
@Tiffany Glad you were able to get in, Tiffany! Let me know if you run into any more trouble. We had a huge spike in usage yesterday, so the load times may have been slower, causing it to time out.
Sheila Morris:
OK, I sent in my email info about 2 hours ago, but still haven’t gotten the sign-up email from Transparent. Time is running out!
meaghan:
@Sheila Morris Hi Sheila! You are able to register at ANY point during the World Cup of Languages (now until July 11!), so don’t worry about that. Our system shows that you received the e-mail and opened it, but just in case you haven’t, I’ve sent the instructions manually to your @ecentral.com e-mail!
Erven:
I have been trying to get in but why can’t I. I did not receive any email. 🙁
meaghan:
@Erven Hi Erven! I don’t see your e-mail address anywhere in our system. It may be rejecting it because it doesn’t recognize the e-mail client. I’ve sent you the instructions manually to your @ymail.com address!
CN:
Hi there,
Great initiative!
I’ve tried to sign up with two different email addresses but still haven’t received any emails…
James:
Will we only get points from using the assigned lists in the Classes tab, or do we also get points from going through the units in the Learn tab?
meaghan:
@James Good question, James! You get points for both. We want you to be able to explore everything! 🙂
James:
@meaghan Fab 🙂 One more question, it says in the quick start guide not to use the drop down box at the top (‘You are learning’ X) to change languages, but I have to do that in order to change the units displayed in the Learn tab – I’m learning Swahili and Italian and only one will show in the Learn tab at a time. The only other way I’ve found is to edit my profile and change ‘Main language of interest’, log out and log back in again but if the drop down box can be used then that would be easier to switch between languages.
yoshi_in_black:
I tried to sign up, but always get an error message. Am I too late?
meaghan:
@yoshi_in_black Hi! So sorry for the technical problems. Our system may not recognize your e-mail client. I’ve sent you the instructions manually to your @gmx.de e-mail address! Let me know if you don’t receive them, or if you have any other questions.
Melissa:
Hi there!
I’m also having the same problem with the e-mail. I haven’t received it! I’ve tried with a few different e-mails as well 🙁
meaghan:
@Melissa Hi Melissa! Sorry for the tech trouble. I’ve just sent you an e-mail with the instructions to your @hotmail.com address! Let me know if you don’t get it, or if you have any other questions.
Melissa:
@meaghan Just got it! Thank you so much!
Mathy:
Would like to learn English and German.
meaghan:
@Mathy Hi Mathy! To get started, fill out the form at the bottom of the blog post. You will receive an e-mail with instructions on how to get your free account! Happy learning. 🙂
Brigitte:
I would like to learn Turkish, but I don’t see a form at the end of your post. How can I join you?
meaghan:
@Brigitte Hi Brigitte! The form is at the very bottom, only three fields. Do you see it now? If not, I’ve sent you the instructions manually as well!
Marilina Lonigro:
I’d like to learn swedish and would like my students to join as well and learn another language just for fun!
Marilina Lonigro:
I Can’t find any form by the way!
meaghan:
@Marilina Lonigro Hi Marilina! The form is at the bottom of the blog post – the three fields (first name, last name, and e-mail). Do you see it now?
Zeke:
I’ve been trying to register the last few days, but it isn’t working for some reason…I fill it out and click the button, but nothing happens and I don’t get an e-mail. Any way to fix it?
meaghan:
@Zeke Hi Zeke! Our system shows that the e-mail was successfully delivered. Since your using gmail, did you check in your promotions tab? A lot of people have been finding it in there. It will be coming from Meaghan McGonagle! 🙂
Zeke:
@meaghan Ah! Now I see…I was looking for an e-mail from Transparent and didn’t notice that I actually got it with your name on it. How embarrassing…:D
Thanks a lot!
hatcher:
Can we see how many points the teams have during the competition or only at the end?
meaghan:
@hatcher Good question! We’ll be giving updates throughout the competition on our Facebook and Twitter accounts! 🙂
hatcher:
@meaghan A regular update could be very motivating. 😀
Mike:
I have attempted this three times.
No luck.
meaghan:
@Mike Hi Mike! Your e-mail is actually in our “ineligible” list, meaning you’ve unsubscribed from our e-mails at some point in the past, and our system now blocks us from sending you ANY e-mail. I’ve just sent you the instructions manually, so be on the lookout for an e-mail from me to your @yahoo.com address.
Emma:
Hello!
I’ve received the email but the link where I am supposed to sign up doesn’t work. I’m working with an Apple device, could it be the problem?
Many thanks!!
meaghan:
@Emma Hi Emma! By Apple device do you mean your iPad? Transparent Language Online is not compatible with tablets just yet, but should work fine on your Macbook or laptop/desktop computer.
Emma:
@meaghan Ohh!! Yes, I was trying with my ipad! I will do it again with a laptot! Thanks
Stacey:
French and German
Binay:
I am not getting any email in yahoo.
meaghan:
@Binay Hi Binay! The system shows the e-mail was delivered successfully. It will be coming from Meaghan McGonagle, not Transparent Language. You may want to check your spam filter or any other filters you have. 🙂
Marit:
Is it too late to sign up? I filled out the form and clicked on the Let’s Play button, but no e-mail has arrived (not in inbox or junk).
Marit:
@Marit All’s good, I was able to enter using an other e-mail.