I like having the targets to work to. The number of lingqs to create each month, the number of hours of listening etc. I don’t care if they seem a little arbitrary at times, the little graphic on my overview page with the little green bars that get bigger as I work are very cheering.
I have a suggestion, how about giving us a little graphic against our user names to show how many weeks we have managed to reach our targets so far? A red star = 2 weeks, an orange star = 6 weeks etc. The power learners who have 9 successful months under their belt get a shooting star or something. Make this no available to learners on free accounts and it’s another incentive to upgrade.
eBay have done this for years and I know many sellers and buyers who get very excited by getting a new sort of star.
You wouldn’t believe how excited my children get when they get a little sticker from the teacher that says “I have been working hard!” Certificates are treasured, as are real actual prizes like paperback books with an inscription on the inside cover saying what they did to earn it. it’s a lot of motivation for very little cash outlay.
I like the idea of being enrolled on an international study programme, so I’d like a LingQ student T-shirt or sweatshirt to be available too. Like a university one, maybe with the little cartoon of Steve dancing a Cossack dance.
By the way, you can find t-shirts here, http://lingq.cmail5.com/l/480777/0gol41/8. Nothing like the one you describe, however. If anyone out there wants to send us t-shirt design, go for it! We should and will add more designs in the future.
