Hello Everyone! Check out this exciting offer from Steve Kaufmann and LingQ:
Don’t go to language school, join me at LingQ.
I have an idea for a different approach to achieving a breakthrough in English.
I have always felt that it is best to not just learn a language, but to learn something else through the language. That way we learn the language better, and broaden our knowledge.
I became aware of an offer from marketing guru Seth Godin, and thought it would be fun to do something similar.
So here it is. Join me in Vancouver, at our LingQ headquarters, for three months to do the following:
Spend two hours a day studying English with LingQ under my personal guidance.
Spend up to five hours a day of working with our LingQ team in English.
Spend the rest of your time taking advantage of living in an English speaking environment.
At the end of three months, you will get a letter of reference and a LingQ Certificate you can frame! The certificate will attest to your progress in English and to having worked in English for three months.
The program includes working in a real world tech start-up and interacting with LingQ personnel every day. You will be participating in real projects, helping to solve real marketing, design, and project related problems. You will help LingQ and at the same time you will become fluent in English.
To ensure your English breakthrough, and to help other LingQ members, you will use the LingQ system every day:
Recorded and transcribed conversations with me and LingQ staff will be studied.
Incoming emails and messages will be studied.
Outgoing emails and messages will be corrected on the Exchange.
Relevant articles on subjects related to our work day, such as user onboarding, ux design, conversion rate optimization, search engine optimization, social media marketing and more will be studied.
Requirements
You will need to find your own way to and from Vancouver, Canada.
You will have to find a place to stay within a reasonable commute time from our office in West Vancouver (we can help you with this).
You will need to come with your own laptop and either a tablet or smartphone or both.
You must provide strong references.
English Native Speakers Welcome
Although we are looking for mostly non-native English speakers from different language groups, we will also take one native English speaker who is learning another language. As an English speaker you will not benefit from the immersive, native speaking environment in our office. Nevertheless, we will arrange virtual discussions in your target language with tutors with experience in relevant fields. We will also make sure one of your co-learners is from your target language group so you can have real conversations with him or her.
How to Apply
LingQ Academy starts May 16, 2016, which doesn’t give a lot of time. We need to receive all applications by April 5, 2016 at the latest. We will be conducting Skype interviews for those who get through to the second stage. We are hoping to find three to six learners to take part in the course who will be notified by April 15, 2016. That will give you a month to prepare for the trip. I realize the timeline is short, but that’s the way it is.
You should be passionate about learning, whether it be learning languages or learning about web and mobile marketing, optimization etc. Tell us what you’re interested in! A genuine interest in technology and technology related fields is a must. Experience in these activities can be an asset but is by no means a requirement.
As part of your application, prepare an imported lesson on LingQ. Explain why we should include you in this program. It can be in any language. Include a video, audio and transcript of course. Include the lesson url in your application email.
Don’t worry, it won’t all be work! We will find lots of opportunity to enjoy and explore the fantastic summers here on the west coast of Canada.
If you are interested, please submit an email to LingQAcademy at lingq dot com answering the following questions. No prior experience is required, all levels of English speakers should feel free to apply.
Please answer the following questions:
What do you do now?
Why do you do it?
Why do you want to learn English?
Which language do you want to learn and why? (For native English speakers)
What is your current level in (English)?
What other languages do you speak?
What are you hoping to learn?
After you learn it, what are you going to do with it?
What are some of the things that you have done in your life that you are most proud of?
If you could do anything in your life, what would that be?
What else should I know about you?
For those of you who aren’t able to apply, we’ll also be making the learning materials from the course available on LingQ so you will be able to follow along and study the same program. We’ll provide more details when the time comes.
Give Yourself an Edge
When applying, let us know how many others you directed to this opportunity or how you were able to spread the word. This will demonstrate your creativity and willingness to help us out, even if it might hurt your odds of becoming a successful applicant.
What’s more, by spreading the word you can help guarantee that we will offer this program – to be honest, if we don’t get the level of interest we are hoping for, we won’t be able to offer it.
What’s in it for us?
What’s our goal in all of this? First and foremost, we intend to document the whole process both through video and on the blog. We want to demonstrate how to use LingQ’s full potential in a work environment. We also want to demonstrate the effectiveness of LingQ in general. By running our own “reality show”, we are confident the results will speak for themselves while at the same time showing what is realistic to achieve in a three month period. Yes, we have never done this before so are just as curious to see the results…should be interesting!
At the same time, we do expect to benefit from new ideas and feedback both from participants and those who might be following your progress online as we expose our internal decision making and strategy for all to see.
At the end of this process, we hope to have generated some PR, have documented a “case study” of LingQ in action for future marketing efforts, improved our products and had some fun doing it. Whether you are an applicant or just want to watch from afar and enjoy the ride, we hope you will join us!
Key dates
Deadline for applications: April 5, 2016
Participants finalized by: April 15, 2016
Start date: May 16, 2016
