When it comes to learning English, nothing is more important than staying motivated and using English regularly.

For independent learners, doing this is hard.

It’s easy to say to yourself “I’ll do it later”, and if you don’t have anyone to stay accountable to, you might find yourself slowing down and losing motivation to continue.

To solve this problem, in April 2021, we launched our first 30 for 30 Challenge.

The goal was simple:

Spend a maximum of 30 minutes every day using English (either speaking or writing) and share it with other members of the challenge.

It might sound like a simple idea, but it is an incredibly powerful one.

Every day, at midnight, a new task was posted. Challengers had 24 hours to complete it, and share it in our private community.

The tasks started easily, with members introducing themselves, their countries, their ideal weekends, and so on.

Then, as the days went on, they became more complicated. 

We shared ideas about pieces of advice that were important to us, about our views of the future, of happiness, and of other thought-provoking topics that you might not normally discuss in a foreign language.

People could respond in different ways: writing, recording their voice, or even a video (we even had a cameo from a dog!).

And the best part was the community interaction - as everything was public, members could comment on each other’s posts, share ideas, reflections, and make new friends from all over the world.

In total, there were 3815 comments, and countless interesting ideas shared and new connections made.

The feedback from those who participated was fantastic, and here is a small selection of the things they had to say about the challenge.

This is a fun and clever way to do something different for improving our skills in English and you are going to meet great and interesting people

Elsa, from Colombia

It is a good opportunity to test yourself and improve your English

Raffaella, from Italy

You will enjoy a lot without being aware of how much you learn.

Francisco, from Spain

In fact I have recommended your website to different people, here and Italy, and I hope they will become members soon. I have explained to them about the challenge and they liked  it ...

Silvana, from Italy

It's your chance to improve, do it !!

Fabio, from Italy

The best ever...Highly recommended, of course!!!

Coté, from Spain

Great way to improve thinking in English. It helped me a lot in improving my thinking just in English. Now I'm able to write something without thinking in my native language and then translating to English. That's the perfect step to English fluency.

Dawid, from Poland

the challenge was not only a valuable experience but also interesting and a lot of fun

Peggy, from The Netherlands

It made me do what by myself I never would do

Teresa, from Spain

It is an interesting challenge. It depends on where you put your focus, there you will see progress. Tasks are on very interesting topics. It is great we know each other more from previous events and we start to communicate closer during the challenge. It has created stronger friendship.

Ivana, from Czech Republic

I would say that this challenge helped me to improve my English in an engaging and effective way. Plus I got to know a lot of people from different countries.

Cristina, from Italy

I'd say that's an awesome way to improve your outputting skills - esp. speaking off the cuff. That it's fun and that you learn a lot about culture and people from all around the globe.

Jáchym, from Czech Republic

It's always a positive experience.

José, from Spain

I would definitely recommend it, because it was fun and useful for everybody.

Olga, from Latvia

I would say that the tasks are so funny and interesting and that the challenge allows you to practice writing skills daily.

Lydia, from Spain

You have to take part in this challenge as the questions which are asked are interesting and this is great as you receive the feedback from other members.

Agnese, from Latvia

It's useful to improve your skills developing a topic, whether writing or speaking and to force yourself to work every day.

Marian, from Spain

Interesting people and subjects. You must commit to it. It’s really worth it.

Irene, from Spain

This challenge was amazing, truth be told I've already recommended it to many people.

Jose, from Spain

It's an amazing experience and a good way to improve English

Susana, from Spain

I couldn’t be more excited about the impact of these challenges.

The mission of Leonardo English is to help you improve your English in a more interesting way. 

Habit-forming challenges with a supportive community is one of the best ways of using English every day, staying motivated, and moving forward on your journey to fluency.

I hope to see you on the inside.

Alastair - Founder of Leonardo English