Language Mentoring’s Makeover: Language Master Upgrade and Lots of Other Great News!

Do you know what happened on June 21, 2018?

We launched our Language Master video course and started writing the history of learning languages the polyglot way.

And do you know what happened on May 28, 2021?

We finalized and published a huge upgrade of the course, called Language Master 2.0!

That’s right! The Slovak version of the course actually came out two years before the English one (in 2016), so after five years, our Master, as our team likes to call it, needed an upgrade. We could see that some of the methods were not very popular among our clients, while other ones became big hits and required more attention from our side. That’s why we decided that just a slight facelift wasn’t enough. Instead, we went all in and rebuilt the course from its very foundations!

How was the new course created?

At the end of 2019, we decided the time had come to remake the Language Master video course. The following summer, we started a long series of meetings and thought showers and in November 2020, we launched the upgrade in Slovak. 2021 was then devoted to upgrading the English version of the course. It was a truly huge project…

Our discussions took hours as there were many questions on the table, such as: What do we want to say in the new Language Master? Which methods should we include? What would be the best order for the individual modules? How should we time the gradual access to the various parts of the course? What should we include in the First Wave of the video course? And the Second Wave? What about the visual aspect of the course? And how can we make sure every course participant will get their new, upgraded version?

We were constantly coming up with new ways of putting it all together and trying to decide which information from the old course we should keep and what we wanted to add. It was a really amazing creative process and, needless to say, a lot of fun for all of us. Since we were mostly in isolation, we couldn’t meet in person to discuss our ideas, so in order to stay organized, we used our favorite project management tool: Trello. Fun fact: Our Trello board at the time boasted 292 cards! So many ideas on a single screen! Cool, right?! ?

We felt that the new Language Master had to include much more than its original version. After all, we’d come a long way with our 10,500+ clients in the previous five years and gathered lots of experience and countless ideas, which we were laboriously writing down alongside the feedback from the learners. Furthermore, our personal contact with participants of Autodidacts’ Academies taught us the best way of designing our courses so that the learners could truly get the most out of them. We wanted to reflect all this in the new version of the course, but we also wanted to make it very intuitive and easy to navigate.

And so our team of 12 worked very hard in the next five months and voilà – we finally managed to deliver the final product to all of our international clients on May 28, 2021. Whoa! (You should have seen the excitement in the team following the final mouse click! ?)

What makes the new Language Master better?

Everything! But if you want to know the details, here is a list of just a few improvements:

» Language Master 1.0 «

• a complete “recipe” for learning languages from the pre-intermediate level up, based on 16 years of experience with learning languages presented by polyglot Lýdia Machová, who had learned 7 languages on her own,
• 56 videos about 33 methods with a total runtime of 5.5 hours,
• the whole course was accessible right after purchase,
• each video had its own page, which meant that quite a lot of mouse clicks were required to navigate the website,
• some information in the course was not up to date,
• some important and useful information (e-books, instructional videos, language resources) was too “out of sight” and users were struggling to find it,
• information on some of the methods was insufficient, which meant that learners were struggling to apply them in practice,
• language resources were somewhat chaotic and they did not cover all language aspects,
• nice modern design,
• the videos were made from a recording of a seminar in Bratislava (which meant they couldn’t be updated easily),
• the Workbook was 20 pages long and mainly provided space for the learners’ own notes,
• everyone went through the course at their own pace.

» Language Master 2.0 «

• a complete “recipe” for learning languages from the pre-intermediate level up, based on 21 years of experience with learning languages presented by polyglot Lýdia Machová, who has learned 9 languages on her own, supplemented by more than 5 years of experience with the project of Language Mentoring, through which she and her team of 12 members have helped over 10,500 people learn a foreign language,
• 128 videos about 44 methods with a total runtime of 18 hours,
• learners gain gradual access to the individual parts of the course, so they won’t get overwhelmed by the sheer amount of information,
• all videos from one module can be found on a single page, which makes going through the course quicker and more user-friendly,
• all information in the course is up-to-date and fresh and will be updated on a regular basis,
• the course is easier to navigate than the previous one and all the information and materials can be found in logical places,
• the methods come with easy-to-follow instructions, which take into account the most frequently asked questions, and the course also includes 31 detailed Instructional Videos created by members of our team, which means that you will also hear voices other than Lýdia’s, ?
• the Language Resources have been completely reworked and we made sure you’d have enough resources for all language aspects (vocabulary, speaking, listening, etc.) in the 7 most popular languages, ?
• the new videos were shot by Lýdia specifically for the course, which means that she’s looking directly at you and the sound quality is much better, too,
• the Workbook is 60 pages long and it comes with lots of fun tasks and mini tests, which means that this time, it will truly guide you through the course and help you remember all the important information,
• apart from the Workbook, our e-mail series will also help you go through the course at just the right pace and you can rest assured that you will never miss anything new in the course!

As you can see, the new course is really AWESOME!

After all, it took 12 people 5 months of hard work to get it to where it is now! And we can confidently say that the improved quality was definitely worth the time ?

So, what can you look forward to in the course?

• a set of brand new videos giving you a complete recipe for learning any foreign language whatsoever. There are 18 hours of video materials in the course, packed with our know-how and experience that we’ve gathered over the past five years of working with thousands of clients!
• 10 modules which cover all language aspects: The Golden Rules of Language Learning, Listening, Reading, Vocabulary, Grammar, Writing, Speaking, Pronunciation, Motivation & Organization, Creating a Study Plan,
• a carefully considered system of gradual access to the videos, so that you don’t feel overwhelmed right from the start. At the beginning, you’ll only have access to the First Wave of the modules, containing the Main Videos, the Instructional Videos, and the Language Resources. Two weeks later, you’ll be able to access the sections about Motivation & Organization and Creating a Study Plan, followed by the Second Wave of the video course, which contains additional tips about the methods that will make learning with them even more efficient,
• amazing Instructional Videos that will teach you how to work with the best language learning apps and programs,
• detailed and neatly organized Language Resources for the 7 most popular languages (English, German, Russian, Spanish, French, Italian, and Portuguese),
• a Workbook that will guide you through the whole course,
• lots of downloadable materials (14 Conversation Topics, 11 Ideas for Short Texts, our e-books…),
• and many other great things!

We already have a few reactions from people who have seen the new course! Have a look at the amazing feedback we’ve received from our clients:

We are really proud of the new video course since it was a huge project and we are very happy that it has finally reached our learners as well. ? If you purchased the Language Master video course in the past, go check out its new version – we upgraded your old version of the course for free. And your lifetime access to it is still guaranteed. We definitely recommend going through the new course even if you think you remember everything from the first Language Master. Why? Because there are plenty of brand new ideas, tips, materials, and resources that will help you learn even more effectively and give you a fresh dose of motivation as well!

Don’t forget to let us know how you like Language Master 2.0. We’re looking forward to your feedback! Have fun with your language. ? 

Finalizing the new Language Master doesn’t mean we’re now going to take a break! Quite the contrary, we’re already working on entirely new courses – the Language Challenges!

Why did we create a new course?

The Autodidacts’ Academy program was great because it allowed us to work with learners directly and the mutual engagement was simply amazing. If you ever attended one, I’m sure you still remember the fantastic group atmosphere. ? This course was very popular and over the years, we had more than 2,000 Academists!

The Academies were definitely a great mentoring program. But we noticed that people usually only realized this once they joined one and started learning. Many of them thought they wouldn’t be able to find much time for learning. And that they wouldn’t enjoy the group atmosphere anyway. But once they decided to give it a try, they usually became so obsessed with learning that they achieved incredible results in just 2 months. That’s why we asked ourselves the question:

How can we demonstrate the beauty of self-directed learning even better?

And we came up with the following solution: a brand new course for busy people! We call it the Language Challenge and it is basically a smaller version of the Academy:

• it only takes one month instead of two,
• it always focuses on a single priority, which means that it’s less demanding,
• we only focus on one module of the Language Master video course instead of the whole course, so it’s easier and less time-demanding.

But it does keep all the popular elements of the Autodidacts’ Academy!

• an enthusiastic community in our Facebook group,
• tracking your learning in your own Learner Diary, so that you know how you’re doing, 
• support of our language mentors,
• live webinar with our language mentors and/or Lýdia herself,
• a predefined period, so that you know exactly when it starts and when it finishes (you wouldn’t believe how much motivation this can give you).

How did we come to the conclusion that this was the type of course our learners needed? Thanks to our Czech and Slovak clients and their great ideas! We sent them a big questionnaire, in which many of them asked for a short and simple course. Our Academists have also voiced this request several times in their Final Questionnaires.

Well, in Language Mentoring, we go by the phrase “Your wish is my command”. So in the fall of 2020, we launched the very first Language Challenge, focused on Listening. It was a big hit and more than 800 people participated in it! And the great news is that this fall, you can look forward to the first ever Challenge in English focused on Listening!

Thank you for staying with us

Phew, that’s quite a lot of changes, isn’t it? This year is groundbreaking for us and we’re so happy you were with us on the way. We want to keep improving our services and provide the best we can for you. That is why we’re always asking ourselves: “How can we improve our courses even further? How can we help people even more on their way to fluency?” So, if you have any more ideas or feedback, we’ll be happy to hear from you! We are also very happy whenever we get a Facebook or a Google review from our clients. Have a look at these amazing ones that we’ve received and feel free to add yours as well! ?