Frequently Asked Questions

Yes! You do not need to be a native speaker of English to participate in LinguaPalooza, in fact, a previous winner was a native Portuguese speaker! Native language only plays a role in the program if you want to complete the weekly reflections in your native language, but it should not be an issue as long as your native language is taught at BYU (so we can find someone to translate).

To find more details on who can participate and how reflections work, see the Contest Details page of our website (the info on reflections is on the "What will I do for the contest?" tab under "How will my progress be rated?").

The LinguaPalooza contest is self-directed, so you will need to organize meetups, calls, etc. with other target language speakers to complete your projects. However, we do provide a list of local and online resources for many languages on the Community Resources page. These are not exhaustive lists, and we welcome recommendations to add to it (both to add languages and language-specific resources).

You may also need to use online platforms to connect with native speakers if there is not a large population in Utah.

We are really pushing to have more participants this year and encouraging students to bring their friends to help everyone build a better network of target language speakers. So, be sure to encourage friends and classmates to participate so you can all get the most out of the experience.

The contest is designed for practicing any language other than your native language, but the contest is not designed for beginners. The projects are for students who already have a foundation in the language they want to pursue.

If you are looking to start learning a new language, check out some of these resources that are free to BYU students.

The time commitment will vary from person to person, but past participants usually spent between 1 and 3 hours a week. Most tasks take between 5 and 30 minutes, with the main task (Day 4) usually taking at least 45 minutes.

There are four project weeks, so you will likely spend no more than 12 hours in the entire semester. Keep in mind that there is a two-week pause between each project week as well.

To find more details on the schedule and timing, see the Contest Details page of our website. The specifics are under the "What will I do for the contest?" tab ("How long does the contest last?" and "What does a project week entail?" have the most details).