reineke wrote:Some suggestions:
Drop the beginner/intermediate requirement. None of us traverse life or language learning in a straight line from the same starting point. I also don't remember we ever compared the final results. .
Yes. I believe the beginner/intermediate requirement comes from the original times I've read about. Comparing the final results or rather analysing them, to find out how much can you expect to learn in 6 weeks, were among the ideas, just as the participants studying the same language.
Since we are spread among many languages every 6wc and we do not compare anything else than time spent on the language and languages in general, removing the requirement wouldn't damage the 6wc. I think we should as well keep on mind that not everyone wants to be a polyglot, therefore learners of "just" one or two languages above B1 cannot participate at all. And not everyone wanting to learn at least one more language wants to start it right now. And we might even appreciate not "having to" abandon our more advanced langauges. I would say many of us suffer from the exact opposite of being scared to start. We love to start, we love wonderlust, we have trouble sticking to languages in the long run, especially during the intermediate plateau located somewhere between B1 and C1.
I have still got tons of options to choose from as target languages under (far under) B1, but I might actually welcome some of the future 6WCs to be different. I might finally get through my intermediate/advanced courses in Spanish, or have a 6 weeks long systematic review of French or English grammar, all of that are things I need but normally don't find enough motivation for. 6WC works for me, unlike many other motivation tools.
However, I understand smallwhite or a proably many others think differently. Of course the rules will be as smallwhite states them. And it is a valid option and 6wc is still great even with the rule. But I'd say "start your own challenge" is not the way to go as we have already got tons of challenges, which might take away a lot of the value one day.