â— Nearly 19,000 unaccompanied migrant children crossed the U.S.-Mexico border in March 2021 alone
â— To help foster families break down language barriers with the migrant children they host, Lingoda is offering free Spanish lessons to foster parents
MIAMI - June 7, 2021 – Lingoda, the number one trusted online language school, today announced a new humanitarian initiative offering free Spanish language lessons on its platform to 100 American foster parents hosting unaccompanied migrant children from Central America. Through this initiative, Lingoda wants to empower these short-term foster parents to help children who have made a difficult and confusing journey to the U.S. feel better-understood at home through the power of shared language.
In March 2021 alone, nearly 19,000 unaccompanied migrant children crossed the U.S.-Mexico border. One of the primary obstacles for these children is the language barrier with the immigration officers and foster families who handle their cases. Understanding of language is essential to providing children not only with basic needs like food, water and shelter but also the advocacy and trauma relief tools that foster families can provide. As a nexus for convenient and accessible language learning classes from qualified, native speaking teachers, Lingoda sees an opportunity to provide better resources for families who are already giving their time and energy to helping innocent migrant children feel safe and secure.
Starting today, foster families residing in border states including Arizona, California, Florida, New Mexico and Texas can apply for Lingoda’s foster families initiative. Lingoda will select 100 parents and offer them free group Spanish lessons on Lingoda’s platform. Families can submit applications until June 21, 2021 at 11:59 pm ET, and beneficiaries will be announced at the end of June.
“Thanks to the hundreds of foster families that take on short-term care responsibilities, migrant children are provided necessities and a safe home while the next steps to their U.S. immigration status are sorted out. However, language is the next biggest hurdle to reducing the stress and trauma these children experience in the migration process,” said Michael Shangkuan, CEO of Lingoda. “Our initiative aims to alleviate one aspect of this humanitarian crisis by helping American foster families break down language barriers and better communicate with their foster children. We are proud to contribute by offering free Spanish language classes to the foster parents who have been so generous with their time and resources to make an impact''.
Founded in 2013 by entrepreneurs Fabian and Felix Wunderlich, Lingoda offers live small group and private classes available 24/7 in four languages - English, German, French and Spanish. Lingoda teaches more than 450,000 classes each year through a community of over 1,400 certified, native-speaking teaching professionals. The company’s structured curriculum includes over 2,000 digital lessons produced in-house by linguistic experts. Courses are designed to empower language fluency, and 97% of Lingoda learners confirm that the platform is more effective than using language apps alone.
To learn more about Lingoda’s foster families initiative, visit the website here.
Eligibility criteria and application mechanics
Applicants must be over 18 years of age, do not have an active Lingoda account and are planning to caretake or currently caretaking unaccompanied children from the U.S.-Mexico border.
To apply, parents must fill out an application form which includes questions about their foster parenting status, referring foster care agency, contact details, and upload related foster parent documentation where necessary.
Submissions must be written in English and are limited to one per entrant. For paired parents, each person must apply separately.
Those interested in applying can learn more and complete an application here.
ABOUT LINGODA
Lingoda is the number one trusted online language school. Founded in Berlin, Germany in 2013, we provide convenient and accessible online language courses in German, English, Business English, Spanish and French to over 70,000 students worldwide. Our private and small group classes are taught by over 1,400 qualified, native-speaking teachers. With over 450,000 classes available per year and accessible 24/7, our mission is to empower even the busiest people to master a language and unlock their potential — at any time, from anywhere.
We believe in a communicative approach to language learning: mastering a language means being able to speak it with confidence. Our CEFR-focused learning materials are designed by linguistic experts and focus on meaningful topics that are applicable to our students’ interests, careers and everyday lives. Thanks to our extensive rotating roster of teachers and our small group classes, students are exposed to a variety of regional accents and expressions within the same language and have the time and space to practice speaking in every lesson.
Our diverse team includes over 150 international professionals from 30 countries speaking 40 languages. In 2021, Crunchbase listed Lingoda among the top 3 language learning companies globally. We have a score of 4.5 on Trustpilot and 75% of our reviews are rated as ‘excellent’ because we offer a high-quality and authentic learning experience that helps students achieve their learning goals and transform their lives. Visit www.lingoda.com for additional information.
MEDIA INQUIRIES
Benedetta Bellini
International PR Manager
benedetta.bellini@lingoda.com
press@lingoda.com
+49 (0)152 58744631
Niveen Saleh
5W Public Relations
lingoda@5wpr.com
872-237-2345
7 June 2021
