When is it time to listen and read news/books etc?

Hi,

I’m having a good time learning Portuguese here at LingQ. I signed up maybe 2 months ago but didn’t do much the first 1,5 month. I started the 90-day challenge about 2 weeks ago and I’ve learned the majority of my current knowledge during this period.

I want to be able to import my own material from newspapers and such but maybe it’s on a too high level from where I am? I just “know” about 600 words in portuguese and am a beginner level 2 at LingQ.

When do you usually start to listen and read a bit more advanced stuff? I easily get bored with the beginner’s material. Every other day I listen to one chapter of Steve’s book in portuguese (intermediate 1), which I find much more interesting than beginner’s lessons. Even though there are usually more than 50% new words in this material.

Thanks

Go ahead and try importing a few articles that interest you. You will learn faster and will have a better chance of understanding the content if it is something you know well such sports, politics, current events, etc.

I think you’re right, thank you. It’s nice to hear this from someone else other than myself. I don’t have a lot of experience learning languages.

A lot of newspapers have “children’s” sections, with simpler versions of the stories in the main adult edition. I’ve found those to be a good bridge between beginner materials and “real” adult content. Likewise child/young adult-oriented TV, radio programming, etc.

I do the same, I try to stick to a level slightly higher than my capability, because I feel it is more challenging and interesting. It also means that I never feel as though I am “plateauing”, which I know some people find when they get to points in between two stages of language learning. I find that usually 50% words are way too high for me. I usually try and stick between 25%-35%; anything higher and I start to lose the context of the conversation, let alone trying to understand any details.