My Monthly Progress - Month #1

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Hello everyone.
I hope this is the right place to post stuff like this one.
I registered to LingQ not more than 1 month ago. I would like to share with you my current progress from this month.
Also, I would like to post some of my thoughts after this month.
All feedback will be much appreciated and taken with an open mind.

English is my second language and I have been learning it for a long time now. I still make a lot of mistakes, i.e. I struggle with using ‘on, to, at, in,etc.’ all the time. I have never learnt any grammar rules on that and maybe that’s the problem.
I added some TED Talks to my LingQ courses and I find it to be a great way to learn. I listen and read to the amazing lectures on topics I find interesting. I will most certainly continue this course until I read and listen to all the talks included.
I also started using ‘import’ feature. I am working on implementing a habit of importing every single text/ article I encounter to LingQ so I can read it and make links or add known words which gives me a big sattisfaction and makes me feel proud of myself making progress which I can measure. I hope this way I will be able to improve my English.

I’ve been learning Italian for few weeks now. Before LingQ I took some time with Memrise and even though it’s a great tool, I find it a bit irritating when I get to review hundreds of words and phrases and every single time I make a typo or simply don’t remember I am punished with a need to go over those flash cards again in order to complete the review session.
At LingQ I do what I want, whenever I want and I love it. I read some courses for beginners and even if there are many words and grammar patterns I don’t really understand, I try to simply get the meaning and create as many lingqs as possible. After reading a certain lesson x times I start to recognize some words and know their meanings - I add them to ‘known words’ and that makes me so happy. But what makes me even more happy is the fact that I can read in Italian, understand dialogues and stories included within courses! And I am still a very new to the language! That’s just awesome and gives me loads of motivation.
According to the goals set for me by LingQ I completed them but I think I should be reading more, especially new content, not just reading again and again texts I already know. I also have to find more time to listen to the lessons, not only when I go for a walk/ run or come back home by a train.
I am thinking of importing some texts written in Italian to create lingqs, but my question is - am I ready yet? Please, tell me what do you think on that or just tell from your experience. Thanks in advance.

I hope there will be at least few people who read the whole wall of texts and provide me with some advice. if not, I still treat it as a conclusion after 1 month with LingQ and a little milestone on my road to speaking more languages.

Greg

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Greg,
I really think you should be guided by your interests. I tend to move on to new and interesting content, although at the beginner stages I have a lot of tolerance for repetitive listening and reading. Gradually I am less and less willing to do this and move on to new and more interesting content. You should try importing Italian content and see how you do. I usually find there is a lot of trial and error. I would also try some of the items in our Italian library, including buying some of the audio books an text from Il Narratore, like his version of Pinocchio. Good luck.

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I think your attitude and plans are great. I am also new at LingQ (10 days) and so far like what I see. I think the library materials and the community are already a big value. I also like the freeer environment at LingQ better than some othere places that use tests and other more rigid regimens. I’m not very disciplined but still I think I’ll gain a lot here.

Also, since you mentioned being keen on perfecting your English grammar, maybe I’ll mention what caught my attention in your post. You say “I’ve been learning Italian for few weeks now” and “I hope there will be at least few people…”… The usage of “few” kind of jumped out at me. In both cases I think you meant to say “a small number” and I believe it should be “a few” rather than “few” in such usages. “few” by itself is usually when you want to mean “hardly any”. So it’s like “a few” is for positive nuance while “few” is for negative. Because of this your sentences sounded unnatural to me.

In Dictionary.com, I see the following (under “British dictionary definitions” heading):

few:

determiner

  1. a small number of; hardly any: few men are so cruel
    (as pronoun; functioning as plural): many are called but few are chosen

  2. (preceded by a)
    a small number of: a few drinks
    (as pronoun; functioning as plural): a few of you
    …

Your usage would fall under #2 above, so I think you should use the article “a”.
Also, the exact same principle applies to “little” as well, so that if you’re saying “Little did I know…” it shouldn’t have “a” before “Little”, whereas “Give me a little …” must have “a” in it. If you don’t follow this rule, it will sound unclear and weird.

Seeing two usages of the same kind I didn’t think it was a typo. If it was, I might have wasted your and my time, but it’s Ok :slight_smile:

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Thank you for your advice, Steve.
Funny thing, you mentioned Pinocchio. I’ve already made a try ti import a part of it from Wikipedia, but without any audio it isn’t that cool.

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Hi there.
Thank you for taking your time to point out my errors.
You’re completely right, I should have used ‘a few’ instead of ‘few’. I see it now.
I love the way you explained it to me. From now on, I will know the difference!

Greg