I’m just curious to how much time you all prefer to spend on a given lesson. Right now I’m going through quite a few array of courses but I try to review back on ones even if I do understand most of it. Is it better to just move on from the lesson completely once you grasp it pretty well (perhaps knowing a good 60% 70%) or do you go over it until you understand just about everything?
Right now I’m going through a course and I am making progression in it not spending to much time on old ones because it is a bit boring just going over content you already basically know. I’ll probably try to review over the older lessons at least once and then spend more time on new ones because they have more words I don’t know. I think this method is working pretty well for me, I’m learning a lot faster than I was before when I just had a jumbled mess and wasn’t really reading transcripts that much but I’m curious as others methods with this. Share if you have any thoughts, I’d be glad to hear
Hi logan5201!
In general, for me it depends on how much I like the lesson (all aspects - plot, voice, length, etc.) I try not to force yourself to do something that can reduce motivation. I believe that motivation is the key, not a percentage of understanding. So If lesson great or ok I keep it and listen several times until it does not seem boring, then I archive it for future review. If it’s just so-so or worse - delete without a doubts and go further.
Have a nice day!
I’m still early on in my LingQ usage, but here’s my typical routine, which I have found to be very beneficial. First, since I’m in the beginner stage, I choose shorter lessons. I’ll listen to the lesson 2 or 4 times (first without following along with my eyes, then following along with my eyes). Then I’ll read the lesson 1 or 2 times. Then I’ll go through and learn the new words. After I’ve become familiar with the new words, then I’ll read the lesson with that understanding of the words (now the lesson makes sense to me!). I’ll read the lesson 2 or 3 times with this understanding. I’ll also spend some more time listening to it. This really helps to build up my comprehension. It may seem like it takes a while, but if it’s a short lesson it doesn’t really take that long. Either way, you don’t want to rush through lessons. I think the danger some people might face is that they can get too concerned with the growth and appearance of their avatar, as well as the number of words they “know,” and therefore they may rush through the lessons to build up their stats. That won’t help in the long run. So I prefer a steady pace. Lastly, I agree that you don’t have to know everything in the lesson before moving on. You’ll eventually come across what you don’t know again, and eventually you’ll learn it.
I am guilty of rushing through the Greetings lesson. Now, I am trying to sip and savor.
When I shifted from thinking
A. I needed to get through as many lessons as possible to
B. just using lessons to immerse myself in the language and slowly let the learning process happen,
then my frustration evaporated.
@logan5201: "Is it better to just move on from the lesson completely once you grasp it pretty well (perhaps knowing a good 60% 70%) or do you go over it until you understand just about everything? "
If 60 or 70% is comprehensible after you’ve worked with the content, then you probably understood less than half of it going in. For me, it would have to be super interesting content for that to hold me. I’d rather start with 70% or more being understandable and end with a higher percentage.
Rather than going at it for the sake of acquiring new words, spending time with something that is more or less understandable allows me to notice more in the language (e.g. natural phrasing) and pick up new words more easily, since I don’t have unknown words in practically every sentence.
Anyhow, I usually go through and pick up words and phrases that are of interest to me at the time and that I want to learn, and then I listen and read the content a couple more times before then moving on. I find this is more efficient than repeating the same material too often.
It doesn’t concern me if there are some words or phrases that I don’t understand, particularly if they aren’t that necessary at the time. I learn what interests me and then move on to where I’ll probably run into those unknown things again, and eventually they’ll become interesting or necessary, at which point I’ll make an effort to learn them.
Partly it depends on what language you’re studying and how much material there is at your level. If there’s no danger of running out of material, then I probably wouldn’t do too much repetition. 70% or 80% understanding and then move on. But if there wasn’t that much material, then I’d do more repetition, just out of necessity.
But it also depends on the material. When I was lower-intermediate in Japanese, I found a graded reader series which I used very repetitively. But I found the stories interesting, and the recordings were very well done.
It’s probably best just to follow your instincts about when to move on. But we all have to lose that assumption that it’s necessary to understand a “lesson” 100%. It can be hard to give that up.
