Learners who learned a language (or more) on LingQ

I’m curious to know what kinds of things you did before you became fluent. What were your habits and what were the things you did occasionally, for example.
I know that everyone should find their own method and that they should enjoy learning. I’m just interested in experiences. :slight_smile:

I’ve only been learning for 4 months. I am still figuring it out.

  1. I started a blog. I needed a place to put all the ideas and website links. I wanted to capture my experience. It led to finding other people who blog about learning the same language. We support each other.

  2. I read “How To Learn Any Language” by Barry Farber

  3. I tried out everything I could find - podcasts, websites, flashcards, games, youtube, books. I probably wasted time, but I wanted to find something that “fit”. I was taste-testing. I was learning how others learn. I followed my curiosity on the internet.

  4. I got pen pals in my target language.

  5. I installed a lot of new software. Skype, flashcard apps for my smartphone, dictionary, Kaokotalk, Facebook messenger, Google+ Hangouts, Yahoo Messenger.

  6. I found places for social support and language discussions (LingQ, Mindpasta.com)

  7. I checked out the resources at my library. “e-card” allows me to get electronic resources from a large city library. They have language learning software too, like Mango.

  8. I paid attention to what my style of learning was. I re-evaluated which places I learned a lot, which places I ignored, which places were fun but not productive. I’m still finding my way.

  9. I found places to buy books in my target language.

  10. I tried food from the country whose language I was learning. I went to their restaurants. I found places to buy supplies on line. I started cooking recipes. I bought chopsticks and use them.

  11. I listened to music and watched dramas in my target language. I mailed postcards to my pen pals. I browsed travel sites and dreamed of going there some day.

  12. I added folks to my Facebook and Twitter who could give me information about learning my language.

  13. I signed up for some “word of the day” emails. Basically, the goal was to make my target language a part of my life, and learning it a habit. So I surrounded myself with all things Korean.

  14. I started visiting websites in my target language, long before I could read. I found online newspapers that had English/Korean articles. It still feels like a wild adventure, and I get scared by pop up dialog boxes I can’t read or emails all in a foreign language.

  15. I read about the culture. Specifically, NTC’s Dictionary of Business and Cultural Code Words was very educational.

  16. I read poetry, magazines, manga (comics), children’s books, and young adult novels. I looked for bilingual books.

  17. I play. Games, cards, art projects, singing children’s songs, dancing. I have a lot of fun. I am always looking for fun ways to learn without realizing I am learning.

  18. I share pictures of my hometown with my new Korean friends and they send me pictures of Korea. I write the captions in Korean.

  19. I signed up for an online class, so that once a week I get speaking practice with a native speaker. It feels “authentic” to be learning Korean from a class in Korea. Hours to drive to a Korean class in USA, so this is a good option for me.

At first, I was just gathering up as much information as I could find. I think I was afraid I would run out of things to study. That seems laughable now.

You can browse my blog http://jreidy17.wordpress.com/ to see more. I do not have answers, but I am honestly sharing my missteps and the learning process.

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Thank you for your interesting response! You have very interesting approach to language learning and very effective, too!

I don’t know how long I am studying French (I made a few pauses in the meantime), but now I realized that I know some basic things, that I am not a complete beginner. I found some learning resources which seems interesting. I tried a couple of methods, but for some reasons couldn’t complete them all because they aren’t available completely, so I asked on the Forum about free online language learning resources (I didn’t have money for some reasons for LingQ), and now I pasted a coupon code for a month of free Premium membership, and I will pay next month and then next, and so forth.
For now, I want LingQ to be my primary method of learning languages interspersed a little with other learning resources and I am looking forward to start a beginner course in a language school in September again. But, there’s an other thing which I did even when I wasn’t learning French at all - I was listening to music which I like! I still do that very often, even though I’m a little bored with it because I have a very limited playlist. I also watch from time to time French movies, and I am happy like a child when I notice that I understand some words and phrases. :smiley:

I re-read and re-read your post and now I’m contemplating to do something you do. :slight_smile:

Lingq member Jolanda shared “50languages
com”/Book2 with me. Mp3’s are free. I bought the bilingual book with 100 lessons for only $8.12 USD. Great value.

I started working on my French in January using LingQ. I had studied it before, so I was perhaps at an upper beginner / lower intermediate level. I worked on it every day for four months. My daily activities were listening and reading to the lessons repeatedly, creating LingQs, doing flashcards, etc. Once I got to around 11K known words, I started to take online conversation classes through Skype. I realized I could understand a native speaker, so from there I started to listen to real content (radio, etc.). I also realized I could speak – with some difficulty, but well enough to get my ideas across.

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I get the most pleasant feeling when I use LingQ method, so I think I will not spend too much time on other learning resources. My everyday routine will be using LingQ. I feel content using it and I think that LingQ teaches you a lot of things when it comes to languages, if you know how to get the best of it, of course. :slight_smile: I sometimes google conjugation of a particular verb, watch a short video teaching french, spend a little time on Duolingo, etc, but those are just supplementary things. LingQ rocks lol

I will, as I mentioned before, go to classes starting in September too, and maybe in the future find new fun ways to learn a language, to surround myself with the language as much as I can if I’m lucky. :slight_smile:

I do stuff at LingQ like @juliohart does, when it comes to daily activities. I also thought of writing short essays on subject which tutor gives me. I will ask one to give me a subject when I get to the higher level, or think of my own, so I can practice writing. I will not wait for too long to speak to a tutor, I will just do that when I feel ready.

FWIW- Of all the things I have done to learn a foreign language I can relate to two of them that have helped me the most. Apart from immersion into the culture, that is.

  1. Find content that is of interest to YOU. Avoid Japanese language content about the political structure of Japan if it is a dry subject to YOU. Your mind needs to be engaged in more than just the words and sentence structure.

  2. If you find audio content in a subject that interests YOU then attempt to slow down the speed of the audio. There are many free applications that can alter tempo and pitch of an audio file to suit your needs. There are also numerious audio players that can do this on-the-fly to suit your abilities. I’ve found that if the audio is slower (sometimes just a 1% speed reduction) I can “stay with” the subject at hand or “re-synch” if I’ve lost direction of the matter. Audio that is too fast for me quickly becomes background “noise” and I get very little from it.

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My main daily activity now on LingQ is creating many, many LingQs, listening and reading each text for 4 times, 4 different lessons from 4 courses, (I realized that, in order to understand the new text I have to read it 4 times, and I realized that my pronunciation becomes right when I read it aloud for the 4th time). I focus mainly on exposure and pronunciation (pronunciation is very important to me personally). I don’t do flashcards very often and I rarely “make” (only by flashcards) a LinqQ “known” (thereby I have quite a few “learned” words, even though I understand a lot of yellow words). I, though, want to learn French efficiently as much as I can. Do you have any suggestions to improve my learning here, or it’s completely right?

Don´t be afraid to mark words as known, for me every word that I feel is “known” or more or less “known”, is something I will move there soon as possible. Thats why I’m here. I lingQ as much as possible and words I don´t need I “x” right away. If there is known (white) words I forgot, I don´t care about that, because I most likely will remember them next time any way. Once I get to a more advanced level, or hit a really long plateau, I start focus more on single words (if they feel relevant), start using the 1-4 scale etc. for a while. For me, most of my learning is something that just happens, and I can’t control it, more than expose myself to the language, in a way that I can enjoy it.

I think it’s great that you have found a learning style that feels comfortable. Essays are a great idea, it doesn’t have to be anything too long. Have you thought of keeping a diary in French ? You can write simple things like what you eat and what films you watch. THese are the words and things you do end up talking about in real life. I love that you practise aloud as well, pronunciation is so important in French. great thread, it’s becoming a real log !

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I will try that, thank you for the suggestion, and I like that you find this thread great because I started it. :smiley:

I’v found these posts really motivating. I’m going to read it again every time I’ll have problems with learning.

I had a French class today and teacher told me that (when I told her that my cousin from France told me that I should go there when I learn French) learning French requires a lot of time. She is not aware that that course which I’m taking is just “filling my holes”, it’s just a supplementary thing… :smiley: I now think that people should be educated how to learn language(s) via LingQ :D, it’s very complex platform and it’s awesome, but people just don’t know what to do there. And $10 per month is a small price comparing to the potential of it.

Yeah) I have such problem too. Only I understand how to use LingQ. I want my friends to use it too but just can’t explain them how before my long speach would scare them. =) They can’t watch Steve’s videos because they don’t know English. So LingQ is closed for them because of this reason. And I suppose it concerns other people too.

It does concern other people too. I have many referrals here, but almost no one has done anything here, and others have just a few linQs and known words… I’m also sorry that here, in my country, ordinary people don’t have internet cards.

you can add me at skype my skype Id is
alaazay1

I like the idea of thinking of language classes not as the primary form of language learning, but as something supplementary. The traditional way of thinking should be reversed: lots of comprehensible input at home, occasional classes in order to learn specific grammar points, be introduced to new material, speak with a native speaker, etc. But the primary emphasis should be on listening and reading on one’s own.

Perhaps language instructors should consider their task to be less about teaching the language, then about teaching HOW the student needs to go on an learn on his or her own. LingQ has been a real eye-opener for me.

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I took your advice partially. I now move more words to “known”, which I feel like I understand them and/or will remember them. And yes, I did create LingQs for just one word when I studied English here, because I’m at advanced level and I just feel like that in English I just need to learn vocabulary (single words).