Everyone has their own way of learning languages at LingQ. If you had to advise someone on what YOU consider the most important things to do in order to get the most out of LingQ, what would you say? Please post here in any language you would like.
Here are my seven points.
To get the most out of LingQ you need to listen a lot. Make sure you have a good MP3 player and know how to get your desired content from the LingQ Library onto your MP3 player. Carry your MP3 player with you wherever you go.
Create lots of LingQs. As your cursor travels across the text you are reading, when you see a word you do not know, or would like to know better, or would like to be able to use, grab it. If there are user hints, take one. If not, click on New Hint. Do the same for phrases. Make sure you create as many LingQs as possible. 100 a day is not too many!
If you have saved a lot of LingQs, you will see them highlighted in yellow on your text, when you read. Treat your reading at LingQ as a powerful way to learn words and phrases and usage patterns, and not just a reading experience. At first you cannot even remember the meaning of the words you saved. After a few months there will be few words or phrases that you do not understand.
When reviewing your saved words using Flash Cards, do not expect to learn them all. Just go through them quickly. Do so immediately after you finish reading a text and have pressed “I Know All”. Do so again when you receive your email with your LingQs for review. But do so quickly. Do not worry about what you cannot remember. Some words stick and others just won’t.
Talk to a tutor once a week. It will keep you motivated. If you have a specific problem, or if you really enjoy your discussions with tutors, you can always go for more. However, a once a week commitment makes sure that you stay focused.
Write on the Forum in the language you are learning, at least once a week. Use the Post and Submit button, to post your comments and submit them for correction at the same time.
Make lots of friends on the Community, the more the better. Find people from your own country, or people studying the same languages as you, or members and tutors who speak those languages. The more friends you have, the more you will be connected to other members of the community. This will sustain your interest and keep you going, and help you achieve your goals.
Thank you for your tips. As I study different languages and as I move in different countries in order to learn them better and faster, I also try to find the best method for me and it’s not always easy, struggling between old systems and new theories.
I’ve just realized that listening is very important. And more difficult for me too! I’m not sure about what I say but I’ve got an idea that listening improve the speaking and reading improve the writing. I hope to express myself enough well because it’s just 8 months that I’ve been studying english.
Here some of my tips:
HAVE FUN. Spend time for looking for something you really like. This is not always easy to do because you need to surf a lot online and understand what you really like too. But when you find it just follow it. It will be easier to learn because you will be very interested about what you do. Music, videos, movies, politics, make-up, cooking, whatever!!!
COMMUNICATE. Find people in your city for making conversations. It’s easy. Go to the university, or cultural institutes and so on, leave an announcement about you sharing conversations in your native language for conversations in the language you are learning. It’s easy, free and you can schedule it like if it was real language lessons. You can do 1 hour in your language and 1 hour in the other depending on the time you have. And reschedule straight away the next meeting, so you won’t lose the rhythm.
HISTORICAL CONNEXIONS. If you find internet sites or whatever that make an association between some words or some idiomatical expressions with the history connected is better, funnier and easier to remember them. And also it’s more interesting because you understand why people talk like that. There are almost always historical connexions behind the meaning of words and phrases, and also behind grammatical issues.
GOOGLE NEWS. Read the news in the language you are studying. Read the news about your country written by another country. It could be interesting knowing other point of views and stimulating in understanding what they say and why.
PODCASTS. Download dozen of podcasts and then choose what you like more. I personally prefer video podcasts or small audiopodcasts. Chose the content at your level, not too difficult otherwise you will get bored and demotivated.
WORD OF THE DAY. If you find it, subscribe some word of the day service, or similar services about the language you are studying. I personally use it not for studying every word they send me but for creating a mental connection. Something the remind me that I’m studying that language and that I need to be constant.
WRITING BY EMAIL. I don’t use chat because I find we lose too much time in chatting and it’s not really productive. Maybe you can learn a couple of words and not more. But if you find people that you can email it’s better because you can develop more thoughts in a better way and at the same time create a good relationship with people all over the world.
DEVELOP EVERY AREA. Listening, writing, reading, comprehension. Find your weak point and work more in that point for balancing the language. A good trick could be to reach a language level by planning to get an international diploma that test you in every language sector, in my case the european A1, A2, B1, B2, C1, C2. So you have to develop your skills in every part of the language
DIGITAL DICTIONARIES. If you are not a translator/interpreter, so if you don’t really need a professional dictionary, well, buy the dictionaries in your computer or mobile. I have both and I can use them in my computer when I watch movies, or whatever and in my iPhone when I’m everywhere, also talking with friends. It’s really faster, less stressful and more ecological than a big old dictionary.
Another one that I’m testing in this period is studying phrases instead of words. I’ve just read about it in these days and it’s quite interesting. Studying words in their contexts so you can learn them faster, learning the grammar too. It seems quite interesting and I have to see how it works using this method with flashcards highlighting the “word” in the middle of the sentence.
Anyway, I hope some of my tips are good enough for someone and surely I’ve forgotten something but I’ve done the best for writing my recent experience about learning languages.
Thanks David, although I was looking for advice on how to use LingQ in particular. If possible, I would like to see what people think are the most important bits of advice (need not be seven) for someone starting out at LingQ.
We could start another thread on general advice on language learning. If you want you could copy your post onto that thread, where we can share more general ideas about language learning.
Sorry, it’s a bit late here and probably I made a mess :S
Yes, if you want to put it in another topic no problem. Feel free to use it as you think better. It’s just few days that I’ve been using LingQ and I could have just one advice more than what you have already written.
Hi Steve,
Given the reactions of individuals and noticed that my articles are often “assessed” as plain evil deliberately criticism. I am not of this opinion. They always give you the reasoning why I think so. Do these arguments hold, however, is another question. It is easy for my criticism in good faith. My articles, please evaluate this over the optic. In view of this topic as follows:
(1.) In order to best exploit LingQ missing crucial. LingQ is not yet finally spoken, accomplished, at least in some segments (library, statistics, etc.). Example: in the library is through the filter can be easily obtained from the individual level lessons (Beginer 1 = 12 lessons). Here is the problem. I do not know how these lessons follow: what is the upgrade of the previous lesson. It is a sequence of lessons. When you talk about the method is considered to be all programmed set in advance. Zero should not be left to the event. It is not, however, or I to start learning the first or the last lesson.
(2.) In LingQs create some difficulties. Examples: abbreviations (I’ll) or phrases (two or more words: so let’s just) on the card appears as “I” and in the second case as “so let”. The word or phrase is given a completely different meaning then.
(4.) Using the “Flashcards” (in the lesson or in the dictionary) is a nice made. Problems occur in conjunction with the statistics. This means that travel is the word -of entry into the system of statistics to the clipboard- incomplete, lack of software defined. This is especially true for words that are already in stage 4 and the re-make and use the “Flashcards” (consolidation of words). It seems to me that the wording of later-after clipboard-statistics are no longer reading. Use the button “All I know” can lead to undesirable effects. Missing precise instructions and, in particular warning against undesirables effects.
LingQ apparently not yet accomplished -not by segments and not as whole- to do the extent that the application would not be disturbed.
Given the reactions of individuals and noticed that my articles are often “assessed” as plain evil deliberately criticism. I am not of this opinion. They always give you the reasoning why I think so. Do these arguments hold, however, is another question. It is easy for my criticism in good faith. My articles, please evaluate this over the optic. In view of this topic as follows:
(1.) In order to best exploit LingQ missing crucial. LingQ is not yet finally spoken, accomplished, at least in some segments (library, statistics, etc.). Example: in the library is through the filter can be easily obtained from the individual level lessons (Beginner 1 = 12 lessons). Here is the problem. I do not know how these lessons follow: what is the upgrade of the previous lesson. It is a sequence of lessons. When you talk about the method is considered to be all programmed set in advance. Zero should not be left to the event. It is not, however, or I to start learning the first or the last lesson.
