Hi all. I think it would be cool to read some fluency sucess stories or just a brief thing from using Lingq?

What language did you study using Lingq? Did you achieve fluency/literacy? How long did it take?

Ive recently been reading a lot of blogs and things, some that contain certain statistical information, like "it takes 2000 hours of this or 10000 hours of that, or it takes 9 months to learn this and that etc"

During this a question popped into my head: "2000 hours of what exactly?" - going to class? saving words and phrases while listening hours a day? writing words out by hand over and over again? private tutoring? what?

I imagined it would most likely be input and vocab review. So as lingq is mostly just this, im interested to know any stories people have? Im hoping to stop actively studying Chinese using SRS etc by the end of this year and move onto Japanese, heres hoping i have a success story to add then! :)

If you are talking about success stories in terms of big improvements, I think there will be many. For example, I myself can understand French much better than before. However, if you are talking about fluency/literacy, I don't think there will be many. The fact is it takes time to learn a language and LingQ hasn't been around long enough for that many people to make that kind of improvement. On the other hand, there are many of us hard at work learning various languages. I believe that in a couple of years' time, there will be a big increase in the number of polyglots at LingQ. By that time, using LingQ will be even easier because a lot more words would have already been looked up by the members and so you would have an easier time studying the lessons.

Well, today we got first success story here at LingQ, but it in Lithuanian... so I can't help to read it. However our hero wrote that she started to speak after learning for 2 months, using Zamiatkin's course, plus 400 hours of learning, using our way.

Check "The Polyglot project": http://www.docstoc.com/docs/60429490/The-Polygl...
Some of the LingQ members participated in this project (including myself).

You can read more about this on this forum thread: http://www.lingq.com/learn/de/forum/1/7487/

Reviving this thread. Everybody needs some inspirational words every now and then. If you learned a language to fluency through LingQ, please do share your success story with us all!

I'll start. I speak Italian, perhaps not perfectly and with plenty of mistakes, as my astute Italian tutor here on LingQ is always sure to point out where I need my improvements, however I can now speak quickly and well enough not to hinder the conversation between me and a native speaker. I just had one of my coworkers (a native of Spezia, Ligura) tell me the other week that he has noticed that my Italian has improved so much that he doesn't have to alter his speech patterns anymore to speak with me. I also no longer feel the nervousness I used to have before speaking Italian. I have full confidence now that I will understand everything they are going to say to me and that I will know how to respond. I have also made the decision to raise my four month old son in Italian. It's going to be an extremely fun journey.

I have also been putting some time into Spanish. It has already been a rewarding experience. I can stumble through a conversation in Spanish at work with my clients and it is real fun to see how my comprehension is improving as I eavesdrop on random family conversations in Spanish at Walmart and the grocery store. I have also been enjoying the new cultures and types of music Spanish has opened the doors to. I have no doubt that I will be fluent in Spanish by the end of 2012. Does this mean that I am putting aside my Italian? Macché! I am going to focus on perfecting my speech, eliminating all of those little mistakes most foreigners make, and of course enjoy the language for what it is.

In store for 2013 and beyond? It was my original goal to speak 4 languages by the time I am 30, and with 3.5 years left the outcome of that goal is looking pretty bright, but I have yet to decide my after Spanish language. I could go for some lower hanging fruit like French or Portuguese, but I have been fascinated by German for years, plus I have a German speaking friend who lived there for a year and can't wait to go back. Although, I have always been intrigued by Japanese as well, and being that I have been doing Judo since high school I have been literally surrounded by this language and it seems almost a shame that I never learned it.

Ok guys, your turn, I want to hear what languages you have become fluent in using LingQ and how your life has been enriched because of them. Go!

I have recently had a few conversations with our tutors and I was able to communicate with them. I was making mistakes all the time however they understood what I was talking about. I'm happy with this achievement. I hope my progress will continue. It took for about 2-3 years to reach my level. However I'm lazy learner. It would have taken shorter time if I had learned harder. Lingq is the best place for learning languages. One more thing, I learn English. :))

I see my revival of this post was ill timed as everybody is too up in arms over the change in policy on beta languages to share their LingQ success stories and of how it has improved their lives, except of course for Makacenko, who told us in extremely well written English about his successes in English. I know there is more than just us two. Who else wants to share how they have become fluent in a foreign language thanks to LingQ?

Well, I'm not yet fluent in any language other than my first, Odiernod. So, although I'd love to have written up my success story, that's not yet possible. Perhaps I'll revive it in another few years and we'll see how that goes.

By the way, I am such a big fan of Hebrew so I'm very glad it has been added. It's the first language I ever seriously studied and it discouraged me seriously. Now, I've regained much of my courage and am giving it another go. That's a sort of success story, perhaps? :)

I guess I don't count but I have essentially learned my Russian at LingQ and you can hear me interviewing Evgueny in Russian in our recent series of discussions about Russia. Evgueny is both knowledgeable and interesting to talk to. So if your Russian is up to it give a listen. I still make a lot of mistakes but I understand most things and can express myself, if somewhat clumsily.

As to my Czech, which I started in August, I understand a lot, and have now started speaking. I may record my next discussion, just in order to have a record of my progress. I can post it here if there is any interest. It will be somewhat painful.:)

You say you learned Russian primarily at LingQ. I would say that counts plenty!

BTW here is the most recent of our discussions on Russia. http://www.lingq.com/learn/ru/workdesk/item/294...

I don't count, but I pretty much began from a very low begginer level in Russian (I could read cyrillic, had the gist of the case system, and knew a few basic verbs and nouns) at LingQ just over a year ago. Now I can just about hold up myy end of a conversation in Russian, if my parter is happy to slow down and simplify, and ignore my mistake-littered sentences. It's certainly not fluency, but I know I'm improving, and feel I could make as much, if not more progress again this year, thanks largely to LingQ and Steve's methods. Ask me again in 12 months. : )

@maths: It's great to hear that you're still going strong, I'm sure you'll get there.

That's great news, Lewis! I remember when you wrote a post about being discouraged by an apparent lack of progress so I'm happy to see you making your way through Russian more confidently. Keep up the good work!

I'm not ready to post my success story yet, but I'm working hard on my Turkish and I already understand a lot more. I read a lot, lingq a lot and I can see my vocabulary is growing! I need now to focus more on listening.

@peter/customic
Thanks for the encouragement guys, appreciated :)
Slow going, but feels a little more possible everyday. Now that I can kind-of talk with natives, it's a lot more motivating. Many miles to go until victory though.

I would be very happy If I reached this kind of fluency in English. This guy is Czech and I like his fast, effortless and confident speaking. I would say this is my main goal in English. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3AXEzjFdjWE

I joined Lingq in September 2009. I had studied some German 45 years ago. Could read very simple German, understand a little, conversation ability none. I have been studying daily using the Lingq method. In August of 2010 I had my first conversation with a native speaking tutor. It was stressfull and I was searching my mind for the right words. I have had conversations since then on a weekly basis and am excited to have reached a point where I can hold up my end of a conversation. I had a conversation with Vera, one of the German tutors, several months ago and she was kind enough to call it a real conversation. In her report on the conversation she said I was very understandable in what I wanted to say. She also said: "Vor allem hast Du sehr flüssig geredet. Prima! Somit war es eine richtige Unterhaltung." English translation: "Above all you have spoken very fluently. Great! Thus it was a real conversation." Last year I took the listening challenge and listened to spoken German for at least 2 hours a day. I continue listen for 2 hours a day. This year I am also working on writing skills. I am pleased and excited with my progress.

Super! That sure is a success story. Such dedication, it's nice to see that it is paying off.

Apparently you made a video depicting your experiences, do you still have a link to it or is it "old news"?

Two hours listening per day, what do you like listening to? And having cracked speaking you are now making progress in writing.

Well done! I'm really glad for you.

Makacenko, if you worked as an academic, in English, in an English speaking environment , you would learn to speak equally well on a subject that you were familiar with.

I started LingQ the same time as I started a family. So I have had much less time than I would like to work on my languages.

I do credit LingQ for making me much more confident with French, which I learned in French Immersion schools but was unused for about 20 years since high school. My comprehension has always been Advanced but my speaking dropped to about Elementary level before LingQ. I also credit LingQ for making me a more well rounded Japanese user now than I have ever been, even though I lived in Japan for 3 years about 10 years ago. My speaking and writing is still choppy but my comprehension has improved a lot.

The main things LingQ has given me so far are: the motivation to study even though I have busy schedule, the boldness to go after new languages, and a new perspective on teaching languages. Basically it has changed my outlook totally, and for the better.

@Makacenko

Well, you're setting yourself a VERY high goal there, buddy! ;-)

Tomáš Sedláček is more than just excellent. I would say he is an example of (if such a thing existed) level C3 in English - i.e. just like a very sophisticated native speaker.

In spite of what Steve said in his last post, in my experience there are actually few very foreigners (even among senior business leaders, politicians, academics, etc) who manage to attain this ultra-high level. As I say, this is really an elite level which is above "excellent".

(I don't know anything about Sedláček's background, but from the way he speaks I would also speculate that he may have spent a lot of time living in an English-speaking country at some stage?)

Yes, Sedláček spent some time in the US.

http://bit.ly/AdtLiE

I only heard one strange pronunciation 'dov jones'. :) Interesting topic, by the way.

Our president's English is good as well even if his pronunciation isn't as good as Sedláček's one. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VttfdKhQDrQ