To my mind it’s much more efficient and effective to start a language journey combining experience (for example, using very simple material in Lingq) with study using a high-quality “communicative-approach“ beginners text book!!!

I believe it is possible to learn from scratch purely via input and automatic absorbtion — but I think it would take you multiple times as long. I think it would be hugely less efficient and effective…

If the language uses an alphabet or writing system that you already know, and the grammar isn't too insane, it should be totally possible. But something like Arabic will likely require you to utilize outside resources if only to get the alphabet and some of the more opaque grammatical complexities down.

Yes, me, Japanese and just now starting with Spanish.

I start with the beginner 1 level classes, the ones that are only a few sentences long, lingQ all the words. I don't bother with flashcards, I keep reading and listening and move words to known when I recognise them in context while reading.

That way I even learn kanji. You need to be prepared to not understand most of what you read / hear at first. If a lesson looks like "qwer tyu iop SHARK asdf ghjk", well then, you've learned 1 word, congratulations! Re read tomorrow or move on to the next one!

Hello !

For me, I began Spanish with lingq and stick with it for a few months until I had a good level to understand almost everything but I'm french and it's a very similar language.

Currently I'm studying Russian from scratch in LingQ and I must say it's working but it's very long.. I've just finished the first Harry Potter in Russian, I know a bunch of words but there's si much more to learn just to be able to communicate with a native. So at some point I'll need to use other tools than

Yes, Japanese. I went from 0 to decent (still learning). I just import whatever I find interesting (and comprehensible) into my account. Read, listen, write (sometimes), talk to tutors (often) and review. I have used a couple other grammar books as well. However, the main tool has always been LingQ.

I've used LingQ to study Spanish from scratch, and it's doable to reach advanced levels using LingQ as your only tool. I also found LingQ to be very good, specifically for Korean, because of the way it allows you to read and translate Hangul.

Yes,

But only because with LingQ it provides immersion material and you can upload your own.

If you spend most of the time with the reader, you would just obsess over words and conscious knowledge.

It's true effectiveness lies in that it's allows the learner to practice intensive study of the language IN THE SERVICE OF IMMERSION.

The principle is that if you practice a small amount of consistent time involved in intensive study, immersion is immensely more effective. If you only intensively study, you're trying to beat knowledge in your head.

Not yet. But I am learning other languages.

I have not, but I would like to point out that even the founder of this software (Steve) does not learn "a language from scratch with Lingq only." It is only the foundation of his language learning. My guess is you can become fluent in reading and listening, but you cannot become fluent in writing and speaking for the obvious reason that you don't practise these skills on LingQ.

As an example, I've had only 200 hours of listening and 600k words read and the other day I met someone who spoke Italian (non-native). For the life of me, I just couldn't say anything. I just couldn't produce any of the words that I 'supposably' know. I can recognise lots of words when I read them and (a little less) words when I hear them, but I just couldn't say anything. Just mind blank... I imagine it will come quite fast, but with zero speaking/writing practise, you cannot speak/write. But perhaps this is obvious.

I would also like to point out that by learning a language, you also need to learn about the culture. A lot of communication is done through body language, which you just don't get by reading and listening. You have to watch videos (which would help), but you have to interact with native speakers. For instance, someone can be 'fluent' in the English language (that is, have perfect grammar and use of idioms, etc.), but I could still have large amounts of miscommunication with them simply because they don't understand hand gestures in English (Anglo countries), cultural taboos, subtle undertones (which is rampant in English, especially in British culture), etc.

TL;DR I haven't and I would be sceptical if someone says they have.

I think you can certainly start a language from scratch on LingQ and become fluently literate and fluent or near fluent in understanding of spoken language through it. You do have to converse and write (which you can sort of do on LingQ it's just limited or costly) to reach complete, overall fluency though.

I would say in terms of listening comprehension and reading comprehension I have reached fluency in German. I have only ever used LingQ. Just tons of reading and tons of listening,

I learned French to fluency using no textbooks. Reading and listening only.

PS - i would say that if you dip into another related language's resources on lingq whilst you are focusing on the main one, you will find many cognates that somehow seem to massively accelerate your progress in the Main one. They provide hooks that help new words to stick. I do Danish at the moment mainly until I get up to a decent awareness (for me I picked 4444). Then I dip into Norwegian or Swedish or Icelandic resources at some point during the day so I can avoid any chance of boredom. Boredom kills all chances of any progress at least for me. I was never interested in books they gave us at school for French A level, so learnt next to nothing. Now, I can read Houellebecq and Foenkinos novels with no problem by importing them and enjoying MY choice of material. Try importing books or articles you know from your own language, translated into whatever one you are learning, or vice versa. You will find this massively accelerates things when you know the gist.

I have - I just adore this app. For years i struggled to make any progress at all because i got utterly bored looking up every word i didnt know in a German novel or Swedish newspaper. I was exhausted and demotivated by all the leafing, With Lingq i have learned 1549 words of Danish in less than a fortnight. This i put down to the usually very large range of topics covered within the litte courses that you can find for most languages. I 100% agree with Steve that learning by NOT focusing on the language is how language is acquired. In other words, finding a text that holds your interest somehow allows your brain to acquire many words and constructions almost subliminally. I find then the yellow highlighting very good - when I spot one again, it definitely makes me attend to the word and if I read for one hour to two hours per day, I find I start to accelerate. As I have spent 40 years learning languages, I am currently just reading until each shows as 4444 known. iThese are just arbitrary figures but they keep my statistics column tidier under the flag at the top right. I find it incredibly de-stressing to use Lingq to keep tabs on where I am with them all, as they always felt unmanageable before, as it never felt like I was making any progress at all, and as I got bored with a whole novel. I have 10 minute attention span but everything sticks, just as it did as a child, if I am interested in the short text. Once I have levelled everything up to 4444, I will read in each again until all are at 5555 known, And so on until they are all at say 20,000 which is more than enough for most purposes. Some of my languages I know would already be at 15,000 or so, but Lingq clarifies it all for me and makes me feel in control, rather than beleaguered. Danish is a new language to me so it will be interesting to see how long it takes to get to 4444, before I then move on to Dutch which is also a new language for which I have also only ever used Lingq. I totally recommend this app for those who feel like they are obsessed by languages but cannot manage them and need some kind of system to cater for any number over 5, which for me became hugely draining and even demotiating in fact. I started to feel like my languages were a millstone and it is only because of LIngq experiences that i have now felt like embarking on Danish. I got my mojo back.

I used lingq from scratch and got to a decent level to converse with people and watch youtube videos whenever I want. Sometimes I might not understand but most of the time get the general idea.

I find LingQ great once you're past the beginner stage. I believe with a language with *very* close grammar or vocab (I personally think vocab is king) it is possible. I've just on a whim gone through a few mini-stories in French and it is very do-able as an English speaker with weak Spanish.

I can talk from my experience that starting a language from scratch and only rely totally on Lingq will not push you further at all. I started to learn German one year ago when I moved to Germany and went through the conventional path (text books + german classes). I built a solid foundation for the language in the all areas till B1 level, after that I started to use this portal which boost the language tremendously. Long story short if you wanna start with a language pretty similar to your language with having a basic background before this portal is a great tool otherwise you going to waste your time. Liebe Grüße

I always end up using other ways in addition to LingQ, especially just conversing, whether through programs like Tandem or just in real life. I have started languages from scratch here on LingQ though, although you can argue whether it's really from scratch when you already know other, similar languages, but I did start Dutch, Spanish and Italian from scratch here. I did eventually read a novel in Dutch outside of LingQ and half a children's book in Spanish, but so far I have only really used LingQ for Italian.

I mostly am doing it for Russian at the moment and it is going well, but it needs quite a bit more time in the oven before I start getting the caviar out. I used mostly the stuff in the library for the first months but quickly moved to importing stuff. I have three sources of content: the news (mostly 'fakes' like Meduza), books, and (of course) Russian with Max.

The only other resource that I used at the start was a basic list mapping Cyrillic characters to sounds, and with that written out on a piece of paper I just started with some basic intro lessons on LingQ. It was slow for weeks since each word was a struggle to get through, but it quickly became quite easy to guess the approximate sound of a word and the TTS on LingQ really helped. After that I just did the normal thing of reading stuff and then listening to it and that basically all I have done since.

I do get some explanations from my Russian wife and I do have a few grammar books and the Assymil Russian book, but I have barely touched them. Maybe it doesn't count then as "with LingQ only". I guess nobody has truly just used LingQ only.

I use lingQ so I can read better and help me gain more vocabulary also is super useful since I am studying Japanese and It has Kanji characters, but you can't just depend in LingQ may I ask what language you are trying to learn?