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April 24 Language Input or Output? - YouTube

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Actually, it’s got me motivated again to get back into LingQ after sweltering through heatwaves. So if I don’t complete the Japanese Challenge, I give permission for you, Steve and Mark to beat me up with your LingQsabers!

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Gave it a watch and was surprised just how different Steve’s method is from my own.

I typically go through multiple short lessons or one fairly long lesson in the time he spent on the short one. I am just not nearly as detailed as he is when going through.
I never used the review feature more than a couple times. I found the way lingq flashcards are formed causes a lot of inconsistencies from card to card. Sometimes cards even have the Target language on both sides making them impossible to get wrong.

Maybe it is because he is still fairly new to Farsi though.

Really good motivator though and I will definitely watch them if only to skim through his actual studying. Love the Q and A

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Mate, Farsi is a whole different ball game compared to say, the Japanese you’re learning (which I can read reasonably fluently).

But when I read Farsi myself, it’s like I’m back in kindergarten grade learning to read English. Out of all the languages I’ve previously studied, this is by far the hardest to read. I’ve never been in this position before when it comes to reading. Imagine trying to recognise and pronounce words written with missing vowels, too.

There’s only one way to go through these lessons: slowwwly :slight_smile: I honestly think Steve’s doing an amazing job!

I’m wondering whether Steve plans to join the 90-day Farsi Challenge on LingQ? I know he’s learning Arabic, too. At the moment there’s only 3 participants. I know my Farsi sucks in comparison, but it would be fun :blush:

I’m curious to see Steve’s process in future workouts. Watching his process in the first video was very interesting, though since it was the first time, I think we only got a sneak peak into his process. I noticed some interesting things that he is doing that I hope to incorporate in my own process.

Really enjoyed being a part of the first workout, looking forward to joining in (hopefully) every subsequent video.

One thing that rattled me about the first workout video was how much Steve used the flashcards.

I never do the flashcards because I simply don’t like them, I find them too repetitive and boring. It’s the reason I still haven’t bought Anki, despite it being an “essential” language learning tool.

I hear of many successful language learners using Anki and similar flashcard tools to advance in their target language, but honestly, I am still quite disinterested in doing so myself. However, it is starting to feel like I might just have to bite the bullet and do flashcards if I want to make even larger strides.

I currently do an hour of reading a day and one and a half to two hours of listening every day. I feel like I am making good progress but I don’t want to close a door on something that could mean making even more improvement even if it means I don’t enjoy it that much.

What are your guys’ thoughts on flashcards? Hate em or love em? Do you do them even if you hate them?

Edit: Steve does not recommend doing the flashcards if you do not like doing them. He answered my question on his latest workout: Steve's Language Workout - Making the Most Out of Your LingQs - YouTube

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That really surprised me too. Honestly for me, flashcards are amazing at the beginner to intermediate level with memrise, Ank,i or lingQ. It helps you to build a foundation for vocabulary where as acquiring a similar level through reading at the beginning stages may be intimidating and very challenging. At intermediate to more advanced levels, it seems like flash cards start to bring less and less value and new words can be acquired at the same rate or a better rate than flash cards. That is what I have found in my studies at least. I know that I will use flash cards at the beginning for Russian when I start however!

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I didn’t mean in anyway to demean Steve; I think he is far smarter than myself. I have no idea about the difficulty of Farsi but I will take your word for it.

I just found his approach more detailed than my own, and now I am unsure if my method is necessarily the best approach. But perhaps it is simply a difference in Language rather than detail.

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Btw, he answered my question in his latest workout video, in case you haven’t seen it:

I love doing them but they’re optional once you reach a higher level. I’d do them as a beginner just to force yourself to get exposed to a lot of common words at once. There were several decks I pulled from beginner textbooks vocab on memrise, converted to anki and reviewed.

At a later level, some of the vocab in HSK 6 and TOCFL C level can be very specific and hard to come across just by reading, so if exams are your goal I’d recommend them.

I use Anki for all my flashcards. Each card has definition, pinyin, grammar labels, example sentence, audio and a picture. I’ve spent time tweaking the look as well, so it looks great on my mobile and PC. I currently have around 12000 cards made, but I don’t review them as much as I used to. I tend to remember words better just from reading.

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Steve will be hosting a new video today at 10 AM PST Steve's Language Workout - Finding the Right Content - YouTube

Join us.

New language workout today, Learning Farsi on the iPad.

10AM PST Why Learn Farsi? Or Any Other Language for That Matter - YouTube

New video is live now: Steve's Language Workout Feb. 11 - Good Content and Where to Find it - YouTube

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New live stream today, Feb. 13 Steve's Language Workout - Language Learning is a Fuzzy Process - YouTube

Feb 15th Livestream coming soon at 10AM PST Steve's Language Workout - Online Tutors as a Source of Input - YouTube

Feb 20th Your Learning Statistics Keep You on Track for Success (Live) - YouTube

Feb 22nd - Language Learning, a School for Life (Live Stream) - YouTube 10AM PST Start time

Struggling to Speak (Live stream) - YouTube New workout, Feb 27 10AM PST

Intensity and Efficiency in our Language Learning (Live Stream) - YouTube March 1

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