I just tried it but I couldn't make it work perfectly. I tried to change the Google translate settings to Hindi and sometimes it works but it often reverts back to the original language setting (Esperanto in my case). The definitions exist in the Hindi dictionary though and it's possible to adjust manually (it would take a lot of work to change the settings everytime manually). I don't know if it's possible to do a little hack with that, maybe vidarvollund can clarify how.

To be fair. They are for beginners. If you look at any beginner material, it is fairly unnatural. Very simple sentences. Modal particles are really an intermediate/advanced thing imo. The mini stories are meant to teach the basic structures of a sentence, the basic tenses and a decent chunk of beginner level vocabulary.

If modal particles are hard to grasp (and I total agree they are), it's best not to confuse the situation for beginners by introducing these right off the bat. There are enough confusing elements to German =)

Indeed miriamblanca,

This is a serious problem with LingQ, and a problem that has never been properly addressed. The website sells languages and targets language learners, yet is full of errors.

The odd mistake, here, there (and everywhere) if corrected in the long run is fine. The problem is this is hardly ever the case. Errors abound and persist and persist, until observant learners like yourself stop using material they cannot judge because of the errors observed in their mother tongue.

It is essential that beginner material is 100% correct and 100% natural.

Most unfortunately I don't think the mini stories in German will ever be corrected such that they sound natural (despite the fact that German modals are learned at beginner A1 level).

EDIT:

1. Edited out polyglot bit as irrelevant.

2. ericb100, as I cannot respond to your post below as there is no "reply" tab option only an "import" tab, please note miriamblanca's response to your question about modals.

@Maria2

Luca, Benny, and Moses are and were selling their own systems and advice (not sure about Richard). So they don't stand to benefit by telling someone to just go use LingQ. I don't think Benny's or Moses "style" really fits the LingQ model. Luca more closely maybe, but he's probably also just ingrained in his own ways.

Who knows, maybe they all use it behind the scenes. =)

As for modals...are you referring to verbs or particles? Miriam mentioned particles which I don't think are "A1" at all, and probably not "A2" (although I have never taken a class in German so I will certain accept being corrected on this statement. Modal VERBS on the other hand are most definitely level A1 or A2...certainly beginner level in general.

@maria2 @ericb100 Sure, there are serious problems with LingQ. I also have my own ways to learn languages. I am however a paying member and LingQ is useful to me when I import content from other sources. It makes looking up words very easy. Plus, since I don't usually use flashcards or anything like that (I find it boring), having the LingQs gives me peace of mind. I know the words and expressions are there and I can do the rare flashcard review after seeing them in a text. I also found a few podcasts and books through the platform that were really good.

So, I do find LingQ useful and that's why I'm still here as a paying member. It's just that the contents they produce are not great. So, it's very frustrating for me when languages I really want are not added with the excuse that these contents (I don't care about) are not ready and as far as I can tell will never be ready within the next 30 years. Like many people here, especially like many paying members here, I just want to be able to import stuff, maybe see what other people import, or what native content creators provide, and create LingQs. I mean the content can be accessed for free. We actually pay for importing and creating LingQs. So, I'd hope that we'd be able to do that in the languages we want as well.

Having alpha languages without contents just for paying members may also be an option since free members can't import contents anyways.

By the way, I already completely switched to DuChinese for Chinese. You can't import contents there, but they actually do have a well-organized library of high quality content, written by people who understand how to teach Chinese and write engaging stories, rather than translations of rather boring stories by non-professional translators. So, right now for me LingQ is neither for Chinese nor for Hindi, and I'm not focusing so much on other languages now. So, I'm simply using it less and less. It makes me wonder how much longer I'll keep up my subscription. Not sure. As I said. I still find it useful. But their weird decisions just always make it a little less so.

@ericb100 Regarding, modal particles, you should definitely learn them from the beginning. That doesn't mean you need to fully master them, but the texts you read should use them as they would be used in natural speech. I teach German and speak/learn Dutch. Materials for both languages will make use of modal articles since lesson 1 or maybe 2. This is where any old textbook is actually better and much more natural than LinQs own contents, although LingQ will try to tell you that textbooks are somehow bad. Lesson 2 from my Dutch book has sentences like "Zegt u het maar", "Geef mij maar een pilsje." "dan moet u even wachten." "maar" and "even" being moddal particles. Any simple (natural) sounding conversation will have modal particles. Like I said, beginners don't need to master them, but they need to get used to them and hear their use from the beginning.

Besides, the mini stories are meant for beginners but can include complex structures early on, as they follow what's easy in English. They use relative clauses right away. These are a bit tricky in Turkish, for example, and are usually considered B1, the more complex ones even B2. That is because understanding the tenses and cases is necessary to even consider making a relative clause. Past tense and future tense on the other hand are A1 in Turkish, not really that hard. That is another disadvantage of having translations to learn from rather than authentic text in the target language.

Either way, I don't mind if other people want to use the mini stories. It's their choice. I just don't use them and don't like them being a requisite for new languages to be added/excuse for them not to be added. It's not what I'm here for.

@miriamblanca

I definitely do agree with that. I think if there's a decent online dictionary that covers the language (and maybe not even that), they should open up particularly requested languages. Call it a beta language or whatever.

After all, that's one of Lingq's main selling points is the ability to add your own content, so what does it matter if there are mini stories or not.

@miriam re: modal particles

Thanks for the information regarding teaching of modal particles. My understanding from other's experiences was that it was considered "intermediate" and from my own experience I've tended to agree (not textbook oriented, unless you count Assimil German, which btw DOES start introducing some of them fairly early).

I agree, though, you certainly need to be aware of these early (especially if importing your own content), and I remember in earlier stages I would look up, what are all the weird "extra" words and learned to quickly more or less ignore for the earlier stages as it was rather confusing to try and remember them. I think that's what much of the learning material I'd see would say..."hey, this is am modal particle...you'll learn more about these later". OK then, I'll wait until later =)

Modal particles I agree are something that should appear even in beginner texts. Learners will not use them correctly, except in fixed expressions, but, because they are so important for natural speech, learners should be made aware early that they exist and to watch for them, but not to worry about them for a few hundred hours (at least).

Hi , we are getting German mini stories proofread by native speakers, so far we have re-recorded some of them and we will re-record the rest if they have unnatural sentences. thanks for the points you mentioned in this thread.

Yes , it was clear they are unnecessary and the reasons you stated are more points against their absurd requirement. It´s asking too much when the stories are essentially not much relevant anyway.

I’m not sure I would say it’s more important than other languages on LingQ but I too have been waiting a long time for Hindi to be added. I second the request for a transparent action plan to be made available for paying LingQ customers. 🙏

@marlene666 I checked with our content team. Hindi won't be added anytime soon. At the moment Swahili and Tagalog are making most progress and it's most likely that those two are next two in line to be added.