Tactics regarding learning 'lingQs'

Hi there,

I feel as though I am on a bit of a roll at the moment. I am actually reading Steve’s book right now and having read and understood each chapter maybe twice through (also correctly categorizing my lingQs) i feel as though I want to move onto the next chapter. I am understanding 85% odd and am enjoying for the first time reading in German to some level of fluency.

Heres the problem though, there are still a fair number number of Lingqs appearing, and I am pretty strict about where I put them. e.g. 1,2,3 or 4. I am now in a position where I have 23 pages worth of level 1 lingqs. Learning these page by page is starting to feel like a needle in a haystack, there seems to be just too many.

So I suppose my question is, should I stop reading and thus creating new lingqs, thereby giving myself a chance of catching up on some word learning and slimming down my backlog of level 1 lingqs.

I dont really want to do this because, as I say, I’m just enjoying reading Steve’s book at the moment, but perhaps its the right way to go. If I am creating this amount of Lingqs perhaps I am not at the right level for this material but it doesn’t feel like that.

Thanks,
Steve

In my view, the main thing is keep on reading / listening. I think reviewing flashcards is secondary and even dispensable.
At this moment, I’m not reviewing any flashcards in my study of Russian at all. I think I’ll be learning anyway if I keep reading.
I reached my current level in other languages (English, French, German, …) basically by reading books and looking up words in the dictionary. I didn’t have the benefit of Lingq at the time.

Plus, enjoying the process is paramount.

I agree with ftornay. I find that reviewing my words as yellow LingQs and deciding to move them along in status as I see them in context, is the most efficient way to learn. Make sure to use Auto mode and the key board short cuts to move from LingQ to LingQ or to create new LingQs.

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“If I am creating this amount of Lingqs perhaps I am not at the right level for this material but it doesn’t feel like that.”

If you don’t feel like a lesson is too difficult, or it is too interesting to be difficult, then it is Not difficult. Let’s put things into perspective. I have a total of 252 pages worth of level 1,2,3 Lingqs. When I was reading Steve’s book in Japanese, I noticed that I encountered certain words repeatedly, complex words that recurrently came up in his book, that I quickly learned because they appeared so often. However, there are Lingqs that I bet I made last year that I still have not been able to move to “known,” because they just don’t come up often enough to deserve my attention. :stuck_out_tongue:

" Learning these page by page is starting to feel like a needle in a haystack, there seems to be just too many."

I do not suggest going page by page reviewing vocabulary because you aren’t seeing how it is used in different contexts. (The sentence next to each vocab word in those pages is always the same). Just go with reading as much as you have time for, and you will naturally “review” these lingqs by encountering them in texts so many times, that they “stick.” Learning words isn’t the main process in language learning, it is a vital byproduct. (I wonder what Memrise would think of that previous sentence)

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Thanks very much for your responses. Most helpful, and kind of what I wanted to hear.

I am a man of routine and have been learning LingQs the conventional way (page by page with flashcards) since i started here in November of last year. I think now is the time to move on from that way of doing things, keep reading, keep making lingqs of course, but learn them in a more natural way, as and when they come up.

As Steve has said many times in his videos, I am finding reading way more interesting than spending an hour learning out of context words, so why not go with what you enjoy…

I will though, still be studying my 25 new words that get sent on a daily basis. that is very manageable.

Thanks again
Steve

Good luck!

I find the critical thing is to enjoy how you are learning. I love going through the flashcards on a daily basis, and working through them. Many don’t stick, many do. I review previous text or new text, as my fancy strikes. When I started on LingQ, I tried, and was mostly successful, at reading and downloading one new text per day. Then I found my comprehension was not good enough, listening to my lesson on my MP3 player, to keep me interested. I then focused on reviewing my existing texts. Now I like to find new texts to read and download. There is such an unlimited variety of ways to learn on LingQ, it really keeps up my interest.

Hi everyone, I’m new at the forum and I didn’t know where to write my question. Fortunately I saw this post and because it is about Lingqs I hope you can help me. Sorry if this is not the right place to ask.
First I have a free acount, I know that I have a limit of 20 Lingqs. After a few lessons I reached the 20 Lingqs, so I started to delete some of them to have let’s say “free space”. Although I deleted 5 or even more, I can’t continue with my lessons. It’s not possible for me to add more new words and the system is always telling me that I’ve reached my limit and suggest me to upgrade to a paid account. I don’t know if the system requires some time to refresh the changes, I’ve tried to log out and log in again and nothing, the problem still the same.
Thank you in advance for your help and suggestions!!

The system allows you to click the Create button 20 times. You have some possibilities now:
become a paid member
invite any friends reffering on your user account, it will increase this limit a bit.

Hi, I am glad you are enjoying LingQ, I love it myself. You have a limit on your lingqs because you have a free account. The free lingqs are a sample to give people a taste of what they can do. I believe you can make up to 20 free lingqs a month. Otherwise, you can listen to the lectures and read along with the texts, also a good learning tool. If you need the lingqs, $10 a month is very little, just a bit more than buying guitar strings.

Immediately after reading a new lesson I’ll run through the flashcards for the new lingqs while their context is fresh in my mind. When I come back to the lesson, sometimes I’ll review the cards for it before reading, or sometimes I’ll read the lesson first and then review cards. Either way seems to help with mentally connecting the flashcards to the context.

Thank you very much guys for your help!! I appreciate the quick answer.