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Yesterday I was in Barnes and Noble and this poor girl would have needed a dolly to carry all the Spanish verb and vocabulary books she was about to buy. I asked her if she was just beginning to learn Spanish. I thought maybe she was a teacher and was buying all of these books for her students. She said that she was a first time learner, so I interceded. I told her to put all the books back and to get a piece of paper and write down www.LingQ.com, I told her that I was fluent in Spanish but unfortunately learned it the way she was about to.

I also shared that I have used your system to learn French and Chinese and made more progress than in 10 years of formal Spanish classes. She put all of the books back and walked out excited to use LingQ. It made me chuckle because she went from anxiety with an armful of books to empowered as I shared with her the natural way to learn a language. I certainly don't want to put Barnes and Noble out of business but even more I don't want her to be frustrated with the way that language has been taught. Thought you would enjoy!  

まずはLingQシステムを作ってくださった方々に感謝の気持ちを述べたいと思います。私は何度となく英語の学習に挫折し再開したいと思ったのですが、私の知っている唯一の学習法といえば、文法や語彙を学ぶことでした。それでは結局上手くいきませんでした。そういう学習法のほとんどが退屈で、語学力も上がらず、全体的な英語力に残念ながら何の成果も見られませんでした。

また、英語で映画やテレビのニュースもみましたが、どれもあまり役には立ちませんでした。なぜなら内容が全て理解できるわけではなく、分からないところは分からないままになっていたからです。私はLingQに出会って、英語を学習する事がすごく楽しくなりました。今は英語学習を楽しんでやっているので、自分だけが活用していては勿体無いという気持ちです。とにかく凄いんです。LingQを友達にも紹介していきたいです。  

Actually, I am a junior in high school here in America (in my third year of Spanish) and had not been able to speak Spanish what-so-ever. I began to start seriously using LingQ about 4 months ago. Now I am able to converse (not entirely fluent, but very proficiently) with my friends (I live in south texas so there are many spanish speakers to talk and listen to).

I find it amusing how I have been in Spanish at school for two and a half years and never progressed (i have a 97 semester average in it) and yet from just 4 months of lingq i have progressed enormously!!!

Therefore, I do believe that the homeschooling method does work MUCH better, for me at least. (Too bad they don’t have a lingq class at school). LingQ has made me enjoy language learning, as opposed to at school where I couldn’t stand it. I plan on learning more languages with lingq in the future. I can’t praise your system enough!!!!

P.S.Thank you for making LingQ!  

２ヶ月前にあなたと最後に話して以来、６人の友人と父がLingQを使い始めました！ 皆、このサイトに感動して、７年間の退屈な学校の授業により失ってしまっていた語学への情熱や、やる気を再び得ることができました。私は今あなたの本「The Way of the Linguist」を読み終わったところで、感激しています。個人的に英国でカナダとの外交に携わる仕事に非常に興味を持っていて、カナダ外交に関する章はとても興味深いものでした。言語を学ぶ方法に関する最後の章を読むことで、語学学習への自身の今のアプローチ方法が間違っていないことを再定義できました。あなたの学習方法を取り入れて１週間しか経っていないにもかかわらず、既にその効果の程を感じています。私のような語学学習者を再び励ましてくださったことに深く感謝致します。 

私も一言、述べたいことがあります。私は最近、大学（UCバークレー校）でポルトガル語の集中講義を取っていますが、その中でLingQのシステムの有効性を感じています。この授業は、他のロマンス系言語はできるけれど、ポルトガル語は初めてという人を対象としたポルトガル語の上級コースです。その為、進むのが速く、難しいと評判の授業です。多くの学生がかなり苦労をしている中、私は夏にLingQでポルトガル語をかなり一生懸命に自主学習していたおかげで、意味の無さそうな宿題や練習課題にほとんど時間をかけなかったにもかかわらず、テストでは最高点をたたき出しました。LingQを通して、リーディングとリスニングの練習を多く行うことで、その言語に親しむことができました。親しむうちに自然に、その言語では何が正しい言い方なのかを感じる直感力を養うこともできました。だからこそあまり勉強をしなかったにもかかわらず、上級のクラスで良い成績が取れたのだと思います。成績も上がり、自身の良い経験にもなりましたが私だけではなく、一般的に言って、学校の授業なんて不必要なものだっていうことの証明になったと思っています！  

どなたに書いたら良いか分からないのですが、このサイトがどれほど素晴らしいかについて、話さなければならないと思いました。私は語学を長い間学習してきて様々な方法を試しましたが、このサイトが一番効果的でした。 

I just want to tell you I absolutely love your program!! I discovered LingQ from the Youswoop website. They offered a promotion for a reduced price for the 6-month upgrade. Before purchasing I decided to explore the LingQ website. I was throughly surprised to find the website was free! I always had trouble learning a new language and would soon lose interest or patience. Within 1 day of using the program I was hooked! It was enjoyable and I kept coming back. I instantly went back to Youswoop and purchased the upgrade. I love the multiple study tools and the app for my android so I can practice on the go! I am currently learning Spanish, but I can't wait to learn many more! Keep up the great work, I look forward to the great quality and future improvements! Thank you!

頑張ってください！ Honestly even after living in Japan for many years and I tried everything. It was LingQ that really gave me the skills and confidence I needed to be confident in my skills. I even ended up working in a Japanese company where nobody spoke English. So you can do it!

Thank you so much for the wonderful website.I really enjoy each lesson. I can improve my speaking skill so fast. Everybody should know about you guys. I sent the link to my brother and encourage him to join in. He’s a beginner. But I believe his English will be better soon.  

私はこの1年、ESLの教師をしており、また6ヶ月間韓国語を学んでいます。他の方たちと同じように、多くの方法を調べ、試した結果、言語習得において、LingQに優る手段はないと認めざるを得ません。自分でコンテンツを選んだり、またインポートしたりできる事が、他の言語学習システムに比べると大きなメリットです。選択権を学習者にゆだねてくれるのです。それから、自分の学習進度をすぐに見れることもモチベーションを高めてくれます。私は、自分の数字を見ることも、またそれをLingQの他の学習者と比べてみることも好きです。このことが自分をより良い方向へ導いてくれるし、自分の学習の指標にもなります。(目標値に達するとうれしくなるし、逆に自分が怠けていると、ペースをあげなくてはいけないこともわかります。）その日の終わりに単語やLingQカードが増えていることで進歩が確認できると、このLingQが自分にとってうまく機能しているんだなと感じます。  

I spend about 80% of my study time just listening to content from the LingQ library, while cooking. The rest of the time I spend at the site, reading and reviewing words. In one year my TEOIC score improved from 500 to 800 points

Seven years ago, I took Toeic for the first time. Because my husband's company encourages all the employees to learn something that interests them, he chose to study English. After finished his course, he took Toeic to make sure how much his English improved. I don't remember his result, but my score was somewhere around 550. ( My major was English in college.)

Two years ago, after giving birth to my second baby, I felt like studying English again. I started to buy magazines for English learners. It was helpful to increase vocabulary but I forgot most of them before long. Then I searched on the Internet better ways to learn English. I wanted to listen to real conversations between native speakers, not news. Then I came across the Linguist (now LingQ) and decided to join. Since then, I enjoy English every day. There are various kinds of contents in the Library section. I just pick up a content which interests me. It is fun to look up new words in the dictionary because I choose it and want to understand what the speakers are talking about. It really makes me feel satisfied when I have gotten all the meaning of new words. After that, I listen to the same content many times while cooking and doing household chores. Sometimes I am mumbling some phrases in the kitchen, so it looks weird.

This year, I took Toeic for the first time in seven years. My score was 800. It was amazing. I didn't expect that much. I like English but I don't want to study English for exams. I didn't do anything for Toeic this time. I believe the LingQ will lead me to 900 points of Toeic.  

In Brazil we have 7 years of English, twice a week in schools (from 11 to 17 years old). From 13 to 17 I had another English course in parallel to the school one, with 3 more hours a week. I’ve been always considered an excelent student, and my grades were around 90-100%. I liked English, and I’ve been always fascinated by the idea that some day I would be able to understand a movie, read a book or speak fluently. But it never happened… my English was barely enough to read technical papers that I needed for my professional developement. And even though, the first time my undergraduate advisor asked me to read a 5 page technical paper, I spent almost one month to be able to give him an answer about it. The worst thing is not spending 6 to 10 years studying. The most terrifying fact is that in the end of all this, you can’t do almost anything real with the language. Last year, I angrily decided I would study English alone every single day until I became fluent. I was always searching for material in the Internet, but I didn’t know exactly how to use them. Then, two months after I made my decision I found the LingQ site, started to use it and learned more in 10 months then in the 25 years before that. Now I write tech papers, and not only have them accepted for publishing, but praised because they are well-written. So, I have no doubt that Steve has found the right method for language learning and that the most majority of language teachers simply don’t know what they are doing. Although I feel I’m not done with English yet, I’m very happy with my development, but very outraged too, when I think people are still being submitted to such useless old methods, when there are so many evidences that they simply don’t work at all.

Yesterday I had my interview. Despite of my flu and the terrible sound quality on the phone, I did it. I talked a lot (40 minutes!), about my work, my personal life, my plans for the future, my professional goals (thanks, Helen!!), leadership and role models.

What an experience! Although I don't know if the interviewer liked my answers, I'm sure she could understand them, despite of the minor mistakes I'm sure I made. I ended the interview very happy and proud of myself. So, I would like to thank you all for your conversations and encouragement last week. A special "thank you" for you, Steve, who is the responsible for bringing this wonderful learning tool called LingQ into reality!  

Hi Steve,

I am allowing myself to write you in French since I heard your radio interview and your French is impeccable! I discovered your blog and I congratulate you on your initiative. Your blog and the LingQ method are inestimable resources. You leave the beaten path, you are an innovator (which is not always easy in the very traditional world of language learning ...). My hat's off! I intend to buy your book. I am fascinated by your findings!

I am coach of French as a second language in Montreal: www.enjoyspeakingfrench.com. I rarely teach grammar as such. (I had to find another word for teacher or tutor to describe what I do). I adapt to my clients, their needs, their problems (most of my clients have studied for several years in traditional schools before coming to me. They are rarely beginners, but they are literally blocked). I create dynamic learning plans with them and I recommend resources and activities appropriate to their learning style, their objectives, way of life. I discover what is blocking their learning and I help them to no longer fear speaking French. (It's a real fear for many people who have been terrorized by the study of grammar.) I help them forgot about perfection and take small risks in their communication each day and to believe in their potential. My mission is to unlock people's potential to speak French !

In Montreal, there are many people who take french courses for years, but never really learn to speak, to integrate the knowledge gained into their everyday life (on my website you will find an article about this in the News section). The content of your video blogs are very inspiring (my experience and my personal observations led me to the same conclusions regarding language learning). I will be speaking about + you and warmly recommending your approach to all my clients. I will soon upload a series of videos on Youtube, and I will be encouraging people to visit your blog and use LingQ, if you do not mind!

Thank you for your efforts. You really do superb work, Steve. That is admirable. Thank you very much!  

I have been enrolled at the site since the end of July in order to master English, my first priority. This is very easy because of the almost unlimited content we find at LingQ. In short, the site is fantastic. I have gained confidence in myself and I improve every day. Whereas I used to think that "me and English" was a lost cause. Well, I'd better get back at it!  

As a language freak I have invested a lot of time and money in language learning materials during the last ten years and, for me, NO system is as complete as LingQ. A full Pimsleur course can cost up to US$900 (per language) and leaves the learner with a limited vocabulary. LingQ, however, genuinely offers the opportunity for the user to MASTER as many as 10 languages. The site offers a range of content, direct translation of new words, access to tutors, help with writing and speaking and a network of supportive fellow language learners. The best thing about the LingQ system is that there is a range of content, so you can always work with content that interests and motivates you.  

ビジネスに携わる人の立場から言うと（わたし自身は20年間ドイツの大学教授を務めています）スティーブ・カウフマン氏のアイディアは、当初は幾らかの熱意を持って迎えられたものの、その後は教科書出版社、作家そして教室で教鞭を持つ私たちからほとんど無視されてきたのではないかと感じます。よく言ってもリップサービスを与えられる程度でした。彼のアイディアに感謝し、それを活用するひとりの外国語教師としてー私自身はLingQでロシア語を学び、LingQ以前にさえ、よく似た学習哲学と方法を用いて他の言語を独学してきましたースティーブ・カウフマン氏がこれらの幾らか理論的ともいえるアイディアを、職業上でなされるよりはるかに多くウェブサイト上で使用したことに感銘を受けました。教師として同様のことをするため、自身のクラスを改革することに挑戦し続けています。約7年前、もし私がドイツ語を学びたいと思うなら、自分の行っている授業を取ることはないだろうと気づいてしまったのです。それから実験に取り組み続けています。  

By the way, I thought you might like to hear that I have recently started doing pretty much all of my Spanish studies through LingQ simply because it works so well for me. It completely minimises the faffing about of writing stuff on cards or in vocabulary books and makes it easy for me to learn and remember words, without any pretence of special gimics or memory aids that don't work in the long term.

It was interesting for me to realise that it is an extremely valuable thing to have a system that completely saves me organising my studies (apart from uploading my own content which I can do with minimal effort) thus giving me maximum contact with the language when I study without distractions and without having to think where I should put what flashcard where, which book, CD or MP3 I should listen to and where I put it. It is simple, but for the studies I want to do, I don't need anything else. Well done.  

For some years now I’ve been looking for and experimenting with different methods with high school students (ages 14-19), probably for much the same reasons. Being dissatisfied with predominant so-called communicative methods that actually weren’t anything else but old grammar and translation based drills combined with ineffective dialogues on CDs and not really interesting textbook content, I searched the internet and came up with numerous articles by Greg Thomson on the www.sil.org, in which I was introduced to Stephen Krashen’s ideas.

Providing students with a lot of comprehensible input was a big challenge, especially for French. The main problem proved to be the “remaking” of the classroom and motivating the students, who actually didn’t expect anything better than what they had been getting so far, to take more responsibility for their learning. Thanks to Steve Kaufmann’s blogposts and my own working with LingQ I’ve become much more efficient in convincing at least part of my students of how effective listening and reading can be at any stage in the learning process.

Previously I had come across “passive learning” in Vera Birkenbihl’s books. She worked out her own methodology of language learning (among other learning fields) in the late 1980s. She actuallY advocates word-for-word translation with active listening (very similar to the LingQ method) as a first step. She calls this “decoding”. She is against formal vocabulary and grammar learning. The next step is “passive listening”(without reading along) and only after full comprehension/acquisition of the material does she suggest production (speaking or writing) according to the learner’s requirements.

Ms Birkenbihl’s method is great as soon as you have the “decoded” texts and recordings. I experimented with this method for some time, but then came across Assimil courses, which were easier to use, because there was no need to do the word-for-word translation myself. On the other hand, I didn’t find the content of Assimil courses so interesting. Stll, I have benefited a lot from both approaches. However, all of this proved to be difficult to use in the classroom.

With the LingQ methodology I have found something like a “missing link”. Interesting content and mp3 files, flashcards (which I had been using on and off in paper form) together with the possibility of communicating with other learners and a tutor.

My latest experiment of learning some Swedish with “the power of the linguist” has been a very rewarding experience. I’m using LingQ mainly for Russian and French, but I’m trying to continue Swedish as well.  

I took the TOEIC at the end of last month after a few month intensive reading and listening on LingQ system. It was my seventh TOEIC in the past 16 years. I usually ran out of time at the reading and grammer section, but this time I felt it was much easier than ever and had more than 10 minutes left when I finished my answer sheet. There were a few questions that I needed time to think over, but for the rest of them I just felt the right answers like my intuition told me. I think it is because I have been intensively exposing myself to natural English that is not arranged for exam preparation. Of course I needed to check some points in grammar before the exam, but most of the time I just enjoyed my reading. This experience really helps me to keep my motivation. I look forward to seeing my TOEIC score that will be sent at the end of this month.

Thanks.  

In using the LingQ system over the past several months, I have found the whole system to be an incredibly simple, user-friendly and pleasant means of studying and acquiring a language. Not only this, it also allows you to immerse yourself in the language from day one and become quickly acquainted with it; something traditional language education by and large tends not to provide anywhere near as effectively, or cost-efficiently. And fortunately this whole process actually requires very little effort.

Because of this natural, essentially effortless approach to language-learning, as well as its world-wide accessibility through the virtual world of the Internet, LingQ offers an attractive, appealing product with the potential to do well in countries such as New Zealand, where knowledge of a foreign language is not the norm. I am fortunate and grateful to have discovered LingQ and recommend it to anyone with even the slightest interest in foreign languages!  

I'm sure you get a thousand of these a day but I would just like to say I really appreciate your knowledge and passion for languages. LingQ is absolutely brilliant and is something I feel that is extremely unique. You are truly doing something amazing for all language learners. Thank you for your time, and once again thank you for all that you have done for the language learning community.

Here is how I use LingQ. I first download various audio clips then proceed to save the text that came along with the audio. I print out the text and add the audio to an mp3 player and that way I have the LingQ system everywhere I go! People ask me all the time how I could possibly study a language without school and all I need to do is pull out the text and mp3 and give them a little demonstration. I tell people that you will pick words and phrases without meaning to just by simply listening and reading the text a view times. It is truly an amazing thing when you are learning effortlessly and efficiently at the same time. I encourage people to try LingQ due to the effectiveness and that the man behind the scenes is truly original and absolutely passionate about proper language learning. Simply follow the basic instructions on LingQ and you will be learning in no time.

I'll never stop using LingQ haha!  

こんにちは。私はフィリピン人の Frances といいます。たった今フランス語学習のために、LingQに入会したばかりです。このシステムを開発してくださってありがとうございます。このサイトは外国語を学習したい人たちにとって、とても助けになります。どうも有り難う、そしてこれからも頑張ってください。  

ちょっと面白い報告です。先日、私は書店で、ここ日本におけるフランス語の検定試験の参考書をのぞいてみました。文法は全く勉強していないのにもかかわらず、私は、ほとんどの質問に答えることができました。私はこのLingQでしか勉強したことはないのです。  

...もし、私が学習を始めた当初からLingQがあったら、今頃は、現在の私のレベルよりもはるかに上達していたことでしょう。でも、文句を言っても始まりません。今はLingQに出会えて、学習がものすごくはかどっているのを感じます。  

Hi Jill, Steve and Mark! I like Your podcasts very much and I really enjoy to listen them. It's funny, You're laughing and it isn't boring at all. So, thank you for that!:)  

Just wanted to give you a short feedback on your podcast that I have been listening this morning at 6 am whilst walking with my dog in a dark, swiss forest!! I loved it!! And I went straight back to start exercising on my English (with Anne of green gables, nice). I will upgrade as soon as I have enough time - I really want to improve my English and your way is just great - thanks a lot. Merry Christmas and from the most possible the best for 2008 (sounds weird in English; in German: vom Moglichen das Beste!)  

プレゼンテーションのやり方についての、素晴らしい記事を有難うございました。私はLingQを利用し始めて数週間になりますが、これまでの自分の上達度にとても満足しています。これまで、こんなに上達したことはありませんでした。今は、LingQをブラウザのツールバーに登録して、メールチェックやニュースを確認する、毎朝同じ時間に利用するようにしています。既に、たくさんの人にLingQを紹介しました。ブログも毎日拝見していて、学習意欲の持続に役立っています。この間息子に、スティーブは私の新しい導師なのよ、と言いました。　どうもありがとう。 

I took a few years of French at high-school, which of course did not take me anywhere. Despite getting a ‘B’ in GCSE, I could not even conduct a basic conversation in French. I had not touched the language for almost 15 years, until the summer of 2006, when I decided to pick it up again. It was tough for me because there were not many Francophones in my area, and that I could only spend a portion of my spare-time learning. I joined LingQ in the summer of 2007, and I found significant improvement after only a few months, especially in my reading and listening.

Last weekend, I went to visit Ottawa, Montreal and Quebec City, the first time since I started to pick up French again. I was amazed that I could understand a lot of conversations spoken around me. I was also very happy to find myself being able to exchange a few lines with the Francophones over there. What I found most astonishing was that I did not achieve this by memorising the lines from some phrase books, but the conversations came out quite naturally from my mouth.  

This week is my one-year-anniversary of my new English learning at LingQ. Since late June of 2009, I have imported and shared 850 lessons, created 11380 Lings, read over 2,370,000 words and listened to English content for 385 hours! Wow! My progress snapshot shows it, too. I’d been enjoying English learning, but I’d never focused my learning on vocab nor had I read so many texts. I enjoy learning at LingQ, and watching my progress snapshot every day. This progress snapshot, the LingQ system and the LingQ community give me a lot of motivation to learn English. Thank you, LingQ!  

私はアルジェリアに住むSeghirと言います。私は学校で11年間も英語を勉強してきましたが、上達しませんでした。それがLingQではまったく違います。まだ３ヶ月しか利用していませんが、書くのも読むのもかなり上達しました。LingQ学習法はとても効果的です。スティーブ、ジル、マーク、チューターの方々、それに私にフランス語のポッドキャストを作成してくれているヘンリー（今フランス語を勉強していて、とてもこのポッドキャストを気に入っているので)、どうも有り難う。これからも頑張ってください。 

A few days ago a friend of mine told me she is learning Spanish. The first idea to come to my mind was if I could find any audio books to learn the language too. So i found one and after 8 hours of listening I already had some basic understanding of the Spanish language structure. (A very very useful audio book to start learning Spanish with, by Michele Thomas, he shows the structure of the language, and not just some common phrases as usually such "teachers" do). The next day I spent a couple of hours trying various language learning software, when I came to lingq.com. I've now spent some 30 hours here in total and I can already read wikipedia, news and other articles in Spanish almost without any use of dictionary (well, I look up about 1 word in 50 when reading articles I import to LingQ's workdesk). I find LingQ very handy, it really saves tons of time and makes me feel more confident knowing I have everything I need to learn (i.e. articles I have read/plan to read, vocabulary, dictionary, flashcards, etc.) at hand.

I just wanted to write a thank you letter to the LingQ team :-) Great idea and great job you guys made! Keep going ;-)  

I was a programmer for 20+ years in my previous life and really appreciate well designed software.  

I just wanted to say I love this program. I think that if you found a way to develope it in the way that Rosetta Stone is commercially sold, you would really have something amazing. I'm also learning Russian, and I wanted to tell you that I would really love to see you "explain your website" in Russian. Спасибо. Пока!  

あなた方が作り上げたLingQの方式は本当にすばらしいものです。今日、私はLingQのフラッシュカード（ヒントとフレーズ）のアップデートに3時間ほど費やしましたが、やはりLingQはすごいです。時間がとても速く感じられます。簡単で、スピーディーで、それに楽しい！すべてのことがうまくやれます。間違いなく、”これまでの言語学習システムの中で最高のもの”です。これは言っておきたいのですが、私はインターネットで扱われているオンラインの言語学習システムがどのようなものかを調査するのに、これまでかなりの時間を費やしているのです。すばらしいシステムに乾杯！