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제가 어제 반스앤노블(서점)에 가서 있었던 일입니다. 한 여자분이 스페인어 교재와 어휘집을 카트가 필요할 만큼 잔뜩 들고서는 구매를 하려고 하고 있었어요. 전 처음에 그녀가 스페인어 교사이고, 학생들을 위해 그 모든 책을 구입하는 줄 알았어요. 전 그분에게 혹시 스페인어를 처음으로 공부하냐고 물어봤습니다. 그녀는 맞다고 대답했고, 그 말에 저는 그분을 말렸어요. 모든 책들을 다시 갖다 놓으라고 한 후, 종이 한 장을 가져와 www.LingQ.com을 적어주었습니다. 그러고는 말했죠. "저는 스페인어에 유창했습니다. 하지만 안타깝게도 저도 당신이 지금 하려던 바로 그 방식으로 공부했었어요.

전 LingQ의 시스템을 통해 프랑스어와 중국어를 공부했고, 10년 동안 받은 스페인어 정규 수업보다 훨씬 진전이 있음을 느꼈습니다." 제 말을 들은 그녀는 모든 책을 제자리에 가져다 놓은 후 서점 밖을 나갔습니다. LingQ를 써볼 생각에 들떠하며 말이죠. 그 모습은 저를 웃게 했습니다. 왜냐하면 제가 그녀에게 자연스럽게 외국어를 배울 수 있는 방법을 알려줌과 동시에, 그녀는 한아름 안고 있던 부담스러운 책이 주는 불안에서 벗어날 수 있는 선택권을 쥐게 된 것이기 때문이에요. 저는 반스앤노블이 망하길 바라는 게 아닙니다. 하지만 그녀가 원래 하려고 했던 공부법으로 인해 좌절하는 것은 더욱 원치 않았어요. 즐거움을 통해서 배우세요!  

먼저, LingQ 시스템을 만든 분들께 감사하다는 말을 전하고 싶어요. 영어 공부를 여러번 다시 시작했지만, 제가 알고 있던 공부법은 단 하나, 문법과 어휘를 공부하는 것이었어요. 번번이 실패로 끝났죠. 이 방법은 지루했고, 진전이 보이지 않았으며, 제 전체적인 영어 실력에 긍정적인 영향도 보이지 않았기 때문이에요.

영어로 된 영화도 보고 뉴스도 열심히 들었지만, 그렇게 도움이 되지는 않았습니다. 전체적인 문맥도 이해할 수 없었고, 이해할 수 없는 것들은 여전히 이해를 못한 채 남아있었기 때문이에요. LingQ를 접하고 나니, 영어 공부가 저에게 너무나 재미있는 것이 되었습니다. 지금도 여전히 영어 공부를 즐기고 있고, 저는 이 즐거움을 혼자만 간직하고 싶지 않아요. 친구들과 이 즐거움을 공유하고 싶어요. 정말 효과가 있으니까요!  

저는 미국에 있는 고등학교에 다니고 있는 2학년 학생이에요. (스페인어는 3년째 배우고 있죠.) 사실 무슨 이유인진 몰라도 스페인어를 거의 말하지 못했어요. 4달 전 즈음에 진지하게 LingQ를 시작했고, 지금은 친구와 스페인어로 (완전히 유창하진 않지만, 능숙하게)대화가 가능해요. (저는 텍사스 남부에 살아서 스페인어가 모국어인 사람들을 많이 볼 수 있답니다.)

재미있는 사실이 뭐냐면요, 학교에서 스페인어를 2년 반동안 배울 때는 진전이 하나도 없었는데 (참고로 학기 평점이 97점입니다), LingQ를 4달 동안 이용한 결과 제 스페인어가 얼마나 늘었는지 몰라요!!!

제가 경험했기 때문에, 저는 홈스쿨링 방법이 더 효과적이라는 걸 믿어요. 적어도 저한테는 말이죠 (학교에 LingQ 수업이 없다는 게 정말 아쉽네요). LingQ는 제가 외국어 공부를 즐길 수 있도록 해줬어요. 저를 견딜 수 없게 했던 학교에서는 반대로 말이죠. 저는 앞으로 LingQ에서 더 많은 외국어를 공부할 계획이에요. 정말인지 칭찬을 아낄 수 없어요!!!!

P.S. LingQ를 만들어 주셔서 정말 감사합니다!  

2달전쯤 당신과 이야기를 나눈 후 친구 6명과 아버지를 가까스로 LingQ에 가입시켰습니다! 그들은 모두 감동받았으며 7년 동안 단조로운 연습문제와 지루하기 짝이없는 학교의 커리큘럼들로 잃어버렸던 언어에 대한 열정이 다시 솟아나고 있습니다. 저는 당신의 책, The way of the Linguist 를 읽고 자극을 받았습니다. 개인적으로 (영국)외교부를 희망하고 있기 때문에 특히 캐나다 외교부에 관한 부분이 흥미로왔습니다. 마지막 언어 학습방법에 관한 부분은 나의 접근방식을 다시 한번 생각하게 했으며 그 방법으로 겨우 한 주 정도 지났을 뿐인데도 이미 그 결과들이 주목할 만큼 나타나고 있습니다. 저와 같이r 언어를 공부하고있는 많은 분들에게 용기를 주신 점 다시 한번 감사드립니다. 

LingQ 시스템이 효과가 있다는 증거가 한 가지 더 있습니다. 저는 대학(버클리대)에서 포르투갈어 집중 수업을 받고 있습니다. 다른 로망스어를 아는 사람들을 위한 고급 코스입니다. 하지만 포르투갈어 초보자에겐 수업이 너무 빠르고 굉장히 어려운 것으로 알려져 있습니다. 많은 학생들은 수업에서 고군분투를합니다.하지만 저는 여름에 LingQ에서 포르투갈어를 많이 공부했기 때문에, 코스에서 요구하는 무의미한 숙제나 연습에 거의 시간을 들이지 않고 시험을 잘 보고 있습니다. 그저 많이 읽고 들으면서 포르투갈어에 자신을 익숙하게 만든 것이, 그 언어에서 어떤 것이 옳은 것 으로 "느껴지는지"에 대한 거의 자연스러운 감각을 주었습니다. 그래서 그런 수업에서 공부도 하지 않고 잘 할 수 있었습니다. 지금 제 학점을 얻기 위해서 굉장히 좋은 계획이었습니다. 하지만 일반적으로, 수업이 필요 없다는 것을 이 사실이 증명했다고 생각합니다! 

누구한테 쓰는 글이 될지 확실하지는 않지만, 이 사이트가 괭장하다는 것은 얘기해야만 할 것 같습니다. LingQ는 믿을수 없을만큼 대단합니다.저는 오랜동안 언어공부를 해 왔고, 많은 방법들을 시도해 보았습니다.결과 LingQ의 언어습득방법은 최선이라는 생각이 드는군요. 

그저 제가 이 프로그램을 정말 사랑한다는 사실을 말하고 싶어요!! 저는 LingQ를 Youswoop 웹사이트에서 알게 됐습니다. 6개월 업그레이드를 할 경우 할인을 해 주는 프로모션을 제공하고 있었죠. 결제하기 전에 LingQ 웹사이트가 어떤 사이트인지 먼저 확인하기 위해 둘러보았습니다. 전 이 웹사이트가 무료라는 사실을 알고 나서 매우 놀랐어요! 전 항상 새로운 외국어를 배우는 데 있어서 문제가 많았습니다. 시작한 지 얼마 안 되어 흥미와 인내심을 항상 잃어버리고 말았죠. 그런 제가 시작한 지 하루만에 LingQ에 완전히 빠져들었어요! 재미있었기 때문에 계속 LingQ사이트를 찾게 됐어요. Youswoop 사이트로 돌아가 업그레이드를 위해 바로 결제를 했습니다. 멈추지 않고 계속해서 공부할 수 있게 하는 다양한 툴과 안드로이드 앱이 정말 마음에 들어요. 저는 지금 스페인어를 공부하고 있지만, 다른 언어들을 공부할 생각에 벌써부터 기다려져요! 앞으로 보게 될 LingQ의 질 높은 성장, 기대할게요! 계속해서 발전해 주세요. 고마워요!

頑張ってください (힘내세요)! 솔직히 말하면, 일본에서 몇 년 간 살면서도 할 수 있는 것은 다 해봤습니다. 제게 정말 도움이 되었던 것은 LingQ였어요. 저는 제 언어 능력에 대한 자신감이 필요했어요. 그런 자신감과 언어를 구사할 수 있는 능력을 불어넣어 준 것이 LingQ였죠. 덕분에 영어를 할 줄 아는 사람이 아무도 없는 일본 회사에서 일을 하게 되었답니다. 저도 했으니 여러분도 할 수 있어요!

이 멋진 웹사이트를 만들어주셔서 정말 감사드려요. 저는 각 수업을 정말로 즐기면서 공부하고 있어요. 제 말하기 능력을 빨리 향상시킬 수 있게 됐어요. 모든 사람들이 당신들(LingQ 운영자들)을 알아야해요! 전 저의 형제에게 가입하라고 링크를 보내줬어요. 제 형제는 초보자지만, 곧 나아질거라고 믿어요.  

저는 1년 전부터 ESL교사를 하고 있고, 6개월 전부터는 한국어 공부를 하고 있습니다. 다른 사람들처럼 여러가지 방법을 찾고 시도해보고 나니, 결국은 LingQ가 언어 습득에서의 최고의 도구란 것을 알았습니다. 자기 자신의 컨텐츠를 고르고 가져오는 것은 다른 언어 학습 시스템에서 찾아볼 수 없는 가장 큰 장점 입니다. 학습자의 손에 맡기는 것이지요. 또한, 개인의 학습 진척 상황을 표시해주는 것에서 저는 많은 동기를 부여받았습니다. 저는 LingQ에서 공부를 하면서 저의 통계를 보고 다른 사용자들과 비교하는 것을 좋아합니다. 공부를 점검하면서, 좀 더 잘 할 수 있도록 합니다. (목표를 달성했을 때나 페이스를 조절해야한다는 걸 알았을 때도 굉장히 기쁩니다.) 마지막 날, 저의 LingQ 갯수와 단어 개수가 올라가며 실력 향상이 되는 것을 보고 나니 LingQ가 효과가 있다는 것을 알았습니다.  

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.  

From the standpoint of someone “in the business” (I’ve been a college professor of German for 20 years), I’m afraid that Steven Krashen’s ideas, while being received initially with some enthusiasm, have been largely ignored (or at best given lip service) both by textbook publishers and writers and by those of us engaged in the classroom. As a foreign language teacher who appreciates these ideas (and uses them – I’m learning Russian with LinqQ and have taught myself other languages, pre-LingQ, following a similar learning philosophy and method – I’ve been deeply impressed at how Steve (Kaufmann) has appropriated these somewhat theoretical ideas into this website to a far greater extent than it has been done in the profession. As a teacher, I am now constantly challenged to remake my classroom in order to do the same. About 7 years ago, I realized that if I were someone wanting to learn German, I’d never take my own class, and since then I’ve been experimenting.  

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.  

지난 몇 달간 LingQ를 사용하면서, 전체적으로 이 시스템이 굉장히 쉽고, 사용자 친화적이고, 언어를 공부하고 습득하는데 즐겁게 사용할 수 있다는 것을 알았습니다. 이것뿐만이 아니라, 언어에 자신을 몰입해서 더 빨리 성취를 할 수 있도록 도와줍니다. 전통적인 언어 교육은 효과적으로나 가격에 맞는 교육을 제공하지 못하는 경향이 있습니다. 이 과정들이 사실 매우 적은 노력으로 성과를 얻을 수 있다는 게 정말 다행입니다.

인터넷의 가상 세계를 통한 세계적이고 넓은 접근성뿐만이 아니라 이 자연스럽고, 필수적인 수월 언어 학습 접근법 덕분에 LingQ는 좋은 가능성과 매력적인 제품을 뉴질랜드와 같은 외국어 지식이 흔하지 않은 국가에도 제공합니다. LingQ를 발견하고 외국어에 거의 관심이 없는 누구나에게도 LingQ를 추천하게 되어서 굉장히 기쁘고 운이 좋다고 생각합니다.  

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!  

Hi, I’m Frances from the Philippines. I have just signed up for LingQ to learn French language. Thanks for creating this site. It will really help a lot of those who intend to learn new foreign languages. Thanks so much and keep up the good work!  

Just for fun of it, the other day at the bookstore I picked up a study book for the French proficiency test here in Japan. I was able to answer most of the questions without any study of grammar at all. I have only been studying here at LingQ.  

...if LingQ had been around when I first started learning, I think I would have been a lot further ahead than where I am now. However, I can’t complain because now I have discovered it I feel as though I will learn a lot more with greater speed and efficiency...  

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!)  

Thank you for the very excellent article on organizing a presentation. I have been using LingQ for several weeks now and am very happy with the progress I am making. This kind of progress has eluded me in the past. I now have LingQ on my browser tool bar and include it in my morning routine at the same time slot as I read my email and news sources. I have recommended your program to a number of people. I also enjoy your blogs each day which help to keep me motivated. I told my son the other day that Steve Kaufman is my new guru. Thanks very much.  

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!  

Hello, I’m Seghir from Algeria ; I’ve learned English at school for 11 years but I haven’t made big progress but now with LingQ it is totally different, I used the system for only three months and I can understand write and even speak English much better. LingQ’s methods are very efficient so thank you very much Steve, Jill, Mark and all the tutors and also Henry because now I’m learning French and I really like the new French podcasts good luck and keep up the good work.  

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!  

What a wonderful job all you have done regarding the Lingq design. Today, I spent more than 3 hours at the LingQ updating my flashcards(hint/phrases) and was great! The time just went by so fast. It was easy, fast, enjoyable. Everything was at the reach of my hand. No question, "The best language learning system ever". And I can tell you that I have spent a considerable amount of time searching the Internet, trying to get a look at what is going on regarding to online language learning systems. Congratulations!