Learn English LingQ Podcast #38: How Polyglot Steve Kaufmann Uses LingQ 5.0 (2)

computer, I like to have a sidebar.

So you have the option, you can have a sidebar with the dictionary definition

and so forth permanently sort of like showing up as you go through the lesson.

Uh, whereas on the iPad, I liked the floating sort of LingQ widget

so I can look words up and so forth.

Again, it's these things that it's difficult to explain in great detail,

but it's just more convenient.

I like the color of the lesson page and just more pleasing.

I don't get tired.

I used to, I found the previous lesson page a little bit harsh

and it was a little bit tiring.

So it's a more comfortable environment.

Uh, there are a number of things that can be customized, but I think

initially, you know, certainly I'm not going to try to customize

anything until I've really gotten used to sort of the default settings.

And for me, the default setting in the browser is with that sidebar.

Another thing that's very useful, but only exists for certain languages is if

you click on translate the lesson, you'll get interspersed between the lines of

the target language, the translation, and this is also very helpful.

I think we've all had the experience that we look up individual words um, we don't

understand what they all mean together.

And sure we can try to save a phrase, but sometimes we don't necessarily want

to save the phrase, we just want to get a sense of the meaning and it helps us

go through the text, looking at words.

And so the ability to click and immediately see a translation interspersed

with the lines of texts and the target language, I think is a great improvement.

Wonderful feature.

Another thing that I enjoy is sentenced mode.

I'm in difficult languages, like difficult for me, like Arabic and Persian.

And so I tend to go through them in sentence mode and very often, uh, first

of all, if, if this is an external LingQ from YouTube or something, then,

uh, it's very often timestamped, but the timestamp may not be accurate.

In other words, the audio file doesn't correspond exactly to the text and it's

now so easy in sentence mode to edit the sentence if there's something you

don't like there, or to adjust the start and end the time of that audio, uh,

which then the next time you review it, you'll get matching audio to sentence,

or someone who comes in behind you another member of LingQ will have the

advantage of having that already adjusted.

So I think that's tremendous.

Those are great.

Yeah.

Have you had a chance to try a listening mode?

Yes.

Listening mode.

It's really good for things like songs.

Listening mode, by the way, is the idea that you see the words highlighted,

I'm going from right to left because I'm in Arabic and Persian, but

obviously left to right if you're in a language that goes left to right.

Uh, but uh, you can be listening and then watching and scrolling

down and watching these words appear highlighted on the screen.

Uh, I like to do that.

Uh, maybe I'll go through that once that way, get a sense of the lesson.

Obviously, a lot of words I didn't understand, then I go in sentence

mode and, and go through, you know, in detail looking at words.

And then I might go back into listening mode to go through it one more time.

So I think that's another great advantage.

Yeah, I like that too.

It's not just, just another thing.

Right?

Another element, another, maybe you need something different switch

on listening mode and kind of study that way for a little bit.

Exactly.

I, I think, you know, I believe very much that we learn from exposure and,

but sometimes we get tired of doing the same thing over and over again, so we

can get tired of LingQing for example.

But if we can have some linking some listening mode where we're just following

the, you know, much like karaoke.

Yeah.

Um, I, you know, sentence mode, I can go in there and I'm listening to the audio

file several times in order to adjust the timestamping I'm listening while

I'm doing that, I might review the words in the vocab section changing status.

So all of this is exposure to the language, but a variety of different

kinds of exposure and variety is important because the brain gets

tired of doing the same thing.

Yes for sure.

And you mentioned that the old version yet within the lesson

page made your eyes tired.

Uh, are you using dark mode?

Now we have dark mode available find that really helps.

I see dark mode is very popular with many of our learners but I don't use dark mode.

Ah, okay.

Okay.

You finding the...

Not every feature, different people like different things.

Personal preference.

Exactly.

Exactly.

Yeah, you can, you can have it, switch it on or off or have it change to day/night

within the system, very helpful feature.

Multiple playlists, uh, appeals to many people.

Uh, I, again, I tend to just, uh, play the course audio.

So if I'm in a course that has 5, 10, 15 lessons what I do most often

is just like play course audio.

And so that if the lessons in it are three minutes long and it takes me

20 minutes to clean up the kitchen, uh, which is when I listen, you know,

half an hour or whatever it might be.

So then I'll just go through that and sometimes I'll

play, uh, you know shuffled.

Uh, so I tend not to create playlists, but, uh, because I tend to use the

course playlist, but many people do create playlists and you can create

playlists for songs, for whatever heading or grouping is of interest to you.

So then you can focus in on that playlist and play that playlist and listen to it.

And of course, all the while that you're listening to your playlist,

you are contibuting to your coins, if that is something of interest to you.

And it is to me, I kind of like it.

Yeah, it is worth pointing out that these external links to YouTube and

Netflix are extremely effective.

You know, we have YouTube, their TED Talks in many languages and, uh, if you find a

subject of interest, then it's so easy to bring it in and start learning from it.

So I think these external links have really enriched our library, the library.

I think we'll continue refining it as we go forward.

I know that the content, for example, for sale, uh, such as the

stories that Olly Richards does, you know, uh, what do you call it?

Graded readers and things of that nature that people like, and they

buy, and these are going, these are not available in every language.

They aren't necessarily being featured as prominently as they

should be in some languages.

There are opportunities for customizing your library.

And again, these are the things that people will gradually, you know, uh,

figure out how to do and, you know, Elle, as you know, we have to come up with

tutorials now for the new LingQ 5.0, to help people do some of these things.

So I think there's enough there to start with for people, but eventually, uh,

I think people will want to customize.

And with the new LingQ 5.0 being more flexible from a programming point

of view, I think it'll be easier to introduce, uh, opportunities for

customization, always bearing in mind that we don't want to confuse people.

So we have, there's this constant struggle between function and the ability to

customize on the other hand, getting rid of clutter and simplification

so that people don't get confused.

Yeah, that's our ongoing struggle to try to find a compromise between

functionality and simplification.

Those tutorial videos are coming.

I just want to say the team we're working on those to, to help, uh,

help new members or just members figuring out this new system.

And also we have, um, the LingQ librarians also working, as you mentioned, content

readers in different languages, we're always searching with librarians in

different languages, searching for new content and, uh, yeah it's just gonna...

the library is just gonna grow and grow and grow.

Yeah.

One function that I forgot about is many people like to bring in text

only material that is of interest to them and isn't necessarily shared with

other people, but they would like to have that, uh, some audio, even if

it's text to speech, it's not ideal.

Yeah.

So we now have the option that you can convert a whole, uh, you know, text

material that you import you can use this automatically convert to text to speech

and you have something to listen to.

So I think that's a good feature.

Yeah.

Oh, for sure.

It's better than nothing.

Yeah, like you say.

Some of these text, text to speech voices are great, of course it's

a bit robotic, but at least you get that listening in with that.

Some languages are better than others.

Yes.

That's very true.

Uh, you also touched on something that is important and that is that

we do have volunteer librarians helping us uh, improve the libraries.

I mean, there is content in our library that's not very good, content with

poor audio or for whatever reason, or maybe content that is not outside

copyright that shouldn't be there.

And so with the help of our librarians, and I think you're still looking for

more volunteer librarians so that we can make the libraries better for everyone.

Yeah.

I'll pop the info in the description of the video for sure.

The big thing is.

Feels better.

Right.

It's very important to be in a comfortable environment in a pleasant

environment when you're studying.

And I think 4.0 was getting a little tired and, uh, the interface wasn't that great.

5.0 is much more pleasant.

We still have a lot of refining to do.

We want to work on the speed of uploading lessons.

Uh, but the main, the first thing was to get the whole thing, you know, working.

And now we will apply the resources that we use to get, you

know, LingQ 5.0 up and running.

We will be applying those same resources to refining it, improving

it, improving the speed, uh, addressing some of the, uh, comments and requests

that we received from our members.

But I'm very excited.

We've turned a page.

We're in a new world as far as LingQ is concerned.

Yeah.

New era.

Yeah.

Like was founded in 2007 LingQ started.

That's a long time.

That's a long time ago.

Absolutely.

Yeah.

Well, Steve, thank you so much, so much.

Lots of great info there.

I think the best thing to do is for anyone interested or members to just

get in and try it out and have fun.

Um, yeah.

Thank you so much for joining us, Steve.

And, um, we'll chat again.

Thank you.

Thank you.

B-bye

Bye