Hi everyone,
Thanks in advance for your advice. I have been learning German for a little over 4 years now. I have learned virtually everything I know on Lingq and only spoke with tutors a little bit during the first year. Input through reading and listening really is king! I occasionally have the chance to speak with Germans and they are always pleasantly surprised at my ability to express myself and how well I understand what they say despite not having ever lived in Germany and despite not having a regular tutor. I have Lingq to thank, as well as Steve, for all the amazing advice and tips he gives on youtube. It’s all because of him really!
However I am now finding I am a little stuck and I am thinking maybe it’s time to change my learning style. In 2019 according to my Lingq stats I read 184,000+ words (including reading two novels on Lingq) but my known words went up by only 1182 words. In general, I never re-read anything. Just like Steve I move on to new material and expect natural repetition. However, now that I’m at 15,000 or so overall known words, the law of diminishing returns means I’m not getting that natural repetition anymore.
I can understand podcasts and read articles off Lingq and I can carry on conversations fine. So how do I take my German from this intermediate level to advanced? As things are now I’m really not improving as much as I used to; I used to have a sense of “wow, I am better now than I was 6 months ago” But now I don’t feel that anymore. Maybe it’s time for me to move beyond Lingq?
One last thing, this summer I’m planning on living in Germany from July to October while teaching online. I am going to try to immerse myself as much as possible while I’m there. So part of my question is also, what would be of most benefit as a way to set up my learning/studying before I get to Germany? Cus I’m thinking reading novels and newspaper articles ain’t it.
Thanks, everyone.