I have just gone on my profile and it seems that I am now intermediate 2 in both Spanish and German and as you can see from my profile that is my goal for the end of the year. It won’t let me change it back, does that mean LingQ now chooses our level based on our statistics???
My profile says I have an advanced 2 level in English.
Hi Harry,
Your Avatar will now be automatically upgraded when you hit the Known Words targets in the languages. You are still free to choose what content you study, but for the sake of the Avatar this is the best option.
I recommend you use Known Words targets as your future targets as that would be more fitting 
You can find the Known Words targets for each language in the Avatar Help: Avatar Help
Yes, another thing is that some people on LingQ may not study a language that they have already mastered. A friend of mine definitely has intermediate 2 or maybe even higher in Japanese and he has had this level for a long time, but he hasn’t really done any Japanese with LingQ and therefore has maybe 50 known words, so he is BEGINNER 1. I really don’t like this new control that the system as taken, I loved LingQ when we could just do what we wanted, that was the beauty of it.
Harry, the system can only measure what people do on LingQ. Our levels only refer to the learner’s level as identified at LingQ. If an advanced learner of Japanese is still showing as Beginner then he simply has to catch up to his level, which should not take very long.
Oscar,.
We will have to sort through some growing pains on this and it may be that some of our levels need to be adjusted.
On the other hand I would call you Advanced in terms of your use of the language. If you were to spend a few months in an environment where you were able to use the language regularly you would soon feel like and Advanced 2 speaker.
I already said this also in another thread, but I agree with Harry. I don’t like this at all. What were these numbers based on for the different levels? I also know that the system counts words I don’t want it to count, so it isn’t even accurate in that respect.
Perhaps I don’t like this because I have assessed my own level, with the help of tutors, and I’ve made my own goals with respect to the number of words I want to “know” on the site for the year.
Respectfully, if I were in a Spanish environment where I was able to use the language regularly, I would be advanced in a few months also. But I’m not, and my level is definitely not advanced. Not right now. I understand your philosophy that the number of words are the best predictor of your level. I sincerely believe that it’s not the only part of the picture.
If I look at my own case in Russian, I have a LingQ level of Advanced 2. There is no way I am at that level. I consider myself an Intermediate 1. On the other hand, I can read and listen to Avanced 2 content in the library. Perhaps I have not put enough effort into speaking and writing, and I had, my actual level would be closer to my potential level.
Of course it is also possible that our levels are too easy. We will be looking at that as well, as we work out the bugs and issues here.
As I said before, different people can take different things from LingQ. The truly self-motivated learners will do their own thing and ignore all our goals, and statistics. However, we want to cater to larger group, including people who need these kind of “emotional” goals, in order to stay focused on their learning.
We have invested a lot into making the site faster, and easier to use, and will continue to do so. We have now decided to do something that we believe and increase the number of active users. I hope you will understand.
Of course the passive word count is only part of the picture, Angela, and LingQ is only part of the picture. Ultimately we need to have the full language experience which includes living in the language environment for a while. I do believe that the passive word count is the best predictor, as you said, of our language potential. It is also easier to measure than some other criteria.
The goals on LingQ, no matter what they are, help me. I get quite lazy and so having something to work to (not just understanding the language) really helps me push myself.
Steve, I think you know what my thoughts on this matter are based on our forum conversation. Now that I can actually see these changes, I am really disturbed by them. Avatars, apples, phones–all so distracting to the learning process. Besides, I am not advanced at all! I can read just about any French document, sure, but I can’t write or speak without falling all over myself! I know and recognize words, but parts of a language do not make for the whole of the language.
I LOVE IT!
That’s a great “Tamagotchi style” ( Tamagotchi - Wikipedia ) motivation - feed your “language learning” every day…
GREAT IDEA!
I think to understand the purpose of this major change. However I guess that for some people seeing their level above of what they think can be a bit uneasy.
By the way, glad to know that you consider me advanced, Steve
Hmm … if your goal is to give an incentive to those who are not self-motivated, I suppose I can see how this may help. Actually, just seeing my number of known words get bigger and bigger was motivating to me, so I can see how the avatars could be motivational to some. I understand that you are trying to get people to use the site by any means necessary, and hoping that they will then see the benefits. Of course we know that it may take months of consistent effort for someone to see improvements in their language ability. People may stop studying for many reasons, and coming back and realizing you’ve forgotten a lot may be discouraging, as is studying many lessons and feeling that you aren’t progressing. However, I do think that the avatars are a creative idea.
@ Alex: thank you for reminding us to clear our cache. I just had trouble lingQing from within a private lesson and was about to start a new thread when I remembered your advice. It worked! (Is that your spiky hairdo on the avatar?)
I have just found out a really great improvement: in the “Import” page we can now change the parametres of all the lessons in a collection with one click on “Change in all”! This is something I was looking forward to!
In the descriotion of the site, LingQ should now add: “Completely Naked Avatars for Beginners”. Do not thank me, you are wellcomed, enjoy increase in the traffic.