@t_harangi: beautifully explained! That’s exactly my experience as well
How do you import it to make it several lessons. I use the import botton for Chrome but it only works for the first few paragraphs
I agree. Lingqs learned, words read or hours listened are all probably much better indicators of progress than words known. I do not think I will be at a “true” advanced level in French before 100k words known or so - advanced essentially meaning I’d be independent of dictionaries or lingQ for advanced texts or audio. It wouldnt surprise me if I would need over 10 million words read to reach that (currently at 1.3 million) which will definitely take a while if ever.
@Qiunn They’re not the same words though. Some mean speak, some mean would speak. Some mean will speak. Those are different meanings.
On a different forum there is a German girl who is better than advanced educated level in English. It’s…flawless. She reckons she read over 100,000 pages before getting to that level.
For context, 100k pages is around 300 average books. If you read a book a week that’d still be around 6 years. It’s a long slog.
I’m currently reading CHERUB in French. All 17 of them only total just over 4000 pages.
The only thing is i’m now reading with context and stopped ‘LingQing’ words about 6 months ago. Some words i ‘know’ but don’t know the English translation. But that suits me, i don’t think at a high intermediate level we should be translating to our native languages.
Norwegian will be my next proper language if i can ever find any actual resources for it.
It is permitted on LingQ to upload text as “private” to you, which is the default setting. If you don’t share it with anyone, you’re not violating any laws, you’re just reading a book that you bought. Removing DRM is usually against the terms and conditions that you agreed to with the reseller, but not illegal in and of itself as far as I know.
resources
Are you interested in the history of Norwegian pole expeditions?
Here is some original material by Roald Amundsen:
http://runeberg.org/armittliv/
But you ARE “fluent” at 36K+, even if not “advanced,” correct?
Oh yes, and Steve has added that his Russian, like some other languages of his, reflects a reality whereby he can understand very well because of having some much exposure, but rates his speaking as much lower comparably because he has really spoken it only for about 50 hours of practice with LingQ tutors and 12 day trip to Russia.
Yes, imports are defaulted to private. Any text should only be marked public if it is your own or if you have the owner’s permission or if it is public domain.
I have access to the rest of the Larsson trilogy if I want to. I am working on the part I mentioned, no need to send me anything but thank you 
@tarris1 I have to respectfully disagree with you. In French, 30K known words is an advanced level vocabulary. You’ve obviously passed that level, and I’m not sure why you feel you’re not advanced. I think people confuse advanced level with “native level fluency” which is where one would be at 100K known words. I think 100K is unrealistic goal to set for LingQ users – bordering on impossible. Here is why:
I think that in French, at 30K about where we pass the magic 2% marker of unknown words in a text that allow you to read unassisted. (Not counting proper nouns.)
So, after 30K if you count the average book as 100,000 words, and assume that 2% of those will be unknown that means each book you’ll read will offer you 2,000 potential new words to learn.
Let’s be generous and assume that you lean 1000 of those words upon reading the book. That would mean 70 more books to go to 100K.
BUT! As you learn the percentages go down. Soon, you’ll be at 1% unknown words and only 500 learned per book, then 250 etc. etc.
My rough guess would be that after about 55-60K known words in French, using LingQ to mark new words will become impractical because you will be reading book after book without encountering very few new words – if any.
Keep in mind that the most complex book in French literature, Les Miserables, contains a total of about 32K unique words. So, hypothetically, with a vocabulary of about 40K words, you could be reading the most complex book in French as not encounter any new words at all – again, this is a hypothetical.
Reaching a 100K marked words would take years and years, and would be pointless in a way because you’d be way passed fluent and way passed using the language unassisted.
Where would put your Spanish ability? Given the even more flattering word count than Portuguese.
No - because I have only started with lingq and most words are blue and then known on first reading. I am guessing I know maybe around 30k but I am trying to find a quick way to get to texts where there are words I don’t know rather than finding that most texts have words I do know. Does that make sense? If there were some kind of leveling test I could save months of reading stuff I already know.
I wouldnt consider myself fluent. I struggle understanding french movies without subtitles, I am not able to follow and understand a fast-paced debate in French in spoken form. Personally id consider myself a “high intermediate” in reading abilities and intermediate in listening, but maybe I am putting myself to too harsh standards.
Thanks
I would agree, and i have around the same amount of known words as you i would say.
Any text i upload has 2% or less (usually 0.5%) unknown words and yet i can’t understand films without subs. I get some of it, but some of it, and especially details, evade me. Heavily colloquial or regular youth language (ie, most language you’ll hear on the street or a McDo’s from under 40’s) i struggle with and listening to the radio is usually a complete bust, especially if i’m not interested in the subject matter which is almost always.
My speaking is functional - i can speak to get what i need in most situations. It’s always the stuff coming back that throws me. Writing i’m decent at with access to a dictionary to look some stuff up.
Reading, i can read anything without a dictionary. Anything at all. And even if i don’t know definitions of words, i know the ‘sense’ of them due to context. Very rarely i HAVE to look up words when reading pretty much anything.
So, i can’t be advanced due to a word count if i still can’t understand real life.
I’m very advanced in reading. Intermediate in speaking and writing. Lower intermediate in listening.
More phonetic work needed i feel. Sometimes i wish i’d learned German or Spanish instead. I looked at German for a couple of months once, years ago, and can still hear every single word crystal clear in spoken hochdeutsch. Easy as pie.
Perhaps I am taking the word “advanced” too seriously. I hesitate though in using words such as native level fluency mostly because this puts more emphasis on speaking and writing abilities which are definitely not my strong points right now.
I agree with you tho in that reaching the 100k+ words known mark is going to take a long time, hence the 10 million words read estimate (I added 20k new words from 750k words) which would be an additional 8.6 million words or so.
According to LingQ, Les Miserables has about 11k new words for me. The last 3 months I have had a new words including lingqs learned ratio of about 80% so 4/5 of unknown words (not including deleted ones) I encounter are added to known words. This means that I would get another 9k known words from Les Miserables alone if this ratio continues (I think it increases over time). In other words I think that I will reach that “wall” much later than the 60k estimate, but I may be wrong.
Honestly tho I think I will reach a motivation wall before I get anywhere near the 100k point, mostly for the reason you mentioned in that I will be able to follow pretty much any content without much effort outside of LingQ before then. The 100k mark is more of an estimate of how far I would have to go to be “native level fluent” in listening or reading.
This isn’t a computer game. The number is irrelevant. Just read stuff of interest.
I don’t learn French. I read French literature. I don’t learn French. I watch French TV. I don’t learn French. I participate in French forums in topics that interest me. You should do the same. Chasing an arbitrary number…what’s the point ? You’re supposed to want to use your skills in the language to DO THINGS in the language. So do things in the language ?
Or if it’s that important to you go read Les Misérables like the guy up there ^ suggested.
My Spanish is much better than my Portuguese. I am guessing here, but if I took a language class placement test, I might place around upper B2 / lower C1 in Spanish, and perhaps mid-B1 at best in Portuguese.
You mean you want to make a kind of a quick big jump in your french knowledge?
I am not an expert on languages, but i notice many words stick in my longterm memory when thell came together with an emotion. Compared to (or with, not sure) the lack of success i got when i follow the traditional way of memorizing words, as computers do, i simply prefer to create links between me and the new word i just come across.
By the way, how can you be sure that you know 11K already? Scoring 30K on linq is cool, but it does not mean you are a fully competente student on all of them.
Cheers,