I’ve just recently tried this app for the first time but I’m hoping I’ve just missed something. While this app has some awesome tools for solidifying and reinforcing learned material, much more so than most apps, I don’t actually see any lessons. When I started the app at the Guided Course all I see is a list of words and sentences in foreign text (Hebrew in this case). I see a small unscrollable screen with a few foreign word combos, I can click any word and get a translation. But when I click the headphones it starts playing well beyond what I can see on my screen and the screen is unscrollable. If I click Sentence Mode the screen becomes scrollable but then I don’t have access to the transations. Suppose I did have access to the translations on this page, still not going to learn. What am I going to do, click and learn 5-10 words and then as I go through the lessons I’ll randomly see a word here or there that I know having to contact for how it fits into the current sentence? Don’t get me wrong, these are awesome tools that I wish other language apps would have, from what I can see we’re missing the most important thing, an actual lesson. I meed to learn words one at a time and both read and write them, the way I use Duolingo, then what this app has would be an incredible reinforcer. Hoping I’ve missed something, if I have can someone please point me in the right direction? If finding are correct about thr lake of an actual lesson I would like to known that too. Thanks.
Lingq is not meant to teach you the language you are learning. You won’t see any grammar courses as such here. Lingq is designed to facilitate your progress by allowing you to fully immerse in the language. You can import your own resources and study them with the help of the pop up dictionaries. Steve, who created this website, believes that once you have learned the basics via an app or a textbook, you need to start tackling native material and learn vocabulary and grammar in context.
it took me a while to have an a-ha moment with the app too. you’re right that its an excellent tool but can’t do the really hard part for you–find the right material for the exact level you’re at. When you’re a beginner, or even lower intermediate, its a catch-22 because you can’t understand anything. Take simple and straightforward nonfiction, or extremely simple fiction like fairy tales, and just go one sentence at time, using the google translate in sentence mode if necessary. Eventually you’ll be able to go full paragraphs without being tempted to translate a sentence, until you reach a level of ambiguity you can tolerate. Start with the mini-stories, which are LingQ’s only pedagogical material, and answer the questions at the end of each one. Steve recommends re-reading and listening to them many times, but I find it too boring and not as useful as dialogues. I use a lot of wikipedia in that early stage and gradually try to build up to things like regular books for kids that you already know and are in every language, like the wizard of oz, which i just read in portuguese. Clustering material around content you’re already familiar with also helps because you know the context–like a bunch of fan or critic reviews for a movie you know well. The mini-stories are meant to be your first stop, and after that you’ve been exposed to enough of the language (even if not enough times to be comfortable with it) to read real stuff, so its really in your court from then on. This app is for people who have accepted in this age everyone who is serious about learning a language is own his own and has to chart his own course, which is why the community is part of it–look for tips on what people have used for your L2 on the old forums. Good luck
Believe it or not, but you can learn a language just by reading (and listening) and looking words up in a dictionary. This is what this software is at its very core. All things else are functional tools to help you achieve this.
Depending on your language in question, you may want to do a few things alongside LingQ. Buying an introductionary grammar book to read is very useful. Or if you are learning a language with a different alphabet, such as Hebrew, learn the basics of that. Technically, you could learn it in LingQ, but it is better easier with some extra help. Maybe you want to drill some beginner vocabulary as well on Anki or Memrise. The idea is that LingQ is just a tool to help you study how you want to study. LingQ is not a course, but a tool for you to use, as we are all self-studiers here.
The YouTube channel of the founder of this tool may help you with some tips and tricks on how you can best self-study: My 7 Goals of Language Learning - YouTube
If you are confused about the functionality of the software, I recommend looking through the help files. But, to be honest, you will probably get most of your understanding of how LingQ works by trying lots of different things. Just play around with the software. Honestly, I still find functionality that I didn’t know exists. “Intuitive” is not really a word I would use to describe the software, unfortunately. But with enough playing around, you’ll figure it out.
If you need something like duolingo, it’s best to use duolingo. As others mention here, the idea is that you look up words, make lingqs and continue reading and listening. If you do enough of that, you will learn the language.
The difficult thing, as you mention, is that there are no real lessons. So you need to start doing it without any guidance on what to do or read next (except maybe the community here on this forum 
)
The best place to start is probably the mini-stories. Just start reading them, using the translation tools that are available. The more you read, the better you will get. By the end of the mini stories you should already be seeing “some” progress.