LingQ is part of the long journey of trying lots of different language learning techinques, methods, and software. I tried many different things before LingQ, including ‘old school’ language courses (pretty good yet expensive), speaking a lot (mainly just solidifies what you already know), Anki flashcards like Fluent Forever (has severe shortcomings, is slow making cards, and is boring), MIA/Mass Immersive Approach (watching content you don’t understand is useless and flashcards are boring), Michel Thomas (great introduction to a language yet expensive), grammar textbooks (important, but boring), DuoLingo (good to build a habit, but overall shit for various reasons), and various other boring, not great software like Drops, Memrise, etc.
I first heard about LingQ a long time ago, probably from some YouTubers or blogs or something and thought I’d try it out. The free trial is so short that you can’t actually trial the software. After I finished my free lingQs (probably like the first Mini Story or two), I didn’t sign up, because I wasn’t going to upgrade to premium for a software I didn’t even know worked. Maybe close to two years passed before I saw the interview of Mark on Steve’s channel about the release of LingQ 5.0. I was thinking of starting to learn Italian at the time, so decided that I would buy a month membership to trial the software, cause the free trial is completely worthless. I kept extending the month membership, as I wasn’t certain if I’d stick with it. After maybe nine months, I switched to the annual plan. It’s been like two and a half years as a premium member.
Since LingQ I have continued to experiment with other methods, as I consider there are shortcomings with the software. My main criticism is the way LingQ deals with definitions, which is an incredible time-waste (discussed here). Since LingQ, I’ve tried out private tutors (amazing yet expensive), dual subtitles on YouTube with Language Reactor (amazing), and recently bilingual books (great). Over the years, I’m gradually improving the efficiency of my language learning and study.