How do you manage your lingqs

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1

Hi.
I started worrying when my list of lingqs began to exceed 15 pages. I create them faster than I learn them. I review them regularly, but their number keeps growing. Besides, I noticed that only some top words from the first page of the vocabulary can be reviewed. If I don’t mark them as learned, I’ll keep reviewing them again and again (which is good), but I’ll never get to letter B (which is bad).
Should I read less and review more? Or should I stop being too scrupulous and mark them as learned before I’m sure I know them really well?

Please, share your best practices :slight_smile:
Thanks.

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Drop the reviewing (not everyone agrees with that but it’s just a super short answer).
Don’t worry about increasing your LingQs.
Keep reading, reading and reading (inputs inputs inputs) and every time you are comfortable with a word mark it Known (shortcut K) directly when you are reading. (You can mark it also shorcuts 2, 3 or 4).

Summary: review less, read more. :stuck_out_tongue:

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I use the same system as David. I don’t review. I keep reading with the knowledge that if the word is important, I will see it again. That way I spend my time reinforcing common words which naturally recur.

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Thank you, friends. It was my usual strategy before I found LingQ. So, reviewing is not an integral part of your typical LingQ workflow. What makes LingQ different from any other reading application, then? Audio? Blue and yellow words? Vast library?

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I’ve probably been missing out, but I have used almost none of the LingQ content.
Learning had become too much of a chore with grammar study and word lists. So instead, I started reading books I enjoy.
I typically read two books at a time. One, with matching audiobook, via Kindle and Audible. I only stop to look up a word when it is crucial to understanding the story. This is my extensive reading.
I upload another book to LingQ, and read this one much more carefully, looking up every word I don’t understand, paying attention to grammar etc. This is my intensive reading. I feel that for me, this dual approach is both rewarding and sustainable.

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6

Hi,

I am using Lingq to study Korean.

I never use the review function either. At most, I quickly glance at the vocab list when I complete a lesson.

As someone else suggested, reading and listening should be your main focus. They are almost like a “natural SRS” if you like. If a word is important enough in the language you are learning, you will encounter it again in future lessons.

I believe SRS systems such as Anki to be useful at the very beginning to learn the most frequent 1000 words for example, but the more you progress, the more they offer diminishing returns.

Trust the process. It will take some time, but you will notice an improvement after a few weeks and months, provided you stick to it diligently.

The reason I use Lingq as opposed to Kindle or an e-reader app, is because you have a personal database of the words you have encountered and as soon as you import a text, it will immediately let you know if you have come across this word or expression before so you can test yourself on how well you remember it and mark it accordingly. Lingq also highlights every instance of the same word in a text, which is very useful.

None of the e-reading apps available today offer this functionality.

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7

I don’t deliberately review anything either.

I lingQ things so that they show up highlighted in yellow every time I read something new. So by plowing ahead into new material I keep coming across lingQs I’ve already made but in different contexts. That’s like reviewing them except that’s its more interesting and more revelatory of their different uses.

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8

For me, what makes LingQ worth it is the ability to translate a word instantly, rather than having you look it up on google translate or something else. Additionally, storing statistics and being able to see instantly how difficult a piece of content will be based on unknown word percentage is really useful.

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9

  1. Read and listen more, review less. You will not be able to keep up with review at some point. I find it can be good in the beginning stages, but it soon become unwieldy as you’re discovering. If you carry on to advanced levels you will have 10’s of thousands of Lingq’s. I don’t review any more at all…as some have pointed out, reading is your review.

  2. I’ve personally found after some time that it’s best to just go ahead and mark the word known once you understand it in a given context. If you come across it again in another context or time and don’t know the meaning, simply move it down to a “yellow” word (I usually set it back to 2). I think you’ll stunt your progress by belaboring over whether you understand the word completely in isolation and/or only marking it known when you feel you could use it in speech. You’ll feel the need to review the words over and over again until you know them. There will be some words that will not stick quickly…simply move on. There will be words that stick a lot easier.

Lingq is better than any other reader imo. Many reasons others have given already, but for me it’s nice to see progress. The progress of moving to higher known word counts and words read and listening time, etc. All stats showing continued progress. Having all the various online dictionaries at hand ready to help with any meaning is invaluable and time saving. Importing my own content is really what drew me to Lingq as well. I could read and listen to things that interested me. No other platform does it as well as LingQ as a whole.

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10

After watching a bunch of videos on extensive reading for language learning, I picked the easiest and most prolific author I could find Russian translations for (Agatha Christie) and resolved to use LingQ to read ALL her books. Every one. I’m not really working at learning Russian, just helping Hercule Poirot discover the murderer. On the way I’m LingQing words when I need to understand them for the plot (arsenic cropped up quite early on). Whenever I encounter a word and recognise its meaning instantly in context, I bump it up a number. I have maybe tens of thousands of unlearned lingQs and most of them, unless Agatha reuses a plot device like a counterfeited string of pearls, I may never need to learn. After 3 months and about 20 books (a million words) my Russian is better. Not just reading words, but understanding of grammar too. 40 more books to go, then I will move onto another author. It works for me. And I have learned that there are NO untraceable poisons. And Hercule WILL catch you. :smiley:

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I don’t make a point of reviewing the words in my vocab list at all. And Steve Kaufman (the person who started LingQ) has repeatedly stated that he does not either.

After reading/watching many of Stephen Krashen’s videos (on whose work a lot of Steve Kaufman’s ideas are based) it became pretty clear that the whole idea of input based learning is to allow the language to reveal itself to you naturally. In other words, if the word is important for you to know, it will continue to reappear in new contexts. If it does not reappear in material you are reading/listening to, then it probably isn’t a word you really need to know right now, is it?

So, I put way more time into moving through more and more new content. I “review” words by encountering them again in new content. As for for moving them through the levels. This is what I do.

  1. First time I encounter a word I don’t know, I LingQ it and mark it level one.
  2. If I encounter the world again, and I know what it means, I move it up to level 2.
  3. Next time I encounter it, if I know what it means, I move it up to level 3.
  4. I continue until I get to level 4, and then after than, I mark it known.

So, I have to encounter a word at least 5 times to mark it known. If I encounter a LingQ’ed word and I can’t remember what it means (or if I don’t know it in this context) I move it back to 1 and start over. So, some words might move up to known in a day or two. Others might stay yellow for weeks or months. Some might get marked known, then if I encounter them again and can’t remember them, I mark them 1 and start all over again.

My basic daily study method for LingQ is:

  1. Choose a new item from the library.
  2. Listen to the item, without looking at the text. Try to understand as much as I can. Listen again if I feel like I missed some things. Listen as many times as I want until I feel like I have understood as much as I can. (Usually no more than 2-3 times)
  3. Then read the text, LingQing new words and reviewing ones that had already LingQed as described above. I make sure that I understand as much of the text as possible now.
  4. Then I listen again while reading along.
  5. Finally, I listen again without the text to see if I now understand the entire example.

Usually this whole process takes 15-20 minutes depending on the length of the example. If it is a particularly long example, maybe it will take 30.

I also have my settings autamatically add examples to my playlist when I finish them. So, if I want to do any passive studying, I will just put my playlist of old examples on shuffle and listen while I drive, walk, do the dishes, etc. This is about the only time I do “review.” I just allow myself to continue to re-encounter the words in context.

I have been doing this for about 2 years now as my primary way of studying. It is just a daily habit now that only takes up 20-30 minutes of dedicated “study time.” Then I do as much passive listening/reading as I want as the day permits. As I result, I have visited Spain and Mexico and been able to get along just fine. I have read dozens of novels in Spanish. I can read and listen to the news, etc.

The input based system works. It is not as linear as traditional lessons. It is not as easy to quantify as traditional tests. But the results are clear as far as I am concerned.

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Thanks for sharing, everyone! It was insightful

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I’m pretty new but am marking words I really want to learn as 3, words I slightly know as 2 and anything else as 1. I mark things as 4 nless I absolutely know them. Reviewing seems wierd as I can’t filter properly for some lessons but I can review 3s, 2s etc.