i’m wondering does anyone have any experience with extensive use of lingq.com? it seems to be the most effective way to learn a language, but i get burnt out after an hour usually. if i got used to doing more and more i have lots of free time that i could use to practice. obviously the goal would be to be able to read books without translation eventually. has anyone else achieved this goal with lingq? i’d prefer to learn new words this way, as the thought of spending that much time on anki makes me want to throw up ( i hate flashcards and recently quit using them, don’t use SRS on lingq either! ) actually reading and learning words in context would be more fun.
P.S i’m learning German.
thanks!
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6 hours a day is pretty serious. I did that for a month at one point early on and picked up like 10k known words. So it’s very effective. Looking at your profile, you’ve already reached a decent level in german and have done quite a bit of reading. i think it’s better to find a pace that is sustainable and that you can keep up for a few months at a time. I’m not great with consistency myself but it’s the best approach.
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aronald,
Was that unassisted reading you did for one month straight? No audio. No translation?
it was on lingq without audio. i didn’t really need audio to know how the words should sound though.
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Hi Peteyb,
An hour a day is great amount of effort for most of us - we aren’t all superhumans able to power through 6 hours of reading in a language we aren’t totally proficient in. I read about an hour a day in Russian for a while (a harder language than German for most) and after a few months I went from a late beginner to being able to struggle through difficult, native level books.
I did the same for German back in the day, before LingQ. After about a year of reading every day I felt I could reasonably enjoy 99% of written material.
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I have read lots using LingQ! I have to say that 6 hours is excessive, but I’ve definitely been on LingQ for 6 hours in a day before… sometimes the books are just good, and you want to read them all day, right? 
It’s definitely effective, but I wouldn’t invest all of my time into just LingQ. If you have six hours of time, then try to do some other activities too. If you’re just super into the content that you’re reading and LingQ helps you maintain your interest, then fine use LingQ for 6 hours. It probably means that you’re getting in practice at a high level of comprehension and that the LingQ system is helping you when you stumble. In the last year, I’ve read over 2 million words on LingQ, and I have made tons of progress in that year. The last million of those words, I’ve read in the last 6 months alone, and I’ve read another 5 books (short ~ 40k words each) off of LingQ in that 6 months too. Reading speed is much better, and I’m very happy with the vocabulary progress. I will add that I also spend a lot of time with my language in other ways, such as watching videos, language exchanges, and listening to podcasts, but LingQ is where I spend the most time generally.
On reading alone, I’ll add that I have started reading aloud and trying to do voices for each characters in the books now that I’m actually speaking more often. Maybe 30 minutes a day? Keep in mind that your comprehension has to be pretty high to attempt story telling because you’re simultaneously processing the language and attempting to express it with emotions. I also like to read off LingQ and with 0 effort to lookup words because it helps switch things up and is more interesting (or I couldn’t find the e-book in a series and ordered the book). You definitely still learn plenty of words in context, and this happens when I do language exchanges too. I find that the person I’m talking with will actually make the context very clear, and I can often then use the word in the context of the conversation. Sometimes I’m quite surprised at the words that come out of my mouth and will stop to ask if the word means what I thought in a particular context because I’ll sometimes say things and not know where I learned them. I don’t really speak much, so it’s always fun to see what random vocabulary decides to bubble up to the surface when responding to someone in spontaneous conversations.
Short version:
Yes it’s effective, but if you have 6 hours, try to do a couple other things.
Reading on LingQ can help bridge the comprehension gaps and therefore reading for 6 hours on LingQ is as natural as reading an amazing book for 6 hours. (large books anyone? :p)
I don’t actually speak that much, but conversing is comfortable and fun because the vocabulary comes from so much exposure. Sometimes if we talk for a long time my mouth hurts (this is why I read aloud for ~ 30 minutes. I just started this over the weekend). If you can talk about the things that you’ve been reading/watching, that seems to make vocabulary stick really well.
Good luck with the German adventure!
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thanks for the detailed response! sounds interesting, i also find i have a pool of words to draw from in italki conversations that i have no idea where i learned them. i also do podcasts and watch a lot of german public broadcasting tv on youtube. then theres also netflix which goes well with the lingq import function. i’m intending on attending a 5 year German languages degree next year in order to hopefully become a German translator in the future, and I’m starting to get the impression that it would be almost impossible (or at least a lot more difficult) without lingq. This means i have 6 years to get my Deutsch up to scratch which should hopefully be plenty time. i’ve just recorded talking to myself for 15 minutes and looking forward to listening back in the future and seeing the progress. it’s inspiring to read about the input method because actually producing the language is currently my weakest skill, good to know it can help to consume massive amounts of comprehensible input before feeling more confortable within the language.
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I did some speaking at the beginning, but I did nothing other than input for a couple years afterwards because I had left the country. First time I went to speak after that, I was much more comfortable and fluent. Still, having conversations and interactions in the language seems like the best way to prime your vocabulary for specific situations. << I’d still just consider that input though. High quality input!
I’ve seen a lot of German learners on here lately. I’m sure you can get great recommendations for content and ways to interact with people.
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I teach Russian and German 4 hours a day, and my students normally have quite good results in 8 weeks. But I, as a teacher, use different methods, plays, exercises, listening, reading, speaking, adding some words etc to keep their motivation during 4 hours.
Can a self-studying learner maintain his/her motivation during 6 hours or not - it’s the main problem.
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I’ve been using LingQ for two years extensively. Every day I import interesting content, read and listen to it. I’m very motivated, and my 800-day streak proves it.
Nevertheless, I have never spent 6 hours just reading on LingQ. I think it is physically impossible. At least my brain can not sustain a concentrated effort for so long.
One hour-long news broadcast - is the reasonable, sustainable maximum for me. I spend two-three hours on it.
Of course, I consume content via other platforms and speak as well. But it is all fun and easy!
I consider heroic attempts to be dangerous for motivation and future progress.
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Steve Kaufmann will mind it if you are using i-Talki instead of LingQ for 800 days 
Jokes aside, on topic what people achieve in a year you will achieve in 6 months with that kind of intensity also you will forget less as you are constantly reinforcing your newly acquired knowledge.
As my german professor says JUST DO IT and see what happens next. More often than not people make lofty plans but they do not go through with them due to various reasons like distractions and all. Your idea is neat but you have to stick with it to experience its actual benefits.
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Haha, right! I put iTalki there because speaking has become my leading activity in German.
I replaced it with LingQ in the post, which I was writing about in the first place 
When it comes to intensity, I think there is a threshold after which you’re just harming your progress and your health.
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Sergey,
In terms of statistics for both listening and reading in German, at what level did you start scheduling speaking sessions with i-talki tutors? And, how did it go over the course of several speaking sessions? Did your speaking ability improve? What topics did you talk about?That may provide a little bit insight into the amount of input one needs before outputting?
SergeyFM,
Does this threshold change based on language level and where would you say this threshold lies? Is the main harm motivation in the long run or can your concentration wither away and cause sloppy habits?
I think it would be incredibly dangerous, because eventually you can get read the entire Internet so we would have nothing left to read for ourselves!
I think that if you make read hours, your improve will be amazing, but maybe isn´t good for your health sight. I use a lot Lingq, and I realy improve in my language skill. In my experience, I use more “listening” that “reading”. I read more in Kindle device.
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I think the question of how many hours to study something is always an interesting one and fits well with the quote:
“One experiment is worth more than a thousand expert opinions.”
I think too many people don’t test the limits to know if the increased benefit is worth the time spent. I’m not saying that the best use of 6 hours is to spend it all on reading, but people should at least be aware of how much benefit it brings. I see this same thing when it comes to learning a musical instrument as well. People often fall short on practice because they expect to improve with 30 mins to 1 hour per day, but how much is there to gain in an additional 2-3 hours? Whether or not this pace is sustainable is a different question, but I think people should be aware of what hitting upper limits can do, and then make a judgement if this is worth it or not. Regarding language, my limit per day in reading is about 4-5 hours. My brain can’t really do more than that unless I’m taking a few naps during the day. I also don’t think doing this much reading is worth it since our brains need sleep in order to digest and really solidify what we’ve learned. So cramming more information into our brains when we’ve already hit a limit has very diminished returns.
Besides total improvement gained, the other important question is about efficiency. What’s the optimum reading time for maximum efficiency (information learned per hour)? For me it takes at least 30 mins to even get my brained warmed up enough for efficient reading/memorization. Then after, say 3 hours, I may start to notice a slow down in comprehension. So the optimal time spent reading is more than 30 mins and less than 3 hours, but closer to the 3 hour mark. You’d also have to consider how intensely you are reading. For languages that we know better our brains don’t have to spend as much energy. So reading in these languages can be longer.
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Just know that 6 hours on LingQ won’t equal 6 x 1 hours worth of impact due to fatigue etc… You may get 3 x 1 to 4 x 1 hours worth of impact out of it.
A better thing to do would be to do 1 -2 hours LingQ, then listen to audiobooks and podcasts daily, and then watch German TV every night etc. Basically have a reasonable active study (reading) routine combined with lots of passive input and you’ll see some solid impact after a week or so.
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Thank you for the well thought out and written response. When you say 30 minutes to 3 hours that is for your french spanish and russian? Or can you not benefit from as much with french since its a little lower in proficiency? Also i assume arabic is in the intense disecting/study range (idk your actual languages levels just guessing from known words on lingq forgive me if the evaluation is completely off lol)
also its really hard to evaluate the progress made from say 5 hours of reading per day unless done for a longer period of time. How have you evaluated progress in the past from spans of study that involved more intensity?
It’s all of them combined. Since I only have about 2-3 hours total per day I try to split the time in a way that makes sense to me based mostly on energy level. My current schedule the past few weeks is 30-60 mins of French in the morning when I wake up and still tired. Then 60 mins of Russian after work. Then 30-60 mins of Spanish later in the evening. If I still have some energy left I’ll do another 30 mins of French. Even though I’ve done more reading in Russian than French and Spanish combined, it still takes the most energy and I have to be alert when reading to get the most out of it. With Spanish and French I can be tired and still read easily since they have many similar words and are close to English. Arabic is sort of on the back burner right now until I get some of these other languages to high levels. Although I am doing some easy stuff on Duolingo.
I’ve evaluated my progress by tracking words read and known words for each month. I get the data from my profile charts and put them in an excel file to help me predict how long it’ll take to reach certain levels. I generally know how much time I’ve spent each day on average.
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