Want to know which LingQ features Steve finds the most useful? Find the answer in his new video:
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First: thanks for building this platform. It’s by far the best approach to language-learning I’ve found so far.
Small thought on this video: I know Steve, like many others, tends to downplay the usefulness of grammar. In a qualified way I agree on this. But it seems to me that “ability to notice” is something that specifically benefits from grammar. When I’m reading in another language, if I have familiarised myself with conjugation rules in advance, when a form of a given verb appears that I haven’t yet added to my LingQ database, I’m much more likely to be able to notice what is going on with that verb: “ah, that’s the imperfecto subjuntivo there, because what they’re talking about was uncertain” etc. If I hadn’t done that study, I would probably grasp that it was some form of that verb, and get the gist, but without being able to pin down how this form differed from others. This seems a good use of grammar: not to learn first as a set of rules for producing the language, but second, in an immersive context where it helps you to notice the details of what you’re already doing.
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