How to learn words fast without relying on rote memorization?

I agree that it’s clear that I should read much more, the thing is that I don’t have much time for Spanish learning everyday, it’s only possible for me to read for 10-30 min on weekdays (about 400—1.2k ) So how much time should I invest in Spanish at the weekends? And what should I better do (should I read or listen or something)?

I think only you can decide how much time you should invest on the weekend. Maybe try to do an hour on each day of the weekend and see how that feels for you. If you want to go faster, you need to add more time with the language. If you are fine with the pace though, you will make progress on 10-30 min for quite a long time. It’s just going to take a lot longer.

As to the split…Not really sure. I suppose I’d say half and half. If you can, on the other days try to add more listening. If you do some chores, likes washing dishes, or commuting, try to do some listening at that time. Find pockets of time where you can add in a little reading…while on the toilet, in line at the grocery store (or wherever).

The reading speed will increase the more you progress in the language. Since I began to use LingQ 18 months ago the amount of words read each month has reached three to four times the initial value, although I don’t think I spend more time using the app then in the beginning (holidays excluded :slight_smile: ). And if 10-30 minutes is all you can spare, that is okay. As @ericb100 stated you will see progress nevertheless. Language learning is a marathon anyways, so who cares if it takes a few months more. What definetely isn’t helpful is if you put too much pressure on yourself.

In regards to whether reading or listening is the better thing to do, I already stated that I consider reading to be the more efficient way to go in the early stages. But that is my personal impression and you are a different person. So it might be completely different for you. My advice therefore would be to change the weight between those two from time to time and see what feels more efficient to you.

1 Like

That reading speed seems a bit slow. In spanish I’ve had only briefly under 100 words per minute. In swedish I’ve had some periods lower than that, which is partially from lack of direct translations and lack of appropriate material to my level. In your case spending so little time reading might affect reading speed. In essence you are doing below breakeven and thus don’t improve which would make you get more bang for the buck so to speak.

I would also consider whether you are trying to understand too accurately and thus getting less input for the time you spend. For example when I started spanish, I didn’t care about what conjugation of a verb it is. If I knew the verb it is conjugation of, I just marked it as known. Idea is to build general concept of what words mean and not to go directly to advanced knowledge of each word.

I wouldn’t think how much you need to spend at minimum, but how much you can. Spending too little and you still continue not making progress. If you really want to learn spanish then I would make a push and try to add as much time for as long as you can to get through the initial hurdle. Once you get a little inside the language it’s possible to add listening of beginner podcasts during commutes, cleaning etc.

Man, I cant wait to be able to read 100 words/min! (Chinese)

This is ofcourse only valid reference when learning related languages with same writing system. I’m sure it is a lot more gradual improvement when learning new writing system, but eventually it should get to similar numbers in any language.

I wonder how the timing is calculated anyways. I sometimes start reading a lesson and in between take a break to make a tea or just pause a bit without closing the browser or switching to a different tab. Probably no good approach if one wants to keep the stats accurate :smiley:

And what if you switch to a browser, Google an expression, and discover interesting background information. Thus Tu en as encore sous le pied loosely translates to You have a lot more up your sleeve, and refers to having your foot on the accelerator pedal, and having room to press it down even more. Such research helps solidify the phrase in the memory. But you get no credit in LingQ. Such is automation.

To answer your question I would try USING the language actively. It’s pretty much the fastest way to learn a word that I’ve found. It also requires the most effort so I only do this sort of thing if I’m really motivated and have an actual reason to do so (like living the country). Using or outputting the language is easier if you get a lot of input first but not impossible by any means. If you really need to learn as fast as possible you should probably be speaking or doing self talk or something.

Reading is a lot more fun way to ease yourself into the language but if you’re frustrated try doing some other things. I see some other posts here saying that your word count or time spent per day seems low so that may be an issue too but just though I’d throw out the idea of trying to use the language if you haven’t done so.

1 Like

And, man, I cant wait to be able to read 300 words/min! (English)

1 Like