Edit: I canāt decide if this post is more promotional or preachy. Sorry, I didnāt mean for it to be either.
I had two high school Spanish classes some 12 or 13 years ago. I consider their impact negligible. I found LingQ in June 2011 and started Spanish in earnest that September. I donāt know why, but I immediately saw the potential in LingQās system. Most people expect language learning to be about following a script: Lesson 15 comes after 14, of course. LingQ is about offering possibilities. With itās software and quality content (some sifting required) I felt I only needed to put in the time.
Side noteā> I think LingQ hasnāt skyrocketed in popularity because the potential buyer needs to see it working in their minds. For most they want the prescription: Lesson 1, 2, ā¦ with constant correction and super simple, underwhelming examples. Seeing that thereās another way is step 1. Part of that step is realizing that LingQās software is revolutionary in that itās nothing like language class (in the US at least). First they (most people) need to get out of the rut of thinking that the language class methods are the only way to learn a language. Step 2 is seeing the potential of LingQing words. All new words are blue. You mark a word and it shows up in later texts as yellow and sometime later you move it to known. Itās deceptively simple. How could that work? Unfortunately no one Iāve mentioned LingQ to has stuck with it. I believe itās the combination of these two steps that are so difficult for most people to cope with (They canāt convince themselves that itās a simple, but very long, process.).
I was using LingQ very consistently for a full year in Spanish before venturing into other languages (while continuing Spanish by watching shows/movies and reading novels). Iāve now watched whole series (plural) and read (past tense) many novels (Donāt you love English?). Recently Iāve read Juego de Tronos (Game of Thrones), by far the hardest book Iāve encountered so far. And I did not use a dictionary while reading. I did look up words after the fact with LingQ because it was so easy.
It feels great to be able to pick up a book and just read. It reminds me of how fun is was to learn English by reading novel after novel (yes, Iām a native English speaker). Despite what people like to say, kids donāt learn English by the time theyāre ___ (whatever age). English learning continues on through school years even for native English speakers. There is no summit to climb; itās a never-ending gentle slope. Somebody, somewhere must know this. Why else give 5th and 6th graders packet after packet of grammar exercises? I donāt think the packets are at all worth the time, but why make them part of the curriculum if students arenāt still learning English?
Itās quite a disservice to tell someone simply, āI (or even worse you) donāt have an ear for languages/accents/etc.ā If you say, āI havenāt yet developed an ear forā¦ā then thatās completely different. But I had the belief growing up that certain people had an ear for languages and others didnāt, as if it were black and white. Kids pick up horrible things like that. My high school friend once said, āItās not fair; our (basketball) team has no black players.ā Too bad I went to such a small high school and didnāt have much choice in friends.
Somehow I went from not having a clue that anyone in āEl Internadoā had different accents to immediately recognizing the similarity between the character Caroās accent and the singer Kat Dahliaās accent and thus realizing that I had been noticing the difference. I heard Dahliaās Spanish version of āGangstaā and wondered, āIs this the Caro woman singing this song?ā And then when that one actor (Lucasā mom) said her first line I had a grin from ear to ear because I recognized an Argentinian accent (and she didnāt say ācheā either). I do miss subtleties in accents. But something as simple as discerning basic accents (Argentinian, Cuban, etc) is so reassuring. Some people arenāt sure theyāll ever get to that point. I wasnāt.
Iād love to be able to say I got to point A after this much time, point B after this muchā¦ But it doesnāt work that way. At what point could you understand every line of all movies in English? There isnāt anything close to a direct answer. Same with my Spanish. Sorry.
Long story short: After two years (averaging probably two hours a day, no joke) of using LingQ for Spanish (and Portuguese, French, and others. I couldnāt help it!) Iāve noticed that I can read full-length novels and watch TV shows without help. I donāt understand every line. My comprehension for shows isnāt perfect, but I understand most sentences and follow the plot easily most times. There are moments when I say, āHuh!?ā and rewind and then move on with my life when I still donāt get it.
I tutor kids in math and one day a kid asked me to help him with a few Spanish drills. He said I sounded like his Spanish teacher (a native Spanish speaker). Cool! Praise from a non-native speaker is one thing, but sometimes I even get praised for my explanations of Spanish grammar by native speakers on the LingQ forums. Very surprising, especially since Iāve paid no special attention to grammar and still have done almost zero speaking or writing. Go figure! I donāt mean to suggest that Iām close to perfect, because Iām far, far from it. Sometimes I wonder if Iām getting better at all, but then I notice some sign that I am and it feels great. And if I can feel the difference in my abilities, then there probably is a difference (kinda like if you can smell yourself, you must smell bad).