I have a problem. I have a huge list of ‘known’ words in German, most of which I do not really know! I can remember the meaning of very few words when I try to write, and even of those, I cannot remember the gender of most.
I am thinking of clearing the list and starting again, this time only taking my words to level 4 if I really know them, and not pressing the LingQed button to say I know words, because most of them are proper names. I must have thousands of proper names clicked as known words because I read masses of Geographical information, news items and similar.
if I do take the step of clearing my list, I intend to try to write using what I really know, and constructions that I can remember.
The trouble is, I do not think I will remember many words at all, and so will be stuck with reading and listening to the same lessons many, many times, which seems rather boring.
As clearing the list is an irreversible step, I do not want take it without getting advice from other, more-experienced LingQers.
Imy, what do you do with all the words that remain after you have LingQed all the ones you want to LingQ - usually common names and sometimes gobbledigook that gets caught up in lessons imported using the bookmarklet? Do you delete them all individually? I find this an annoying waste of time. I would like to be able to simply delete all the blue highlights without claiming to ‘know’ them, as we have to if we click on the LiinQed all button.
I guess it does not matter which I do, start again, or continue. It is simply a matter of plugging on. High scores or not? It is not important. What is important is enjoying the language and the material one is reading and listening to, and getting on with the process of using the new language to communicate with others.
I find yellow highlighting on words in my lessons quite distracting. My habit with LingQed words is to take them to level 4, once I understand them in the context in which I find them.
I can always LingQ them again if I forget their meaning in another situation, if they reappear after having lost their dotted underlining.
I seldom use quick LingQ because here is is not usually very quick. This, slowness, however, does seem to be improving, so quick Lingq may be worthwhile. I am also going back to Au for a few weeks in June and July, so I shall be doing what I can to make even more LingQs while I am there.
By the way, I have purchased the Assimil courses in German, Modern Greek and Danish. I particularly like the German ones, and the helps are in English. The Greek and Danish ones are in German, so are I have a bit more difficulty in properly understanding the lessons.
Another point that may be of interest - I got the German one with one DVD through the post, with no tax at this end. I then ordered the other two. They came in one package with 4 CDs each. I got pinged for tax, had to spend four hours at the airport to redeem them, and had to pay about 50 dollars tax on the parcel! apparently one can import up to 20 books at one time with no penalty, but CDs are slugged!
I do not share your problem. However, can you not set your word list to 200 in the vocabulary section and then set the list to Status 4 only. You can then batch change their status, or in the case of names, just delete them.
It is unfortunate that you find yellow words distracting. I find them more useful than anything. I often changes status while reading, and this lightens up the colour. I usually move them to 2 or 3 quite quickly. I am reluctant to move them to 4, although even that is not irreversible. I assume that I will forget everything more or less, and remember words that I did not even LingQ. I think that my brain learns these things randomly through exposure.
I do not worry about accumulated names, or junk words. I usually use QuckLingQ now, where I can easily eliminate non-words. But any non-words already in my database are just there and don’t bother me.
If you want a clean view of the text you can use the QuickLingQ view, even without using the function, or the Print View.
@Imy - yes that probably would be interesting. I get the impression everyone uses the site a bit differently.
As for rae68’s problem, it sounds like a question of active versus passive vocab. I assume that for the most part you dont have trouble reading the words you’ve marked as known? If it is just active recall that you’re worried about, I’m not sure how you could use the LingQ system to properly measure that. How would you determine when you can actively recall a word without being in a situation where you need to actively recall that word?
Thanks Steve, Imy and @cgreen. It isn’t really a problem that I have so many words in my LingQs because I can always hover over the words with the dotted lines underneath, and reinstate any that I have forgotten. I guess my problem is that I care more about what other people think of me than about my own learning. I need to get over it and stop worrying that people might think that I am an amazing learner, when I am only at quite an early stage of learning.
It is true, @cgreen, LingQ is not as much a measuring tool, as it is a wonderful learning system. There is no need to worry about one’s active vocabulary. I need to use the points I have and get some writing corrected.
Steve, you are right, the QuickLingQ and print views are great for testing out whether or not you really do understand the text. And I have tried your idea of selecting 200 words and setting the list to status 4. When I first used LingQ I put in quite a few incorrect hints. Your suggestion enables me to use Google Translate and other resources to fix hints that do not make sense, to move the status of some words back to 3, and to remove junk.
I would love to catch up with some other LingQers some time. I will be in Adelaide when I am back in Australia during the mid-year school holidays.
Yes, I often go to the Vocab page and touch up the Hints, especially phrase translations from google translate. I do not worry about what people may think about my massive “known words” number in Czech, it just tells me that I am moving forward, and in fact I meet fewer and fewer words that I don’t know.
for better learning German words you can use a Bildwörterbuch (for example, this one http://bildwoerterbuch.pons.eu/). I think, it is the best way to learn words not only for all people, but also for kids.
As to gender – you can learn words’ endings. They (mostly) show the gender. For example: -heit, -keit, -tion = female (die Schönheit, die Möglichkeit, die Abstraktion), -ling = male (der Lehrling, der Neuling), -lein = neuter (das Bächlein – from Bach), -er = male (der Schüler, der Fußballer), -in = female (die Abenteurerin) etc.
Actually, I do not like using flashcards much at all. I do like picture story books because the pictures can make the text easier to understand, but I do not use picture dictionaries.
I like using real language for learning where everything has some sort of context. I can work through a text until I understand the meaning of individual words, phrases, sentences and the whole text, including the way the topic is introduced, developed and concluded. Sometimes I come across expressions that make no sense to me at all, I usually ignore them and hope that if they occur again later, the context will help.
As for me, pictures are the most convenient way at the beginning (you’ve said about the list of ‘known’ words) or they can help to remember the words.
It’s one of the methods for teaching kids. It helps to remember not the translation of these words (into your own language), but their meaning!