I’ve noticed that when adding a LingQ, the sentence which I’m always given for context, is never a complete one or half of two sentences. Obviously this is a problem which has been around for a while and I’m not sure how it going to be fixed.
Perhaps there needs to be a system which will grab sentences. Everything inbetween two fullstops (periods - In American) with the rule that any more than 1 fullstop is not a sentence end. (… can occur mid-sentence)
Another thing, which could be not only a temporary solution but also something great to have once a fix is in place, is that once you have brought up the LingQ dialogue, one is able to copy and past from the content, without bringing up a further LingQ dialogue.
@Yeshua - It’s not supposed to grab a complete sentence. It grabs 4 words to either side of the term you have LingQed. It is working the way it was designed. You can’t copy and paste from the main lesson text. If you want to copy and paste phrases, you can do so in Quick LingQ mode or you can go to the “print preview” window.
I see what you’re saying mark. 4 words either side of the term is…absolutely useless. It takes away all context (if you don’t believe this then I’m sure many examples could be shown).
I would see this as a real enhancement. I’ve got to delete all of my LingQs to redo everything now.
A paying customer who gets annoyed with a product - doesn’t pay for a product…
Yeshua, I am glad to see that you feel strongly about this but we are not about to do anything on this right now. In the future we may enable the user to drill through to the full sentence. Right now the drill down goes to the lesson which is not so useful. We are aware of this but it is not a priority for us now, although I understand that it is for you.
Personally I find the short phrase very helpful because the collocation or sample of how the word is used is easily captured in these short phrases. What is more I can go in and edit the phrase to make it even more useful for me. I can quickly review a large number of sample phrases, often from content that I have studied and can remember.
I recognize that different people have different study habits, but we have to stay with our priorities.
If the target word is new information at the end of a sentence, which words at the end of sentences often are, the sentence would not be much use as context. Also I would not like to have a long sentence grabbed automatically by the system.
I like the present system. It provides collocations and is enough context to guess a meaning if you have to.
BTW i have found guessing meaning of flashcards to be overrated in my own study. It was a big hurdle because my teacher training told me the time spent guessing was time well spent. In the end I have realized that I learn more if I give up guessing and actually flashcard more quickly.
I don’t understand what you mean dooo. What’s a word being at the end of a sentence got to do with being able to work it out by context? I’d think that, if anything, being at the end would make it easier, simply because you’ve read the rest of the sentence first.
For me, it’s largely about being able to PLACE a word in context. With part of a sentence, I’m unable to do that a lot of the time. I like to see the word, known or not, and then read the sentence in which it is found. That’s something I’ve found to be very effective.
I’ll do it my own way now. It’s a lot more work but I’ve got to look after my own learning and not do the things others tell me are ‘good’ for me.
Ed, re flashcards, yours is a eureka that I also discovered early on.
I go through the flash cards, only once, and fast. I either change status or give myself a “got it”. I have found that trying to think hard or guess is just a waste of time. Eventually, after having run into a word, or related words, elsewhere, in other flash cards or other contexts, the words start to stick.
@ yeshua
This is just an explanation of what I meant. It is not meant as what you “should” do
EG:
“Tomorrow, I will say goodbye to my friends and fly to Europe. It is a continent with many different cultures.”
Which of the above 2 sentences provide the best context for “Europe”? Also between the first sentence and “Europe” +/- four words, what is the better context?
“4 words either side of the term is…absolutely useless.” - YeshuaC
This is what I feel too. Either blank or 4 words either side makes almost no different to me. I have to replace it with my complete sentence anyway. Of course there is a chance that the word happens to be at the middle of a 9-word sentence. But the chance is slim.
What I do now is to make the word yellow, copy and pasting the lines before opening the newly created LingQ, do a paste, then trim the beginning and the end. Imagine I have to do it for every LingQ I create.
