We are extremely excited to announce the launch of the LingQ Avatar today. The Avatar is a visual representation of your level in your target language. Your avatar is a creature that will grow as your language grows. The size of the avatar is based on the number of words you know in the language as measured by your Known Words total on LingQ. Each level in our system has a Known Words target and when you reach that target you will move to the next level and your avatar will grow. Your avatar begins life as an egg at the No Knowledge level and grows up to full size when you reach Advanced 2.
You will also be able to dress up your avatar and decorate your avatar’s “room”. You will earn credits by creating LingQs which you can then spend in the Avatar Store. You can buy different clothing items, or you can buy handheld items and background items including cultural landmarks.
As well, you will receive reward items for reaching writing and speaking milestones on the site and you will see the “Activity Apple” which represents your level of activity on the site.
We think these changes will be a motivating and fun way for members to interact on LingQ. We think and hope this will encourage you to create more LingQs which is how you will learn fastest! However, now we want to hear from you. Do you like the Avatars as much as we do? We’re sure you will have lots of suggestions for making them even better which we hope to do over time. We already have a list enhancements in the works.
Please see the post over at the LingQ Central blog for more information: http://bit.ly/eFb1de
Also, have a look at the Avatar Help section: Avatar Help
I dislike the fact that we can no longer choose our level, I may now a certain number of words in a language, but that doesn’t mean that I have the necessary skills to call myself “intermediate 2”. Apparently I am intermediate 2 in both German and Spanish and I know that I am still intermediate 1, I liked it when we could choose our own level and move up when we felt that we were ready.
Harry, LingQ is not your whole language world, just a part of it, and I hope an important part of it.
LingQ will determine your level at LingQ, based on your known words total. You may treat that information however you wish. You may ignore it. You may be inspired by it to do more speaking and writing, but it is an indication of your potential level in the languages you are learning.
If we find that our levels are not realistic, we may adjust them. We have differentiated them for the different languages based on our research into the number of words required for different language versions of the same book.
However, remember that our goal is not to determine by some magical scientific process what your “objective” level is. There is no truly objective level of ability in a language. Intermediate one or two are purely arbitrary terms.
We merely wish to indicate roughly, based on your activity at LingQ, what your potential is, in the hope that this creates goals and milestones that will motivate learners.
A top priority for the site is to create the kind of incentives that will induce more people to use the site and work hard. We know that the language keeners do not need this kind of motivation. On the other hand it is our belief that it will appeal to a lot of people whose motivation sometimes wavers. We cannot just be a site for keeners, although we love having our keeners. We have to reach out to a larger audience.
People can still take from the site what they want.
I’m definitely far away from Intermediate 1 in French. I would consider myself as Beginner 1. This is funny (not to say ridiculous). Maybe I’m Advanced 1 in English. Much more I feel like Intermediate 2.
Sorry, I don’t need such an Avatar. I’m not a child. I’m more the kind of a serious learner. I cannot believe that this would result in more members.
Thank you Angela, for your question. This is exactly what I thought. I’m sure that more people who give LingQ a taster would stay with LingQ if there were fewer bugs.
Well, I like the avatar, I think it’s a nice little addition to the site. I think little features like this can indeed help people become more interested in the site and also feel like they are more involved with it.
I’ve also never heard “keener”, maybe it’s a Canadian thing?
I am with Harry and Angela. I will be excited when new languages are offered! I only hope this new feature will push me to do more in order to reach the right levels in each language.
Like Harry, Angela and Vera, I’d much prefer to be able to set my own level: there is no way that I’m intermediate in Swedish (I can barely utter a word). But as someone else said, I shall have to grin and bear it.
Vera, Alex will report separately on all the bug fixes and other new features that are also included in this upgrade.
Sanne, I also have an issue with the levels, but I want to wait before making any changes. The levels are based on passive vocabulary and since we spend most of our time here on building up our passive vocabulary, that part of our language abilities, we may in fact be more advanced, at least in potential, than we think. All it would take is a little more exposure, like a holiday in Sweden, to get your speaking closer to your passive skills.
Thanks for your feedback, everyone!
Btw, “keener” is definitely a Canadian thing. I had never heard the word until I came back to Canada a few years ago – now it’s a part of my regular vocabulary
@VeraI - We realize that not everyone will find use in the Avatar, but from our experience these people will be those who are already motivated such as yourself.
However, there were several significant bugs that were fixed in this most recent update, including a lingering issue with apostrophes in French, a major issue with LingQing words followed by punctuation in Korean, several inconsistencies in the Statistics, including double-counting of Known Words for LingQs that were created, marked as level 4, deleted then created again (a bug which I think you yourself brought to our attention), download/print/edit buttons not being clickable, and the list goes on, not to mention the new features that we brought to the table, including the Bookmarks which will help users resume long lessons. We continue to work on improving the site with new functions and features, but we are always working on fixing various bugs in the background.
I know why you like it and Vera does not: Your avatars look differently. The one of Makacenco has also got a hat. Why mine has not got a hat? It is not fair! It is not democratic! Steve, you cannot reach out to a larger audience by discriminating your users
Had you been a good buy and done a lot of studying, you’d also have some 'avatar’points to dress your poor little neglected man. Are you telling me you haven’t read the guide on what to do with the dear beasties?
@Alex
Thanks also for fixing the “apostrophe syndrome” and for making the “New words” and “My LingQs” boxes on the lesson page auto-scrolling. Great!
