Disclaimer my review is intuitive, so you might not agree.
TITLE 1: The forum on LingQ is top class in terms of support for language learners.
REASON 1 FOR TITLE 1
LingQ gives support even in the little most obvious things, which gives people the confidence to ask for help in the larger things.
Many language forums will ignore any obvious questions that you ask, that they believe you can just google. Or anything that’s too simplistic.
For example I wrote on another forum how do I pronounce the French r…and I got no responses. My intuition tells me it’s because people would of had a “just google it attitude.”
Whereas on LingQ I got waaaaaaaay more responses than I was expecting.
YES I could of just googled it. I’m pretty internet savvy. But even though people can google it, sometimes people ask easy to google questions as a way of connecting with the community. As a way of building stronger bonds with other language learners.
So the reason LingQ is so strong in terms of community, is because they answer those “small and easy to google questions.” In fact the couples who are married the longest are consistent on the small things, and yes they do big things. But the couples who only go on big dates, but don’t have any small little rituals tend to fall apart.
This is great for language learners, who when they are READY to speak, know that they are speaking or writing to a very supportive community.
REASON # 2 FOR TITLE ONE
ROSES
Lingqers are so supportive that I could write a post in a second language with bad word choice and bad grammar. I could even give some language learning techniques that might not be that great; and someone will still give you a rose for making the effort to help.
REASON # 3 FOR TITLE ONE
The criticism is very mature. For example instead of saying “YOUR WRONG YOU KNOW NOTHING”…a Linngqer will say “WELL IN MY EXPERIENCE…THIS IS HOW IT WENT FOR ME.”
TITLE # 2: LINGQ RESPECTS ALL ASPECTS OF LANGUAGE LEARNING AND IT’S MORE REALISTIC.
Did you know that most people spend the majority of their time in their native language, watching movies, going on FaceBook, texting friends…reading etc? In this really internet savvy culture…talking isn’t done as often as looking and listening.
So when all these language courses are all about “speaking” “speaking”…I’m just like I don’t talk very much in my own native tongue… I spend most of my time wanting to read books and watch movies
But LingQ has an attitude of what do you want? Do you want to speak to people? Do you want understand movies/music? Do you wanna read? You do what you want! You have already succeeded before you even speak, you don’t need to speak to know that your improving and doing well in the language.
Whereas other so called individuals no name no shame say phrases like "I’m sorry but I just can’t be an anti social robot. For me a language is about speaking " PARAPHRASED
Some people are pretty quiet in their native language. They’re NOT shy. They just don’t feel like talking much. And I think it’s wrong for people to sort of have an insulting mindset towards them, like “oh your not interested in speaking…what a antisocial” in a degrading sort of way Look if someone isn’t that into talking in their native language, why should they be forced to do it in their target language?
LINGQ GIVES PRAISE WHERE OTHERS WOULD NOT
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Um I can speak the language. cue the standing ovation and the looks of wonder and amazement.
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Um I can’t really speak the language…but I can understand all of it… *Oh yeah cool cool, just keep practicing and one day you’ll be able to speak."
Did you know it’s harder to understand a language than to speak it? In fact in terms of language development a child listens more than they speak in the early stages, because listening takes more time to develop. Being able to understand a language takes a lot more language matter being developed in your brain than speaking.
In fact you can speak in a week with the right conditions. A patient native speaker, a dictionary…whereas in a week of listening…well let’s just say it won’t be as good as your speaking.
So it’s GREAT that LingQ praises “how many words you know passively or actively” . It’s great that LingQ gives a lot of praise to those who have succeeded in being able to understand at different levels in their target language, or at being able to write at different levels in their target language. Praise should be given in all areas of success regarding language learning…and LINGQ delivers.
TITLE 3 REASON 3: Lingq learners have more interesting conversations (after a certain period of time), and they are more articulate, and have a better command of words than other language learners who don’t use books, and articles and newspaper and similar learning to LingQ.
The reason is obvious. LingQ has a lot of authentic books. So even if someone doesn’t use LingQ but uses the Lingq method, their command of the language is going to be a lot better. than another language learner who just uses a phrasebook.
However the only downside is, it can take Lingqers longer to start speaking, because novels, books, newspapers don’t necessarily have direct phrases like a phrasebook. And direct phrases are things we can usually say straight off the bat in our day to day lives…but when Lingqers finally do speak…it’s usually leagues above people who don’t read that much in their target language.
A native speaker who reads a lot is ahead in terms of articulacy, depth of conversation, and use of words than a native speaker who doesn’t read a lot. So it stands to reason that a person who reads a lot will be ahead of other learners of the same language, Yes it will take them longer to speak, because they aren’t getting direct phrases from a phrase book. But when they do speak it will definitely be better.
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