My target language this year is Latin. Note my opinion is subjective - I simply found a lot of the material is too advanced, or too simple. Something I find problematic is too low a frequency of new words - i.e. materials where the amount of LingQs vs total word count is too high.
Note I am referencing this as an absolute beginner in Latin.
I have previously completed the Duolingo German course, and was disappointed at the end of it to find my German was worse than my [then] 2-year old’s English, despite apparently ‘knowing’ 2500 words. I would say my Latin is no better now, at 2,000 words known, but I feel there is much more room to grow here, as I continue through the materials I have imported.
There are indeed people who try simply listening and reading (well, passing one’s eyes over…) incomprehensible content and expect to learn like a baby supposedly does. (I think these are often overenthusiastic novices - those who don’t go for explicit instruction.) That doesn’t really work, and the addition of “comprehensible” explains what’s missing.
On the other hand, it explains what LingQ is trying to do: it is trying to help make the input comprehensible so that learning occurs.
I don’t know whether these exist in Latin, but it sounds to me like what you are describing is a graded reader.
Beginner level graded readers use only simple sentence structures and high frequency words, with tons and tons of repetition. Mid-level graded readers expand this a bit.
What happens quickly, though, is that this repetition starts to become brutally boring to read. However, they do provide a nice base which lets you start using more fresh and “human” sources like YT videos for learners, which again I have no idea whether they exist for Latin.
FWIW, I had great success in Chinese with the Who Is She? series provided by LingQ. It starts out very, very, very simple and gradually gets more complex as the 26 episodes go on. Bonus is the story is coherent and interesting, with a couple moments of laughter and twists. It was a great way to gain a foothold, and that’s really all you need as a beginner.
So many useful responses in this thread! A huge thanks to everyone—and special one to you, @Salvaje. I was looking for someone like you—learning Spanish (without a similar Romance language background) and at a level close to mine (B1+/B2). But unlike me, you’ve put much more time into reading and listening on LingQ over an extended period.
You’ve read 700k words, while I’m at 300k, and I’ve done way less listening if I’m not mistaken. I wanted to know if this method really works and whether I should invest more time into it.
Based on your experience, it seems like there is a cumulative effect, which definitely motivates me to keep going. Thanks for sharing!
To be clear, I’ve been literally living in Central America with a host family for several months while taking 20 hours per week of 1-on-1 classes with teachers who speak no English. It’s huge advantage (and privilege).
That said, I have a much broader passive vocabulary and better listening skills than most of my peers; an I attribute this to getting as much exposure to Spanish outside of class than other students.
I think what really helps vocabulary stick is encountering it repeatedly in various contexts. While learning English, I sometimes used Anki with spaced repetition to memorize difficult words. The process was okay, but it lacked the natural contextual reinforcement and automatic retrieval that come from real exposure. However, it was useful for learning words that I wouldn’t usually look up because I could grasp the general meaning from context.
Now, I focus more on consuming real content, which is much easier with platforms like YouTube. I specifically look for content with highly comprehensible input and dual translation, so I can instantly see the meaning of unknown words. While this helps, it still lacks the necessary repetition to fully retain new vocabulary. Reviewing old videos can be useful, but watching an entire video just to find a few words again is quite time-consuming.
Lately, I’ve been searching for YouTube channels with dual translations for learning German, where translations are readily available. I found some interesting channels that repeat content multiple times to reinforce vocabulary. For example, this Spanish channel does a good job of reinforcing words: ListenESSpanish
However, the issue is that this type of content can become dull for adults. Another German-learning channel I found also repeats content in both languages, but it only displays a black screen, which isn’t very engaging: German Learning Comprehensible
I also enjoy audiobooks, but expanding vocabulary through them is tricky. Unless you frequently pause to look up unknown words, the learning process becomes very “stop-and-go,” which can make it less enjoyable.
Yeah, same here. I studied for nine months at a Spanish language school, also 20 hours per week (a total of 500–600 hours). The only difference is that I didn’t practice as much outside of school as you did. I went from zero to B1+ during that time, and now I’ve been trying to solidify B2 for several months, but it’s been a struggle.
These days, I just have two tutoring sessions per week and use LingQ daily.
Yes! I have noticed a pattern in my vocabulary learning: there are certain words that I have to look up every time I see them. Often I’ll go “oh yeah, right”, but then forget again by the next time I encounter it.
That is until that word happens to come up twice in the same session (or sometimes in two sessions in a row) but in separate contexts.
If I’m reading a novel on LingQ, then the same word can be used six times in the same scene and I’ll still forget it by the next time – but if it comes up in two different scenes that I happen to read in the same (or sometimes subsequent) session, then suddenly that word will be stuck in my head and I won’t forget it again – even if I only saw it those two times vs. many times over in the same scene!
There are certain words that I find particularly hard to learn. The French words basculer, bousculer and bouleverser are somewhat similar in form and meaning. Anki was not much use, hearing them in context many times did the trick.
I think your and others’ findings that LingQ is not the best for beginning a new language. I also agree that DuoLingo has it’s purpose, especially for getting started. I was learning Hebrew with a teacher (bat mitzvah prep) and found DuoLingo invaluable for getting the alphabet and vowel sounds down.
I learned Polish by immersion from age 10-14. While it was great for getting me talking, you can’t rely on teenage peers to help you by correcting your grammar or expanding your vocabulary Duo Lingo was great for refreshing my basic vocabulary and even taught me some very common words that I had somehow never learned (or mislearned) whe I lived there.
However, I ceilinged out pretty quickly and spent way too much energy keeping up my streak without much benefit. LingQ was a game changer for me. Starting at an intermediate level, the trick is to consume lots of content. Still though, I disagree that LingQ relies only on input. At least for me, those excercises where you put the sentences in order and speak the sentences are definitely making me notice the grammar and structure and keeping my tongue practiced in spitting out consonants and vowels at a ratio of 1200:1 (small exaggeration).
Thanks all for sharing your thoughts. It helps and is appreciated.
Surely the original post explains clearly what is meant i.e. LingQ statistics are a poor measure of progress.
I started studying German with LingQ following Krashen’s and Steven Kaufmann’s advice, but gradually found that the methods did not work for me. So I started reading less, studying more, explicitly learning words, taking apart words and grammar, and making more progress. But according to LingQ statistics, my daily progress has dropped by a factor of four or more. And yet in reality I am making far more progress.
My guess is that some people are falling into the McNamara fallacy, IE focusing only on numbers and missing what’s harder to measure, which can create a false sense of progress.
On LingQ, this happens when learners focus exclusively on numerical indicators—such as the number of known words, LingQs created, or words read—to gauge their language proficiency. While these metrics are valuable for tracking certain aspects of learning, they don’t capture the full picture of language acquisition.
You might see your stats grow but feel stuck because those numbers don’t reflect how well you can actually use the language.
Using the language is great and may be a goal. It’s also different from understanding the language which for me is core. Doing well on grammar tests etc. are different again.
I did quite well in French at school and don’t feel I understand the language. Comprehensible input is helping me understand Greek better than measureable and grammar based approaches did. For me Lingq known words are a general sense of progress but progress comes as I read large amounts. So “in reality, I’m making far more progress” can be interpreted differently depending on how you measure progress: grades, intuition or other methods.
I measure progress in German in the most obvious and practical way:
Do I understand words when I see and hear them again i.e. passive skills. Is my understanding of written and spoken language improving i.e. passive skills. Is my ability to recall words and form sentences improving i.e. active skills.
Using the Krashen method, I was failing to take in words, they just weren’t sticking. I couldn’t even say the simplest of sentences. Once I started studying grammar (not rote learning, and only when needed), and examining words, progress shot up. As my skills improve, I will reduce the amount of study, and increase the amount of input.
I think your situation is quite different, you’re at a stage with a good foundation in the language, even if you don’t recognise it. You have an understanding of French, of verb conjugations, grammar and vocabulary, but you need lots of input to turn it into usable language, to develop a deeper understanding and to automatise your knowledge. I was in a similar situation to you with French. I had a basis from school (I was a poor student), evening classes, and living in Montreal 30 years ago. Several years of input has got me to a level where I can understand French radio as well as comedy sketches as long as the French is fairly standard i.e. not dialect or heavy in slang. And don’t forget that English and French grammar are quite close: both are SVO, both have similar word order, and phraseology is often similar. Plus we have a huge amount of shared vocabulary, either borrowed from French or taken from Latin.
Interestingly my current way of studying German is quite similar to how I studied French at school, and in evening classes.