@nsprung
Please read my message above/previous message.
What is the current timeframe for Lithuanian being added into Lingq?
What is needed to decrease the time, how can people help?
4 Likes
We donāt have a timeframe yet, unfortunately.
We need some edits to be made to the texts of the Lithuanian Mini Stories to fit our standards. After that, we need all 60 stories recorded with high quality audio by a native speaker.
If you know someone who can help with this, send me an email at north@lingq.com
4 Likes
Hey,
any update on the Lithuanian course?
Thank you!
4 Likes
We still donāt have a timeframe. As these new languages are made with the help of volunteers, it can be some time before Lithuanian is added.
2 Likes
Itās quite frustrating and disappointing. I wish you could just add what you have and then ask someone to improve them. This way we could start importing our own content.
3 Likes
I mean, I get your frustration. But then people would just be upset that the quality wasnāt sufficient when it actually was published. I donāt know how easy it is to improve on an already made product if you want to have the same speaker which seems to be the case for LingQ.
2 Likes
Hi there, any update?
1 Like
Please , I request you to add lithuanian as soon as possible. It would be such a great help and i would buy premium every month
3 Likes
Hi there, any update?
4 Likes
Hello @nsprung,
Just curious again if there is any update or if you could tell about the status for Lithuanian coming to Lingq?
Might it happen anytime soon or is it still unclear?
Thanks!
1 Like
Unfortunately there hasnāt been any progress made towards adding Lithuanian. A user volunteered to make some Mini Stories but never ended up submitting any files.
If thatās the case, maybe you @DaveDaveDave can produce someone to help with the volunteer content? It can be done in a week if oneās dedicated enough, so maybe ask around at your uni?
Hello,
I was considering creating a new thread for this, but this one has quite a history so I figured I would begin with reviving this one.
I am curious what information there is regarding the current status of the Lithuanian language course on LingQ? It would be very beneficial, for many various reasons, to finally put this course online.
I personally have been awaiting the release of this course for many years, and I am wondering if I should abandon any hope of this coming to fruition entirely.
Itās a topic by itself, but Iām a bit curious about the economics of LingQ lol. Many people pay subscriptions to LingQ, LingQ makes money. Yet, it sounds like the services that LingQ provide rely entirely on volunteers to put in the work required to create content that LingQ will make money on (Eventually). Why would LingQ not invest a little money into the creation of this course? Iām sure it would have happened a long time ago if this avenue was perused.
I think adding Lithuanian is important for those that want to truly learn the language as LingQ really is a valuable platform. Probably one of the most useful resources in language learning. LingQ also has the opportunity to create the Lithuanian course out of an attempt to preserve the language and allow others to discover it who otherwise might not consider it.
Thank you very much for your time, and I look forward to any sincere response.
2 Likes
Hello James, I think if youāve waited multiple years to learn Lithuanian, it would perhaps be of interest for you to try and contact the Lithuanians you personally know, or try to get in touch with some online who could help either for free or for a small sum. I imagine it wouldnāt be too expensive to get someone to translate and narrate the mini stories.
Otherwise I fear this will never come to fruition, Lithuanian is a very small language. Regarding the economics of LingQ, itās been discussed elsewhere on this forum and it turns out that LingQ really isnāt gaining any money on these languages, I saw somewhere but I cannot find it again, that LingQs most popular languages are Spanish, French, Korean, Japanese and English. In an unspecified order. Given this, it makes sense for LingQ to require volunteers to do the heavy lifting for them. At least if someone can front the most basic work to show interest in the language, it can tell LingQ that there is a niche but dedicated enough base for the language to give it support.
I have seen people discuss the same languages for about as long as Lithuanian, and without judging anyone. It makes sense why LingQ wouldnāt respond to every single request given that so little has happened despite a years long interest in some languages. I suggest you follow my earlier suggestion, it would most likely set you back a few hundred euros. In comparison to a tutor that is still a discount.
Hello, James.
Over the past few months, Iāve been experimenting quite a bit with the possibility of generating learning materials through Artificial Intelligence. The initial results with ChatGPT werenāt satisfactory, but they improved considerably afterward with Gemini, Deepseek, and especially with Claude.
One of these initiatives was to work on a detailed prompt to create materials that used an approach similar to Assimilās: texts in a bilingual version, with commentary notes on grammar. I also added a series of notes of a cultural and historical nature.
Iām mentioning this here because one of the complementary materials for these courses Iām developing consists of Anki decks with accompanying audio. To generate the audio for each card, I developed a Python script that uses Microsoft Edgeās TTS. I ran a series of tests with languages I already know better ā including my native Portuguese ā and I found the results quite satisfactory.
When I read your message, I thought it might not be a bad idea to translate the Mini-Stories texts into Lithuanian and use my script to generate the corresponding audio. I did some testing along these lines. If youād like to check out the result, I uploaded the text and audio for Mini-Stories 2, 3, and 4 to a folder on Google Drive: Lithuanian Materials - Google Drive
I donāt know whether the LingQ staff would accept using a version like this as the basis for launching a new language, but if they agree, I can easily generate the translation of all the lessons along with the corresponding audio. In fact, if they accept, I can do this for any language they want.
I know itās not the ideal situation. I would also prefer to have a text translated and recorded by a native speaker, but as this post shows, that can take years and possibly never come to fruition. I think it would be entirely justifiable to resort to this kind of strategy in the case of minority languages. Or at least to generate a version like this for a native speaker to review. Iām sure it would be cheaper to pay for a review to validate the material than to produce it from scratch.
In any case, I took the opportunity to also use my prompt to generate some Lithuanian lessons using the methodology of the courses Iāve been developing for myself and for my friends and family. If youāre interested in this kind of approach, I can generate the rest of the course. Itās interesting for me too, because I end up learning a little about a language I never thought I would study before.
The structure Iāve been adopting for this course is as follows: around 25 lessons for the A1 introduction. Each of these lessons is centered on a grammar topic and a cultural theme. The texts start out very simple and new vocabulary is introduced gradually, with the lessons trying as much as possible to revisit words already presented earlier, so that only a fraction of each new text consists of previously unseen words. After these initial lessons, you move on to a reading block that works as a transition to A2, which is also made up of roughly 25 lessons. These donāt introduce new grammar topics; they only reinforce the ones already covered, but they aim to expand the studentās vocabulary. Then the structure repeats: about 25 more lessons, followed by an equivalent reading block and another level change. This way, up to the B2 level, it would be something like 200 lessons. All the lessons include the audio of the base text.
Iām still testing and adjusting this model. Iām using these materials to study Danish (right now Iām on lesson 23 of A1), while my wife and an aunt are working through the Italian material and my mother is doing the French material. Later on, Iām thinking of setting up a page to make this material available, more or less like the creator of Language Transfer did. At the same time, Iād like to upload the base texts of each lesson here to LingQ.
But before that, I need people willing to test the courses and offer feedback so that I can identify whatās working and what needs to be improved.
I donāt know whether youāre interested in this kind of approach. But if you are, I can keep generating the Lithuanian lessons. If youāre not, no problem either. Itās just an offer, which I naturally extend to any other member of the community who might be interested. The sample lessons are also in the Google Drive link I mentioned earlier, in the Lithuanian Lessons folder.