After I spoke to Marianne this afternoon, it overcame me: I sat down and wrote a few lessons for beginners. The series is called “Is there a doctor in the house?” and I hope you enjoy them. Feedback will be appreciated, as always.
My feedback:
This is designed for beginners so let’s make it more simple as well.
- Make up a funny story (should not last more than 2 minutes while recorded).
- Incorporate all these expressions in it.
- Provide meanings of such expressions at the bottom. (please record them too)
So the whole recording will last from 2-3 minutes. Not bad at all.
“That was a sick joke.” How would a beginner know what does this expression mean? Is that joke very nasty? Or very hilarious?
Thank you for the feedback. What a good suggestion about recording the notes as well (and about explaining the sick joke expression), I’ll see what I can do.
I have changed the level to Beg 2 and added a new lesson. I have not recorded the Notes, because they are likely to be changed from time to time and I do not want to have to re-record everything each time. Let me know if you want a separate recording.
I’ll add to the notes once I have done the translations.
Prividing notes alone will do the job. You don’t need to record them. Your “other expressions” look to me quite advanced. Having notes in each lession is a must.
“Finance is a cut-throat business.” I won’t able to understand this expression unless I take a look at the notes.
Sanne. These are excellent with or without notes. They are fine as they are. Just keep them coming. There is a mix of easy expressions and more difficult expressions to challenge the learners. Learners will be able to figure the more difficult expressions with the help of a dictionary or google, or by asking on the forum if necessary. Learners are not helpless.
Notes need not be recorded.
Thanks for the feedback Asad. It will be interesting to get more reactions, especially from people who are in the Beginner 2 stage.
Many thanks Sanne.
I would also like to point out that:
You should add notes in each lesson the way you have added in the first lesson “I’m sick.”
For example:
cut-throat = a cut-throat activity or business involves people competing with each other in an unpleasant way
etc
If learners are highly motivated then there is no need for providing notes as steve has already mentioned. It has been my experience that humans are lazy by nature.
@ asad100101 Thank you for your comments. I shall stick to what I am doing at the moment, just as Steve suggested.
I don’t like being spoon-fed in the texts I study and I am quite sure that other learners, too, prefer it when they can find things out for themselves.
My experience is that things stick better in my mind when I got them with some effort. If it is too easy to get information you’ll just consume them and forget them. This is a much more passive way than searching for information. Searching is an active process. This way things stay better in mind.
@veral. I have no issues with your approach as long as these beginners are highly motivated. They definitely are if they are using an online language system like lingq .
Keep up the good work. I think I took the word “beginners” very seriously. It is just my fault 
There is no need to apologise. After all, I did ask for feedback and you gave me something to think about. So, all is well.
Another question: what is an optimum length for a collection? Is it better to have several collections with, say, 15-20 lessons or is it better to have one very long collection?
Sanne, you have a very polished English accent by the way.
Well, thank you! One endeavours to do one’s best, doesn’t one? It must have come from all the polished company I used to keep 
My question still stands : what is the optimum length for a collection? Any ideas, thoughts? (I know I dislike having to plough through collections extending over many pages.)
Hi Sanne, sorry, I had an answer in my mind, but I forgot to write it down
If the content belongs together and if the lessons are on the same level I would add it to ONE collection. In my opinion, it is easier for students to follow a line. They can use the “next lesson” feature in the opened lesson. This makes it very easy for the student.
Sorry I missed the original question. In my view the ideal length is around 30 seconds to start with growing to one minute. I believe that each beginner collection should be around 10-12 lessons around one theme. Thus you could have several series of beginner lessons. The themes could be a story line (my diary, my thoughts, my town, my family, the adventures of Sally and Pedro or whatever) or they could be themes surrounding different aspects of usage.
Just my suggestions. I agree with Vera that it is very convenient when we can just open the next lesson. There is a sense of achievement when we complete one collection. This the first collection could even be 5 or 6 lessons longs, then the next one 10 etc.
With regard to themes on language usage, the points of view approach that Albert has used for Spanish is one example, where the tense changes in essentially the same story. The requirements of each language are different. Vera’s beginner content for German is another excellent example, and then there are stories like the Story of Nina in Russian which was done by former member Anna Ivanov.
Thank you both for your views. I seem to have come to a natural stop with this collection (12 lessons) for the time being. I’ll see whether the writing bug will bite again soon!