Hello,
I’m new to LingQ and pretty excited that this is one of the only apps that doesn’t test you like a college course does (I freeze when tested with languages).
One problem I’m seeing right off the bat is that figuring out vocabulary divides attention from the audio and video. I really don’t keep up with the video or audio well if I’m constantly stopping to click on the words.
Do most of you here go through the audio/video first and then go through the reading or read through, find the LingQ words and then listen/watch the content?
I did what Eric does as well. I would typically read first, then listen, then both. Sometimes a few times of each, especially if I was motivated and liked the content. Back when I actually exercised (like 6 yeas ago) I would often listen to shorter pieces that I knew reasonably well on a playlist. If there were some sticking points, I’d go back and read.
I did a lot of reading on LingQ building my vocabulary. I thought my reading ability was impressive and greatly improved, my speaking was okay, but my listening and therefore conversation ability was lacking. So I put in hundreds more hours of listening and around 3-400 hours I noticed a marked improvement. I did a lot of “reading and listening” at the same time by watching NetFlix telenovelas and reading the Spanish subtitles at the same time. This helped a lot. LingQ didn’t have the ability to import the subtitles then. We are very lucky to have that now. If you go to do that, I’d probably just try to watch the vid, reading the subtitles onscreen at the same time, and importing and lingqing the words after. If you think it’s way above you after and episode or two, import the subtiles first, read through and lingq them up, then watch the vid, read the subtitles onscreen, and check back/read the episode or movie again in LingQ.
The other replies are very helpful and that is what you’ll want to end up doing as you gain more experience. However, in the beginning you may really struggle with this problem.
One way to get over this issue whey you’re starting is to use the “sentence mode”: Use Sentence Mode to Power Up Your Language Learning - LingQ Blog
Translate the sentence first, so you know what it is about. The translation won’t always be perfect but it’ll give you a general idea of he meaning, which will “free” your mind from having to make sense of the text. Then read word by word cliking as needed, making lingqs, etc. and try to find out how each word contribues to the overall meaning and how the sentence is structured. Then listen to the sentence. Go on like this until you finish the lesson. You can re-listen to it a few times at a later time, try to locate what part of the lesson you are hearing as the audio plays.
That’s the main thing: if you listen to speech that you can kind of recognize, even if just by remembering the translation, your brain will associate sound and meaning and you’ll eventually master the language.
¡Mucho éxito!