A year ago I finally tried LingQ. I had watched some of Steve Kaufmann videos before on language learning, but never looked into the app. I was at an intermediate level in Spanish and was struggling to get beyond that level.
I started my Spanish journey in 2014 (after a move to San Diego) with private classes; italki classes with native speakers; travel to Mexico monthly, other parts of Latin America, and Spain; and in January 2024 completed an Associate of Arts Degree Program from San Diego City College in Spanish with an immersion class in Buenos Aires, Argentina. So I had a very strong base level but still wanted more.
I started LingQ in April 2025 and got to B2 vocabulary word count (per LingQ) level in three weeks, C1 in two months, and C2 in seven months on this platform. I am a voracious reader and am at more than 3 million words read on the platform and approaching 50K known words.
Some of the ways I use the platform:
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I read some of the books that are available here, but I augment that with Spanish books from the local library. I checkout the library books and then obtain a digital version of the same book. I import the digital version, read it here first to look up the new words, and after completing the LingQ version I read the library book. I have read several books by Allende Isabel, Gabriel GarcĂa Márquez, and others using this method.
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I import YouTube videos constantly. I go deep in some topics and have a great grasp of words in specific topics from watching, listening and reading the text from different YouTube creators.
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Using this platform I have created good daily study habits - the streak helps in the beginning, but once you have your routine down you can miss a day here and there and it does not matter.
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I use the Seven Day stats - I want to keep all the stats in the green! This is related to the daily habits, but it shows me if I am slacking off, I can see what part of my learning I should concentrate on and fix.
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I started daily writing and speaking habits recently. I keep my writings in one document and every week, I import the document into LingQ and generate the audio to listen to my writings. Now I have started to include grammar studies in my writing.
My actual time studing on the platform averages 1 hour, thirty minutes per day and up to another hour reading outside of the platform. However, some days my study time is only 15 minutes, and other days are more than 3 hours!
Outside of LingQ, I still do italki classes with native Spanish speakers once a week and this helps me tremendously. All of my Spanish tutors have noted my improvement in speaking over the last year.
I no longer live in San Diego, so I try for two trips to Mexico for 10-14 days every year, and 2-3 weeks in other Spanish speaking countries when I can. I have a return visit planned to Buenos Aires and other parts of Argentina this fall.
Yes, there are bugs here and there in LingQ, but it is still the best platform I have found to date.
I am looking forward to my second year and beyond of learning on LingQ!
