I just have a few questions about how to use Lingq the most efficiently because efficiency is very important when handling the ultra marathon that is language learning.
I usually just read because my vocabulary is so small and listen here and there to mini stories and content that I can understand 60-70% or more. But outside of Lingq I watch Easy Spanish on Youtube and when I am out and about doing other things I try to pick 3-5 words and usually repeat them in my head as a form of memorization. Are these study methods efficient? Also how bad is it to read like native-level content off Netflix with most of the words as yellow lings? Is it better to just stick with beginner content? What is the efficiency loss between the two? Also what does everyone think about rereading? Thank you for everyone’s input!
These are all rough estimates but I think 3-7% unknown words is the sweet spot. 7-13% can be quite difficult, anything above 13% and it feels like you’re looking up 2-3 words per sentence every sentence and I personally find it overwhelming at that point. At that point it becomes immensely difficult to absorb all the new input that’s flooding in. The only exception to this is if you feel particularly motivated by the material you are reading, then it’s possible to push the boundary a little further than usual.
When I am out and about I either read on the lingq mobile app, or I listen to audio clips through the lingq mobile app, sometimes of content that I’ve already reviewed before in the past (if I’m feeling a bit sluggish).
I don’t reread often, simply because I find it very boring to do so. If there’s plenty of content in your target language I don’t see much of a point of rereading things after you’ve gone over it. It can be helpful, yes, but I’d much rather immerse myself in a new source of input at that point.
I am very new to the language that I am studying and most content besides mini stories have alot of unknown words is having 1-2 new words a sentence productive studying?
Yes, those methods are efficient. Concentrating on reading for some time while you’re at beginners’ level make sense and it’ll prepare you to understand audio content later on. It does take away a bit of the initial stress and it may be worthwhile. I also don’t prioritize listening so much when I’m beginning with a new language. For example, in Japanese I mostly just read all mini stories, just listening occasionally, just as you’re doing. Only now am I going back and listening to them, after rereading, which also helps if you feel like it. I also often begin a new language by reading Assimil, often with no audio, just the book. If you build up your vocabulary through reading you’ll find it is much easier to understand the audio. Anyway, this is a long journey so you can always leave some steps for later on.
Besides, mixing up beginner material and more advanced content makes a lot of sense. In general, it doesn’t really matter if you tackle very complicated texts, as long as you don’t “burn out”, it depends mostly on your tolerance to the effort it requires and to the frustration of understanding only a bit. Again, I am also mixing up Japanese mini stories and much more advanced novels and anime.
Anyway, most details don’t really matter much, all you have to do is expose yourself to the language consistently. while you understand the gist of what you’re reading/watching.
Le deseo buena suerte
Make sure you are filtering your content to Beginner 1 - Beginner 2 material in LingQ if you haven’t already. You’re feed may be showing advanced stuff which will be a very tough slog. Focusing on the mini-stories for a period of time might be a good idea.
Having just started you are going to struggle a bit for sure. I’m not sure what other courses to point you to for Spanish to get your ramped up.
Once you get the mini-stories down I disagree a bit on the sweet spot. I personally like the 10-15% range. Using LingQ it makes it much easier. Particularly if you use sentence mode on your first readings. Sentence mode will allow you to pop up an entire translation for a sentence. This, along with LingQ’ing the individual words to get the individual word meanings gives you a better sense of the meaning of the sentence. You can go through quite difficult content and start to get a feel for things having that sentence translation because sometimes it’s a bit difficult to parse the meaning just based on the individual words. The sentence mode translation isn’t always correct, but often it is close enough. If it’s far off, then I’ll often take the sentence and enter it in deepL translator which seems to work a bit better.