I joined Lingq after listening to Steve Kaufmann for a while. I figured my way of learning German wasn’t working so why not try something new. The problem is I feel like there is a lot of guessing involved.
For instance, if I take the words, “der Reihe nach” individually they have a meaning; but in this case, they mean something different together. Here’s the full sentence:
Das war unsere Küchenuhr, sagte er und sah sie alle der Reihe nach an, die auf der Bank in der Sonne saßen.
The way I found out that “der Reihne nach” go together was through Google Translate. I wasn’t able to make sense of the sentence otherwise. Is that the way I’m supposed to find out, or is there a better way? As I go through each blue word, I feel like I’m guessing at what the possible meaning might be, often defaulting to the most popular (although I found that isn’t always the best meaning). So how people tackle that issue?
Second, am I supposed to click on each lingq and get the meaning as I’m reading it? Over time, I’ll eventually pickup things like meaning and noun gender? Right now reading almost feels useless since I don’t know the words yet.
Third, with listening, am I just going for listening to the way the word is pronounced and not caring about the meaning for new words (since I can’t click fast enough).
I hope that all makes sense. And sorry if this has been explained before. I really just want to make sure I understand this fully so that I can take full advantage and hopefully learn for once! Thanks so much for your help!
There are several ways to go about reading. I personally do click every word I don’t know and make lingqs out of them. It’s also what S. Kaufmann seems to do, according to his videos. Anyway, your mission is to understand what the text says. What the author’s talking about. The meaning you select for the word is what makes sense in that context.
As for expressions (“der Reihe nach”, …): If you select the whole phrase (drag your mouse) you can make a lingq out of it. Quite often you’ll get the right meaning directly! Otherwise look it up in one of the dictionaries and edit the meaning accordingly.
In short: treat expressions as simple words.
I have gone about using lingq more or less exactly as Mr Kaufmann recommends. I lingq every blue word I don’t know barring names or maybe cities and the like. IT’s true that some words may change out of context but knowing the primary meaning is most important. If I were to try and grasp the meaning of words in every single specific context, I’d be much further behind.
I would recommend that you don’t worry about grasping every meaning a word may have. If there is a phrase you encounter that seems to alter the meaning of a word, then lingq the entire phrase. It has really worked for me so far in Spanish. My progress generally speaking is quite rapid…
Of course, the understanding of the whole combination is better not only for the correct comprehension, but also for the future speaking in your target language.
But even if you’ve understood something incorrerctly - it doesn’t matter.
A new language is like an unknown field or a forest. Gradually, you’ll lay right ways and paths. But not right away!
It’s like in sport: if you started playing golf or another game, you can’t play very well in a go. You need much time and many exercises before you play well.
Thank you for all of your responses. Those help! This is such a new way of learning to me that it still feels very foreign. I’m still wondering how I’m supposed to know that “der Reihne nach” is an expression, or that I’m supposed to Lingq the 3 words together? As I mentioned, I only found out through Google Translate. Is that the only way? Or is it about seeing that pattern a lot? Thanks again!
Thank you for your response. The question is, how am I supposed to know to select the whole phrase? If I don’t understand it, start highlighting more words?
Thanks for your encouraging comment about your Spanish is progressing rapidly due to this method. I appreciate your feedback and find it helpful. My point was I didn’t know that “der Reihne nach” was a phrase or that I should Lingq it. Only through copying and pasting the sentence into Google Translate. How do you know when learning Spanish? Is it trial and error?
"It’s like in sport: if you started playing golf or another game, you can’t play very well in a go. You need much time and many exercises before you play well. "
Google translation is often wrong. I don’t use it, but you can use as the first approximate, rough idea of what you read or listened to.
But to see and to listen a lot of times to a certain patterns of your target language - that’s very good and important to get accustomed to them.
Yes, link the three words together by dragging the mouse. The preferred method to “discover” expressions, in my view, is:
See if you understand the sentence word by word
If you don’t, try linking words, just in case, notice if you get a “literal” translation or something different
If push comes to shove, do use one of the dictionaries, but I’d say that’s a last resource.