I saw Mark’s profile and he appears to be well versed in French (my favourite language). I also see he is also learning/perhaps already speaks WELL other languages he has listed.
I’m wondering, will Steve gradually or eventually shift things to Mark to be the public spokesperson of LingQ? It may perhaps have it’s advantages too… Steve has proven that the system works, but I’m sure he gets his skeptics who would simply regard his achievements as being just that Steve is simply gifted.
Though surely if different people came on the scene in the public spotlight to “educate” or “promote” language effectiveness through showing successfully language acquisition using LingQ, it may translate to higher conversation rates into paid users. It sure would inspire me to see Mark come on youtube and start talking in awesome French (maybe with a québécois accent), or Swedish etc.
Anyway, is Mark also a Linguist and will he ever start publicly promoting LingQ in the same manner that Steve does?
I have heard a lot of comments on the lines of “Steve clearly has a natural gift for languages”. We need some advocates who utterly sucked at languages until they found LingQ.
I’ve heard Steve say (in a video, I think) that he is not a natural with foreign languages. But it’s quite clear that he puts in the time to learn them (efficiently), and then to maintain them.
Someone like Luca (on YouTube) appears to be very gifted, however I have no doubt he puts a lot of time into his language learning as well.
Back to the topic (well, kind of), yes I’m curious to hear Mark using a foreign language. I don’t know much about him, except that he has travelled and lived abroad.
@Mark - Don’t be shy to make an appearance to this thread… thanks
I think honestly 1 aspect of LingQ that needs to improve, is the demonstration of successful language learning by other people who are not called Steve. Just because it works for Steve, doesn’t mean it works for others (that’s the typical ignorant thinking that goes around). So to break these barriers, youtube needs to be flooded with successful language learners speaking random foreign languages (well) indicating/praising their success to LingQ.
I (wanted) to make a video in French praising LingQ, but currently I’m not successful (yet) and so I probably would reduce LingQ’s credibility if I made such a video.
@milanmaras - I’m not hiding! Just haven’t yet got here. Lots going on today.
I’ll make a video of myself speaking other languages for the video contest http://www.lingq.com/contest/ if you do, too! My French is not bad although it’s been a while since I studied it on the site. Japanese is ok too although again I should brush up. Right now, I’m learning Swedish but am in the early stages.
At any rate, you’re on! Let’s all make a video. It needn’t be long. That will generate the success stories milanmaras is talking about. It’s not about being perfect. It’s about telling your story about LingQ and how you feel it helps you. You can speak in a foreign language or not and your native language is fine too :-).
I should point out that making a language video, and our video competition, is not about seeing who speaks the best in another language. I do not believe in language competition.
However, making a language video is a great target, a milestone, something to shoot for. We all need targets, specific goals. Just like our statistics here at LingQ, or a relationship with a tutor at LingQ, or the dream to read a novel in the language, or the desire to visit the country, these are all specific triggers, mountains to climb ( if I can mix my metaphors) that remind us of why we are learning the language. Making a language video is the next mountain. Go for it!
I can assure you that making videos in another language is a great way to train your language skills. You really start to notice where your gaps are. I can also assure you that you won’t get it right the first time!!!
@mark - I am ashamed of my French… c’est impossible de faire une vidéo! If I was speaking it somewhat at a level that sounded like I spoke French, then I definitely would! I don’t want to embarrass myself and people will think (a) shock horror shame for bastardising such a beautiful language (b) what a loser, I can’t understand what he is saying - the system doesn’t work.
If I spoke in English, I wouldn’t be credible as I would have a g’day mate true blue aussie type accent and you Canadian folk won’t understand what I’m talking about with my ocker sounding voice. This would also not show credibility as I’ll be talking about my language learning in English which I something I hate to do.
If I spoke in Cantonese, it would show no relevance as I didn’t learn Cantonese via LingQ since you guys don’t offer it (yet).
Let see if I get this straight. Milan more or less challenges Mark to produce a video in another language, and Milan won’t even produce one in English. Is that about it?
I think progress videos, or at least audio, are probably a good idea. Perhaps that’s something that could be incorporated into the site. Maybe we could record little 5 minute conversations with tutors every few months. Then we’d have a record of our progress. I suppose there’s nothing to prevent us from just doing this on our own. I know some people post videos of themselves on youtube in order to get feedback, but it’s not something I’ve considered doing.
Just haven’t yet got here. Lots going on today.