Where to start, tips

Lingq has a lot of starter sources about Michael and such, we all know em. But I would actually say that you should try out kids stories first. Nothing big, maybe two or four pages long.

It is tempting to jump right into things you consider “useful” but you need to form a base. Focus on the alphabet of easy words, connector words like “when” and “if”, and basic sentence structure that is found in kids stories, and even basic pronunciation. They make kids stories very easy and engaging for this reason, it is the base of which kids get their written linguistic skills from. It is also how many of them built their cultural understanding from (folk stories). That is, if you are going for fluency over speed. I know some people just want the basics and nothing more for work or just travel and that’s okay.

If you jump into something that is too complex and you can’t even hear different words in it, then you are hitting wayyyy above your level. Start with smaller interests of yours. Do you like cats? The colour blue? Psychics can wait. Now if you know the alphabet by heart, then you can punch above what I would normally recommend. Like maybe you already know the script used because the language is close to your native, but otherwise you do need to start slow to create a comfort zone.

I think your first goal should be to create a comfort zone. Reading in a language you do not know can be very exhausting so it is much easier to learn if you have a comfort zone that does not exhaust you so you would be able to take a break from learning that language without losing the fluency you already gained. Think of it like reading an easy book with simple words after a long work shift, like Bluey or Scaredy Squirrel. They take zero effort on your part and that is the same thing you need to create with your goal language. It will be hard at first but you need to push past the initial stage of knowing nothing at all.

Once you created that safe zone it will be easy to find audio books at your level to passively listen to and learn new words without needing to directly translate it. It will also open you up to new more of an understanding with speaks because those boring words are actually used daily unlike the word “Foreigner” and “head chef”. If you can speak to a child, that is progress. No shade on the Michael stories though, they are still useful. But I think they lack in individuality that folk stories have which also immerse you better into that language and culture.

In the end it is just my opinion, so if you think you are doing well then ignore this.

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I started with the Mini Stories on LingQ (for Spanish.) I listened to them over and over again until I just couldn’t do it anymore. I also listened to many ultra-beginning podcasts and watched material on YouTube while reading in the LingQ reader. As I got bored with each level of material, I would move up.

I watched things that were too hard for me and read the words. I took some online classes that the podcasters offer and studied grammar and vocabulary until it was boring. I tried to keep the learning and materials fresh and interesting to me, which at lower levels was challenging. I spent some time talking to natives via online services but didn’t enjoy the experience but you might.

A bit over a year later and close to 1,000 hours spent listening and watching (I didn’t track grammar study time but maybe it’s been 100 hours) I have moved to TV shows. I watch telenovelas and reality shows and can understand most of what I am watching. I’ve found regular TV and Movies are still beyond my understanding because of the amount of colloquial language used. The more I understand, the more I watch. At this point, I’m able to speak the language like a child might, but I think that’s where I ought to be, judging from my five-year-old granddaughter’s level of speaking. In other words, my Spanish is probably better than her five-year-old’s English. I still have a difficult or impossible time understanding natives speaking quickly, but if they slow down I can.

When I see how far I’ve come in just over a year, I’ve realized that it’s only a matter of time until I’m speaking “more” fluently. I’m enjoying the process, and what do we have if not time to do what we enjoy? As my wife often says, “you’ll be x years older in x years, regardless if you spend the time studying or not.”

So if you’re just starting out, my starting tip would be just do it and enjoy the process. Experiment and discover what works and doesn’t work for you and then do it some more.

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