I just tried. Looks like now I cannot choose a predefined hint. I also have difficulty locating the specific sentence if the text is long, since in this mode, the LingQ are not highlighted.
But it is not a big deal really. May be it is just my excuse. I should start adding more LingQ from now on.
Thanks.
You should be able to choose predefined hints when you LingQ words in the Quick LingQ tab. All the hints are shown in blue in that tab. They are not shown in the text.
I’ve tried creating LingQs on several occasions. I like that you can create them so quickly. I don’t like that the review is so daunting. This last go around, I really went in with an open mind. I downloaded the iPhone app and everything. Theoretically, this should have been smooth sailing – and believe me, I really like the idea of LingQ – but I once again went back to what’s tried and true for me, and that’s reading whatever the heck I want, and using Google Translate, Word Reference, Copy and Paste, and Anki. LingQ just doesn’t work like my brain does. I like the philosophy behind LingQ and practice it daily; I just don’t use LingQ.
"I don’t like that the review is so daunting. "
I don’ understand.
By daunting, I mean it takes too long. Say I have 50 LingQs to review at a time. In Anki, that’s not a big deal, because the better you know a word, the less frequently it appears. Say, if you know the word, you’re not going to see it again for four days or four months or even a year. But in LingQ, I have to go through each one twice. It’s not enjoyable. My brain goes numb. I don’t know if other users feel the same way, but that could be why not as many people are using that feature.
Caito
If you see my comment upthread you see I have the same problem. I suggest a few solutions up there too.
Now , what I do is go through the deck of 50 telling myself that everyone I get right is a bonus. In other words, I do not try for perfection, I just expect not to remember, and I am happy when I do.
This makes the flash-carding much less daunting. To get two right in a row requires more repetitions per session, more reliance on working memory and less reliance on long term recall, guessing or puzzling the meaning out from context.
When I reread the words I just wrote: "I do not try for perfection, I just expect not to remember, and I am happy when I do. ", I feel they are reminiscent of Steve’s stance toward vocab learning. So according to LingQ philosophy, the flashcards are very well designed.
One thing I might suggest is a kind of timer setting: “X” number of seconds and the card will flip. This will help the nitpickers and the closet perfectionists, a group to which I belong, I admit.
Dooo, the daunting part is that even if you get the word “right,” by whatever definition you use (totally agreed regarding striving for perfection), you still to go through it a second time.
In Anki, if I get it right, boom, it’s gone for the day. And I have control over the intervals used to get the word to come back in the future. That’s pretty much why I use Anki over LingQ. What I like about LingQ, is that you can create LingQs so quickly. The Anki-like app that nails this is going to make a mint.
While I only sporadically review flash card, preferring to see my saved LingQ highlighted in yellow in future texts, when I do go through flash cards, I only go once.
On the other hand, “geting” them once is no guarantee that they are learned, nor is getting them at different times in Anki. I prefer to just let them naturally percolate along in my reading, and they show up when they show up.
That said, I think that one day we will look at how our flash cards work. Meanwhile you can export to Anki.
I disagree. I feel like the definition of “right” imposed by the current flashcards inherently less daunting. The current LingQ system won’t work for you unless you give up on perfectionism which is the seed of the daunting feeling. Anki, while not promoting perfectionism, is easier to work with if you hold on to a desire to “nail down” or “perfect” vocab.
I don’t create many links because I use anki for reviewing my flash cards. I prefer the spaced repetition format and the customisation I have over the way the flash cards appear. No pun intended, but the linngQ iphone app is a bit tempromental and crashed on me whenever I have used it. I also like to use flashcards on my ipad. The lingQ app is not formated for the ipad. lastly, I’m hardy at a computer, and whenever I am It’s rarely for foreign language study. I think I would lingQ more if I the app was moe stable and I could create lingQs on my ipad.
I don’t Lingq. I don’t see any benefit to doing it. I’d rather just download and listen to content and read the text. Flashcarding is painful and demotivating for me.
I have zero interest in stats or word totals. Progress is the quality of meaningful conversation with native speakers, and the level of enjoyment I get from the language learning process.
I also do not do much flash card review, not because it is not beneficial, but because I prefer to read and listen.
However, I do find LingQing useful. Where I am still a beginner as in Korean, I go through the content LingQing and listening. In languages where I am more advanced, I download the content and listen and then go back and use QuickLingQing.
In the last 7 days I have created about 500 LingQs in the three languages as you can see at my profile.
I find the User Hints, handy, and don’t mind going to the dictionary to get a new Hint for the next person. I benefit in creating the LingQs and then when I read the texts on the computer or on my iPad and see the yellow highlighted LingQs.
Give it a try.
As some others have already mentioned, I find making lingQs a bit tedious too, mostly because often, at least when trying to lingQ in Spanish, it is really slow. Or in Japanese, I can’t get the lingQ system to highlight and pick up the whole word. I try to do more lingQuing because I agree that it’s helpful but my time infront of the computer is limited. I find it to be more enjoyable to just listen and read and only stop look up a very few words, or read slowly with an online dictionary to click, translate, and move on. Also, I really like making and reviewing the anki flash cards with mp3 audio, jpg pictures, example sentences with mp3 audio, internet links, etc. It is really cool!
Maybe I would do it more if I got better at it. After reading this thread, I think I’ll give it some more effort for a while and see.
Someone once mentioned a workaround with downloading another spreadsheet application, change language encoding etc.That’s more work than I expect.
Now as we speak, I’m trying to import the dreaded csv file, half a minute later it got stuck on 57%…15 minutes later on 71%… well, after half an hour the whole deck is imported.
Did Anki import it correctly? NO. Word/phrase+hint+example on the question side, and obviously nothing on the answer side. How is the import function supposed to work? Comma-separated texts seem to be tricky since there might be commas and what not in the phrase, hint and example.
As for the flashcard tool here, I go through the daily LingQs twice, occasionally move words up or down, but do my main vocab repetition with Anki. It’s superior for reasons I’ve stated several times before, and now Cait mentions it as well.
Here, words are too easy to “learn” AND to easy to forget.
LingQing itself is very quick, but I don’t think I’ve got an “automatic” hint from even a dozen LingQs the last month. That might be one reason why not more people make LingQs. If they have to open several windows, cross-reference many online dictionaries, then they could as well copy/paste the text into Google translate… TAB it and import it too Anki in a couple of seconds.
Hey Jeff,
Thanks for bringing Anki to my attention. I’d also started to think that the LingQ flash cards weren’t sticking in my brain long enough. So far I’ve had no problems importing a .csv file from LingQ. It was only 100 cards, but all loaded successfully.
How about C/P the printing file to Excel. That’s how it used to be done.
I wonder if you don’t create LingQ at all, why bother using the system?
When I encounter an unfamiliar text, uncertain of how difficult it would be to me, I import it right away into LingQ, which immediately gives me an accurate assessment of its difficulty, thanks to the previous LingQs I have created and known words I have marked.
I don’t use the LingQ flashcard system, since I like SRS more. I used to export the LingQs to an Excel spreadsheet, then import them to Anki. This was before the import/export functions were available!
I think lingQing must be as convenient as possible. I reported a problem:
Babylon often find no translation. I feel it worked better earlier.
It is not convenient that you have to open other windows for creating a LingQ. Only really motivated learners do that.
Another problem is that the interface has some problems. Sometimes I hover over a word and it is not possible to fix the popup. Sometimes it is not possible to highlight a word. The only thing that helps is to refresh the screen. That makes lingQing extreme slowly.
“I disagree. I feel like the definition of “right” imposed by the current flashcards inherently less daunting. The current LingQ system won’t work for you unless you give up on perfectionism which is the seed of the daunting feeling. Anki, while not promoting perfectionism, is easier to work with if you hold on to a desire to “nail down” or “perfect” vocab.”
No, the daunting feeling is having to go to 50 flashcards (I might have seen even 75) twice. I think I said that already? I base my learning model on my mental model. I don’t want to adapt my mental model to a piece of software. I’ve tried it, a few times now, but it doesn’t work. I keep defaulting to what I know works for me. This is merely in answer to Steve’s question, “Why don’t more people create LingQs”? Everyone’s going to have his or her personal experience. This one’s mine.
“No, the daunting feeling is having to go to 50 flashcards (I might have seen even 75) twiceI think I said that already?”
Well, I disagree and I told you why.
“I don’t want to adapt my mental model to a piece of software. I’ve tried it, a few times now, but it doesn’t work. I keep defaulting to what I know works for me.”
Fair enough. But would encourage you to try. It took me 2 years to get it. Sometimes mental habits can be limiting. What works for you may not be optimal. That is all.