People sometimes ask me how I manage to learn several languages at once on LingQ. The questions puzzle me. I don't do anything special. It's more about what I don't do.
I don't spend time learning to conjugate verbs or decline nouns. If you hear enough of a language, you get the hang of how it goes. The common patterns anyway. If a pattern isn't common enough for you to encounter regularly, it isn't important enough to spend time learning.
I don't spend time learning the keyboard layout for each language. It's too confusing. I use the extended UK keyboard, which gives me my usual QWERTY layout, plus French and German special characters if you press several keys at once. For Russian I have a ЯШЕРТЫ phonetic mapping, which means if I type a word how it sounds it comes out near enough. The spell checker will pick up the odd typo as well as all my spelling mistakes! For typing Japanese in Windows you can type romaji with your usual Latin keyboard layout, then it does some sort of computer magic and turns it into hiragana or kanji. For typing Chinese.....well, I'll worry about that later.
I don't spend time working on my pronunciation. I just try and copy what I have heard and the result is usually close enough. I really don't care if I speak Japanese with a southern English accent. In fact, I might do it on purpose just for fun!
I don't spend time learning vocabulary. I must have ten thousand unlearned LingQs, and I'll never have time to flashcard them all. I just flick through my vocabulary lists, upping the status of the words which I can remember from all my listening.
I don't spend time searching for the meanings of words. Too many words: too little time. The most common words I already know. The next most common words are known by other LingQ students, which means I can just select one of the hints which show up on a mouse-over. Slightly uncommon words I have to look up on the connected online dictionaries. And if Babylon or Google Dictionary don't have the translation, then the word is too obscure and I lose interest.
I don't spend time writing assignments. Maybe I should but I'm kind of lazy and definitely pressed for time. I know my speaking is improving because my various tutors tell me so. If my spelling is poor, well I can worry about that further down the line. I at least know how to use a spell-checker.
I don't have regular tutorial sessions. I did try but it made my life too complicated, what with all the tutors I talk to. Now I book up a whole month at a time, one-on-one sessions with tutors I fancy talking to, or joining interesting looking conversations. Often I run out of points and can't talk to anyone for a fortnight. Taking a break doesn't seem to harm the learning process.
I don't worry about the fact that I'm not perfect. I haven't time. Let's face it, there are always going to be a billion people who speak Chinese better than me. Better to accept that I speak bad Chinese and listen to a lesson instead.
I don't worry about what level I am at. I used to, I admit. I have spent hours studying the different levels and tests and vocabulary lists. If I had spent that time listening to Russian.....well, you get the idea. Unless you need to pass a certain exam to get a job, you might just as well call yourself an intermediate and stop bothering your head about it. Your tutor will be able to tell how good you are after 5 minutes of talking to you, and for everyone else, it doesn't really matter.
So there you are. Embrace your natural laziness, use it constructively and you will find yourself going further than you ever thought possible.
LingQ: because film subtitles mistranslate all the best bits!
Saturday, 14 November 2009
Learning Japanese with LingQ: Beginner level
I started learning Japanese with LingQ this year, mainly to see if it could be done. It's supposed to be awfully hard, what with all those Chinese characters. I just couldn't believe that the "relax and have fun!" methodology of LingQ was sufficiently rigourous to enable you to learn Japanese with no initial knowledge.
The first few weeks were a bit baffling. I couldn't read a word of it. I had to save words that looked like "squiggle" to me. In the definition box I had to write how to pronounce it as well as what it meant. Which meant that, when reviewing the words I was learning, I largely ignored the "word" box and just read the "meaning" box. I kept telling myself I should sit down and learn the hiragana and katakana writing systems, but in the end I never got round to it.
Meanwhile I was listening to audio clips which, being spoken at more-or-less normal speaking speed, sounded like "blurblurblurblurblur" to me. I couldn't see what I was supposed to get out of the exercise.
I was making progress though. I could tell by my LingQ activity score. I gained points for every word I saved, along with its meaning, even though the word was just an unreadable squiggle to me. I kept reviewing the "squiggles", and found that every time, I remembered a couple of them. I put their status up every time I recognised them, and my activity score kept climbing.
Six months later, I can read most Japanese words in hiragana. I can read a few of the simpler kanji too, though I can't always remember how to say them. I know a few hundred words, can recognise them when spoken (it doesn't sound like "blurblurblurblur" anymore) and some of them I can even spell. In hiragana.
In fact, after six months of what seems like just messing about, I can understand Japanese as well as I could understand Russian when I joined LingQ. Without attempting to learn the writing system. Without learning how to conjugate the verbs. Without studying flashcards. I spent two years with Russian trying to understand how the language "worked", and now it turns out, you don't need to!
LingQ: spelled wrong on purpose.
The first few weeks were a bit baffling. I couldn't read a word of it. I had to save words that looked like "squiggle" to me. In the definition box I had to write how to pronounce it as well as what it meant. Which meant that, when reviewing the words I was learning, I largely ignored the "word" box and just read the "meaning" box. I kept telling myself I should sit down and learn the hiragana and katakana writing systems, but in the end I never got round to it.
Meanwhile I was listening to audio clips which, being spoken at more-or-less normal speaking speed, sounded like "blurblurblurblurblur" to me. I couldn't see what I was supposed to get out of the exercise.
I was making progress though. I could tell by my LingQ activity score. I gained points for every word I saved, along with its meaning, even though the word was just an unreadable squiggle to me. I kept reviewing the "squiggles", and found that every time, I remembered a couple of them. I put their status up every time I recognised them, and my activity score kept climbing.
Six months later, I can read most Japanese words in hiragana. I can read a few of the simpler kanji too, though I can't always remember how to say them. I know a few hundred words, can recognise them when spoken (it doesn't sound like "blurblurblurblur" anymore) and some of them I can even spell. In hiragana.
In fact, after six months of what seems like just messing about, I can understand Japanese as well as I could understand Russian when I joined LingQ. Without attempting to learn the writing system. Without learning how to conjugate the verbs. Without studying flashcards. I spent two years with Russian trying to understand how the language "worked", and now it turns out, you don't need to!
LingQ: spelled wrong on purpose.
Learning Russian with LingQ: Lower Intermediate
I joined LingQ last year in order to learn Russian. I had spent two years trying to teach myself, using a textbook and whatever lessons I could find on the internet. I learned about grammar, and could read (but not pronounce)a few hundred words. I couldn't understand any spoken Russian, and struggled to read it.
The lessons in the LingQ library have been brilliant. I've worked my way through about 100 of them so far, created thousands of LingQs, and learned about a third of them. I've worked hard on it. Now I can get the general idea of what a lesson or a podcast is about on the first hearing, although I need to chew my way through it with a dictionary to understand it properly. I still read Russian only slowly, although I can pronounce it quite well.
I do have conversations with the Russian tutors from time to time. The time I spent learning grammar rules have had very little impact on my ability to speak. If I had spent that time on listening to LingQ lessons instead, I would probably be fluent by now. As it is, I keep having to drop back into English to say "how do I say....?"
I hope that, in another six months and 50 more LingQ lessons, I'll be able to listen to audio books. Then I will create my own lessons from the ebook versions and work through them. Until then, there's plenty in the LingQ library to choose from. And strangely enough, I find that you pick up grammar rules without really trying if you hear enough examples.
LingQ: because foreigners DON'T understand you if you shout!
The lessons in the LingQ library have been brilliant. I've worked my way through about 100 of them so far, created thousands of LingQs, and learned about a third of them. I've worked hard on it. Now I can get the general idea of what a lesson or a podcast is about on the first hearing, although I need to chew my way through it with a dictionary to understand it properly. I still read Russian only slowly, although I can pronounce it quite well.
I do have conversations with the Russian tutors from time to time. The time I spent learning grammar rules have had very little impact on my ability to speak. If I had spent that time on listening to LingQ lessons instead, I would probably be fluent by now. As it is, I keep having to drop back into English to say "how do I say....?"
I hope that, in another six months and 50 more LingQ lessons, I'll be able to listen to audio books. Then I will create my own lessons from the ebook versions and work through them. Until then, there's plenty in the LingQ library to choose from. And strangely enough, I find that you pick up grammar rules without really trying if you hear enough examples.
LingQ: because foreigners DON'T understand you if you shout!
Friday, 13 November 2009
Learning French with LingQ: Upper Intermediate level
I'll be the first to admit my French isn't brilliant. I did five years in high school, in the days when it was compulsory in the UK, and it was neither taught nor learned with any great enthusiasm. Since then I haven't used it in twenty-five years. I did once try a French evening class, but nearly died of boredom while conjugating a type 2 verb.
So I don't do French classes. I do read thrillers, and listen to simple podcasts. When I read a book I import it into LingQ and use it to create my own lessons. I go through the story carefully, looking up all the words I don't know, and adding them to my vocabulary list. Every week or so I read through my the list of words and find that, without conscious effort, I now know some of them.
I like to have discussions with the friendly and charming French tutors, and it amazes me to find I can actually speak quite fluently. I get muddled up with verb tenses, and sometimes I have to have three tries at a word before I pronounce it right.
In the last year I have improved from understanding only simple, slowly spoken French to understanding real French in podcasts and audio books. I can read Verne or Dumas, although I have to read some sentences over and over. In another year I hope to be able to listen to most French in "real time" (like the radio, where you can't pause and rewind) and understand most of it. I hope to improve my pronunciation. I might even get the hang of the subjunctive.
I really never thought I would be able to improve my French to the level where I could actually use it, and to do it without having to conjugate any more type 2 verbs is fantastic!
LingQ: because talking to foreigners is fun!
So I don't do French classes. I do read thrillers, and listen to simple podcasts. When I read a book I import it into LingQ and use it to create my own lessons. I go through the story carefully, looking up all the words I don't know, and adding them to my vocabulary list. Every week or so I read through my the list of words and find that, without conscious effort, I now know some of them.
I like to have discussions with the friendly and charming French tutors, and it amazes me to find I can actually speak quite fluently. I get muddled up with verb tenses, and sometimes I have to have three tries at a word before I pronounce it right.
In the last year I have improved from understanding only simple, slowly spoken French to understanding real French in podcasts and audio books. I can read Verne or Dumas, although I have to read some sentences over and over. In another year I hope to be able to listen to most French in "real time" (like the radio, where you can't pause and rewind) and understand most of it. I hope to improve my pronunciation. I might even get the hang of the subjunctive.
I really never thought I would be able to improve my French to the level where I could actually use it, and to do it without having to conjugate any more type 2 verbs is fantastic!
LingQ: because talking to foreigners is fun!
Learning German with LingQ: Advanced level
My German's already pretty good. I've been working on it for years. I can usually understand what natives are saying to me and each other, only needing to ask them to explain the odd phrase. I speak with an English accent and may get the word order wrong, but as I'm not a diplomat, teacher or spy I can live with that.
So I'm not going to take German lessons. My pride wouldn't stand it. Instead I listen to German podcasts, read stories in German, follow German blogs. Now and then I take a few web articles or a few chapters of a book and create my own LingQ articles from them. I skim through them using an on-line dictionary. LingQ tells me which words are new (in this case it is words which are new to me on LingQ, the chances are I have met them elsewhere). Some words and phrases I decide to learn, because they really are new, or I have only a rough idea of their meaning, or it's a good phrase that I want to remember (Ein Ring, sie zu knechten! Ahem.) All the other words I mark as known, so my LingQ Known words score goes up pretty rapidly, with little effort from me.
Now and then I look through my list of created LingQs. I don't put much effort into learning new words. On the contrary, I usually keep the word "on the back burner" until I have met it two ot three times, in different situations. By then it will usually have worked its way into my memory all by itself, and I just have to mark it as known.
When I feel like it, I spend 1000 points on a chat with a German tutor. We talk about anything we feel like, books we're read, films we like. Sometimes we talk in German about another language we are both studying, say French. And I get a conversation report at the end, which I may (or may not, I'm pretty lazy) study to learn some new words and phrases.
You really can't call it work. It's just bookkeeping, keeping track of words I have learned, and the words that are, without me trying, working their way into my brain. It also means hanging out with some very nice German-speaking people.
And the results? A year ago I could only understand spoken German pieces if they were read clearly and carefully. Now I can listen to the radio, watch TV, listen to podcasts on history and science, even get the jokes on comedy podcasts. And I now speak, still with an English accent and the odd bit of dodgy word order, on a much wider range of subjects. It's like having taken a year's university course without actually having the bother of attending any lessons or doing any homework.
LingQ helps bad language users to speak it better.
So I'm not going to take German lessons. My pride wouldn't stand it. Instead I listen to German podcasts, read stories in German, follow German blogs. Now and then I take a few web articles or a few chapters of a book and create my own LingQ articles from them. I skim through them using an on-line dictionary. LingQ tells me which words are new (in this case it is words which are new to me on LingQ, the chances are I have met them elsewhere). Some words and phrases I decide to learn, because they really are new, or I have only a rough idea of their meaning, or it's a good phrase that I want to remember (Ein Ring, sie zu knechten! Ahem.) All the other words I mark as known, so my LingQ Known words score goes up pretty rapidly, with little effort from me.
Now and then I look through my list of created LingQs. I don't put much effort into learning new words. On the contrary, I usually keep the word "on the back burner" until I have met it two ot three times, in different situations. By then it will usually have worked its way into my memory all by itself, and I just have to mark it as known.
When I feel like it, I spend 1000 points on a chat with a German tutor. We talk about anything we feel like, books we're read, films we like. Sometimes we talk in German about another language we are both studying, say French. And I get a conversation report at the end, which I may (or may not, I'm pretty lazy) study to learn some new words and phrases.
You really can't call it work. It's just bookkeeping, keeping track of words I have learned, and the words that are, without me trying, working their way into my brain. It also means hanging out with some very nice German-speaking people.
And the results? A year ago I could only understand spoken German pieces if they were read clearly and carefully. Now I can listen to the radio, watch TV, listen to podcasts on history and science, even get the jokes on comedy podcasts. And I now speak, still with an English accent and the odd bit of dodgy word order, on a much wider range of subjects. It's like having taken a year's university course without actually having the bother of attending any lessons or doing any homework.
LingQ helps bad language users to speak it better.
Thursday, 12 November 2009
LingQ: setting goals, meeting targets
When I first joined LingQ my goal was simple but vague: I just wanted to be able to speak Russian. I wasn't sure if I could, so setting that goal was a big deal for me. I wasn't sure whether I was smart enough, how long it would take, how much it would cost, how hard it would be, whether my somewhat chaotic lifestyle could accommodate a long-term learning plan.
A year later, I know better.
Sure I'm smart enough! If you can switch on a computer then you have the brains to learn a language. My little boy can do both and he's still in nappies.
It needn't cost anything. LingQ is about people helping each other to learn. You don't even have to buy Steve Kaufmann's book.
It takes (give or take) 1 000 hours to become fluent in a language.
It's actually pretty easy, unless you try and make it hard. You just listen to stuff and read stuff and then you realise you have learned some new words.
As for my freeform lifestyle, I have a computer in my living room, an MP3 player in my pocket and an eBook reader in my handbag. Whenever I have a spare 10 minutes when my ears, eyeballs or fingers aren't being used for something else, I can do some reading or some listening or some vocabulary reviewing. Although I have very little quality time to spare, I have two or three hours a day of spare odd minutes, on the bus, at the school gate, eating breakfast or having a bath. It doesn't matter whether you do more listening than reading, or more reading than reviewing vocabulary. It all goes into your brain, and your brain joins it all together while you are thinking about something quite different. (I've started dreaming in Kanji, now that's weird!)
If you cast your eyeballs to the column on the right you will see that I'm now working on 5 languages at once. My goal is to become proficient enough at each that I can read a newspaper, listen to a radio show, watch a TV documentary. I figure that's about 40 000 known words and 1 000 hours study per language, and as you can see I'm getting there. It might take a couple of years, it might take a bit longer (I quite fancy Arabic and Spanish too). But I know I can do it, I can afford to do it, and it's fun. I also know a lot of people who have done it before me.
LingQ: because we can't ALL be crazy!
A year later, I know better.
Sure I'm smart enough! If you can switch on a computer then you have the brains to learn a language. My little boy can do both and he's still in nappies.
It needn't cost anything. LingQ is about people helping each other to learn. You don't even have to buy Steve Kaufmann's book.
It takes (give or take) 1 000 hours to become fluent in a language.
It's actually pretty easy, unless you try and make it hard. You just listen to stuff and read stuff and then you realise you have learned some new words.
As for my freeform lifestyle, I have a computer in my living room, an MP3 player in my pocket and an eBook reader in my handbag. Whenever I have a spare 10 minutes when my ears, eyeballs or fingers aren't being used for something else, I can do some reading or some listening or some vocabulary reviewing. Although I have very little quality time to spare, I have two or three hours a day of spare odd minutes, on the bus, at the school gate, eating breakfast or having a bath. It doesn't matter whether you do more listening than reading, or more reading than reviewing vocabulary. It all goes into your brain, and your brain joins it all together while you are thinking about something quite different. (I've started dreaming in Kanji, now that's weird!)
If you cast your eyeballs to the column on the right you will see that I'm now working on 5 languages at once. My goal is to become proficient enough at each that I can read a newspaper, listen to a radio show, watch a TV documentary. I figure that's about 40 000 known words and 1 000 hours study per language, and as you can see I'm getting there. It might take a couple of years, it might take a bit longer (I quite fancy Arabic and Spanish too). But I know I can do it, I can afford to do it, and it's fun. I also know a lot of people who have done it before me.
LingQ: because we can't ALL be crazy!
Wednesday, 11 November 2009
Why I use LingQ to learn languages
Steve suggests we create some videos for LingQ's YouTube group LingQ Plaza http://www.youtube.com/group/lingqplaza. I have never done a video before, so I'll write some words here and use the best ones for a script.
I joined LingQ in July 2008. I had been trying to learn Russian and was getting frustrated. I had spent a lot of time reading books, but none of it helped me to actually understand a piece of Russian! I found I was spending more and more time trawling the internet, looking for sites which could help me.
But I'm a tricky customer to please. I don't want to pay any money, for anything. I want well-thought out guidance from people who really understand about language learning. I don't want to be bored, at all, ever. So I don't like sites which tell me to read dull news articles or the classics. I don't do poetry. I do vampire stories, rock music (DDT rule!) and articles about the paranormal. I don't like sites that try to sell me sex in any form (I really can't use any more Russian mail-order brides) and I don't want to be encouraged to download illegal files.
I happened upon LingQ. It was exactly what I was looking for, audio files with transcripts, a lot of them, with on-line dictionaries so you can look up the words you don't understand and save them in your own on-line vocabulary list. I also really liked the fact that the system kept track of how many words you had learned and how many words you knew, so for the first time I had some indicator of my progress. Best of all, I liked that I could use my own material (Dracula!) to create my own LingQ lessons.
I like the people too. I was impressed right from the start that a lot of LingQ members are linguists. These are people who seriously love language learning, and have put a lot of thought into how best to do it. I have learned more about the learning process from hanging out in the forum than I ever learned in a class.
I hate spending money. But I do have a paying account on LingQ now, it's worth it because I get feedback on my progess from a lot of friendly and helpful tutors. It's a lot of fun. And I haven't been bored, not ever. And I haven't read any poetry either.
LingQ: because it keeps you off the streets and out in the big wide world.
I joined LingQ in July 2008. I had been trying to learn Russian and was getting frustrated. I had spent a lot of time reading books, but none of it helped me to actually understand a piece of Russian! I found I was spending more and more time trawling the internet, looking for sites which could help me.
But I'm a tricky customer to please. I don't want to pay any money, for anything. I want well-thought out guidance from people who really understand about language learning. I don't want to be bored, at all, ever. So I don't like sites which tell me to read dull news articles or the classics. I don't do poetry. I do vampire stories, rock music (DDT rule!) and articles about the paranormal. I don't like sites that try to sell me sex in any form (I really can't use any more Russian mail-order brides) and I don't want to be encouraged to download illegal files.
I happened upon LingQ. It was exactly what I was looking for, audio files with transcripts, a lot of them, with on-line dictionaries so you can look up the words you don't understand and save them in your own on-line vocabulary list. I also really liked the fact that the system kept track of how many words you had learned and how many words you knew, so for the first time I had some indicator of my progress. Best of all, I liked that I could use my own material (Dracula!) to create my own LingQ lessons.
I like the people too. I was impressed right from the start that a lot of LingQ members are linguists. These are people who seriously love language learning, and have put a lot of thought into how best to do it. I have learned more about the learning process from hanging out in the forum than I ever learned in a class.
I hate spending money. But I do have a paying account on LingQ now, it's worth it because I get feedback on my progess from a lot of friendly and helpful tutors. It's a lot of fun. And I haven't been bored, not ever. And I haven't read any poetry either.
LingQ: because it keeps you off the streets and out in the big wide world.
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