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  • Hey, what's up guys today's video is gonna be a review on LingQ

  • Which is a language learning platform for the computer and for mobile devices that allows you to learn languages through

  • Reading and listening. It's been devised by Steve Kaufman who is a prolific polyglot online

  • You've probably seen his YouTube videos or you follow him on Twitter. He speaks about ten languages

  • well, and I believe he speaks a variety of other languages to varying extents.

  • So he really knows his stuff when it comes to language learning

  • I've been using LingQ for about two months now, so I'm really starting to get a good feel about

  • how it works and the best practices for using it and I just wanted to do a quick review today to let you know my

  • opinions and my feelings about this platform. The basis of the platform is that you're gonna be reading a lot of material within the app.

  • You can use material that's already available straight from the app or you can copy and paste from any source you want.

  • I've copied and pasted the lyrics from several songs since music is one of my favorite ways of learning languages.

  • Once you select something that you want to start reading just open it in LingQ and you'll see that all of the words are highlighted

  • In blue. When you don't know a word you just click on it and you'll be given a definition.

  • LingQ will also save that word in your account as a word you don't know and then they'll automatically make it into a flashcard

  • so you can review later.

  • Every time you turn the page LingQ will assume that all of the blue words you didn't click on are words

  • you already know. LingQ will remember those words and from now on whenever you see them

  • They won't be highlighted anymore. After you read several hundred pages

  • You'll notice that most of the words are no longer highlighted. And that's the goal.

  • You want the words to go from blue to yellow to no highlight at all. That means you're learning new vocabulary.

  • I like this method of vocabulary acquisition better than rote memorization because you're actually encountering the words in

  • context. Most of the articles and books that come available on link are

  • already connected to an audio book or an audio clip of someone reading the article so that you can listen along while you read.

  • I find this to be a great way of improving your listening comprehension skills.

  • Another great feature of LingQ is that it includes a built-in mp3

  • player where you can listen to the audio from your books and articles even while you can't read.

  • A lot of times I listen to it in the car or while I'm taking a walk

  • If you've ever seen any of Steve Kaufman's videos before you know that he's a huge fan of the

  • Comprehensible input method popularized by the linguist Stephen Krashen, and that's what link revolves around

  • It's great because there's no drilling. No exercises and no tests.

  • All you do is read and listen to the content that's interesting to you. Now while I think LingQ is a great platform,

  • there's just a few areas where I think it falls a little bit short of being the perfect all-encompassing

  • language learning app.

  • First of all

  • You do need some level of proficiency in your target language before you start using LingQ.

  • They do their best to make it accessible to beginners, but from my experience

  • It's just not a great program if you're starting from scratch.

  • I took a short trip to northern Belgium and the Netherlands this summer

  • so I decided that I'd try my hand at learning some very basic Dutch.

  • I tried doing this on LingQ, but honestly

  • I was just

  • swimming in a sea of blue words that I didn't

  • understand and I couldn't make any sense of it and it just didn't help me at all. Ironically,

  • this is the one area that I think Duolingo really shines.

  • You can watch my review of Duolingo by following the link at the top of this video

  • but essentially, I found that program to be only useful for those who have no previous knowledge of the language they're learning.

  • That means that I find Duolingo and LingQ to complement each other really well. After

  • maybe a few weeks to a month of learning a language on Duolingo,

  • you'll probably have enough vocabulary and grammar to follow along with the beginner units and LingQ.

  • There's also a spaced repetition

  • flashcard feature on LingQ, but honestly, I find it to be a little bit weak.

  • That's not a huge deal because if you're really serious about spaced repetition

  • you can always use your vocabulary list on LingQ to create your own customized decks on memorize or Anki.

  • Overall, I'd give link a solid A this might be the most useful language learning program

  • I've used so far and I would recommend it to anyone who has at least a basic knowledge in the language

  • they're learning. Just a word of caution though before purchasing a subscription to link,

  • I tried the free trial version and honestly, I thought it really sucked.

  • But I'm glad I gave it another chance because the paid version is just a lot better and it's not that expensive.

  • So if you're really serious about giving LingQ a chance, just buy yourself a month long

  • subscription and base your opinion off of that, not off the free version.

  • So that's it for this review. If you liked the video, I'd really appreciate it

  • if you gave me a thumbs up and subscribe. And if you're interested in seeing reviews on any other language platform,

  • go ahead and leave me a comment down below because I'm always looking for new ways

  • of learning languages and new techniques that I can experiment with.

  • And the reason I made this video in the first place is because someone commented and asked me to review LingQ.

  • So thanks for watching the video, and we'll see you guys in the next one.

Hey, what's up guys today's video is gonna be a review on LingQ

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