The Linguist - language learning should be fun

The Italians speak English and enjoy it

I am pleasantly surprised at how well so many Italians, at least in Milan, speak English. What is more, they have a good time doing it, like they always seem to do. I think that people who do not need to learn another language, and therefore don't, are missing out on a lot of enjoyment. But then I am probably not objective.

Italy is a stage. I am in Brescia. Anyone coming to Milan on Friday?

It is so much fun to be in Italy.I am finding the people in Brescia especially friendly. Everyone is happy to talk. We went to one nice bar for an aperitivo in the old part of town and then went to another place for dinner. The head waiter's explanation of the specials of the evening was a theatrical performance of the first order. The dining area behind the bar was like a stage. When we arrived the actors were finishing their own meal, then as we and subsequent guets arrived the whole play got going. We were all in the play.

Anyone going to be in Milan on the 31st. We could meet up.

Thanks for all the comments on LingQ

Thanks for all the comments on LingQ

In response to my post asking how serious language learners were I have received many useful suggestions for LingQ. Here some preliminary reactions from me.  We will study all of these suggestions as we go forward, limited as usual by our time and other priorities.

Mike

You suggested some kind of reward for the persistent. At present we do not offer discounts for 6 months etc. On the other hand it is more economical to buy points as a Premium member than as a Plus, and more economical as a Plus member than as a Basic member.

Prisons would be a great market except that most prisons do not allow Internet access for their residents. Schools, another form of physical detention perhaps, are a good potential market but so far they consider us a threat to steal their students and have not been too keen to work with us. I have tried to convince them that LingQ can help them recruit, help them reach out to students while at school, and maintain contact with graduates. So far no success.

Micah

We do keep track of the learners' activity, including time spent, LingQs saved etc.

Patrick

I agree that most language exchanges are not serious. We want our learners helping learners to be serious. We want to qualify our tutors, and we want to reward them with points. Once the system is properly set up, people who tutor others will receive the full amount of points that learners spend, so long as these points are spent at LingQ. Only if the points are exchanged for cash will LingQ take a cut. This system is not yet in place.

Nicole

Yes we should have samples of the writing and discussion reports. We will get on it.

Rewards,  or at least recognition, for achieving milestones, even early milestones, is on our list. We also want to list the leading LingQers, separate from the activity index. There is just so much to do.

Mark will look at how long to keep the LingQs of the day emails going and the issue of unsubscribing.

It would be nice to develop more simple beginner stories with translations in many languages. If some of you have the imagination to create them in your own language, then we can choose the best ones and see if we can produce a collective book and CD for publication. At the very least we can feature them better in our store.

Maybe we should have some simple travel texts as well for the people who just want a touch of the language. This can also form the content of some of the coming courses.

Pricing can be confusing you say. Noted. Mark will look at it.

Tony

We do track the number of saved LingQs in each new content item to help the learners select what to study. We are not showing that now because in the present configuration it slows the site down. We do intend to restore it. You can also drill from the "Examples" on the LIngQ box to the content item where the  LingQ occurred.

We do intend to improve the functioning of the captured phrase, eventually.

Roni

I think you will find that the new version of LingQ will make everything much clearer.

In the course section tutors will be able to offer courses that are specific to the needs of people like travelers, in other words to the non-elite learner.

So, everyone, please watch for the changes coming soon at LingQ and thanks for your interest, encouragement and support.

How many people are serious about language learning

Language learning is a lot of work. It takes a lot of time and effort to really improve in a language. It takes commitment. You cannot just go to someone who will correct your mistakes, or your accent, and then you will be all set.

Many language systems are sold in stores, but 1) people often never really do anything with them or 2) they are content to learn to say "hello" and "how are you." What percentage of language learners are prepared to commit the time and effort required to really learn to speak another language?

What do you think? How should this affect LingQ's strategy?

Looking forward to meeting up in Europe

I have posted some meeting notices at Facebook. October 31 in Milano, sometime and somewhere in Germany in early November, and November 9 in Antwerp. I hope some of you can make it.

I have received words of encouragement from Vincent le polyglot who heads up an interesting and award winning website which brings language keeners together, in many countries of the world.I urge you to join, although I may have trouble qualifying since it is for people between 18 and 35.

I would love to meet some of these people during my visit in Europe as well.

Language cross training again

I have taken a few days break from Russian to work on Italian and German in preparation for my trip. After a two day break, now when I go back to Russian I hear it more clearly, I notice words and endings better. I am better at it, or at least so it seems. I have noticed this tendency before.

I think that language cross training works. I think everyone at LingQ should spend 10- 20% of their time on a minor language in order to get better results at their major language.I believe that it stretches the brain, refreshes it, challenges it, and make the brain better fit and more eager to engage the major target language again.

Any thoughts on language cross training? Has anyone had similar experiences?

Rosetta Stone guarantee

I have read that Rosetta Stone offers a guarantee if you buy directly from them. If you do not like the program you can return it, in other words satisfaction guaranteed. I am sure there are people who never use their Rosetta Stone, and some who do not like it, and I guess a small percentage of these people return it. Good marketing.

This evening I was watching television with my wife, when I saw Michael Phelps the Olympic swimmer describing how he was using Rosetta Stone to learn Mandarin. The ad said that Rosetta Stone guarantees that it is the "fastest way to learn a language".

I am curious about several things.
1) When do they consider a language to be learned?
2) If person A learns faster on another system  than person B on Rosetta Stone, then person B can get their money back. This is the same as the satisfaction guarantee. The implication is, however, that their system is the fastest way to learn. I wonder what, if any, data they have to back this inference. I wonder if they need to have data, however arrived at, to support this boast.

I realize that they do not say that it is faster, they just guarantee that it is. Good marketing I guess.

We like to say that LingQ is simply the best way to learn languages. We believe it. We have no proof. But the word "best" is a little more general and subjective than the word fastest, which suggests that some kind of objective test or measurement has been applied.

At any rate, I am impressed at the amount of money Rosetta Stone has available to spend on advertizing. I wonder if Michael Phelps will "learn" Mandarin faster on Rosetta Stone, than if he tried another method, or if he will learn it at all. It really does not matter. I am happy to see language learning promoted and big name stars involved in promoting language learning.

In fact I would love to see those those LPGA Korean golfers, who need to improve their English, try LingQ. Or maybe Barack Obama, who has spoken out in favour of Americans learning more languages, can get on LingQ and learn Spanish to get more support in the Hispanic community in the US.

Meanwhile, we are happy that our users like LingQ,  here is what some of them have said.

LingQing in Russian

Here it is in Russian.

Click to watch screencast

Playing around with Jing

I can never figure out why so few people on LingQ save as many words and phrases as I do. I easily save over 100 at a sitting. It gives me flash cards, it gives me the yellow highlighted words to look at in future content items. It is the key activity and the key measurable.

I decide to capture myself attacking a bit of Russian content on Jing. Here it is. This is an experiment.  I guess only the left hand side showed. Anyway. any comments welcome.

I did not really get a chance to show how I save phrases in order to learn Russian cases, but in any case this is a start, I could do more of this if it is of interest. I am also working on Italian and Portuguese and do some examples from those languages as well.

Click to see the demo

Teaching teminology

What is forever puzzling to me on the ESL teachers List-serve that I am subscribed to, are the many buzzwords in teaching. Having never studied at a teaching college, these terms are all new to me. Multiple Intelligence, Differential Instruction, Androgagy versus Pedagogy, and other terms, have come up just in the last few days. How useful are these terms? How important are these compared to the natural ability of the teacher to inspire, encourage, guide and stimulate the learner, aptitudes that are not necessarily learned at teachers' college.

The bulk of language teaching today takes place in a classroom where students are taught a  curriculum, which follows a prescribed time-table. The students are required to do regular tests to demonstrate how well they are able to perform according to that time-table. I sometimes think that these buzzwords are just new ways in which teachers want to control the learning process, rather than really trying to find ways to encourage or empower the learner to take over the learning process.