How do you use dictionaries in your language learning? The app I use to learn languages -> bit.ly/3JFM6i7 My 10 FREE secrets to language learning -> www.thelinguist.com
My favorite way to use dictionaries is to wait until I have around an A2 level in the language and then use them while reading. It's especially handy in this case to have a Kindle, because you can instantly look up any word by simply touching it with your finger. This is essentially the way we all used dictionaries as a child when we were still learning our own native language.
The problem I have is that if I do not look up a word fairly soon by the time I get around to looking it up I will have forgot what I wanted to look up. That happens frequently to me.
Instead of looking it up _right away_ I recommend using a dictionary ONLY after experiencing the unfamiliar word _at least_ THREE TIMES. Anecdotally, this tends to improve retention - especially when consuming visual media: movies, videos, etc.
That’s true. Also it prevents me from spending too much time focusing on less frequently used words which I don’t need to learn as urgently. I can learn them later after I’ve improved in the language some more but in the meantime I’ll just be looking up the words I absolutely need.
I actually really like to use same language dictionaries (after a certain level of course) They help my brain connect words within a certain context: so this word connects with this word somehow. I don't try to understand every single word in a definition, only key words, and it helps me stick in the target language (which really helps me connect grammar points more naturally)
Hello Steve, thank you for these videos. I started using Lingq again recently and these videos of yours have become very important part of my learning. No matter if the context of your videos is necessary to me or not, but just listening to you talking about language learning makes me really excited to start studying. Today I have not studied for 2 days and I had no will to start studying today either, until I saw today's video, now I'm excited to start again. Thank you, please never stop these videos :)
Please can you tell me I have subscribed for a month on lingq, but I have a question, will the site automatically deduct my visa every month? Or will it give me the right to choose and I am the one who decides if I want to participate again or not? And if the site will automatically deduct, how should I do to stop this automatic deduction? I mean automatic subscription
I significantly increased my English vocabulary by reading English translated manga while using a dictionary. My main goal then was not to improve my English, but to use my limited English knowledge in order to enjoy stories I was interested in. The by-product of that was that my vocabulary greatly increased in a very short amount of time.
Please can you tell me I have subscribed for a month on lingq, but I have a question, will the site automatically deduct my visa every month? Or will it give me the right to choose and I am the one who decides if I want to participate again or not? And if the site will automatically deduct, how should I do to stop this automatic deduction? I mean automatic subscription
I consider monolingual dictionaries to be very worthwhile, beyond finding more useful words I noticed a lot of translations you find in a bilingual dictionary to be in the best case kinda wrong due to not containing nuance up to straight up being wrong, although with enough reading/listening this shouldn't be an issue as you'd probably get the nuance over time. Things get interesting when you find words that are not contained in (most) dictionaries :)...
I’m reading the Hunger Games in Korean (a physical book) and there are so many words I don’t know (I’m a low Intermediate). Hopefully it will get easier overtime😅
I prefer using imprinted dictionaries because while looking for a word I accidentally see many others, some of which stick in my mind for being peculiar or funny, also that makes the language more familiar to me.
I have separate dictionary apps for Spanish (SpanishDict) and Portuguese (Linguee). They're both brilliant. Prefer to get dictionaries dedicated to whatever languages I'm learning at the time, rather than checking random web pages found on a Google search. I use them when doing some form of writing exercise and tend to refer to them for occasional words and conjugations, rather than for everything. I guess it shows how I've progressed and my levels of confidence.
I use both dictionaries english dictionary and - Indonesian - english dictionary( google tranlate) I know i should use english dictionary more as an english learner.😊
When I was a kid I had a dictionary and I was over there with the lil book translating everything on my way I think that helped me a lot to learn English because you know I was a kid and when one it’s a kid it’s easier to learn a new language
I began learning Spanish in High School when I was 14 or 15 years old. We only had two years of Spanish offered then. About seven years later after military service I enrolled in junior college for another two years of study and then two more years at university. Since then I have tried to keep up on my own. I am now 75 years old. One of my favorite dictionaries is a monolingual dictionary. It is DICCIONARIO DIDÁCTIO DE ESPAÑOL INTERMEDIO. It is the 1993 edition. One very good thing about this dictionary is that it gives examples of usage. It is true that many times I find definitions that contain other words that I do not know but then I look them up too and eventually I understand. Sometimes it is a long process. If in the end I still don't understand then as a last resort I will refer to a dual language dictionary. I think that using a monolingual dictionary has been helpful to me. You are also right that we soon forget the meaning of words. Sometimes I think of a Spanish word and then look it up and find that I was wrong but close. Another thing that happens to me is that I will try to think of the Spanish word for something in English but think I do not know the Spanish word and then when I look it up I find that I do in fact know the Spanish word. I just could not recall it at the time. i also did study French in college but did not keep up with it and have had practically no exposure to it so I have not retained much of French. I've not studied any other language.
Don’t you think bilingual dictionaries lead you to translate in the head when speaking? I’m a big fan of monolingual dictionaries. I think they give us context with lots of examples and help us to create bounds in the target language related to the word we’re looking for. We can still ignore some unknown words. I remember I learnt lots of useful phrases when looking up some words in a monolingual dictionary. What is your take on this? Thanks in advance. Plus, in translation meaning can be lost, don’t you think?
The method I'm following from my course says that I need first catch a lot of words by bilingual dictionaries and after that when at good level start learning from monolingual ones.
@@Eric-rv8ce yep, that makes sense because you need to acquire words first, you can't understand the explanation of a word's meaning if you don't get the explanation itself.
I thing monolingual dictionary is important at a certain level of the process of learning because it can help to immerse in the language and train your brain. This is my experience from english, the language i am learning now. I use monolingual online dictionary and it is very useful to me. I don't just look at words randomly. I first listen to an actual talk, take the script, identify words i don't know the meaning and then search them in the dictionary.
I don't use dictionaries much, honestly. A quick check after encountering an unknown word a few times to see if my contextual interpretation was correct, or to find a specific word I want to communicate a specific idea. Regarding flashcards, I never thought much of them. I've been revising that thinking a little bit lately since I started trying Anki. When possible, I search Google images for the word or phrase *in my target language* , and look for something that's a good fit for my brain. That will be the front of my Anki card - no words. On the back, will be the word in my target language only, along with several sentences using it. I check for correct pronunciation on Forvo, then either download from Forvo, or usually record myself giving a good rendition, and that's the audio for the card. When I see the picture, I try to not only provide the word, but also a sentence or two using it, including with different conjugations. It's extra work to set up, but I'm finding this approach to actually be quite effective - much more effective than the typical ::: "Сердцe" - "Heart" ::: one-size fits all flashcards. Also, writing (by hand) properly constructed phrases with the vocabulary I know, and then reading them, silently and aloud, a couple times a day, adding more into rotation each day, helps me a great deal to make it useful.
I donated both my Modern Greek and Latin dictionaries. I prefer to acquire vocabulary in both languages naturally, contextually and through extensive reading and active listening.
Mr. Kaufmann: What are your thoughts on Etymology, as a way to make vocabulary stick. It works for me to ask Why rather than What a word means. Makes it stick.
Xiexie for sharing your experience. It’s always fascinating for me as a linguist and Chinese language professor to learn about your perspective in learning languages in general and Chinese in specific. The good news for Chinese character learning is that recently research shows handwriting characters is not necessary in learning Chinese. It doesn’t affect character recognition in later stages. And with learning characters, it’s more effective to emphasize functional components rather than strokes. In the Chinese program I built in the past 10 years, I used a new curriculum which is delaying character learning. It was phenomenal. Now in the coming next 10 years, I’m going to delete the requirement of handwriting from beginner levels. I’m excited to see what’s gonna happen. 😀 Don’t take me wrong. I don’t hate characters. I just care about how my students learn better. Typing characters from day 1 enhances students’ confidence as it’s so practical. And typing characters makes students pay more attention to pinyin. Anyways just want to share this. And so I’m relating to dictionary usage, I think Chinese learners would use more and more online dictionaries without worrying about the first stroke or radicals. Let’s witness the history. 🤝
I know many chinese people living in china who have trouble remembering how to write a lot of less common characters. They of course have no trouble reading or writing since they are still surrounded by chinese on a daily basis. In terms of my experience learning Chinese as a second language, I haven't done much writing since my college chinese course and it hasn't effected my ability to learn the language. I would say it is much more important to find ways to access more interesting and comprehensible reading materials. When I say "access" I mean both in terms of finding the materials, but also having pinyin to help in being able to read.
@@bobafruti xieixe for your feedback. Yes, I agree. It’s common Chinese native speakers forget to hand write characters. We mainly type characters or even just leave a voice message on WeChat. I start to focus on training students’ speaking and listening skills these years. I also agree that fun and interesting materials that enable students to use the language in daily life are important. That’s my next line of effort in my curriculum. And they are free to download from my UA-cam video description boxes. They are mainly in season 2 if you have such needs. Jia You!
So interesting! I studied Chinese about 25 years ago, drawn to it because the characters looked so interesting and beautiful. I spent hours and hours and hours hand writing the traditional characters. I loved it, but it wasn't really a gateway to communicating in Chinese. Not a waste of time, but not productive either.
@@jeanwashington307 I know! As a native Chinese speaker, of course I think handwriting is a sure thing. And research once showed that handwriting according to the correct stroke order may affect character recognition later. That’s why I persisted in requiring students to hand write characters according to the correct stroke order before Chinese 201. Now, after lots of research, I realize it’s time to change! But as you said, yes it’s fun to write characters when we have time and leisure. It’s zen time to do calligraphy even. But I think handwriting characters along with calligraphy is going to be an art component, like tea ceremony, in the future. I’m glad as our Chinese major designer and advisor, I let myself go open minded and catch up with the trend in the most suitable curriculum for my students.
About monolingual dictionaries. Your advice is downright BAD for those who want to learn just one language but to an ADVANCED level. And majority of people in the world only have a NEED for one additional language which they want to make their SECOND language. And unlike you, they don't want to stop soon after they surpassed a beginner level. In other words, this is bad advice for learning a SECOND language, OK advice for superficial learning of a bunch of Foreign languages that you have NO NEED whatsoever anyway.
Thank you for the video! I've watched just about every video of yours for about 4 years now. They help to keep me moving forward when I've hit a slow point in my learning.
I just use online dictionaries, dictionary apps and google translate. I don't think that you need anything else really. And these are all free of charge.
Thank you so much. I am struggling to learn English. I really don’t understand that from where I should started to learn In English. I want to enroll your any course is available.
LingQ is a great idea and it's well executed, but it lacks the most important: accessibility. The dollar is unfortunately too expensive for residents of countries with weaker currencies. Do you have a plan to try and solve that issue?
I love dictionaries too! Sometimes it's very hard to control myself and not look up every word, but I have to, otherwise it interrupts the flow of reading, if I'm reading, for exampe. I have physical dictionaries and they just make my shelves pretty. I never use them. These days, I almost always go to Wiktionary. It might be surprising, but I love it because it shows what other languages this word shows up in, where the word comes from, how it's connected to words from other languages etc. It shows the connections between languages. Sometimes it can suck you in for a while, so be careful. 😁
I play Fictionary, so I browse dictionaries looking for words others are unlikely to know. Some of these words, like "acnestis", are more useful than others, like "gheereaguar". When I'm looking at the English definition of a Pelonian word in Wiktionary, I sometimes look at the Pelonian definition. I'm more likely to do this if Pelonian is French or Spanish than if Pelonian is Thai, which I don't know.
Muchas gracias por el vídeo, Steve. Una pregunta, ¿en qué sección de LingQ están los ejercicios de emparejar palabras/frases? Llevo una semana buscándolos y no logro encontrar ese tipo de ejrcicos. ¡Gracias de antemano por la respuesta!
I know how to use the word -sucker -in your video , there is no need to look up the dictionary, but if it would be much better if I do! Thank you for your sharing.
I have that same Chinese dictionary and it's about the same condition... I used it quite a lot when I first started because I was in a chinese class and I thought looking up words in a dictionary was a good way to learn. But after several extremely exhausting sessions of trying to read and use a dictionary for every other word I gave up on that idea.
You keep pushing LingQ so I signed up. Unfortunately my target language, Thai, isn’t included! Also finding Thai resources in the UK isn’t easy, even on the internet. If you know of any resources for learning Thai I would be very grateful!
After powering through Duolingo for a couple months, I started reading. First I read Olly Richard's Short Stories In Swedish, which was good, but not my favourite genre. (I did squeal with surprise at the twist in the first story!) I relied on the selection of translated words at the end of each chapter. Next I dove into the deep end with Hundraåringen (The Hundred Year Old Man Who Climbed Out Through The Window And Disappeared). It's a humourous novel with a lot of historical settings, and I was trying to read along with an audio book when I wasn't ready, so it was frustrating and I gave up 1/3 way through. Then I chose Percy Jackson, which had no Swedish audio books at the time, so I could go at my own pace. At first I wrote down every word I didn't know, looking them up right away, then at thend of the semtence then at the end of the paragraph, then at the end of the chapter, gradually reducing how often I looked up words. For the second book, I only wrote down the words, without looking them up. By then I knew enough words that I could guess the meaning of most unknown words by context and how similar they were to known words. By the third book, I would just write down interesting phrases. Then I got busy at work and also got distracted by a couple other books, which I don't have the time or energy to be intensely studying.
Good afternoon! Dear Steve, I am a big fan of Lingq and always enthusiastically advise people around me to use it to learn languages. I myself succeeded in Polish and English thanks to this method. Recently, I have been traveling a lot in Europe and I see a huge number of Ukrainians suffering from the inability to explain themselves in the languages of the countries that give them asylum. This is largely due to ignorance of the correct and effective methods of teaching languages. I would like to make a blog and social groups that help these people in learning languages. Is it possible, on your part, to make access to Lingq free for Ukrainians as a help to the poor? I am sure that it would be a huge help and support to these people. Thank you for your efforts. With best wishes, Alexander.
LingQ is available free of charge to all Ukrainians. They just need to contact support@lingq.com. More than 10,000 Ukrainians have done so. Please spread the word. ua-cam.com/video/4kFfSNXvv0o/v-deo.html
I enjoy reading my Spanish and French dictionaries, especially big ones with lots of sentences or phrases. I cannot say the same for Russian. I even more definitely cannot say the same for Hebrew. I like your idea of looking for words of similar prefix.
Please can you tell me I have subscribed for a month on lingq, but I have a question, will the site automatically deduct my visa every month? Or will it give me the right to choose and I am the one who decides if I want to participate again or not? And if the site will automatically deduct, how should I do to stop this automatic deduction? I mean automatic subscription
I have been trying to learn some languages from Africa and India and all they have online are a hand full of super old dictionaries. the dictionaries are sometimes over 100 years old because new dictionaries are still copyrighted and like you said its really hard to remember stuff from the dictionary there is no sound so you wont know how to pronounce things. and i think a lot of the words they teach are very dated and it does not have modern words. But these languages do have a lot of media for native speakers online so its worth learning but its hard to understand them when you only learned with a dictionary before you started watching.
How do you use dictionaries in your language learning?
The app I use to learn languages -> bit.ly/3JFM6i7
My 10 FREE secrets to language learning -> www.thelinguist.com
I memorize the dictionary
Don't memorize the dictionary. Let the dictionary memorize you!
@@TomRNZ no
What ALL of it?
My favorite way to use dictionaries is to wait until I have around an A2 level in the language and then use them while reading. It's especially handy in this case to have a Kindle, because you can instantly look up any word by simply touching it with your finger. This is essentially the way we all used dictionaries as a child when we were still learning our own native language.
The problem I have is that if I do not look up a word fairly soon by the time I get around to looking it up I will have forgot what I wanted to look up. That happens frequently to me.
Instead of looking it up _right away_ I recommend using a dictionary ONLY after experiencing the unfamiliar word _at least_ THREE TIMES. Anecdotally, this tends to improve retention - especially when consuming visual media: movies, videos, etc.
Completely agree!
That’s true. Also it prevents me from spending too much time focusing on less frequently used words which I don’t need to learn as urgently. I can learn them later after I’ve improved in the language some more but in the meantime I’ll just be looking up the words I absolutely need.
@@PolyglotSecrets appreciate you 🙏
@@tollpatschny3346 that's definitely part of it, yes!!
What if that word is key to understanding the context of what you're watching, and it's the only word you don't know and looks unfamiliar
I actually really like to use same language dictionaries (after a certain level of course) They help my brain connect words within a certain context: so this word connects with this word somehow. I don't try to understand every single word in a definition, only key words, and it helps me stick in the target language (which really helps me connect grammar points more naturally)
Hello Steve, thank you for these videos. I started using Lingq again recently and these videos of yours have become very important part of my learning. No matter if the context of your videos is necessary to me or not, but just listening to you talking about language learning makes me really excited to start studying. Today I have not studied for 2 days and I had no will to start studying today either, until I saw today's video, now I'm excited to start again. Thank you, please never stop these videos :)
Please can you tell me I have subscribed for a month on lingq, but I have a question, will the site automatically deduct my visa every month? Or will it give me the right to choose and I am the one who decides if I want to participate again or not? And if the site will automatically deduct, how should I do to stop this automatic deduction? I mean automatic subscription
I significantly increased my English vocabulary by reading English translated manga while using a dictionary. My main goal then was not to improve my English, but to use my limited English knowledge in order to enjoy stories I was interested in. The by-product of that was that my vocabulary greatly increased in a very short amount of time.
What is English translated manga ??
@@mathew2141 manga = japanese comics
Please can you tell me I have subscribed for a month on lingq, but I have a question, will the site automatically deduct my visa every month? Or will it give me the right to choose and I am the one who decides if I want to participate again or not? And if the site will automatically deduct, how should I do to stop this automatic deduction? I mean automatic subscription
I consider monolingual dictionaries to be very worthwhile, beyond finding more useful words I noticed a lot of translations you find in a bilingual dictionary to be in the best case kinda wrong due to not containing nuance up to straight up being wrong, although with enough reading/listening this shouldn't be an issue as you'd probably get the nuance over time. Things get interesting when you find words that are not contained in (most) dictionaries :)...
Who else thinks Steve could organize giveaways in which he gives lang-learning books he doens't use?
I’m reading the Hunger Games in Korean (a physical book) and there are so many words I don’t know (I’m a low Intermediate). Hopefully it will get easier overtime😅
I prefer using imprinted dictionaries because while looking for a word I accidentally see many others, some of which stick in my mind for being peculiar or funny, also that makes the language more familiar to me.
I have separate dictionary apps for Spanish (SpanishDict) and Portuguese (Linguee). They're both brilliant. Prefer to get dictionaries dedicated to whatever languages I'm learning at the time, rather than checking random web pages found on a Google search.
I use them when doing some form of writing exercise and tend to refer to them for occasional words and conjugations, rather than for everything. I guess it shows how I've progressed and my levels of confidence.
What if the monolingual definition is simple even for beginners?
you can use Youdao online dictionary for Chinese
Always a smile on my face whenever I see a new video from you. Thanks Steve.
I use both dictionaries english dictionary and - Indonesian - english dictionary( google tranlate)
I know i should use english dictionary more as an english learner.😊
You've just lost a subscriber.
When I was a kid I had a dictionary and I was over there with the lil book translating everything on my way I think that helped me a lot to learn English because you know I was a kid and when one it’s a kid it’s easier to learn a new language
Benefiting from your years of experience. Thanks!
Super-interesting topic, Steve ---- thank you ! 👍I'm a sucker for dictionaries too.
PS: Learner's dictionaries are very helpful.
I began learning Spanish in High School when I was 14 or 15 years old. We only had two years of Spanish offered then. About seven years later after military service I enrolled in junior college for another two years of study and then two more years at university. Since then I have tried to keep up on my own. I am now 75 years old. One of my favorite dictionaries is a monolingual dictionary. It is DICCIONARIO DIDÁCTIO DE ESPAÑOL INTERMEDIO. It is the 1993 edition. One very good thing about this dictionary is that it gives examples of usage. It is true that many times I find definitions that contain other words that I do not know but then I look them up too and eventually I understand. Sometimes it is a long process. If in the end I still don't understand then as a last resort I will refer to a dual language dictionary. I think that using a monolingual dictionary has been helpful to me. You are also right that we soon forget the meaning of words. Sometimes I think of a Spanish word and then look it up and find that I was wrong but close. Another thing that happens to me is that I will try to think of the Spanish word for something in English but think I do not know the Spanish word and then when I look it up I find that I do in fact know the Spanish word. I just could not recall it at the time. i also did study French in college but did not keep up with it and have had practically no exposure to it so I have not retained much of French. I've not studied any other language.
can you talk to me for improve english please let me know
Don’t you think bilingual dictionaries lead you to translate in the head when speaking? I’m a big fan of monolingual dictionaries. I think they give us context with lots of examples and help us to create bounds in the target language related to the word we’re looking for. We can still ignore some unknown words. I remember I learnt lots of useful phrases when looking up some words in a monolingual dictionary. What is your take on this? Thanks in advance. Plus, in translation meaning can be lost, don’t you think?
The method I'm following from my course says that I need first catch a lot of words by bilingual dictionaries and after that when at good level start learning from monolingual ones.
@@Eric-rv8ce yep, that makes sense because you need to acquire words first, you can't understand the explanation of a word's meaning if you don't get the explanation itself.
@@franco7545 yeah, that's how it works indeed
I thing monolingual dictionary is important at a certain level of the process of learning because it can help to immerse in the language and train your brain.
This is my experience from english, the language i am learning now. I use monolingual online dictionary and it is very useful to me.
I don't just look at words randomly. I first listen to an actual talk, take the script, identify words i don't know the meaning and then search them in the dictionary.
I don't use dictionaries much, honestly. A quick check after encountering an unknown word a few times to see if my contextual interpretation was correct, or to find a specific word I want to communicate a specific idea.
Regarding flashcards, I never thought much of them. I've been revising that thinking a little bit lately since I started trying Anki. When possible, I search Google images for the word or phrase *in my target language* , and look for something that's a good fit for my brain. That will be the front of my Anki card - no words. On the back, will be the word in my target language only, along with several sentences using it. I check for correct pronunciation on Forvo, then either download from Forvo, or usually record myself giving a good rendition, and that's the audio for the card. When I see the picture, I try to not only provide the word, but also a sentence or two using it, including with different conjugations. It's extra work to set up, but I'm finding this approach to actually be quite effective - much more effective than the typical ::: "Сердцe" - "Heart" ::: one-size fits all flashcards.
Also, writing (by hand) properly constructed phrases with the vocabulary I know, and then reading them, silently and aloud, a couple times a day, adding more into rotation each day, helps me a great deal to make it useful.
i like this idea, thanks for sharing!
@@mellow6749 Cheers 🍷 Hope it works well for you too 😊
I donated both my Modern Greek and Latin dictionaries. I prefer to acquire vocabulary in both languages naturally, contextually and through extensive reading and active listening.
Mr. Kaufmann: What are your thoughts on Etymology, as a way to make vocabulary stick. It works for me to ask Why rather than What a word means. Makes it stick.
I am going to try that , thanks
Discipline and consistency and immersion.
My secondary school English teacher said her way to learn English was to recite a dictionary.
Xiexie for sharing your experience. It’s always fascinating for me as a linguist and Chinese language professor to learn about your perspective in learning languages in general and Chinese in specific. The good news for Chinese character learning is that recently research shows handwriting characters is not necessary in learning Chinese. It doesn’t affect character recognition in later stages. And with learning characters, it’s more effective to emphasize functional components rather than strokes. In the Chinese program I built in the past 10 years, I used a new curriculum which is delaying character learning. It was phenomenal. Now in the coming next 10 years, I’m going to delete the requirement of handwriting from beginner levels. I’m excited to see what’s gonna happen. 😀 Don’t take me wrong. I don’t hate characters. I just care about how my students learn better. Typing characters from day 1 enhances students’ confidence as it’s so practical. And typing characters makes students pay more attention to pinyin. Anyways just want to share this. And so I’m relating to dictionary usage, I think Chinese learners would use more and more online dictionaries without worrying about the first stroke or radicals. Let’s witness the history. 🤝
I know many chinese people living in china who have trouble remembering how to write a lot of less common characters. They of course have no trouble reading or writing since they are still surrounded by chinese on a daily basis.
In terms of my experience learning Chinese as a second language, I haven't done much writing since my college chinese course and it hasn't effected my ability to learn the language.
I would say it is much more important to find ways to access more interesting and comprehensible reading materials. When I say "access" I mean both in terms of finding the materials, but also having pinyin to help in being able to read.
@@bobafruti xieixe for your feedback. Yes, I agree. It’s common Chinese native speakers forget to hand write characters. We mainly type characters or even just leave a voice message on WeChat. I start to focus on training students’ speaking and listening skills these years. I also agree that fun and interesting materials that enable students to use the language in daily life are important. That’s my next line of effort in my curriculum. And they are free to download from my UA-cam video description boxes. They are mainly in season 2 if you have such needs. Jia You!
So interesting! I studied Chinese about 25 years ago, drawn to it because the characters looked so interesting and beautiful. I spent hours and hours and hours hand writing the traditional characters. I loved it, but it wasn't really a gateway to communicating in Chinese. Not a waste of time, but not productive either.
@@jeanwashington307 I know! As a native Chinese speaker, of course I think handwriting is a sure thing. And research once showed that handwriting according to the correct stroke order may affect character recognition later. That’s why I persisted in requiring students to hand write characters according to the correct stroke order before Chinese 201. Now, after lots of research, I realize it’s time to change! But as you said, yes it’s fun to write characters when we have time and leisure. It’s zen time to do calligraphy even. But I think handwriting characters along with calligraphy is going to be an art component, like tea ceremony, in the future. I’m glad as our Chinese major designer and advisor, I let myself go open minded and catch up with the trend in the most suitable curriculum for my students.
About monolingual dictionaries.
Your advice is downright BAD for those who want to learn just one language but to an ADVANCED level.
And majority of people in the world only have a NEED for one additional language which they want to make their SECOND language.
And unlike you, they don't want to stop soon after they surpassed a beginner level.
In other words, this is bad advice for learning a SECOND language,
OK advice for superficial learning of a bunch of Foreign languages that you have NO NEED whatsoever anyway.
Thank you for the video! I've watched just about every video of yours for about 4 years now. They help to keep me moving forward when I've hit a slow point in my learning.
I just use online dictionaries, dictionary apps and google translate. I don't think that you need anything else really. And these are all free of charge.
Thank you so much. I am struggling to learn English. I really don’t understand that from where I should started to learn In English. I want to enroll your any course is available.
Watch tv programs, news,etc
LingQ is a great idea and it's well executed, but it lacks the most important: accessibility. The dollar is unfortunately too expensive for residents of countries with weaker currencies. Do you have a plan to try and solve that issue?
Dictionary is graveyard of dead words don't try to cram Words get yourself familiar with lots of content which interests you do reading and listening
I love dictionaries too! Sometimes it's very hard to control myself and not look up every word, but I have to, otherwise it interrupts the flow of reading, if I'm reading, for exampe.
I have physical dictionaries and they just make my shelves pretty. I never use them. These days, I almost always go to Wiktionary. It might be surprising, but I love it because it shows what other languages this word shows up in, where the word comes from, how it's connected to words from other languages etc. It shows the connections between languages. Sometimes it can suck you in for a while, so be careful. 😁
I play Fictionary, so I browse dictionaries looking for words others are unlikely to know. Some of these words, like "acnestis", are more useful than others, like "gheereaguar".
When I'm looking at the English definition of a Pelonian word in Wiktionary, I sometimes look at the Pelonian definition. I'm more likely to do this if Pelonian is French or Spanish than if Pelonian is Thai, which I don't know.
Muchas gracias por el vídeo, Steve. Una pregunta, ¿en qué sección de LingQ están los ejercicios de emparejar palabras/frases? Llevo una semana buscándolos y no logro encontrar ese tipo de ejrcicos. ¡Gracias de antemano por la respuesta!
You! Yes, you! Be happy… and know many languages 😁
I know how to use the word -sucker -in your video , there is no need to look up the dictionary, but if it would be much better if I do! Thank you for your sharing.
Dictionaries contain definitions of words. Meaning is created when words are used
I have that same Chinese dictionary and it's about the same condition... I used it quite a lot when I first started because I was in a chinese class and I thought looking up words in a dictionary was a good way to learn.
But after several extremely exhausting sessions of trying to read and use a dictionary for every other word I gave up on that idea.
You keep pushing LingQ so I signed up. Unfortunately my target language, Thai, isn’t included! Also finding Thai resources in the UK isn’t easy, even on the internet. If you know of any resources for learning Thai I would be very grateful!
After powering through Duolingo for a couple months, I started reading.
First I read Olly Richard's Short Stories In Swedish, which was good, but not my favourite genre. (I did squeal with surprise at the twist in the first story!) I relied on the selection of translated words at the end of each chapter.
Next I dove into the deep end with Hundraåringen (The Hundred Year Old Man Who Climbed Out Through The Window And Disappeared). It's a humourous novel with a lot of historical settings, and I was trying to read along with an audio book when I wasn't ready, so it was frustrating and I gave up 1/3 way through.
Then I chose Percy Jackson, which had no Swedish audio books at the time, so I could go at my own pace. At first I wrote down every word I didn't know, looking them up right away, then at thend of the semtence then at the end of the paragraph, then at the end of the chapter, gradually reducing how often I looked up words. For the second book, I only wrote down the words, without looking them up. By then I knew enough words that I could guess the meaning of most unknown words by context and how similar they were to known words. By the third book, I would just write down interesting phrases.
Then I got busy at work and also got distracted by a couple other books, which I don't have the time or energy to be intensely studying.
Good afternoon! Dear Steve, I am a big fan of Lingq and always enthusiastically advise people around me to use it to learn languages. I myself succeeded in Polish and English thanks to this method. Recently, I have been traveling a lot in Europe and I see a huge number of Ukrainians suffering from the inability to explain themselves in the languages of the countries that give them asylum. This is largely due to ignorance of the correct and effective methods of teaching languages. I would like to make a blog and social groups that help these people in learning languages. Is it possible, on your part, to make access to Lingq free for Ukrainians as a help to the poor? I am sure that it would be a huge help and support to these people. Thank you for your efforts. With best wishes, Alexander.
LingQ is available free of charge to all Ukrainians. They just need to contact support@lingq.com. More than 10,000 Ukrainians have done so. Please spread the word. ua-cam.com/video/4kFfSNXvv0o/v-deo.html
Very interesting. Thanks Steve. Best wishes from the UK 🇬🇧🇨🇦
I use lingq on my laptop is there a way to get the word matching that your talking about on it or is it on your cell phone?
It's coming. Still testing.
👍
I hate dictionary bcz i hate finding words on it i use Google for search word meaning it's easy.
Using a dictionary is good. Sometimes it's better to use a physical dictionary
I enjoy reading my Spanish and French dictionaries, especially big ones with lots of sentences or phrases. I cannot say the same for Russian. I even more definitely cannot say the same for Hebrew. I like your idea of looking for words of similar prefix.
Please can you tell me I have subscribed for a month on lingq, but I have a question, will the site automatically deduct my visa every month? Or will it give me the right to choose and I am the one who decides if I want to participate again or not? And if the site will automatically deduct, how should I do to stop this automatic deduction? I mean automatic subscription
MANY THANKS! VERY MOTIVATING AND USEFUL
Viva la Rae! 😃
I have been trying to learn some languages from Africa and India and all they have online are a hand full of super old dictionaries. the dictionaries are sometimes over 100 years old because new dictionaries are still copyrighted and like you said its really hard to remember stuff from the dictionary there is no sound so you wont know how to pronounce things. and i think a lot of the words they teach are very dated and it does not have modern words.
But these languages do have a lot of media for native speakers online so its worth learning but its hard to understand them when you only learned with a dictionary before you started watching.