How do you use Readlang?

General
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Hi all. For context, I am currently learning Spanish and I am curious about how others are using this website.

  • What is your primary mechanism for discovering content to read (or to listen)?
  • What are some lesser-known features that one can use to improve their workflow?
  • Recommended external dictionaries for Spanish (or general)?
  • What other resources are you supplementing Readlang with?
  • This one is a bit specific. Are there people here that use both Readlang and Lingq (w or w/o premium) and if so, what are the specific use cases? Am I missing out by using only one or the other?

Cheers all, and a big shout out to @Steve for this tool!

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Lingq is often mentioned here in the forum, but it seems to me most people move from one product to the other. Maybe search for those mentions.

My choice of content:

  • using ReadLang Web reader on articles from the Noo Speak newsletter https://noospeak.com/
  • occasionally forcing myself to use Wikipedia in a language I don’t know that well yet
  • texts of songs from Israeli dance lessons
  • texts copied from textbooks
  • texts from the ReadLang library
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I dip into LingQ (free version) occasionally for source ideas, for example podcasts. To be honest, their library is rather better organised than here.

But I much prefer Readlang’s cleaner interface, and to keep all my vocabulary in one place, so I do all my reading, listening and a lot of YouTube viewing on Readlang.

As for sources, it depends on the level I’m at with the language. I’ve already read a lot in French and Spanish, so I use mainly native-speaker material for those, predominantly YouTube videos, but also the occasional novel.

For languages I don’t know so well, I use Duolingo for basic vocabulary and structures. I then use Readlang’s AI story facility to write stories based on the vocabulary for the unit I’ve just done. At the moment I’m quite into Dutch, and have been getting Readlang’s AI feature to write me articles on Dutch history.

For Dutch, there’s also quite a lot of news material aimed at children on YouTube, plus at least one app. I usually just watch or read these, but upload some longer stories to Readlang.

I also find stories on YouTube, mainly AI generated, I imagine. There are a lot in Dutch, German and Italian, for example. And from what I’ve noticed, Spanish is also well-served here. Perhaps not of the greatest quality, but my aim here is to acquire vocabulary rather than read great literature. That can come when I know the language better.

I also get Notebook LM to generate podcasts on.whatever interests me. You can choose your level here. And Readlang deals with the transcript. Notebook LM can also generate texts, for example summaries of longer texts or videos, again at a given level. In fact, it seems to get better every week.

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The ideal way to use these services all depends on your personal psychology. Find a cache of something that is inherently interesting to you in your target language and your curiosity will make the persistence and memory aspect fun. That would determine whether this service or LingQ is a better option, although I agree w previous commenter that it’s better to pick one and stick with it for the sake of having vocab in one place. I think in general with language learning you don’t wanna get sucked too much into process but rather spend as much time engaging with content as you can. LingQ is very good for podcasts and more informal content, but I much prefer to read old books and Readlang is way better for that, both in importing and the actual workflow and review process. I have found that idiomatic phrases and things like word order are way more important to the intermediate and advanced stages of a language so I always highlight a whole clause of around five words on average, that way each “sense” of a word has its own unique flashcard and my review is forcing me to remember a bit of word order and phrasing too. If I have any doubt that the Readlang native AI is giving me an appropriate explanation, I will double check with a more powerful AI. I have had great luck with Proton’s Lumo with French and German, it has been able to clarify some really old and obscure jargon for me, citing reference works from the 1800s. This has been a solid workflow to help me read older books which is why I wanted to learn these languages in the first place. I supplement this structured approach with watching things like old tv shows and documentaries from West Germany and DDR on Youtube - again, it’s inherently interesting to me so I really hang on every word to learn about this very different time and place. I have tried getting transcripts from these and importing into Readlang, but I have found rather that it’s more important to have a part of the day where I’m not maximizing vocab, just a relaxed time to enjoy and understand what I can. For me it’s important that language learning have a relaxed and fun aspect too, and not always be a task or goal to optimize.

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I was initially drawn to the extensive library of content visible on the Lingq homepage. The Lingq-specific courses are good, but I realized that I am very unlikely to use any sources beyond YouTube or podcasts. Additionally, the YT player in Lingq feels a bit clunky.

Currently, I am inclined to use the following tools together: Readlang and Language Reactor. Readlang would be primarily for reading books and web pages using the extension. LR is for YouTube, podcasts, and Netflix. I understand that Readlang works with YT videos, but it requires some manual work, whereas LR can function directly within the YT player.

Right now, I am not too worried about keeping all of my vocabulary in one place. Even if I have to re-add some words, I think it only serves as a good way to review what I know. Plus, if I ever feel that they are diverging too much, I can always manually sync them by importing data from one tool to another.

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Thanks for sharing your method. Some of it is similar to what I do such as watching children’s content or native YT videos. Although, I do not see myself using AI-generated content as much. Instead, I will probably use AI-tools to help me review or understand native content.

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Thanks for sharing.

  • By textbooks, do you mean language textbooks or some other subject which you are studying?
  • Wikipedia is something I am trying to use more of. Unfortunately it can be a hit or a miss, with the articles being too complex for me to understand still.
  • Do you have any tips for discovering stuff from the Readlang library?
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I mean language textbooks. In Finnish, I am going through multiple beginner level textbooks simultaneously. I think it is quite a good approach to decrease the difficulty of any one particular study session: the ratio of new material (especially grammar, less so vocabulary) is smaller, there’s repeated exposure to the same structures and vocabulary in different contexts etc.

ReadLang library: I am studying languages where the library is not as large. I start with beginner level texts and go from the shortest ones, unless they’re clearly marked for order.

For major languages like Spanish, I’d look for Graded Readers. I’d expect to find simplified versions of classical literature as well as maybe news in simplified Spanish.

You’re right, I use Wikipedia and native content only in the language where I’m already at the C2 level (German). While I’ve read multiple novels in German already, reading Wikipedia is still hard.

I also use the Polygloss app for ultrashort writing practice.

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I started learning Korean as a total beginner. Right now I am trying to build a foundation, so I mainly use another app - Fluent Forever. I learn basic vocabulary there and then build sentences out of these words and put those sentences on Readlang to review them. So I basically use this app to reinforce vocabulary and read them in context. When I know enough words I’ll start reading actual real world content. But for now I stick with simple sentences or short AI generated texts.

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I keep a daily sustainable habit. Readlang is just one of the tools I use for Spanish, so I probably spend 15mins a day with it.

My routine is:

  • Practice flashcards (25)
  • Discover the name of a random person from history who did important things on another website.
  • Take that name and ask Readlang to generate an 800 word intermediate level bio about that person.
  • Read the bio.

For a while I was generating stories of popular movies, or bios of famous musicians and actors. But at a certain point i got bored of that, and have been really enjoying growing my general knowledge as well as my spanish written comprehension.

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I’m doing something similar with Dutch (intermediate) and Portuguese (advanced) history.

Dutch history ( Readlang )

Portuguese history ( Readlang )

Perhaps you could add your generated Spanish history texts to a public shelf. Then they would be easier for others to find, and follow.

PS. I notice that most of the Dutch texts are in fact showing up as Advanced, but it was Intermediate that I had asked for.

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Most of my use of Readlang is pretty standard. I read books in Readlang and keep up on my flashcards (Blitz mode has made this much easier). I try to complete 2-3 Ami chats per week (This has really helped my active vocabulary).

The one thing I do with Readlang that is a bit novel is I’m in the process of converting my flashcards into being monolingual. I’m doing this with the “Ask AI” feature where I have it give me a beginner-level, six word or less definition based on how it is being used in the context sentence. I then replace the English translation with this target language definition.

There are some quirks, but it’s completely transformed my flashcards into a satisfying monolingual experience. I’m aided that I’m already upper intermediate in my target language, but I’ve tested it with languages that I don’t know well and have found it still useful and enjoyable.

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This would make a great feature for Readlang. definitions in the target language at or one level above CEFR level

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