Lingoput Reviews 

very good
lots of high-quality ci available
enjoyable experience

I took three semesters of Polish in college, but after 20+ years, I forgot most of it. I recognized many words but couldn't remember their meanings, and I could only say a few phrases. Duolingo didn't help, it just made me feel stressed about all the grammatical rules I couldn't remember. I found lingoput after reading about the natural/comprehensible input method, and after watching for 4 hours over 10 days, it is all coming back!

What I like:

- Each of the authors brings something different. They are all great, but I especially like Kacper's antics, Marta G.'s stories about her life on Bali and her dog Noah, and Julia's relaxed and approachable energy.

- The videos are graded by difficulty, and the authors adapt the speed and complexity of their speech to the level of the video. At all levels, they use gestures, images, and items in their environment to help you understand words you don't know through context.

- They do NOT include on-screen text in most of their videos. Even if you are not using the immersion/comprehensible input method that lingoput was designed for, this is REALLY important for developing your listening comprehension! Most language channels have text in their videos that you can't disable, and it drives me crazy. Lingoput allows you to turn on subtitles in the video player if you want to, but doesn't force you to see them.

What I think they could improve:

- They aren't making content as fast as I consume it. This is completely understandable, since they only started a year ago, and good quality videos take a lot of time to make. But the CI method requires hundreds of hours of input, so you will need to seek out other resources while lingoput continues to expand its library.

- Most of the videos are made by female speakers. I like this as content, but Polish is gendered, and I'm not sure that there are enough examples for beginners to absorb those rules. We hear lots of masculine forms but most refer to inanimate objects, and students using an immersion method may not connect that to the idea of human gender without more examples by or referring to men. That could be more content by male speakers, female narrators voicing male characters in a story, or just more references to men and boys.

- If they aren't already, I would like to see them intentionally repeat important vocabulary and forms in different videos. TV shows for young children often do this, and it is a good way to make sure we get the many exposures it takes to internalize new words.

- The FAQ & help links are not visible after you log in. I have to open an incognito window to view the FAQ.

Tips about CI:

Lingoput can be used with any language learning approach, but it was designed for a natural immersion/comprehensible input method, which is VERY different from traditional school or self-study methods. If you want to try it, I recommend reading about the method first, so you'll understand what to do, why it is done that way, and what to expect.

You can start with lingoput's guide and FAQ, or read those on the Dreaming Spanish website, which go into even more detail. (Trustpilot won't let me include links, but you'll find it by searching.)

For me, the hardest part of this approach is to stop thinking about the language and focus on the content. I have a lot of experience with traditional methods, and I actually enjoyed them, so I have a lot of ingrained habits to unlearn, like trying to consciously memorize words, use them in a sentence right away, etc. This got easier after about a week, but is still a challenge sometimes.