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What's the most effective way to train on Glossika?
What's the most effective way to train on Glossika?

The more mumbling you do, the better you’ll get.

Sheena Chen avatar
Written by Sheena Chen
Updated over a week ago


Before answering this question, remember that there are many different types of training you can do on Glossika. (How can I use Glossika to learn a new language?)

Different ones will work better for different people. If you are an experienced language learner, feel free to do Glossika training in your own way: you know your needs and how Glossika can address them.

For everybody else, here are a few rules of thumb:

Listen carefully and repeat after the native speaker

In training sessions, you’ll hear your base (native) language first. Next, you'll hear your target language. We refer to this as a "sentence pair."

Finishing one sentence pair counts as a rep (What does Rep mean? Why to calculate the number of Reps?). Continue doing reps until you reach the end of your training session.

In particular, you should:

  • Listen to the target language carefully — where do the native speakers' voice rise and fall? What is the rhythm of their words? Which sounds do or don't get connected?

  • Repeat back what you hear as closely as possible, focusing on pronunciation, flow, and tone.

  • Don't stress too much. It’s okay if all you can do is mumble not-quite-perfectly along right now. You're going to see all of these sentences multiple times — the more mumbling you do, the better you’ll get. Before long you'll be able to easily keep up with the recording.

Are the default session settings not quite suiting you? Adjust them here:

Do one "new" session per day

We recommend doing one "new" session per day — at least to start with. This will likely feel slow. Within a few weeks, however, you'll be doing significantly more review items than new items each day. If you've been cramming tons of "new" sessions in each day, these accumulated reviews will overwhelm you. To avoid burning out, we recommend increasing your commitment gradually. If your schedule allows you to comfortably complete 5 new items and the associated review items each day, try moving up to 10 daily new items after a few weeks, then 15, and so forth.

As for what type of "new" session to do, you have a few options:

  1. Listening-only Mode: You'll hear a sentence in your base language and then your target language — and that's it. This mode is great for mobilizing your downtime. You can sneak in some practice while doing the dishes, commuting to work, walking the dog, or any time it isn't convenient to be looking at your phone.

    1. Translation "mode": Go to session settings and set your sentence interval to 2x or 4x. Now there will be more time between your base- and target-language audio. Try translating your base language sentence during this time, then check your translation against the target language audio.

  2. Full-practice Mode: You'll engage with your learning items in a variety of ways. You might be prompted to type out what you hear or to recall your target language from memory, for example. You can read more about the available exercises here.

  3. Open a "reverse" course: Open a new Glossika course, then swap your base and target languages. For example, if you're currently learning French from English, then try learning English from French. Now you'll hear French audio before you hear English audio. Can you keep up?

Do your reviews every day

Simply put: Glossika will not work if you aren't doing your reviews. Furthermore, you should be reviewing significantly more sentences than you are learning each day. The exact amount of reviews you'll have will vary from day to day, but Glossika will figure all of that out for you: all you have to do is click on "Review" and work through whatever the algorithm has prepared for you.

Forgetting is a natural part of learning — in fact, we forget things at relatively regular intervals — but it's nothing to worry about. Glossika's algorithm predicts when you are about to forget a sentence, then prompts you to review it just before that point in time. The interval between reviews increases over time, and before long you'll reach a point where you'll only be prompted to review a particular sentence once every few years.

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