How to use Glossika

[jeff_lindqvist]

How many sentences can you practice before you have to upgrade to paid subscriptions?

I think it's 1000 reps, which probably means something like a week's worth of sentences at 10 per day. I'm studying minority languages which are offered for free, so no limit there.

[Axon]

The simplest way is to listen to one GSR file every day, without skipping days, and repeat after or along with the sentences. Do not pause the recording. After a few months it will become easier to refrain from pausing.

A more complex way is to supplement the GSR files with the GMS files as described by other users here. The idea with this is that GSR covers 10 new sentences each day with a total of 18 reps for each sentence over 5 days. By using GMS files you get to take the course in blocks with 50 sentences at a time for other exercises.

The first time I used Glossika I ignored GSR completely and just loaded the (Russian) A and C audio files on my phone so I'd go from EN-RU-RU to RU only after a bit of a break. It worked all right, especially because I would repeat after each RU file as best I could. But this method was very slow and it took me several months to work through one Fluency book. I like this method for when I can't repeat aloud after the GSR prompts.

The second time, I used the GMS as directed (for Indonesian). Progress was relatively slow but it worked really well. After three months of that, I tried two other methods. I did one week out of the four-week program, which worked extremely well for consolidating and strengthening the sentences I worked through. I did that with a study partner, though, so it might work differently alone.

I also bought a Travel course and tried to do it at an accelerated pace by skipping days with GSR. It didn't work very well and I don't recommend this method.

The website is very pricey but really quite worth it if you can commit to studying every day and you download your lessons for review later.. They've fixed a lot of errors and the ordering of the sentences has been made more logical.

[ShawnP]

I've recently dusted off my old Glossika Mexican Spanish F1-3 and Business courses and trying to get back to my studies. What I like about the old course is that you have the A-B-C files and the GSR, which you can use however you want, whenever you want. I think you should tailor your study to what's most important to you and not worry about schedules, unless you are the kind that can stick to a schedule for weeks on end. If you need to work on your speaking, do more speaking. Listening, focus on more listening. Doing both can be very time consuming depending on how many "reps" you want to accomplish. And if you throw in writing, well, there goes your afternoons. Since you are a Spanish B1/B2 according to your profile, you should recognize 90% of everything but probably need just a little work to make it all flow. That’s where I am.

I've been using Glossika in Anki this last month and have almost 4,000 "reps" completed. However, I have decided to try a different approach starting Monday. Personally, my speaking is my biggest weakness as my goal now is to speak more, so my goal is to speak out loud 1000 sentences each day for the next 6 weeks until I go home for Thanksgiving, trying to translate the sentences before looking at the L2 sentences in my PDF. Doing so would give me 5,000 reps spoken aloud each week (M-F) and 30,000 reps in 6 weeks, which far exceeds what I'm accomplishing in Anki. And by doing each book a day, I'm revisiting the same sentences every four days. Is it perfect, maybe not. But I can always go back to Anki in the future and SRS them that way or try something different to keep things fresh. Just trial and error.

Just another way to think about what would work best for you. You’re in charge of your own learning.