The 5 Easy Steps to Learn New German Words (without Seeing a Phrase Again and Again) – Bliu Bliu Tutorial

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The Five Steps to Get Started with Bliu Bliu Other Cool Features Make any Text Interactive Check your Stats Downsides

There are many websites and apps that are designed to teach you a language. Before I found Bliu Bliu, I have encountered these problems:

• The website or app often asks me to learn words I already know.
• There is a rewards system which does not accurately reflect my progress.
  (I sometimes feel like I am more focused on completing a tree or getting some “learning points” instead of learning new words…)
• The content is boring and incoherent.

I want to help you to

• get an estimation of how many German words you know
• start using a fun tool to learn new German words
• make any text you find online interactive and see which words you know and which you don’t know

Most importantly, I want to help you to learn German intuitively, without learning words by heart but by getting comprehensible input. My free German course is a way to do it and Bliu Bliu is another.

I think Bliu Bliu is a best tool to get the results above because

• you get your first estimate after only a few steps,
• the estimate and displayed content constantly improves to fit you,
• it has an integrated translation service for any text

In this tutorial I will show you:

• the five easy steps to get your estimate and start playing with Bliu Bliu
• how to navigate Bliu Bliu and not miss any cool features
• how you can make any text interactive

One final thing: I work for Bliu Bliu, but I decided to do so because I used it myself and I found it to be amazing! It helped me so much that I wanted to be part of it. I’d appreciate it if you click my links so they know I sent you. 🙂

Jump to:
The Five Steps to Get Started with Bliu Bliu Other Cool Features Make any Text Interactive Check your Stats Downsides

Step 1: Choose your language

The first step is simple. Go to Bliu Bliu and choose the language you want to learn. You will see that there are a ton of languages you can learn, which is really amazing I think. Right now let’s continue with German.

Step 2: Tell Bliu Bliu which words are easy and which are hard

This step will only take you a couple of seconds. At first, you will be given single words and you decide whether or not they are easy or difficult.

Then you get multiple words and you do the process you will do every time you use Bliu Bliu: Simply click on the words that are marked red to tell Bliu Bliu you find them easy. Or click on the unmarked words to tell it they are difficult.

Quickly go to the next set of words by using the right arrow key.

Step 3: Get your first estimate

After only six set of words, Bliu Bliu gives you an estimate of how many words you know!

If you don’t think it’s accurate, don’t worry. The estimate will improve the more you play with Bliu Bliu.

Step 4: Save your progress

Now it’s time to save your progress. To do that, click on the button on the top right corner.

I recommend you save yourself time by simply clicking Sign in with Facebook. However, make sure you check the e-mail address you gave facebook so you don’t miss any updates from Bliu Bliu.

Step 5: Start playing with Bliu Bliu

Now you get a short text. It can be a conversation, a small story, a joke, interesting facts about Germans etc. It will contain both words you know and words you don’t know. So you will always understand most of it, but it is still a challenge so you can improve your German.

As in step 2, click on the red marked words you already know. If any difficult words are not marked red, click on those. Bliu Bliu’s smart algorithm will save you much time clicking by making an educated guess about which words are easy and which are hard for you.

You can do it differently, but I find it helpful to click on words I might not have known before, but which are very obvious.

So, suppose you have never heard of the German word Ritual. It’s still easy: The word means ritual!

Finally, you can have a native speaker read the text to you, so you know what the text would sound like. I recommend to always listen to the audio and reading the text again.

If you have clicked on single words, you will have seen the translation of the word. By clicking on the grey button with the Asian symbol and the A, you can translate the whole paragraph. It’s not that visible to make it less obtrusive, but the downside is that sometimes you have so search for it.

Jump to:
The Five Steps to Get Started with Bliu Bliu Other Cool Features Make any Text Interactive Check your Stats Downsides

Navigating Bliu Bliu

I want to show you some features that I have overlooked at first. These make Bliu Bliu much more engaging and add variety to your learning process.

Bliu Bliu has many categories. I recommend building a habit of learning German every day. So when I started with Bliu Bliu, I chose a new category every day. In a couple of days, I knew what my favorite categories were.

It’s not very visible, but there is a Show more button on the bottom, which gives you access to some experimental features such as poems, news and encyclopedia entries.

Don’t forget to check out the sidebar, which has cool features you might otherwise not even know exist. For example, if you feel the texts are too short, why not read a book in German? There are all kind of books in Bliu Bliu, from a collection of essays about the German language to exciting novels.

Did you know you can change the language German is translated into? Go to the settings for that. There, you can also fill out your profile, add other languages you speak and change your password.

And then, of course, there is the 30 Days German Challenge. I am a host, so if you decide to join, I can teach you German via Bliu Bliu.
Check out the Challenge!

Make any text interactive

Remember I promised you that with Bliu Bliu you can make any text interactive? Here is what you do:

• Find a German text you would like to read on Bliu Bliu.
• Select the URL and copy it (CTRL + C).

• Then you go to the sidebar in Bliu Bliu and click on My texts.
• Select Upload new content at the top right and paste the URL into the big box (CTRL + V).
• Finally, click Upload Content at the bottom.

Now you are done and can enjoy that text on Bliu Bliu, along with their word translation feature and add all new words to your vocabulary list on Bliu Bliu.

Check your progress and compete with your peers

Feeling competitive? I showed you how you can read any text on Bliu Bliu. That wasn’t just for the features, but also to get your stats up! 😉

I like Bliu Bliu‘s stats, because I think they reflect more accurately how I am progressing than other language learning sites. For example, Duolingo just gives me a percentage and I have no idea what it stands for.

With Bliu Bliu I have a metric that makes sense and I see even small improvements, which keeps me motivated.

And then there is this leaderboard which compares me to other people who use Bliu Bliu. Cribbe, Janis and Megan, I am coming for you! 😉

Jump to:
The Five Steps to Get Started with Bliu Bliu Other Cool Features Make any Text Interactive Check your Stats Downsides

The Downsides

Well, nothing is ever perfect, so of course there are some downsides to Bliu Bliu.

• Sometimes the sites takes a while to load.
• Unfortunately, thankfully very infrequently, there are bugs.
• Some features were not that visible. But that’s why I wrote this post. 🙂
• With a free account, there is a limit on the time you are allowed to practice at a given time.

You can solve the last issue by either paying for a premium account, joining the challenge or waiting a couple of minutes. Considering the value they give, I think this is entirely fair.

The site continually improves, so chances are you won’t encounter any bugs and other issues. If you do, please send me a message and I can make them aware of them.