Stop mentally translating: the key to learning a foreign language

The path to fluency in a foreign language is never short or particularly easy. There’s a lot to learn: verb conjugations, grammar, and sometimes a whole new alphabet. Not surprisingly, it is a task that many consider formidable. But it does not have to be like that. If you stop translating mentally and make the decision to think in your new language as often as possible, your fluency will improve tremendously.

This is not an easy task, but fear not! Progress comes from embracing uncertainty. Often the usual way of learning a language in a classroom is not enough. You must work outside of these settings to gain dominance. And it doesn’t take full cultural immersion to do it. How to stop translating and start thinking in another language? Making changes in your daily life. Here are some tips to get you started:

Describe your world

No matter how limited your vocabulary is, use it to describe the world around you. If you only know the colors, mentally label your child’s red sweater or orange traffic cone, green leaves and trees. Maybe you know the adjectives. What’s around you tall, short, pretty, smooth, etc.? Do you know how to get there? Is it turning east, west, north, or south? What are the rooms in your house? Fruits in your kitchen? You get the idea. Make a conscious decision to use these words every day.

Swap your daily conversations for new ones

Think of simple conversations in your new language. When you see your neighbors, how would you greet them in your target language? How could some of them answer? How would you order your favorite drink at the coffee shop on the corner? Mentally ask your coworkers about their weekend using the language you are studying. Write down the words that are hard for you to remember. Do this every day.

Talk to yourself

That’s right. I said “talk to yourself”. No problem. There have been recent studies showing that people who talk to themselves are geniuses, so that’s okay. And you will be a genius who speaks in another language no less! Talking to yourself will help you organize your thoughts. You can practice complicated pronunciation.

Don’t feel like talking to yourself? Try videotaping yourself to track your progress. Post your videos on YouTube and maybe your videos will even go viral and the world will be blown away by your language learning skills. Again, talk about what you are currently learning. Is it the months of the year, the weather, or the idioms? Talk about it!

Use technology

There is no better time to learn another language and there are countless ways to improve your language learning using technology. Here are a few:

  • Read news and blogs in your target language, even if you have no idea what it says.

  • Find online message boards in your target language

  • Change the language of your home page to the language you are learning. Or try doing this with your Facebook page or other websites. If you are studying Chinese and visit the Ikea website looking for a new sofa, select the China website when searching the site.

  • Change the language on your cell phone. Needing to know how to navigate your phone will force you to be more proficient.

  • Watch movies in your target language without subtitles or, better yet, watch a movie in your native language with subtitles in your target language. Then read the subtitles to increase your reading speed.

  • Choose your favorite theme and play for a while online. Make it fun, but watch it all in your foreign language.

  • Listen to podcasts, music, and radio stations in a foreign language. Listen to the news. You can find good music, but you will also understand the cadence of the language.

  • For a more advanced language learner, you can install a version of Windows on your computer that is in your target language. When you need to navigate your computer, it may be difficult at first, but you will eventually get the hang of it.

It is best to learn languages ​​when you decide to step out of your comfort zone. Practice outside of class in whatever way you like. When we do something fun, it has a better chance of staying with us. Forget mentally translating; Live the language and watch your proficiency grow!

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