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Questions about Spain?
Write to David at:
dbolton99b@yahoo.es
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Mastering a foreign language:
"Automating" your thinking processes |
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For a moment, let's forget about any foreign language you may be
learning; I would like to ask you a question, and I want you to give an
immediate answer in your own mother tongue.
Question: What did you do today?
Your answer will probably be along the lines of: "Well, I got up at
8 o'clock, had breakfast, did some work around the house, watched a little
TV, etc., etc...."
The truth be told, I don't really care what you did. The reason I
asked was simply to point out to you how easily - how "automatically" - you
are able to answer such a question when you are thinking in your native
language. Obviously, it is a different matter altogether if someone asks you
the same thing - and you must reply - in another language.
When you answered in English, you did not have to think about
choosing the right vocabulary, using the correct verb forms, putting the
words in the proper order, and so on. You simply replied straight out,
without first considering how you would answer. You merely thought
about what you did, and as soon as those images from today's activities
entered your mind, you immediately described them.
If you had had to respond in a language you are now learning, but
have not yet mastered, you would have had to stop and think about how to
describe these activities. There are basically two ways that people
generally do this when using a somewhat unfamiliar language:
1) They mentally "translate" before answering. For example: They remember
getting up at 8 o'clock. They then think (in their mother tongue): "I got up
at 8 o'clock". Next, they try to figure out how to say: "I got up" and "at 8
o'clock" in the language they are learning. To do this, they must know how
to say "to get up", then to put this into past tense, adding the pronoun "I"
at the beginning. They then have to remember not only how to say "eight
o'clock", but also, which preposition must be used in this case. If Spanish
is their target language, this task would require knowing:
- the verb "levantarse" (to get up). They must know that in Spanish, this is
reflexive. The "se" part must be converted to "me" (since you are talking
about yourself). The pronoun "I" doesn't necessarily have to be used, since
Spanish doesn't require this. You must know the past (first person) of
"levantar", which would be "levanté" (or else "he levantado", should you
prefer to use the present perfect, which would be common in such a
situation). So, now we have...
"Me levanté" (or "Me he levantado").
"at eight o´clock" = "a las ocho". To get this, you must know that you
generally don't translate the "o´clock" part in Spanish, that you say "las"
(plural) and not "la", and that the correct preposition is "a".
Final result: "Me levanté a las ocho."
Whew! No wonder people usually speak so slowly when they are using
a language they haven't been learning long!
2) A second way to learn to speak would be a much more "direct" approach,
one that does not involve translation: you imagine getting up, and
you remember a sentence you learned that expresses the situation (that of
getting up at 8 o'clock): "Me levanté a las ocho" is what you would then
automatically say.
That sounds a lot easier to do, doesn't it? You simply have the
"image" in your mind, and you directly and automatically -
without translation of any sort - connect a Spanish sentence you have
previously learned with that image.
Of course, the fact that there are potentially thousands of things
you could have done in a day means that if you learn by this method alone,
you would have to learn thousands of sentences by memory - not so practical
after all!
Are we therefore "doomed" to always be mentally translating before
we say something in our target language? Not really, for there IS a "middle
path"...
I always recommend that when people learn single words, or short,
common phrases, they directly connect the image in their mind (the image -
but not the English word - of "cat", "house", "I go", or whatever)
with the foreign word, instead of first with the English word, and then the
foreign one. That is, they form a mental picture of a cat, and think "gato"
if they are learning Spanish, "Katze", "chatte" or "neko" if German, French
or Japanese is their target language. If they want to say "I am going
shopping", then as soon as they read that sentence in English and see its
translation into the target language, they should immediately put the
English sentence ("I am going shopping") out of their mind; they should only
imagine themselves going shopping, and think "Voy a ir de compras"
(should Spanish be their new language). Then, they should repeat this
sentence several times, till they can say it by memory, all the while
holding the image of themselves going shopping in their minds.
This should always be the preferred method for learning single
words, as well as short, common phrases/sentences, assuming that your goal
is to learn to speak the language as quickly as possible. (If you are
studying to be a linguist or a professional translator, on the other hand,
it would probably be better to translate mentally as much as you can, so
that you will be able to associate the words in one language with their
equilvalents in the other as quickly as possible.)
It goes without saying that this method cannot be the only one you
use. Suppose, for example, that someone asks you a question which requires
an answer such as:
"It wasn't a banana peel, but rather a piece of wet rag I slipped
on just before I fell and broke my leg right below the knee."
This sentence contains quite a few details, doesn't it? And if you
wanted to learn by the "direct association" method (that is, imagine
the situation, then say a sentence you have previously learned to
describe that situation), you would have to learn literally millions of
sentences in order to be able to cover all the possibilites you might
experience in life. Highly impractical, without a doubt!
The solution, therefore, is to use "direct association" - as
mentioned earlier - for learning single words, and short, very common
phrases/sentences. For more complex statements, you will indeed have to rely
on your knowledge of grammar, syntax and specific vocabulary, in order to
"put together" all of the elements you need so that you can express more
detailed situations or ideas. However, this really isn't so bad. Your
foreign conversation partner most likely will be willing to show quite a bit
of patience if you are explaining how you slipped on that piece of wet rag
and broke your shin bone. But people won't be as patient if you take two
minutes just to say you got up at eight o'clock!
And once you reach a more advanced level of language study, you
will see that it becomes easier and easier to express complex contents
without having to "mentally translate" first. Then it will only be a
question of time before you can have long, detailed, and even profound
conversations in your new language without having to think in English at
all. Then you may allow yourself to go enjoy a bottle of good champagne, for
you will have finally reached your goal!
Next article:
16) Communicate faster when speaking a foreign language: Learn to
simplify
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