Марк Senior Member Russian Federation Joined 4991 days ago 2096 posts - 2972 votes Speaks: Russian*
| Message 1 of 29 03 November 2011 at 2:45pm | IP Logged |
I have argued recently on other forums that translations from target language into your
own and especially vice-versa are useful, while my opponents stated it would prevent from
thinking in the target language. What do you think of that?
Edited by Fasulye on 04 November 2011 at 11:39am
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Arekkusu Hexaglot Senior Member Canada bit.ly/qc_10_lec Joined 5316 days ago 3971 posts - 7747 votes Speaks: English, French*, GermanC1, Spanish, Japanese, Esperanto Studies: Italian, Norwegian, Mandarin, Romanian, Estonian
| Message 2 of 29 03 November 2011 at 3:02pm | IP Logged |
I find it to be an excellent exercice to translate or interpret into your L2. Personally, I quite enjoy interpreting orally, into Japanese, text from an English book when in the presence of a language partner. It's a superb way to get direct feedback on whether your production is accurate or not, and to get a native's input on what might sound more natural.
However, I see no point in translating into your own language, except perhaps punctually, for sentences or phrases that you have difficulty understanding, and only for the purpose of obtaining a native's opinion on the exact meaning.
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Solfrid Cristin Heptaglot Winner TAC 2011 & 2012 Senior Member Norway Joined 5269 days ago 4143 posts - 8864 votes Speaks: Norwegian*, Spanish, Swedish, French, English, German, Italian Studies: Russian
| Message 3 of 29 03 November 2011 at 11:57pm | IP Logged |
I find that very few people think in their target language regardless of method. Translation works for me, if it also works for you then go ahead. Who cares what the others say?
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Марк Senior Member Russian Federation Joined 4991 days ago 2096 posts - 2972 votes Speaks: Russian*
| Message 4 of 29 04 November 2011 at 10:40am | IP Logged |
I agree with Arekkusu because when one translates into his own language, one thinks of
his own language, when one translates into one's target language, one tries to express
the meaning in the target language.
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Fasulye Heptaglot Winner TAC 2012 Moderator Germany fasulyespolyglotblog Joined 5782 days ago 5460 posts - 6006 votes 1 sounds Speaks: German*, DutchC1, EnglishB2, French, Italian, Spanish, Esperanto Studies: Latin, Danish, Norwegian, Turkish Personal Language Map
| Message 5 of 29 04 November 2011 at 11:44am | IP Logged |
In my experience it depends on the individual learner, if translation works as a suitbable method.
So I can only speak for myself: For me personally it's not a good method because I prefer to assimilate the meaning directly from the foreign language - a translation would hinder my capacity to develop thoughts in the foreign language. When we read our texts in my Danish course, I strongly dislike if one person starts translating one or two sentences. Only in ekceptional cases I would like a very difficult expression to be translated.
Fasulye
Edited by Fasulye on 04 November 2011 at 11:45am
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Chris Heptaglot Senior Member Japan Joined 7056 days ago 287 posts - 452 votes Speaks: English*, Russian, Indonesian, French, Malay, Japanese, Spanish Studies: Dutch, Korean, Mongolian
| Message 6 of 29 04 November 2011 at 11:48am | IP Logged |
Translation is extremely useful. We are no longer infants with that magical ability to assimilate a language. Our native language will get in the way, no matter what, so you might as well use it!
Translation has become unpopular because it's difficult.
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leosmith Senior Member United States Joined 6485 days ago 2365 posts - 3804 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Tagalog
| Message 7 of 29 04 November 2011 at 12:33pm | IP Logged |
Chris wrote:
Translation has become unpopular because it's difficult. |
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You might be right about difficulty being the true reason. I'm glad to see that this forum isn't buying the whole
"translating is evil" philosophy. Nice thread OP.
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Arekkusu Hexaglot Senior Member Canada bit.ly/qc_10_lec Joined 5316 days ago 3971 posts - 7747 votes Speaks: English, French*, GermanC1, Spanish, Japanese, Esperanto Studies: Italian, Norwegian, Mandarin, Romanian, Estonian
| Message 8 of 29 04 November 2011 at 12:55pm | IP Logged |
leosmith wrote:
Chris wrote:
Translation has become unpopular because it's difficult. |
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You might be right about difficulty being the true reason. I'm glad to see that this forum isn't buying the
whole
"translating is evil" philosophy. Nice thread OP. |
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I'm a translator by trade, so I certainly don't fear translation. Yet, I can't see the point of translating into your
own language. You'd be much better off summarizing the text in writing or doing self-talk about the text.
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