walrus Newbie Japan Joined 6080 days ago 7 posts - 7 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Japanese
| Message 1 of 25 02 May 2008 at 10:37am | IP Logged |
I eve's drop on people when I hear them speaking Japanese. I read manga, and have begun with reading books. And other bits of getting Japanese input are there. Today I noticed that I translate ALL of the Japanese words in my head, to English. I've tried just Japanese, and it doesn't last long.
I feel like this is a huge problem, any ideas on how?
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Keith Diglot Moderator JapanRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 6769 days ago 526 posts - 536 votes 1 sounds Speaks: English*, Japanese Studies: Mandarin Personal Language Map
| Message 2 of 25 02 May 2008 at 10:50am | IP Logged |
When people are speaking to you faster than you can translate then you'll be forced to stop translating in your head.
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albnarinos Tetraglot Groupie Spain Joined 6161 days ago 47 posts - 49 votes Speaks: Catalan, Spanish*, English, French Studies: German, Norwegian, Mandarin
| Message 3 of 25 02 May 2008 at 11:18am | IP Logged |
It's basically just a matter of practising listenning like crazy, and getting tons of input until you gradually and naturally stop using translation as an aid (or crutch).
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Captain Haddock Diglot Senior Member Japan kanjicabinet.tumblr. Joined 6760 days ago 2282 posts - 2814 votes Speaks: English*, Japanese Studies: French, Korean, Ancient Greek
| Message 4 of 25 03 May 2008 at 2:30am | IP Logged |
Like Albnarinos, it happens with repeated exposure. Your mind will naturally stop translating once it is comfortable with a word on its own.
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cothromóid Triglot Groupie Ireland Joined 6138 days ago 77 posts - 78 votes Speaks: English*, French, Irish Studies: Spanish, Italian
| Message 5 of 25 03 May 2008 at 5:31am | IP Logged |
I would disagree that you eventually stop translating a foreign language in your head as you hear it. No matter how
well you know another language, nothing will ever top your native language. You will always -even
subconsciously- translate in your head.
Edited by cothromóid on 03 May 2008 at 5:31am
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Julie Heptaglot Senior Member PolandRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 6895 days ago 1251 posts - 1733 votes 5 sounds Speaks: Polish*, EnglishB2, GermanC2, SpanishB2, Dutch, Swedish, French
| Message 6 of 25 03 May 2008 at 5:46am | IP Logged |
I don't agree with it, and one of the reasons is that there are many people that know a foreign language better than their native one, at least in some areas of use (like the vocabulary connected with work). How are they supposed to translate it subconsciously into the native language if they don't even know the equivalents? Moreover, what about thinking in the foreign language? If I'm thinking in it, am I subconsciously translating my thoughts into my mother tongue? That seems pretty unrealistic to me.
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Volte Tetraglot Senior Member Switzerland Joined 6431 days ago 4474 posts - 6726 votes Speaks: English*, Esperanto, German, Italian Studies: French, Finnish, Mandarin, Japanese
| Message 7 of 25 03 May 2008 at 5:50am | IP Logged |
cothromóid wrote:
I would disagree that you eventually stop translating a foreign language in your head as you hear it. No matter how
well you know another language, nothing will ever top your native language. You will always -even
subconsciously- translate in your head. |
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I've got to disagree with this. For me, the biggest evidence is when I feel like I've deeply internalized some part of a language, and may even have trouble translating it into English. I translate things which are difficult for me into English, but those which are easy don't seem to go through that step.
Edit: Also, people who have learned by immersion can have great difficulty translating their new language into their native one. I translate Italian to English much better than my sister does, despite her Italian being better than mine.
Edited by Volte on 03 May 2008 at 5:51am
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Captain Haddock Diglot Senior Member Japan kanjicabinet.tumblr. Joined 6760 days ago 2282 posts - 2814 votes Speaks: English*, Japanese Studies: French, Korean, Ancient Greek
| Message 8 of 25 03 May 2008 at 6:51am | IP Logged |
cothromóid wrote:
I would disagree that you eventually stop translating a foreign language in your head as you hear it. No matter how
well you know another language, nothing will ever top your native language. You will always -even
subconsciously- translate in your head. |
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I read and hear plenty of Japanese that I understand without translating, and that in fact is quite difficult to translate.
Now, as long as I am progressing in Japanese, grammar and vocabulary that push the limits of my understanding will probably require conscious reflection in English; but that's not quite the same thing.
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