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Thinking-in-the-Language Regimen | ||
Tags: Thinking | Learning Technique/Method | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Learning Techniques, Methods & Strategies |  | |
| Arekkusu Hexaglot Senior Member Canada bit.ly/qc_10_lec Joined 5372 days ago 3971 posts - 7747 votes  Speaks: English, French*, GermanC1, Spanish, Japanese, Esperanto Studies: Italian, Norwegian, Mandarin, Romanian, Estonian | Message 1 of 15 22 September 2010 at 4:47pm | IP Logged | ||
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(Disclaimer: I did do a search through the site, but couldn't find much relevant information.)
Does anyone here have a specific regimen of thinking in the language(s) they are learning, or tactics to force themselves to think in the language? This is something I always did instinctively with other languages, right from the start, but it took me a long time before I could do it semi-satisfactorily in Japanese. And there is still room for improvement. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Amren Diglot Newbie United States Joined 5168 days ago 1 posts - 1 votes Speaks: English*, German | Message 2 of 15 22 September 2010 at 7:12pm | IP Logged | ||
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Arekkusu,
I find that sometimes I just start thinking in another language and sometimes I have to make a conscious decision to do so. Many times it depends on what I'm doing. For example, if I'm cooking something that I'm using a recipe for, I will make myself translate it into the language I'm trying to work on. It's like anything else, baby steps lead to running. Good luck! 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| justberta Diglot Senior Member Norway Joined 5576 days ago 140 posts - 170 votes Speaks: English, Norwegian* Studies: Indonesian, German, Spanish, Russian | Message 3 of 15 22 September 2010 at 8:31pm | IP Logged | ||
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I have lost the ability to think in Norwegian, I don't force myself to do anything, it
comes naturally whilst learning the language 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Arekkusu Hexaglot Senior Member Canada bit.ly/qc_10_lec Joined 5372 days ago 3971 posts - 7747 votes Speaks: English, French*, GermanC1, Spanish, Japanese, Esperanto Studies: Italian, Norwegian, Mandarin, Romanian, Estonian | Message 4 of 15 22 September 2010 at 8:38pm | IP Logged | ||
I consider that making an effort to think in the language will boost fluency. That's why I make a deliberate effort and I'm not waiting for it to happen on its own. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| galindo Bilingual Triglot Senior Member United States Joined 5198 days ago 142 posts - 248 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish*, Japanese Studies: Korean, Portuguese | Message 5 of 15 23 September 2010 at 3:54am | IP Logged | ||
I also think it's important to make an effort to think in the new language. Even in Spanish, I still purposely think in it from time to time, because I'm not in a position where I need to use it actively. I worry that if I don't, I might lose the ability to compose thoughts effortlessly, and that leads to overall decline in language proficiency. In a new language it's harder; your thoughts like to wander on their own and won't necessarily line up with the things you are able to express. I'm not nearly at the level you are with spoken Japanese, but I do try to think in it as much as I can. Since you can already speak it well, you could try doing internal monologues where you pretend you have to explain something to somebody, or describe an event. I do this even though I haven't practiced speaking much. It always leads to an increase in the amount of random Japanese thoughts that come into my head, which does basically "force you to think in Japanese." If you do more fun, structured mental exercises like that, you might find yourself thinking more often and more naturally in Japanese. You could also do an internal monologue that follows and describes your actions at the moment, while you are doing some kind of activity like cleaning, gardening or cooking. Another thing that helps is reading a lot. As soon as I learned enough kanji to be able to read comfortably without looking too many things up, I started reading as much as I could. That helped my vocabulary immensely, which in turn made it much more common for random Japanese words and phrases to pop into my head. I could then follow those words along a whole train of thought in Japanese, at least until I slipped into English for a part I didn't know in Japanese. That breaks the 'Japanese mode' mental state, and at that point I sometimes force myself to go back to Japanese, or I just drop it until the next opportunity presents itself. If you haven't been reading books in Japanese very often, you should try to read more. I'm lucky that my local library has a lot of Japanese books that were donated by a local Japanese company, and no one else checks them out so I can take whatever I want and keep it as long as I like. If you don't have that, I guess you just have to buy a lot of books... Anyway, even if your oral skills are very good, extensive reading would probably push you into a place where thinking in Japanese becomes more comfortable and instinctive. When you read, you are subvocalizing, and that can help imprint new words and sentence structures into your thought patterns. That leads to a bigger mental catalog of phrases and grouped words that can be drawn upon to more easily construct thoughts. 4 persons have voted this message useful | |||
 Iversen Super Polyglot Moderator Denmark berejst.dk Joined 6694 days ago 9078 posts - 16473 votes Speaks: Danish*, French, English, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch, Swedish, Esperanto, Romanian, Catalan Studies: Afrikaans, Greek, Norwegian, Russian, Serbian, Icelandic, Latin, Irish, Lowland Scots, Indonesian, Polish, Croatian Personal Language Map | Message 6 of 15 23 September 2010 at 6:41pm | IP Logged | ||
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I have in fact written a whole message (part, msg.5) about this topic in my Guide to Learning languages, and for me the sign that I'm leaving the ignominous position as a mere beginner and becoming a respectable intermediate learner is that I can start thinking in the target language. At that point I could in principle start talking, but I prefer waiting somewhat - or at least I did until I got caught between the slimy fangs of Youtube, because since this vile creature caught me it I have made videos in several of my intermediary languages (Low German, Latin) which I had never ever spoken before. And the only reason that I could babble in those languages is that I had babbled silently for a long time inside my uppermost section
So thinking is definitely an important activity for me, and I think those videos prove that even it can be used for something practical. Edited by Iversen on 23 September 2010 at 6:47pm 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| frenkeld Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 6934 days ago 2042 posts - 2719 votes Speaks: Russian*, English Studies: German | Message 7 of 15 23 September 2010 at 7:19pm | IP Logged | ||
There is passive 'thinking' and active thinking. The former is when you get the meaning of what you read or hear without a noticeable act of translation. The latter is when you make your own sentences directly in the target language without translating from your native one. I try to encourage passive 'thinking' in the target language by using a monolingual dictionary early on and avoiding seeing a translation. I try to encourage active thinking by formulating my thoughts directly in the target language while writing or conducting an internal dialog or discourse. Edited by frenkeld on 23 September 2010 at 7:20pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Arekkusu Hexaglot Senior Member Canada bit.ly/qc_10_lec Joined 5372 days ago 3971 posts - 7747 votes Speaks: English, French*, GermanC1, Spanish, Japanese, Esperanto Studies: Italian, Norwegian, Mandarin, Romanian, Estonian | Message 8 of 15 23 September 2010 at 7:59pm | IP Logged | ||
Thanks, Iversen! I came across a reference to something you had written on the topic, but the link didn't work! I shall read it with avid interest. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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