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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 |  | |
 Fasulye Heptaglot Winner TAC 2012 Moderator Germany fasulyespolyglotblog Joined 5838 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 9 of 15 24 September 2010 at 3:49pm | IP Logged | ||
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I have once more made the experience that sitting in a language class - which has to be taught in the foreign language - enhances my thinking in the foreign language much more than only passively listening to audios on MP3 or CD. I experienced this yesterday in my new Danish course. After the course I pratically spent a whole day of thinking in Danish (in easy sentence structures) and this was the very first time that I was capable of doing this. This proves one more to me that self-study for me is not enough to reach the thinking level in any language. I need immersion in the language or at least classroom immersion with a good teacher who keeps the lessson in the foreign language without translating every stupid word into German (as my former Turkish teacher did).
Fasulye Edited by Fasulye on 24 September 2010 at 3:52pm 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 10 of 15 24 September 2010 at 4:24pm | IP Logged | ||
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My last experience in a language classroom was such a waste of time that I regretted going and didn't attend the last classes. It reminded me how much time is wasted and how slow it is, and it only reinforced, for me, that self-study is the way to go. I'm surprised you'd say it made you think in the language, because even in advanced classes, there'll away be someone speaking English and it doesn't compare to speaking the language with natives.
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| frenkeld Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 6934 days ago 2042 posts - 2719 votes Speaks: Russian*, English Studies: German | Message 11 of 15 25 September 2010 at 6:25am | IP Logged | ||
If you mostly engage in passive activities during self-study, it seems reasonable that it would feel like you are not thinking enough in the target language. Is it possible that you find language classes helpful simply because they force you to use the language actively more than you do on your own? 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Bao Diglot Senior Member Germany tinyurl.com/pe4kqe5 Joined 5757 days ago 2256 posts - 4046 votes Speaks: German*, English Studies: French, Spanish, Japanese, Mandarin | Message 12 of 15 25 September 2010 at 6:04pm | IP Logged | ||
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It depends on the environment for me. Language is tied closely to its usage with other people; if my thoughts are only meant to be for myself I do not need to express them in any language.
Before I went to Spain I favoured the language that was easiest to communicate in, in Spain I learnt to favour the community language. That means that even though I am still a beginner in French, once I am in France my brain desparately tries to think in French. (In French class it still wants to rely on Spanish 'because that is easier and almost the same anyways' )= ) So what for me works is: -being in a predominantly target-language environment (if possible, one in which I might have to speak sooner or later) -imagining I am talking to a specific person with whom I would have to use the target language 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Merv Bilingual Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5264 days ago 414 posts - 749 votes Speaks: English*, Serbo-Croatian* Studies: Spanish, French | Message 13 of 15 25 September 2010 at 8:34pm | IP Logged | ||
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I don't think this needs to be a special activity. You can just do this randomly, on the bus, in the car, while eating
lunch at work, etc. For instance, the other day I practiced translating a simple conversation I overheard from English into Spanish. Eavesdropping aside (I didn't care about the content in and of itself, of course), I was pleased to see that I could formulate most of the same sentences in Spanish and not with any great deal of difficulty. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| LifeLongStudent Diglot Newbie United States focalfox.com/blog Joined 5117 days ago 13 posts - 17 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish | Message 14 of 15 12 November 2010 at 6:14pm | IP Logged | ||
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I agree with Merv, sometimes I take notes or just normal daily things, in a foreign language to keep up the "thought" process of the language. I like to use different languages within taking the notes, for example, start in English, then rotate to Spanish, and back again.
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| hypersport Senior Member United States Joined 5872 days ago 216 posts - 307 votes Studies: Spanish | Message 15 of 15 14 November 2010 at 5:22am | IP Logged | ||
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I constantly think in Spanish and when I catch myself thinking in English I force myself to re-think it in Spanish. I don't have the same opportunities to speak Spanish with Mexicans at work anymore so I do all I can to keep it fresh in my mind.
One thing that really helps is I have my ipod in my ear during work everyday with Spanish podcasts so sometimes I can go for hours without any English interaction at all, this makes it easy for me to think in Spanish. Another thing I do is translate in my head English tv or movies into Spanish while I watch if there's no Spanish available. This forces me to think in Spanish while I'm listening to English. If a movie doesn't have Spanish audio, but does have Spanish subtitles I'll put the audio on French and read the subtitles in Spanish. This way there's no English distractions and as I read the entire film in real time I'm only thinking in Spanish. I was watching Inglorious Bastards with Spanish audio and there was a scene where the languages switched and they were speaking in German and maybe something else too so when the Spanish subtitles came on it was a really cool feeling as they looked just as familiar to me as if they were in English. Anyway, kind of a long post but yeah, thinking in your target language is important in my opinion. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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