IWTYAL 087: How to avoid translating in your head

Pete asks: “I'm learning Portuguese, how can I avoid translating in my head?”

In this episode:

• Translation is inevitable
• It's a useful strategy as a beginner
• Translation stops being useful as you move to higher levels, and you're dealing with nuances in the language which often don't have translations
• Stopping translating in your head is something that happens naturally over time

Tips for moving away from translation:

• Be happy with a certain level of ambiguity in the language – fixating on understanding every word is counterproductive
• Look for patterns and phrases in the language, write them down, notice them being used in different contexts, the begin to use them yourself
• Deal in phrases and sentences, not single words
• When watching movies etc, relax and be present with the language, don't try to understand everything
• Spend time on all four skills

Today's Quote:

• “You don't learn a language, you get used to it.” – Katsumoto

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Olly Richards

Creator of the StoryLearning® Method

Olly Richards is a renowned polyglot and language learning expert with over 15 years of experience teaching millions through his innovative StoryLearning® method. He is the creator of StoryLearning, one of the world's largest language learning blogs with 500,000+ monthly readers.

Olly has authored 30+ language learning books and courses, including the bestselling "Short Stories" series published by Teach Yourself.

When not developing new teaching methods, Richards practices what he preaches—he speaks 8 languages fluently and continues learning new ones through his own methodology.