Lately I’ve been trying to think and talk to myself more in Spanish (I don’t know anyone to speak with and would be uncomfortable Skyping strangers online lol) while using LingQ for learning and review. It seems to be working so far…
However I constantly find myself translating in my head. Even if I know how to say what I want to say, the English words flash through my mind first. This - combined with the fact that LingQ only allows me to make connections between a set of English ‘synonyms’ and the Spanish word - makes me worry that I’m creating and strengthening associations not between concepts and Spanish words, but between English words and Spanish words. And furthermore that those will only be strengthened with time as, as they say, ‘neurons that fire together wire together’ and it seems like what’s going together in my mind right now is mostly English word + Spanish word… even when I practice more, will that just strengthen the English->Spanish connection, not the spontaneous coming up with, say,
‘triste’ when I’m sad or ‘me da asco’ when I don’t like something?
…if that convoluted explanation makes any sense.
Has anyone else found the same thing happening at first - associating the Spanish word with the LingQ hint instead of with the actual concept - but that’s gone away rather than being strengthened with time and practice? Or do I need to start looking things up a lot in monolingual dictionaries, trying to somehow incorporate pictures, etc. in order to ensure I’m not working against fluent thinking in Spanish by practicing linking English to it?
Ultimately, to think in another language it needs to be sunk into your sub-conscious. For this to happen you need to have consumed an enormous amount of the language; for example, hundreds of hours of listening and millions of words of reading. That sounds like a lot, and it is, but its only about a year or two of consistent work. Only after this will your brain think instantly in the target language when speaking
Thanks! Yep, I’ve been switching up my language learning to try to get more input and less review because that’s what I keep hearing.
So with enough input the language itself will sink into my subconscious without being translated through my L1, even though during the putting-in of all that input I’ve been associating the language with English? (I mean presumably so, since I haven’t heard of many people who’ve completely shut themselves off from translation and only ever used pictures/monolingual definitions, and yet there are many many people who can think comfortably in another language.)
Exactly, its impossible to not use your English as a reference when learning another language. The goal is to go from spanish word->meaning, but for a long time it will go spanish word->english word-> meaning. Once you can understand the spoken language at full speed with minimal problems (radio, podcasts, audiobooks, tv shows, etc) you will find that your brain will no longer filter it through english first, it will simply be meaning. Thats my experience at least. Input input input
Thanks again! So excited for that to happen lol, it seems sooo far away from where I am now… (but Spanish is only my second language, I can imagine language learning gets much easier when you’ve already done it once and kind of know you can).