Think in a second language!!!!!!!!!

During the first eigth years in a human being’s life, the main reason to exist is just to manage the correct use of a language. It’s our survival tip.

For children, this is an automatic task, however, it is a bit more complicated for adults. Our brain needs some understandable information, what we call “formal operations”. This basically means that we need to know the reason why the things work in a certain way, and therefore here comes the grear importance of grammar. However, once we start the process we tend to translate anything arround us.

Translation will delay our learning, translating is a very difficult task for which not everyone is still ready. We must only try to understand it, as simply as that. It seems more difficult at the beginning as it really is, but it is much better in long term basis. To have a thinking mind in the second language there are several steps we can follow. Here are the best three of them:

1.- PLANIFY YOUR LIFE IN L2

       We all have plenty of things to do daily, and we normally travel by bus or leave home thinking of buying something from the supermarket, going to the bank or visiting a friend. Well, all those small actions are easily expressed in a second language, think in Spanish day by day.

2.- SUBTITLES

       Cinema and television are very effective learning methods. When we watch a film in second language, we are more than usually helped on subtitles. MOTHER TONGUE SUBTITLES ARE USELESS. If our brain is expossed to both languages, as it cannot proccess two languages at the same time, it is going to centre in that one that seems easier for it. That is exactly the one you’re not studying.

       Subtitles are good for learning as long as they represent an accurate transcription of what you are listening at the same time. Remember to change subtitles on second language as a rule.

3.- REPEAT WHAT YOU GET. Use the same expressions people use.

       Learning to speak is basically an imitation proccess. Since we are kids, we imitate all sounds produced by our parents and we try to give a sense and a meaning to them. That is why it is extremely neccessary that we listen to everyone carefully, read as much as we can and try to use all those structures in our speech. When we talk to people, we read advertising of a clothes shop or listening the tape recording of the supermarket offers we are constantly receiving language input. Listen to it, understand it and then USE IT. Human brain cannot remember any word that hasn’t been verbally used, so we only have to use it in a conversation!