Do you often find yourself translating to and from English while attempting to communicate in Spanish?
I know that it is tempting to find meaning through translation – it’s a type of instant gratification that I’ve fallen victim to countless times.
But just like other things that we’ve all done that provide us instant gratification, such as hitting the snooze button on the alarm, eating junk food and wasting time on social media, there is a price to pay. With language learning, the price is hefty and gets worse with time.
When translating, everything travels back and forth between two brain regions, which is a slow, exhausting and frustrating way to communicate.
About now you might be feeling a little helpless and depressed, but what if I told you that you already know how to communicate in Spanish without translating?
In this article, I’ll reveal a technique that you can start using immediately, will put an end to the need for translating in your head and open up a new world of communication to you – one that’s more efficient, saves you energy and could even be considered fun.
In what language do you understand English?
Or rather, what language do you translate English into in order for you to understand it?
Seems like a silly question, right? But the obvious answer is that you don’t. You associate words, phrases and language structures with images, sounds, sensations and experiences from the world around you.
You do not translate from your native tongue into any other language in order to understand it.
Let’s give it a try. Read the following sentence out loud:
“A grizzly bear standing on its hind legs looking at the sky with its right paw raised.”
Now scroll down a bit to see the translation….
…
…
…
When you read the sentence, did an image similar to the one above pop into your head?
Let’s see if it works in reverse, this time with a sound. Listen to the following sound clip and say out loud what you hear:
I’m willing to bet that you heard something that starts with an “h” and ends with an “r” and has “cop” somewhere in the middle.
I can’t transmit a smell to you through this article, but I bet if I were to ask you to imagine the smell of gasoline, or a burnt marshmallow or freshly peeled onion, we would all be imagining the same odor and maybe even having a few tears well up in our eyes.
Whether you were aware of it or not before reading this article, this is exactly how we derive meaning from spoken or written English and how we transmit meaning to others.
You can do the same exact thing to understand a foreign language without having to translate a single word.
The technique that I’m about to introduce to you can be used to derive meaning from spoken or written Spanish (or any other foreign language) without translating. Are you ready? Let’s get started.
Use your imagination
Before I get into the steps of this technique, I want to mention that translating can happen in two ways:
- Translating from Spanish to English in order to understand
- Translating from English to Spanish in order to produce
This technique will address the former, and I’ll address the latter in a future post.
Step 1: Choosing “comprehensible” input
This step is vitally important. As a beginner to low intermediate learner, you are still learning basic vocabulary, and therefore need visuals if you want to be able to associate new words and phrases with the real world.
Comprehensible input for beginners MUST include images that preferably accompany spoken language by a NATIVE SPEAKER.
Intermediate and advanced learners will have the option to listen to or read input material that does not contain images, such as a podcast, the radio, the newspaper, etc., but can still benefit greatly from practicing with this technique.
I’ve chosen a video from a YouTube channel called BookBoxInc that contains animated cartoons in many different languages. This is the Spanish version of the story “Rose Goes to the City”:
Step 2: Listen and watch
In this step, you will listen to and watch the video. Turn off the subtitles or ignore them if that is not an option.
Listening comprehension is one of the most neglected skills, yet it is the most important. Your language learning routine should be comprised of mostly listening activities.
While performing this step, don’t worry too much about understanding or associating with the foreign language. Concentrate more on understanding what is going on by watching the video.
Step 3: Pause and read
Watch the video again, but this time you will pause the video, read the subtitles and attempt to associate words and phrases with the objects that are seen and the events that are happening in the video.
This step requires effort and could be a source of stress if you’re not careful. Your mindset is crucial here. Treat this step as if you were to sit down to put together a puzzle or solve a riddle. Be patient with yourself and enjoy the activity.
Feel free to check yourself to see if you are correctly associating. You can do this by opening Google images and searching for words in the target language. This works especially well with nouns and sometimes adjectives and verbs.
Step 4: Close your eyes
In this final step, you’ll close your eyes, listen to the video and attempt to pull up the images that you saw in the prior steps.
If you are able to create a mental image of what’s happening while listening in the target language – congratulations, you’ve done it!
If not, don’t worry. Be patient with yourself and try again. In the end, it will be worth it because you’re training a skill that will save you time, energy and frustration in the long run.
How to search for comprehensible input on YouTube
Now that you know that you can use your imagination to think in Spanish, I want to wrap up this article with a piece of advice about searching for content on YouTube.
As you know, YouTube has tons of videos, so you have to know exactly what to search for in order to find what you want.
In this case, I have found more options and had more success finding good comprehensible input videos in the target language when my search is written in the target language, not in English.
For example, in Spanish you would search for something like:
“Cuentos cortos para niños de ___ a ___ años”
Instead of:
“Short stories for kids in Spanish”
Here’s a link to the channel where I found the video in this exercise to get you started:
Bookboxinc Animated Cartoons in Spanish
I hope you’ve enjoyed the article and feel more confident about being able to communicate in Spanish without translating in your head.
If you have any questions about learning a foreign language as an adult, or if you have a specific topic that you would like to hear about, post your request in the comments section or send me an email at tseryak@gmail.com
¡Hasta la próxima!
Mary
Such good advice!