Faster Foreign Language Learning

Browsing FFLL’s search logs I found some interest in this topic, so I thought I’d address it in its own post.

Thinking in the language you’re trying to learn is one of the easiest ways to review. It also helps “activate” your new vocabulary and grammar by giving you a real-life use for it.

If you’re currently monolingual, though, the idea may seem a little strange. Maybe you haven’t even noticed that you’re thinking in a particular language (your native one, if that’s the only one you know).

Even once you’ve been studying a language for a month or two, thinking in that language may not come naturally. So if it doesn’t come naturally, how do you start and develop the habit of thinking in your target language at least some of the time?

Describe Your World

One easy way to start when you have very limited vocabulary is to just look around the room and mentally label whatever you can. If you know colors, scan the room and think the word for the color of each item you see.

If you know enough nouns and adjectives, think “table” or “small brown table” and so on. As you learn more, move on to complete sentences like, “That’s a coffee table. There’s a small book and a black coffee cup on it.” Then add verbs to create more complex phrases like, “I’m sitting on the sofa.” and “I’m going to stand up and walk to the window.”

If your surroundings aren’t particularly inspiring, grab a magazine and think sentences about the images you find there. This, incidentally, is a part of some verbal language exams. The examiner presents you with an image of some random scene—a room, a park, a couple in a café—and you’re supposed to chat volubly about it for minutes on end. It’s an exercise in creativity as much as language skill.

Practice Communication

As your skill with your new language grows, you’ll be able to describe what you’re doing or planning to do a given times as if you were explaining it to someone else. So you’ll be thinking full sentences like, “I’m getting dressed now. In a few minutes, I’ll have breakfast. I’m going to have three sausages and two scrambled eggs.”

Extra Tip
As you go about your day, think through each typical conversation you have in the language you’re learning. As you’re leaving your apartment, your neighbor greets you. What would they have said and how would you have replied in your target language? On the way to work, you stop to buy a cup of coffee and a croissant. How would you order that in your target language?

Whenever you notice you’re not sure what you’d say, make a note to learn the necessary words or phrases. This is extremely useful for gaining real-world conversation skills.

What About Internal Dialogue?

Of course, what some folks are aiming for when they decide they want to think in another language is for their flow-of-consciousness internal dialogue to be in that language.

So when you’re randomly thinking, “Hmm. I’m hungry. Wonder what’s in the ‘fridge. Dang, nothing much. Think I’ll order pizza. Now where’d I put that phone number…” it’s in the language your learning rather than your native one.

I have no hard stats on this, but I suspect the only way to achieve this consistently and effortlessly is to be almost totally immersed in the other language and all but cut off from your native one. Not to mention you have to be pretty fluent.

And neither is a guarantee. The only time I’ve really noticed myself doing this was when I was working (ie. regularly conversing) 10+ hours a day with native speakers of my second language.

If this is your goal, chances are just trying to catch yourself every time your thoughts fall into you native language is going to be the easiest way to get there. Mentally switch back to your target language and off you go…for a while anyway. Even if you don’t manage to do it without effort, the “practice thinking” you do get will still help.

Related posts:

1. Foreign Language Learning for Introverts: Speaking Practice Tips for Immersion Situations
2. How to Stay Focused on the Essentials Without Getting Bored
3. How to Learn Foreign Language Vocabulary When You Have No Time to Study
4. How to Overcome Fear of Speaking a Foreign Language
5. How to Stop Procrastinating and Start Learning: Five Techniques to Try

Tags: dream in foreign language, foreign language mental practice, think in a foreign language, think in a second language