To be a pro language learner, you must act like you are a native speaker. Now, here’s how to think in another language.
How to think in another language
If you’ve ever tried to study a language in high school or college, you probably know how difficult it can be. If your native tongue is English, it’s harder to learn other languages.
They are sometimes called ‘second languages’ because the earlier you begin studying them, the more quickly they become second to your primary language.
To make matters worse, most of these languages are spoken in countries where English is not widely used. Fortunately, not every language is equally challenging for learners of other languages.
Some have much easier grammar and vocabulary than others, making them easier for anyone who wants to learn them. Here are 3 helpful tips that will help you think more effectively when learning another language:
Don’t try to memorize everything
Memory is an incredibly important skill for success in almost any endeavor. You’ll want to be able to efficiently store and retrieve information to succeed in your studies.
To do this, you’ll need to memorize vocabulary, grammar rules, and common grammar structures. But you don’t need to memorize every word in a language; you need to memorize the most common words and phrases.
Why? Because those are the ones, you’re most likely to use when communicating with other people in your new language. It will also make studying vocabulary in your new language much easier.
You’ll be able to memorize the most commonly used words and phrases rather than memorize every word in the entire language.
Take your time
If you rush through a language learning process, you will make mistakes. Language learning is a process, and it’s important to take your time and ensure you’re not rushing anything.
Rushing through learning a new language will cause you to make mistakes, and you don’t want to make mistakes while learning a new language. You’ll make mistakes while learning any language; what you do with those mistakes is what matters.
The most common mistake beginners make trying to learn too much too quickly. Trying to learn everything you need to know in a single day is not only difficult, but it will also cause you to make mistakes as you learn.
If you take your time and learn one thing at a time, you’ll be able to learn the language much more efficiently.
Be flexible
While grammar rules tend to remain the same across languages, vocabulary differs in every language. This means that you need to be flexible in your studies.
You can’t just learn the vocabulary in your target language; you have to be flexible and adapt it to the words and phrases commonly used in your native language.
For example, if you’re learning English, you can’t just learn Spanish words and phrases; you have to learn English ones, too. You can’t just try to learn “‘greetings’ in Spanish”.
You have to adapt it to what is commonly used in English, “greetings, in English.”
Incorporate your new vocabulary into daily conversation
When you start learning a new language, you want to use it in your daily conversation. This will help you get comfortable with the new words, phrases, and grammar structures you’re learning.
When you’re in a conversation that involves your new language, you’re not just learning about it. You’re learning about the people using it.
This is the most effective method of learning a new language. In a conversation, take notes in your journal about what you’re saying and how you’re using new words and phrases.
This journaling is a great way to remember what you’re learning while you’re in daily conversation. You will want to ensure that you incorporate your new vocabulary into the conversation.
If you don’t, you’ll forget what you’re learning, and that will cause you to make mistakes as you learn.
Bottom line
If you want to be successful in your study of a language, you have to think about it in another way. Thinking in another language requires you to think in a new and different way, which can be both challenging and rewarding.
Keep these 3 tips in mind, and you’ll be on your way to thinking in another language in no time. And once you’ve gotten used to thinking in another language, you’ll achieve great things in your academic career.
