Why Doing Translation Is A Terrible Method To Start Learning German
You probably hear it all the time. Translation, translation, translation. Some people say it’s a good way to learn languages. I will tell you a secret most of these people don’t want you to know. They are wrong!
You have probably experienced this: When you start learning a new language and when you are in that learning mode, what sometimes happens is that you actually maybe forget some word in your own native language.
That is normal, according to one research. In it, they asked English students who had completed at least one level of college level Spanish to repeatedly name objects in Spanish. The more the students were asked to repeat the Spanish words, the more difficulty they had generating the corresponding English labels for the objects. In other words, naming objects in another language inhibits the corresponding labels in the native language, making them more difficult to retrieve later.
How can this help you in learning German? DO NOT TRANSLATE. Especially at the beginning. At the beginning your brain will start getting used to the language. So, for example, if you want to learn the word TV in German, which is “Fernsehen”, tell me, what is better, to translate that word into your language or to ASSOCIATE IN YOUR MIND the picture of the TV with the word?
I want you to think of something… You probably know at least a few words in some language other than your own. If you, for example, want to say bicycle in German, which is “Fahrrad”, when you say it, pay attention what happens. Do you think that your mind is actually translating the word bicycle into the word “Fahrrad” and then it comes into your conscious mind? No! “Fahrrad” is just ANOTHER NAME for naming that damn bicycle! Just in German. So what pops up in your mind when you say “Fahrrad”. Of course, bicycle!
I think we as humans, have brains that are very well wired for doing associations. We associate words with objects, we associate smells with other objects. We associate memories to a song…. It is simple. This is the way our brain works.
So, the next time when you would want to learn German, think of this concept. It will help you a lot.