When will I stop translating in my head?
Hola amigos!
I feel fairly comfortable with reading and speaking Spanish (after thinking about it first), but I am still having a lot of difficulty with understanding natural spoken conversation. I translate the words that I recognize in my head, but then by the time I do that, the conversation has already gone too far for me to catch up. I've been listening to Spanish talk radio at work, I've subscribed to LoMasTV to watch videos, but I don't see much improvement. I'm wondering if I will ever be able to just hear a native speak and know immediately what they are saying.
5 Answers
Based on my own experience, you will definitely need to immerse yourself in Spanish. As long as you feed English to your brain, it will always push you to think in English (Or whatever is your first language). Even if you live in the heart of a Spanish speaking country, you would never get to the point to think in your second language as long as you feed your brain your first language. (Music, reading, T.V. movies, chatting on the phone, with friends, etc.) You need to push your brain to stop thinking in English and just accept as much Spanish as you understand. It is going to be extremely difficult, if not impossible, to achieve this goal living in the U.S. (or any English speaking country). It took me about 6 months to start thinking and dreaming in English once I came to the U.S. I even got to the point where I was sure people were speaking Spanish when they were actually speaking in English. Then I realized that my brain was processing and understanding English at the same speed than Spanish and that I was not translating anymore. I took E.S.L classes in high school and college down in Colombia (about 10 or 11 years) and was pretty good for Colombian standards, but it was only here were I reached that mark.
First you must decide what's more important to you: to hear and understand every single word? Then you must stick to your word-by-word method and it will probably take a long time to progress.
Or you decide that you want to know what they are actually saying. What they are talking about. Then you have to let go of some securities (your vocabulary:the words that you already know that give you a sense of understanding). But believe me: the word-by-word translating will be over immediately as you no longer have time for that.
I try to do the latter.
If somebody talks to us in our native language, we also don't pay attention to each individual word, but during the conversation we catch up on it all.
Give your Spanish a chance as well. And start simple.
From what I remember, you know beforehand what the LoMás video is about.
So you do have a basic context. A general idea of what they might be saying. That should help.
Having said all this, I must confess that I find spoken Spanish the most difficult as well.
Agree with the above. The ability to quickly hear and understand (I'm certainly not there yet in Spanish, but the same things applied back when I learned German) is pretty closely tied (more than you might think) to your ability to speak and formulate on the fly. Practice practice practice, as they say. Be patient AND work hard, and it will come. Listening is great, but it's too passive to really embed things in your brain as you need. Speaking will help you wire the connections you need to hear and understand too. When you can't do that, trying to quickly write little passages will help you with formulation too. You'll get there, so just hang in there in the meantime. Buena Suerte
Two years, eight months, and seven days from now. Just kidding. As you speak more, some words you will start to use without translation. The more you speak, the more words will become like this. After a couple of months, years, or whatever, you will be able to do different levels of conversations with very few "head translations."
Listen to Spanish Television, Spanish Music, And When You Think About Something In Your Head In English, Try To Think About It In Spanish.It Will Come Naturally.If You Can, Record Yourself Saying Phrases In Spanish And Listen To Them For About 15-30 Mins A Day, Eventually You`ll Get It..You Know How Babies Just Pick Up Languages Just By Being Around People That Speak IT, They Dont Even Have To Practice Grammar Rules.. The Same Applies To You Just Stop Reading Spanish And Start Listening TO IT...
---Proven By Dr.Pimsleur After 50 Years Of Studing 16 Languages
