How to THINK in Spanish and NOT translate in your MIND
Do you want to be fluent in SPANISH? stop thinking in ENGLISH to IMPROVE your FLUENCY with these 4 TIPS that I used
Hello! learn to think in SPANISH and stop translating in your mind when you listen to SPANISH or are spoken to, follow these super simple and easy tips to think in SPANISH and have the mind of a bilingual person.
Remember that before speaking in another language you need to think in another language so that you speak fluently and you have to spend hours thinking about what to say or trying to understand what you hear.
How to stop thinking in English and think instead in Spanish? | How to stop translating everything in your head?
When you speak a foreign language, it’s important to achieve fluency as fast as you can, so you’ll sound more natural and be able to express your ideas in a faster and more coherent way.
By thinking in Spanish, you make all those processes much easier. That’s why it’is such a powerful practice when you’re learning a language.
1. Skip the Grammar
Why would you start improving your fluency in Spanish by skipping the grammar? It sounds counter-intuitive, but hear me out. When you start learning a language with grammar, it makes the learning process much slower.
Grammar is good, don’t get me wrong, but grammar is more for teachers than students or learners. When I was teaching English lessons to Spanish-speaking students I would always tell them to skip the grammar. Those who did became more fluent and were better at speaking English than those who would stop and question everything.
2. Learn by Associating
Learning by association is super important when it comes to learning how to think in Spanish. And it benefits your brain, as well.
Imagine you walk into the kitchen, and you see the things around you. You see a knife, and you think to yourself, “A knife. How do I say knife in Spanish? El cuchillo. Okay, knife is cuchillo.” That is translating in your head, which is much less effective and slower than learning by associating.
Instead, look at the knife and just say cuchillo. Eliminate the translation process. Rather than thinking “knife is cuchillo,” look at the sharp tool and give it an “extra name” (cuchillo), as opposed to an “equivalent name.”