If you've been
learning a
language for a while,
but you still can't
think in the language,
you might be wondering
why you can't think in a language.
What are you doing wrong?
In this video
I'm going to share five Common Reasons
Why You Can't Think In The Language,
What to do about it,
And some resource
recommendations to help
solve the problem.
If you're new here,Hi, my name is Jamie.
I'm a language coach
and my job is helping
online language learners
stick to their language
learning long term
by helping them
find the right language
learning strategy for them.
So if that sounds good to you,
make sure to subscribe and hit the bell
to Be notified when I post a new video
every Wednesday.
The first common reason
why you can't think in a language
is because you're learning the language
through translating.
Now, this is really common,
especially for Americans,
because we learn to learn
languages in school
by taking a new vocabulary
and translating
between English
and whatever foreign language it is.
We're taught to do this
so that it's easy
to test our ability
to basically study
these vocabulary words,
but it doesn't actually help
for using the language
and thinking in the language.
In reality, in like real life scenarios,
this situation is best for translating
and that's really about it.
In fact,
one of the big things that I teach
my clients
is to never learn vocabulary
with translation
unless you are specifically
trying to be a translator.
So if you want to
avoid learning vocabulary
by translating it
into your native language,
what do you do instead?
Picture Association.
The basic idea behind
this is you see a picture of something
instead of the word
instead of the English word.
So, for example,
if you're learning the word for milk,
you're learning it in Spanish
and you're learning the word leche.
Instead of learning leche
as a translation as milk, instead
you might want to have a picture of milk
and use that to think of the word leche.
This way
you're not learning the word leche
as a translation of an English word.
You're using it
as the meaning of an object
you already know how to refer to.
This strategy is basically
the entire premise
behind the Fluent Forever app,
so you might want to check that out.
If you're looking
for more picture association
or if
you're not really into Fluent Forever,
you can try Rosetta Stone
or it can try uTalk.
If you go in the description below,
you can find links to my reviews
of all these language apps
and every other resource
I'm going to recommend in this video.
So definitely check out those reviews
to learn more.
The second reason
why you can't think
in the language you're learning
is because you're spending too much time
playing a highly gamified
like tap,
tap, tap apps
without actually
internalizing the language.
Now, this
I'm not saying that those apps
are wrong or bad or whatever it is,
they definitely have their place.
However, if you depend on them too much,
it does create this problem
where you can't actually internalize
the language or use the language.
You know what I'm talking about,
if you spend a lot of time
on Duolingo specifically
and you still can't
think in the language,
this is a big reason why.
If I really hit the nail
on the head for you,
I have a whole other video really going
in-depth into
what's going on
and some specific resources
but the one that I highly recommend
for this particular problem is Yask
and again
in that video,
I definitely really go
really hard into Yask
why I love it for this
and a couple of other resource
recommendations
that could help with this.
But the basic idea
is that you don't want to be just kind of
half paying attention, half
playing a game
You also want to be able to
create the language.
You want to be prompted
to use the language
and take the vocabulary,
take the grammar
that you already have in your brain
and learn to use it.
This could be in speaking form.
This could be in written form.
This could be a whole
bunch of different things.
Definitely check
that video
out because it's going to help you
if this is what you're struggling with.
The third common reason
why you can't think in a language
is because you're giving up
when it's too hard.
And I don't mean this
in like a condescending, patronizing way.
A lot of people are surprised
when language
learning becomes a challenge,
and that's why
they get sucked into using easier
apps like Duolingo, for example.
Thing is,
no matter what
strategy, no matter what resources,
no matter what approach,
no matter where you are in your language
learning, it's going to be difficult
sometimes, that's just the fact of life.
It can be too difficult
to the point
where you're like making things
too difficult for yourself.
Or it could just be a small challenge
that you need to
be willing to work through.
And whichever
one of those
it is
is completely up to you
and it's up to you
to figure out in yourself.
But if it's too difficult
for you to move past
and I know that saying like, "oh, just,
you know, work through it and you can do
it, hustle" is not helpful.
And that's why I generally don't
recommend that.
My solution
for this is to make your studies,
your practice,
whatever it is,
make the challenge smaller.
And easier to deal with.
This could mean using easier vocabulary.
This could mean committing to 5 minutes
instead of 20 minutes
this could mean
a number of different things.
But if the problem is
that it's too difficult
for you to conquer,
make it smaller, break it down, make it
less overwhelming.
How well can you think in the language
that you're learning?
Let me know in the comments
section below.
The fourth
possible reason
why you can't think in a language
is because
you're not getting enough input.
Now there are huge debates about this.
A lot of people
really passionately believe
that you should just do input
first all the time,
which means listening to music, reading,
like consuming the language
And there's another half of the Internet
who is really passionate
or really convinced that
it's output first.
Like you need to be speaking
and writing and using, using the language
from day one before you get any input.
Honestly, that doesn't really matter.
It's totally up to you.
And if anybody tells you
that one way or the other is wrong
or better, don't listen to them.
There are no rules for this thing.
But where this point is concerned,
if you're not learning
how to understand the language,
you're not going to be able
to think in it.
If your brain doesn't know
how to comprehend the language
that's around you,
it's not going to be able to think
in that language.
This could mean listening to music,
watching TV,
whatever it is that you like to do.
And there are a ton of different options
for this.
Again, I have other videos
that can help you with this,
but off the top of my head,
there's Yabla and LingoPie.
Those are both resources
that you can use to find
TV shows and clips
and things like that to
help boost your input
and help your understanding
so that you can start building
those pathways for your brain
to actually understand what's going on.
And that's a good segway
to the fifth possible reason
why you can't think in a language
is because
you're not getting enough output.
As I mentioned,
there is no right or wrong for
if you do more input or output,
if you do input first or output
first or whatever it is.
But you do have to have
a certain amount of both
if you want to be able to think.
And the language
output specifically is important
because if you are not genuinely trying
to create the language in your brain
and have a conversation
or write things down
or how however it is
that you want to use the language,
you're not going to be able
to think in the language
unless you
basically intentionally created thoughts.
You're not going to be able
to create thoughts easily
more naturally, more fluently.
So to fix that problem,
you got to get more output.
You got to be speaking more,
you got to be
talking out loud more,
you got to be writing things down,
whatever it is.
And just like the last point
about input output,
I mean,
there's a bunch of different ways
to do it for example,
Speechling is really good about this
because with Speechling,
you have prompts,
you have pictures, you have just phrases
you can say,
and it's all about speaking, 100% about
speaking the language in a really short
clips, like short
like five to 10 seconds up to like
60 seconds.
I don't remember what the free speech
version does,
how long that is where you like
you have a picture or something,
and then
you're led to describe the picture
or you have a sentence
and you're like a question,
and you're
lead to answer the question verbally
and record it.
All super great options and ways to
solve this problem.
Not being able to think in the language
is one of many, many, many, many, many
super common problems
that language learners
tend to experience.
And just like
all the other common problems
that language learners experience,
this one can be totally avoidable
if you know how.
And that is exactly why
I teach my coaching clients
to be intentional
and smart
and educated
about their language learning approach
so that they know exactly what they need
to do in order
to achieve the goals
that they're looking for.
So if you want to learn
more about my 90 day
self-paced coaching
program called The Method, click
the link below in the description box.
And if you like this video,
check out these videos next.
Otherwise, have a wonderful day and
I will see you next time.