Translating with Google Translate is fine. It can help you with language
learning actually. I personally like using Google Translate when I'm not sure
how to pronounce a word. I basically enter it into Google Translate and then
I translate it, and then I listen to its pronunciation, which is quite a nice way
to get introduced to what a word sounds like in the language you're learning.
Google Translate's job is actually to translate and your job is not to
translate, especially not to translate in your head when you're learning or
speaking a foreign language. So I bet you're wondering: 'How I'm gonna stop
this whole translation thing going on in your head?' It's something that many of us
face when we first start learning a foreign language and it's a question
that comes up a lot. Many people ask me: 'How do you stop this constant Google
Translate happening in your head?' And I'm going to talk to you about it today. But
before I do, make sure you subscribe to the channel, make sure you give this
video a thumbs up and share it with your friends if you think they might be
interested in this topic. So my main tip for not translating in your head or
getting rid of this habit if you've got it already is to start using a
monolingual dictionary.
A monolingual dictionary is basically a dictionary that just uses one language –
that's why it's called 'monolingual'. It doesn't have translations in any other
language so for every entry, you have a definition of that word in the same
language. So when you look up a word in a monolingual dictionary, every time you do
that, you train your brain to think in the language that you're learning,
instead of thinking in your native language, because you start associating
words with concepts rather than with their translations in your native
language. And when you do it more and more,
sometimes you will notice that you will know a word in a foreign language and
you don't actually know the direct translation of that word in your native
language. It's happened to me before. It actually happened to me while studying
linguistics in France. I knew all these different concepts in
linguistics because I learnt them in French but I didn't know how to
translate them into English or into Polish, and I had no idea how to talk to
my international friends about linguistics in English or in Polish
because I only knew those words in French. But that doesn't mean I didn't
understand what those words meant. I understood the concepts but I just
didn't know their translations. So there was no way for me to translate in my
head when I had to speak about those concepts in French because I only knew
them in French and that's what happens when you use monolingual dictionaries.
Tip number 2 – use images instead of translations so when you're recording
new words in your vocabulary notebook, for example, and try to use little
pictures even if you're not great at drawing, you know, just draw a very simple
picture to illustrate the concept, and I know it's quite easy when you're a
beginner because obviously you can draw a picture of a dog or a house but
then it gets a little bit complicated because you begin to learn more complicated
concepts. But you can always use a little picture and then maybe a little
description instead of using a direct translation. So this way of learning will
again train your brain to associate words with concepts or pictures or
images, rather than with equivalent meanings in your native language, which
will mean that when you need those words, when you need to use them in a
conversation, you will then think of the image rather than actually saying the
word in your native language in your head. Tip number 3 is read a lot in
the language you're learning and when you read, try to memorise sentences or
chunks of sentences. Reading and focusing on sentences and trying to memorise
examples of sentences will help you speak in a more natural way because when
you need those sentences when you're speaking, you will then be able to draw
upon the memories that you made when you were reading, rather than necessarily
trying to construct those sentences from scratch yourself. So you
will avoid the kind of habit of translating. And my final tip is quite a
funny one. So, every time you catch yourself translating in your head, stop
and say to yourself – even out loud – 'translation, translation, translation', and
this is a kind of a silly thing to do but as you do it, you will basically draw
your own attention to the moment when you do translate and when you don't
realise you're doing it. So it will basically give you a little bit of
awareness of how frequently you do it and when you do it
involuntarily. So, hopefully, the frequency with which you
translate in your head will decrease. Like I said, translating in your head is
a habit that many, many, many people get into when they first start learning a
language, but – believe me – with a little bit of practice and, hopefully, by using
the tips I have given you, you can get rid of this habit and
you get better. I promise you – you will stop translating or you will translate a
lot less than you are now. So make sure you subscribe to the channel, share your
experiences in the comments below and like this video if you enjoyed it. I'll
see you next time! Bye!