Hello, all! Based on request, I chose to write this post to discuss some of the behaviors and good practices which will help you think like a native speaker in your target language. One of the most mystifying aspects of the language learning journey is overcoming what we can call the “thought-speech gap”— that’s the space of time between you assessing what you’ve heard or read in your mind to understand it and your ability to respond. Much of this gap can be eliminated when you begin to think less like a foreigner and more like a native speaker. Let me explain what I mean:
“Thinking like a native” involves subconscious interception and interpretation of words, phrases, and concepts in the target language without translation into the primary language.
That means you encounter objects, people, and concepts in the target language based on what it is to a native speaker, not what it means to you as a learner of that language. For instance, I want to see a table and simply think “mesa” (Spanish), because that’s how a native speaker would encounter it. That’s the so-called higher way of thinking which replaces the first stages of “hey, that’s a table…and table in Spanish is mesa. M-E-S-A” and even “table… ah, mesa” or “mesa, table.”
There are ways to forcibly remove the gap here. You can try anything you want. Reframing how you see objects, adding in the concept of word gender to completely replace everything you knew about anything, meditating, or what have you – it’s all at your discretion. But there are things I can share with you which will make it easier, less time-consuming, and more rewarding. These are concepts which worked very well for me and for friends of mine who are historically successful in learning languages. Personally, I am someone who dreams in other languages as early as the A2 or B1 level, someone who can watch and enjoy films without subtitles (or with subtitles in the target language), and someone who sometimes knee-jerk reacts in other languages.
Time to Adopt a New Mindset!
The first step is reframing your thought process in terms of “their language” versus “your language,” because if you intend to become a speaker of another language one day, it won’t be “their language” anymore— it will be a part of your life, your thoughts, and your communication. So, as silly as it sounds, try to keep track of how often you approach new phrases, grammar, and words as “they say it like this” and make attempts to soak in the idea that we say it this way now. We understand age as something we have (as in Spanish) instead of something we are (as in English). We are not cold (English), it is cold to us (German, Russian, and others). What does a mother do when teaching a child its native language?
“We call that a desk. Desk, that’s right… it’s a big table where you do work.”
In any case, the mother explains words and concepts to the child (the learner) in terms of that language because that child presumably has no other language for reference. This leads me to the next point.
Accept Explanations of New Concepts in the Target Language
At any reasonable level, it is possible to have new concepts, words, and constructions explained to you either physically (by showing you with gestures accompanied by words) or simply in the words of the target language itself, and not yours. I found it extremely helpful to have a native use words which I know in the target language already to explain new things to me, instead of just giving me the English translation. I do the same when writing notes. Ultimately, at B level (and beyond) I don’t want to think of new words in terms of my native language, but in their terms. This brings you closer to how natives would learn some of their own new words (say, in a new job situation or in an academic setting).
Put Your Own Thoughts into Action! – “Think Sessions”
At some point, you may want to actually practice thinking in your target language. It sounds funny, frustrating, and a bit awkward at first. At the beginning, you may want to “think aloud” in the target language (a.k.a, talk to yourself) about simple things, or about yourself and your own feelings. Pick something personal to you and theorize about it in the target language. It doesn’t have to be so serious! This way, you are allowing phrases and words you know into your thought life. They will gradually seep into your subconscious… don’t be surprised if you start to dream a bit in your target language after practicing this! This is especially important in truly absorbing grammatical concepts such as “having an age,” for example.
Try to Stop Your “Subconscious Translator”
If you’ve been practicing by hearing words and conversations and translating the information to your native language in order to understand it, it will be especially hard to put a halt to your “subconscious translator”— the part of you which wants to flip all of your mental flashcards and tell you what the equivalent phrases are in your first language— because almost all learners start this way. Before they have enough content in the target language to properly cope with deficiencies in their understanding without their native tongue, they memorize rough or exact equivalencies (i.e. “this phrase equals that in English”).
Eventually, this stops working because there are untranslatable words, structures, and phrases which don’t follow the rules you learnt as a child speaking your first language, and your brain won’t know how to categorize them! So, following this method will eventually stop working, and you will need to stop trying to make equivalencies and simply understand the information at face value. At first it may feel a bit disconnected or even empty, but eventually these words and phrases in the target language will illicit a similar emotional response from you as they could in your native language. When I’m tired, I still catch my mind trying to move what I’m hearing or reading from my target language to my native language— who knows, maybe that’s my brain trying to make things easier on me. But with practice I can stop it, and you can, too.
Thinking like a native is something illusive, hard to calculate, and difficult to grasp. It requires that you imitate and integrate with natives in a way we may never be taught in classes or curriculums. You’ll find that most of the battle is in your mind! I look forward to sharing more with you and giving you tips about how music and media can help you overcome the hurdles you read about here. Until then, keep learning!
How it feels to think in your target language, my desk, 2023
