英语演讲：如何将一门外语说的和母语一样顺流

If you ever experienced this before, you want to say something in your non native language but you always feel like you need to translate it first from your native language to non native language. And if you want to become fluent in language, you need to think in your non native language. If you're struggling in your target language, this video is for you. Hi guys, it's me Judy. Today we're going to talk about how to create a second brain in your target language and stop translating all the time in your head.

Before talking about the tips and tricks, let me explain my definition of fluency because fluency can really differ according to your goals. For example, let's say if you're learning a language in order to pass a certain exam, then your language goals should be more focused on learning the maybe grammar or like some exams require essays, listening practices, reading practices or I don't know, interview practices maybe about those type of things. Or if you're learning a language for business purposes, rather than focusing on daily conversations, maybe it's more important to focus on business terms in your niche. Or if your focus is to socialize with people from different countries and use daily conversation, then it's better to focus on daily conversational vocabularies terms.

For me, the main reason to learn languages is being able to communicate with people. If I'm saying something and if you're understanding it, for me personally, grammar mistakes or using really difficult vocabularies are not that important. So according to my goal of being able to have a smooth daily conversation, I measure my fluency according to the level of my secondary linguistic personality. What do I mean by secondary linguistic personality? Have you ever experienced this? When you switch languages, your personality slightly or maybe not even slightly, like major changes in your personality can occur. For example, in my case, I'm much funnier in Japanese, more logical, and also a bit shy and distant in German.

And also, according to my really close friend, I'm more sarcastic and friendly and Turkish, but more confident and businesswoman and wives in English. So if your personality changes when you switch the languages, that is the real fluency. Because in order to secondary linguistic characteristics to develop, you need to experience the culture, interact with natives and see how they use their gestures, how they think. You need to understand their values because languages have really close relationships with the culture. So if you learn a language, you don't only learn about the vocabularies and grammar rules, you also learn about the culture, the way they think and the value system of that language. So when I'm learning a language, my ultimate goal is not being taken as a foreigner when I'm talking in that language. And also, if you think languages are only about the accent or about the vocabularies, like how difficult vocabularies you use in your from a rules, you're completely wrong.

The gestures, the way you understand the culture and the way you actually think really proves whether you know that language very well or not. When we learn a new language, we learn actually a new way of thinking, new values, and almost like the way you look to the world changes. Actually when I Learned German, I realized really different ways of thinking from the way that Germans structure their sentences, because it sounds so different from the other languages that I knew. I don't know, just like giving us some sort of a new way of thinking.

It's more logical and it's more structured and it's more like it has more rules. But I really love it. So why developing a secondary linguistic personality is important? So these examples are just my opinions, so take them as a grain of salt. But I think you have better and smoother communication. Let's say you're learning Japanese if you ignore the whole Japanese culture about, for example, cagel, the way we show respect when we are talking. So let's say if you ignore this cagel and respecting the older person culture, even though if you're talking like perfect Japanese, if you don't understand this culture, you might sound grammatically correct, but it might be a bit disrespectful.

So in order to avoid this miscommunications and misunderstandings, I think developing a secondary linguistic personality is really important. And also the second reason is to be confident in that language. Because if you realize that your personality, that your whole personality, your identity is changing in that language, how cool it is, right? Because it shows your dedication and the amount of the work you put in.

3Rd reason is to have better understanding of people from that language. If you're developing a secondary linguistic personality, it means that you have a good understanding of that culture. Even if you can understand somebody, like what they're saying, if you don't understand what is behind of that, what type of culture is that? You might think that they're rude or disrespectful, but maybe in that culture it's not disrespectful. It is respectful. And disrespectful really depends on the culture and on the value system. So understanding these will allow you to avoid miscommunication and miss understanding.

Okay, so one of the tips I can give you is that don't translate everything in the beginning. Of course, it is important to know the meaning of the vocabularies in your native language because otherwise how can you know, right? And also translation allows you to have a quicker understanding of that vocabulary. So in the beginning, it will actually save you quite a lot of time to translate some words, even if you want to translate in your head, don't abandon translating or using a translator altogether. It's all about how you use them and how much you use them. Because as a beginner, it's one of the fastest ways to learn a language is to look up the translation and memorizing it. But as you progress, you will need to translate words less and less. So just trust the process.

So how we can decide what to translate and what's not to what I was doing when I was learning German and also English was that instead of translating word by word, firstly try to guess the meaning of the vocabulary from the context of the sentence. Because in some situations when you read the whole sentence, you can kind of like guessed the meaning of the vocabulary, but you might not be sure.

And after guessing it, you can check on the translator whether it's true or not. In that way, you can associate words with the sentences and you can also clearly see how they're used. And also from your guesses, I think it's much easier to memorize because let's say it's something really different, then you guess it's much easier to memorise. You're getting a bit comfortable in that language. Like you don't need to look at every word by word in order to understand sentences. Stop translating words in your native language. And rather than that, look their definition in your target language.

So let's say if you're an English native speaker and if you're learning Japanese, stop looking the meaning of the words in English and look the definition in Japanese. Checking the translation might be much faster than looking the definition and trying to understand the definition. However, with the time, you'll get better at guessing or understanding meaning of the vocabulary. And also by looking at the definition, you will learn new vocabularies and also maybe a different way to use same vocabulary.

In the beginning, it will take a lot of time because instead of translating, you're looking to the definition every single time. And it might be a really boring and tiring process. But don't forget, learning a language is a long journey. We're not rushing here. Even if you're rushing, it is a journey. So take it seriously. When learning about new vocalories and also new sentences, since the journey is so long and might be boring, sometimes you can feel really lonely and also almost like depressed.

Okay, so we stopped translating in your native language and we are reading the definitions in your target language. After learning a certain amount of vocabularies, better to move on the sentences rather than focusing word by word. So in the previous stage, we were trying to understand the meaning of the vocabulary and we were guessing it and then we were searching up. And but now we will focus on the meaning of the sentence rather than the vocabulary itself. The important of this step is that sometimes you can translate a sentence word by word. Even if you translate, it doesn't really make sense in your own language because the way you tell it might be a different. Therefore, it's important to focus on sentences than the vocabularies. After a certain amount of time where you build a bit of base vocalories in your target language.

When translating the sentences, start with simple sentences. We're trying to learn from more complicated sentences, then make them simpler. So let me give you an example. Let's translate this sentence into Turkish. I don't want to have kids because they cost a lot of money. Let's make this sentence firstly simpler. First sentence, I don't want to have kids. Second sentence, they cost a lot of money. So we make the sentences simpler. And let's translate these sentences. I don't want to have kids, they cost a lot of money.

Choc para maliola. Now combine these 2 simple sentences with a simple conjunction. Because in Turkish, chujuk istemirom Chun ki chokpara maloliola, I don't want to have kids because they cost a lot of money. When translating sentences, the key is to make this sentence simple aspect possible. What really communication is, it's not really about the sophistication of your message or how difficult vocabularies you use, but the ability to transfer the message you would like to give, right? So talking in simple sentences and simple vocabulary is totally fine if the other side is understanding you. And if you're able to communicate, then that's fine.

So when you're speaking and if you feel like you need to translate in your head, stop for a moment and break down the sentences in your head in the most simple structure as possible and say them separately. And later on, if you need to add some details, you can always at them later on.

A lot of you guys might be thinking, when will I reach to this level? It will take you quite a long time to reach to the level where you stop translating in your head and thinking in your target language. You need to do a massive input in your target language. You need to be exposed to that language so much in order to be able to think in that language, just like a native speaker in that language. Try to expose yourself as much as possible into that language. For example, reading books, watching YouTube videos, listening to podcasts, following newspapers, reading online articles, signing up to newsletters or something.

There's so many ways to do inputs these days. The more you integrate these in your lifestyle, in a daily part of yours, you will be more likely to think in that language. For example, every single day I listen German rather, at least for 30 minutes in order not to forget German. And also I do business in English and I talk with my dad in Turkish and with my mom in Japanese. And I also have Turkish and Japanese friends and also international friends.

So I use all of these languages in a day. And making this a habit will allow you to firstly not forget that language and also improve in that language. If you, for example, compare my old videos to my current videos, my English actually improved quite a lot. I'm not saying that I'm like perfect in English. I sound like a native speaker whatsoever but I'm able to sustain my life while doing a business in my non native language, which is I think it's pretty impressive.

When I was learning English I was watching YouTube videos, 6 or 7 online in a day so I was doing a massive input in English and with the time, it took quite a long time like a year in health and but after a bit of time I slowly start to be able to think in English and now when I'm trying to say something I don't in Japanese or Turkish, I just say it directly in English and while I'm talking I think in English but it's due to the massive input that I've done, and also that I have been doing, you can learn in languages just like having a lot of conversation.

But in order to be able to think in that language, you need to be more strategical. So the conclusion will be if you're a beginner to that language, translating the vocabularies word by word to your native language is completely normal and it will allow you to progress faster. Since you build the vocabulary bank in your target language, you will require translation less and less because from the sentence context, you will be able to understand the meaning of the vocabulary or guestib meaning of the vocabulary with the time.

And from translating word by word, it will move on to the sentences, which will allow the process to be much faster. Doing a massive input is important to be able to reach to the level where you think in that target language. But at the same time, if you only do inputs, you will be able to understand maybe, but you might not be able to speak.

I actually have a video about it, which you can watch here. Do massive inputs in the beginning and then gradually start to do outputs and then balance them together so that you will be able to understand, think in that language, and also speak and write in that language. I hope you guys find this video valuable and see you guys in my next video. Bye.