How to create a second brain in a foreign language
Have 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 Riri. 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 and like terms. So 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 in Turkish, but more confident and businesswoman vibes 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 know, you need to
understand their values because languages have really close relationship 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 and your grammar 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, it just like
gave me 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 loved 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 like, you know, for example, keigo, the way we show
respect when we are talking. So let's say if you ignore this keigo and like 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. Third 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. So even if you can't 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 misunderstanding. 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 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 guess
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 like from your guesses, I think it's much easier
to memorize because let's say it's something really different than you guessed, it's much easier to
memorize. After getting a bit comfortable in that language, like you don't need to look every word
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, like stop looking the meaning of the
words in English and look the definition in Japanese. Checking the translation might be much
faster than looking at the definition and trying to understand the definition. However, with the
time you'll get better at guessing or understanding the meaning of the vocabulary. And also by looking
at the definition, you will learn new vocabularies and also maybe a different way to use the 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 vocabularies 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. In order to learn vocabularies in a fun way and also produce some
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for sponsoring this video. 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 but now we will focus on the meaning of the sentence rather than the vocabulary
itself. The importance of this step is that sometimes you can like 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 rather than the
vocabularies after a certain amount of time where you build a bit of base vocabularies in your target
language. When translating the sentences, start with simple sentences. If you'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. Now combine these two simple
sentences with a simple conjunction çünkü. So like because in Turkish. Çocuk istemiyorum çünkü
çok paraya mal oluyorlar. I don't want to have kids because they cost a lot of money. When translating
sentences the key is to make the sentence simple as 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 add them later
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 rap 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 six to seven hours 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 a year and a half but after a bit of time
I slowly started to be able to think in English and now when I'm like trying to say something I
don't think in Japanese or Turkish I just say it directly in English and you know while I'm talking
I think in English but it's due to the massive input that I've done and also that I've 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 guess the meaning of the vocabulary with the
time and from translating word by word you 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 your 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!