What can I do to stop translating in my head? - Intermediate Spanish

[@JohnPaulCauchi]

A perfect example of this is using super basic phrases. I'm sure anyone who can understand this video, when greeted with "Hola, ¿como estás?" doesn't think to themself "hi, how are you?". When you here that spanish phrase, you immediately know what it means, you immediately connect it to it's meaning, without going through your native language. That's what happens over time with more and more phrases, words and grammar points. You will eventually be able to understand it all without translating, if you truly internalise and "acquire" the word/phrase!

[@Imamprams]

Buen punto.

[@earlyholocene1649]

I was so happy when I first realised that I wasn't trying to translate in my head as I was watching your videos. It took a long time though, I was coming up for 300 hours of CI before I got to that point and it felt like a very gratifying breakthrough. Sometimes I have days where I feel like I don't understand as much as I did last week but I used to be tired after 20 minutes of content and now I can enjoy watching things in Spanish for an hour or two a day without losing concentration.

[@kenzie-gb]

In the beginning it’s tiresome but after months you don’t even realise it’s in another language

[@nake151982]

Congratulations on having your breakthrough! 👏🏽🙌🏽

[@canchero724]

It's really not that long once you realise how long it took you to arrive at the same stage with English as a child. Several years at a minimum. So ~300 hours is absolutely rapid in comparison.

[@jo6513]

that's amazing! congrats!! it's so inspiring to read such comments, thank you for sharing this ❤️

[@van11410]

That's awesome!

[@bravoninetyseven]

For me, when I went to South America for 5 weeks a few years ago, my brain got so tired of translating in my head all the time that I was exhausted. At that point, I wasn't trying very hard to listen and suddenly, I was understanding people much more easily. I'm sure it's different for everyone but once you hit that point where you are relaxed/exhausted, you'll get it.

[@emmanuelwood8702]

No its not different everyone.Its the key to learning another language. If your translating in your head you’re not learning the language you are only training yourself to translate in your head. You have to except that you need to start from a blank slate and it takes time not memorization.

[@jackcorrigan6258]

Me encanta esta serie. Tú eres un maestro de verdad, y esto es la boda perfecta de la práctica y la teoría. Eres un genio, Pablo. Muchísimas gracias por enseñarme este hermoso idioma, y por revelar el secreto de adquirir cualquier otro.

[@rossislikeminded]

I just wanted to share that, for me, going with harder content is actually useful for this. When it goes too quick for me to stop and translate, I’m really just listening out for everything being said and hoping to catch the context and meaning. I then take that back into easier content and usually I’ve had a bit of a jump in listening comprehension because of it. Whether it’s ‘optimal’ is questionable, but it certainly works for me to just get my brain to focus on listening to Spanish.

[@parkour267]

A few months ago it just clicked and i noticed i was able to just understand at a much higher level without directly translating. (At least with intermediate youtube videos)Now i can practice with less headaches at that level. My routine is to do difficult challenging compression. Then step down to something more basic and try to take in most of the words and conjugations. The more you make breakthrough steps the less headaches u get and more you start to really understand

[@mariategus5184]

Pablo, empecé a ver tus vídeos casi hace 1-2 años y ahora puedo entender tus vídeos más difíciles sin ningún problema y puedo hablar con nativos etc. Estoy muy muy feliz, ahora hablar español se siente natural y no estoy traduciendo ninguna palabra en mi cabeza. El input en español casi todos los días fue muy importante por esto. Estuve en España y no tuve ningún problema para entender el idioma en los restaurantes, el mercado etc. Obviamente que no he usado solo tus vídeos pero al principio me ayudaron muchísimooo y recomiendo tu canal de KZbin a todas las personas que quieran aprender español más eficiente y fácil.

[@ryebread7905]

How many hours did it take before you were able to comfortably speak/output? I'm at around 300 hours myself.

[@housebound_nomad9754]

es bueno escuchar una recomendación de que el método funciona. Qué sorpresa me llevé cuando dijo que en realidad no conoces las palabras que no has aprendido mediante input comprensible. Aunque este vídeo es intermedio y puedo entenderlo, he decidido volver al principio, bueno, al menos un nivel atrás para adquirir las palabras sin traducir. me gusta el consejo de escuchar a los hablantes que hablan rápido para determinar tu nivel. Así que aunque puedo entender este video, probablamente mi nivel es más bajo a velocidades más rápidas.

[@osoperezoso2608]

@@ryebread7905 the recommended amount of time is 1000+ i think. But everyone is different. You'll know when it's time

[@tmanley1985]

I had two problems that are described in this video that I realized early on. 1. When I'd hear a word I didn't understand, my brain would short circuit and I would fixate on that. The rest of the words would just fly by and I felt like I was playing, "catch us". 2. A similar problem where I'd recognize a word that I'd previously learned. I'd have the same short circuit response because I'd be happy that I recognized it. That became the focal point. The only solution to this that I've found is that I have to kind of relax my mind a bit. Almost like if you take off your glasses or just unfocus your eyes so that things become blurry, you can still get a general sense of what you're seeing but you're not seeing anything distinct. You're seeing things "in context" and in relation to one another. Doing this with listening helps a ton because you're trying to focus on the overall message.

[@englishwithashley]

Buenos consejos! Muchas gracias Pablo. Me encanta tu canal. Este es mi problema. Estoy avanzada en gramática, leer y escribir , PERO en comunicación verbal estoy intermedia baja porque yo traduzco en mi mente. 😫 It’s a hard habit to break and it definitely is stunting my growth with communication!!

[@jackcorrigan6258]

Igual aquí✋

[@purdysanchez]

I've found just listening to a lot of Spanish on this channel has fixed it. It's sort of just a natural function of the brain with enough exposure to a concept.

[@susiespanish6635]

I absolutely love your videos about language learning, please make more :)

[@squali1930]

The funny thing is that after awhile with certain words I don't translate anymore, but that's words I've known for awhile like poco, I don't think small in my head, I think "poco" and pero, I don't think "but" in my head anymore but I think "pero". but with new words I definitely translate in my head at first.

[@ComprehensibleMandarin]

I learned a bit of Spanish (& Latin) in school, so when I first learned about comprehensible input I realized I had this problem. One thing that helped me was: don't ~try~ to understand. I tried to just listen, pay attention, but otherwise make no effort, & I would either understand automatically & effortlessly, or I would just not understand. I avoided as much as I could, any kind of thinking or trying to figure anything out. (This was based on Marvin Brown's extension of Krashen's monitor concept to include any & all conscious analysis of language. Anything that feels like trying is by definition conscious, & is therefore the action of the monitor, not unconscious acquisition. Unconscious acquisition doesn't feel like anything - we perceive language as meaning itself, with no intermediary, just like it feels in our native language.) With Chinese I have never done any formal study, so even though my level is very rudimentary, what little I do know I never translate. As you say, the real solution is comprehensible input. And as Marvin Brown argued, learning that way from the start avoids unhelpful 'training scars' later.

[@aayushdas6969]

thankyou so much for your channel , thats exactly what I was looking for 😊, a way to learn some basic and immerse myself in Mandarin Comprehensible input, thankyou so much for what you are doing, i found it really difficult to comprehensible input for Mandarin

[@ComprehensibleMandarin]

​@@aayushdas6969 Thanks so much, that's exactly why I started the channel, I'm happy to hear that it's helping! There are a few other Mandarin CI channels linked from my page as well. Until recently there wasn't much out there, thankfully that's slowly starting to change.

[@aayushdas6969]

@@ComprehensibleMandarin yes thankyou so much, I already subscribed your channel, can you please help me with where can i find those other channels too? actually I am from Nepal really near to China (English is already my 3rd language 😂 with me being just 18 years old) and i advice to be patient with the growth of your channel as it happens slowly as people discover more and more and start to recognise the efforts they put into it.

[@tjohnson4517]

Yo got me with the broma Pablo, good one lol😂

[@immyaprendeespanol]

I'm loving these thumbnails!

[@Adrian13rams]

What helps me with this problem is try to think in pictures. So if someone says "gato" i think of a picture of a cat versus the english word "cat"

[@blahbriefly]

Tienes razon. Trato de encontrar novelas que hayan sido llevadas al cine para poder verlas primero y luego aplicar esas imágenes cuando leo la novela en español. No intento traducir lo que estoy leyendo al inglés, sino que dejo que la palabra impresa conjure las imágenes. He leído El Marciano de Andy Weir y Wonder: La lección de August de R.J. Palacios de esta manera. Estoy intentando enseñar a mi cerebro a ampliar su definición y reconocimiento de lo que puede ser el lenguaje.

[@aEquanimity]

What would be the challenges with learning via comprehensible input? My guess is access to appropriate material and having enough time… How do you decide to start a new language? When you’ve reached a high level & can speak in the first one? How do you maintain your languages? Also, I think you’re learning Chinese, right? Do you know some good resources for Mandarin input?

[@TylerTerry]

Love your content Pablo. I think you could really expand your offering if you created an app that allowed people to passively listen to your content. That could be a game changer

[@earlyholocene1649]

If you subscribe on their website (which is like £7 a month, very good value imho) then you can deliver their videos as audio to your podcast app.

[@TylerTerry]

@@earlyholocene1649 I am currently subscribed. I thought it required you to download the audio, but I could be wrong

[@fredharvey9742]

I've been listening to this stuff for some several hours. Right now I just have a free account and I don't always log in. But it seems to me the words and phrases I understand are because of words and phrases that I already know. That and the fact that you speak slowly and clearly. I just got through reading a transcript of what speakers were saying on LingQ, and even with the words in front of me I couldn't make out what one male speaker was saying. So far I don't think I've learned a thing while listening to sounds I can make no sense of and don't have a transcript for. Occasionally your gestures will provide a clue, but even then I don't remember the new word. So . . . ????

[@DreamingSpanish]

Check out our method page. You're not expected to learn a full word from any single video. You learn a little bit of many words every day.

[@pyru5586]

Buena Idea.

[@czech-in8897]

One thing is to stop translating when receiving input, but the other is to start speaking without first "consulting" it with your native language.

[@jackcorrigan6258]

Good advice here, but I would love to see a version of this video done by a guide who HAS struggled with translating in their head, and how they overcame it.

[@cpnlsn88]

It's just a phase we all go through. It passes. It's a normal part of learning a new language. My methods: 1. Repeat a video or passage several times. 2. Read or watch something you know well. 3. Watch something (small segment eg 5-10 mins) that us beyond your level, repeat view and maybe use a transcript. As you go new words and phrases pop into your head. Ultimately it will pass anyway.

[@tristiandavis6852]

Lol me watching this as a translate it in my head

[@alexrobertsfcim]

Yep. I think I understood basically this entire video but my head was still switching words to English throughout it.

[@ryebreadspanish1656]

@@alexrobertsfcim Don't worry, just keep immersing and eventually it will be like listening to someone speaking English.

[@AmaO-pj8hj]

@@ryebreadspanish1656 como estas tu español

[@trichechus20]

Could you talk about the headaches?

[@DreamingSpanish]

I've never experienced them so I wouldn't know what to say.

[@toocat2000000]

Just watch an hour of Dreaming Spanish and you'll get a big headache !! 😉 Two hours = Migraine !!😁

[@dwil5526]

Hi Pablo, congradulation on 90K subscribers.🎉🎉🎉

[@harrydoesspanish7233]

This is all well and good, but what happened to the pretty hammock? :)

[@chinesechance]

Anyone else like WHAT THE F.... at 5:11 ???? 😂😂😂😂

[@fredericaube7636]

No sé si tengo este problema, pero es muy facil te entender. A veces, aumento la velocidad del video

[@PockTalesProductions]

Lol you really got me with that joke

[@HablaConOwens]

I dont think there is advice for this. You just need to keep learning. Reading everyday and speaking when possible will take care of this problem

[@seanmoriarty4854]

No sé si traduzco en mi mente o no - creo que muchas veces sí, pero a veces no? Estoy confundido. Algo parecido sucede alguien más?

[@whiterabit09]

"input comprehensia...adios" 🤣

[@Ken-sx6sl]

I think this method generally makes good sense. However, I wish Pablo would use the familiar 'Tu' form of 'you' in his videos. . I understand why Pablo uses vosotros as he's talking to multiple people but normally there's is only one person at a time watching it. When watching this video, it's like he's sitting across the table and you're having a private lesson, one to one. Although it probably feels right from his perspective to use vosotros, it doesn't feel right to me, watching on my own, to hear it. I'm pretty sure also, that you use and hear the familiar form far more in everyday conversations and therefore would attune the ears for a greater proportion of natural situations.

[@TheRealMartin]

idk, I like it. I feel like most English youtubers use the plural you (they say things like "hey guys") when speaking to their viewers but it may seem a bit strange hearing the vosotros conjugation especially if you're learning latin american spanish.

[@Ken-sx6sl]

There are some speakers of American English who use a kind of 'Vosotros' that is used when speaking to multiple people e.g. 'Y'all gonna be learning some Spanish today'. However, it uses the same conjugation as 'You'. That's not true of 'Vosotros'. My point is not that the vosotros form sounds strange, it's that it's virtually useless to beginners and Intermediate students of Latin American Spanish and therefore might exclude some of them, 'Tu' can be used by students of European and many forms of Latin American Spanish alike. To me, using vosotros adds an unnecessary hurdle for a beginner and even intermediate student, a kind of extra barrier. I'm not saying it should be avoided completely, but maybe only use it when it's clear that you're talking to more than one person e.g. during one of your team videos when you're in a situation with more than one other person. That would make when to use which form clearer too.

[@Carlitos-Spanish]

I know this is a random comment, But I have faith in this idea so bear with me for a moment. I think it would be great if there was a page on the Dreaming Spanish website, where you could send video ideas, and then if someone on the Dreaming Spanish team was struggling for ideas (or something along those lines) they could read the bin of video ideas in the Dreaming Spanish video ideas bin to make the video and then, Make the video? Obviously, this is just a suggestion from a person who has never run a business even remotely close to what dreaming Spanish is. So moral of this comment is I think more viewer interactivity would be nice. Anyway, whoever is reading and listening to comments in the comment section or on the Dreaming Spanish subreddit is already doing a very good job.

[@DreamingSpanish]

You can send us ideas using the contact form on our website!

[@Carlitos-Spanish]

@@DreamingSpanish Sorry for the poor use of your time, Thank you for sharing that!

[@dernierepaces7071]

cheat code: when you're french and 80% of the words being used are literally french words + 'o' or 'a' 😅

[@prk8957]

Es dificil para mi, pero dejar de traducir en mi mente en ingles es muy complicado

[@RuNZiT1]

Yeah I feel the same! I’d like to be at a point where im not even translating in my head. Mi siento igual me gustaría estar en un espacio que no estoy traduciendo en mi mente

[@mariategus5184]

@@RuNZiT1 I was translating in my head all the time but i just kept getting input, watching shows, a lot of podcasts etc I didn't study no grammar books and now speaking Spanish just feels natural in my head and out of nowhere I stopped translating. So just kept watching and listening and this will happen

[@RuakHaQadash]

esa broma me tomó 😂

[@scotthullinger4684]

Translating in your head ... ? Trust me - that's 100% NORMAL when you're first learning another language. No worries whatsoever - Eventually your skills will increase to the level where it takes virtually no effort to comprehend what's being said. But that often takes spending months full time in the nation of your choice which speaks the language. If your language of choice is Spanish, and if you try to learn it by hanging out with Latinos in the USA, well ... Just beware that the Spanish of many Latinos in the USA often has very little resemblance to a full blooded dialect of the sort which you'd be exposed to in say, Monterrey Mexico, far away from the border towns.