Day Dreaming
A sign of irreversible progress
Welcome, aspiring polyglot! Nowadays it almost seems like boredom requires innate talent. The ability to shut out all of the noise is becoming increasingly rare, but it remains something that anyone reading this can do. Boredom is important because it begets creativity and with creativity you can dream. Whether it happens when you are awake or when you are asleep, the first time you dream in a new language will permanently alter your language learning experience for the better.
Getting lost in your thoughts
In order to speak you have to be able to think. This remains true irrespective of which language you are trying to speak. Fortunately, thinking is essentially thinking in your head. When you don’t run the risk of making a fool in front of anyone other than yourself, it only makes sense to speak as much as possible. That is to say, think as much as possible since the only person who will be there to hear your mistakes is you.
The best way, in my opinion, to consistently find yourself lost in thought is through what I call the “stop and stare” method.
Stop and stare
This is fairly simple and, as the name implies, the goal is simply to know how to speak about the things that are immediately around you in your target language. In three easy steps:
Choose something and stair at it.
Learn what the translation is in your target language
Describe it in your target language
From there, you may get completely lost or you may get bored. Doing it once will almost certainly not be enough. Try a dozen times over the course of a month. You may notice that it gets easier each subsequent time. This is particularly effective when you are traveling. If you forego the headphones and the music and the podcasts, you might just find time to think. Sometimes being bored is all you need to find inspiration in the most mundane things.
Allowing yourself to be bored is the number one hack for unlocking creativity. In a world where we all inundated constantly with various form of stimuli, finding time to be bored is increasingly rare. The amount of creativity you have within you is accessible and the key is, ironically, one of the things language learners fear the most: silence. Once the ideas start flowing, though, it would behoove you to keep track of them.
Writing down your ideas is great, but writing them down in your target language is better. Since you will mostly be translating your thoughts from your native language to your target language until fluency, doing it on paper first will help you to expedite the process. Your first time trying something will never be as fast or as fluid as your hundredth time. The longer you wait to start, the longer it will be before you hit your stride.
“How would I say…?”
After you’ve mastered the stop and stare, it’s time to start asking yourself, “how would I say?”. As simple as it may seem, this one question can completely revolutionize your language acquisition. The first thing you will realize is that you lack the requisite vocabulary and grammar to say the things you most want to say. While initially frustrating, you will rapidly learn how to get your point across. Being understood is more important than saying the perfect things all the time.
Through this process, focus on getting what you mean across rather than what your ideal translation would be. Direct translation is helpful until it’s not and relying on it indefinitely will ultimately hold you back. By constantly asking yourself how you would say different things or express different ideas, you expedite the direct translation phase. Remember, though, perfect is the enemy of done.
Eventually you will be able to add in the vocabulary that suits you. For the purposes of speaking, however, waiting until you are able to express yourself perfectly is never worth it. Most people are happy if you can express 50% of your ideas, some are happy with 5-10 words. Only through doing it more often will you be able to work towards perfection with any efficiency. As always, writing will make these things more likely to stick.
Writing with this exercise is even more beneficial than most others. Since they are your thoughts and, assuming your goal is to get to the point where you can express them flawlessly, writing them down will allow you to go back and improve upon them over time. Returning to your thoughts monthly will give you the opportunity to make adjustments, revisions, and improvements. This should give you motivation to keep going as each correction comes easier.
Daydreaming to night dreaming
Falling asleep quickly is one of the many benefits of studying a new language before bed. The more time you spend day dreaming, the more likely you will be to find your new language within your dreams at night. When it first happens you will wake up exhausted, but I hope you take a moment to recognize what an enormous step in the right direction that dreaming in your target language is.
Increased exposure is almost always going to lead to dreams later on and languages are no exception. Whether you spend the time thinking, reading, writing or listening to various things in your target language before bed, the exposure matters most. That is not to say you will always have a dream in the language if you study it, but sooner or later it is bound to happen and I promise you it is worth the struggle.
Conclusion
As counterintuitive as it may seem, sometimes the best stimulus for your second language acquisition is no stimulus at all. Being alone with your thoughts can give you opportunities to practice language you may not have otherwise heard. That is, of course, because in this case everything that you are trying to translate is coming directly from your own thoughts. At the end of the day, mastering this skill is the only thing you really have to do, the rest are just steps along that path.
I am particularly fond of the daydreaming method for language acquisition, but much like with normal dreams, if you do not make a habit or writing them down when they are over, you will struggle to remember them at all. The more you do this the easier it will get, but the first time may be difficult. Allow yourself to be bored, your brain will do the rest. It is difficult, but you can do difficult things and be great. So do some difficult things and become great. I am rooting for you.
Requests
If you have anything you would like covered you can reach out to me on X, Instagram, or at odin@secondlanguagestrategies.com.
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Thank you for the great technique to try!