The Missing Piece

What you need to do to break out of the silent period

Welcome, aspiring polyglot! There are plenty of things that you can do to get out of the silent period of language acquisition, but there is one thing you absolutely have to do. No matter how good you get, there will always be a piece of you that is translating from your native language to your target language in your head. Knowing this causes many language learners a great deal of stress, but you can use it to your advantage if you do it right. With many components to learning a new language, the truth is that the best way out is through, this is no different.

What do you mean?

First, when you are training yourself to properly approach your target language, one of the most important things you can do is pay attention to the meaning of the full sentence or phrase rather than trying to parse each word. You might not realize it at first, but as you get deeper into your target language you will quickly realize that single words often change meaning when paired with other words. This means that translating sentences word for word can work against you, especially as you begin working with more complex topics and input.

One of the most effective ways to learn a lot of language quickly is by translating. The problem people often run into is that they get stuck always translating their target language into their native language. While this is a great way to start, even something you should continue throughout your language acquisition and beyond, it is not the best thing to do. Take it to the next level by practicing translating your native language to your target language. After all, that’s what you will be doing when you are speaking anyway.

Learning a new language is a question of volume. With that in mind, you need to find ways to get as much exposure and as much volume as possible. There are limits and I won’t pretend there aren't, but you can probably do more than you think you can. Eventually the goal should be to start converting every sentence you think of into your target language. Whenever you think anything, you should also be asking yourself, “How would that sound in my target language?”

Do that often enough and you will find that you don’t really struggle to speak, even if you do not speak perfectly without errors. In order to make sure you are approaching all of this correctly, though, you need to be listening to native speakers. The way you express something in your native language may not be the way that sentiment is expressed in your target language. So to find out the best way to express different things, pay attention to how native speakers do it.

Listen a lot and pay attention closely. Try to pick out words and once you can pick out all the words try to pick out phrases. Over time you will notice how much things change as you are able to understand more language from more people. This is when knowing how to use context clues will come in handy, if you need some insights on maximizing context clues, check out this article:

Mastering the basics

Of course, none of the above is possible if you haven’t mastered the basics. It is not the most enjoyable portion of learning a new language, but you need to know the basics in order to progress onto more complex components. Most of the time things build upon one another so if you don’t know the foundation you will struggle to balance everything else. You have to learn how to read effectively and efficiently first thing which is why I always recommend complex books.

Maxing out your vocabulary on a daily basis will provide you with all the ammunition you need to move on to understanding your target language. The benefits will first be made clear when you start using subtitles with your audio input. This activity will give you a visual representation of how useful your reading was. You will see words you recognize that you can use those clues to understand the entirety of what is being said. Until you do this it will be hard to understand, so give it a try!

The next step is going to be dictation. In short, that means listening to different audios and writing down what you hear. This will reveal just how little you understand, but it will also be the beginning of your training to master listening skills. Anyone learning Spanish, for example, will quickly realize that, at first, complete sentences sound like a single spoken word. There is seemingly no separation between the different words, but as you practice this skill the spacing will be made more clear.

Fortunately, the best way to keep training is already built in most of the time. On YouTube, for example, so long as the video is originally recorded in your target language, the closed captions should act as semi accurate subtitles. They won’t always be correct, technology isn’t perfect, but most of the time you will be able to use them to answer the questions you have and fill in the gaps from your dictation exercises. It is a difficult exercise, but the payoff is great.

Learning to think

Now, for the most difficult challenge, taking videos, music, movies, shows, podcasts, whatever it may be, in your native language and translating them to your target language. The reason I recommend the above examples is because they are things you are likely to be doing anyway. Anything you do in your native language is something you will probably do in your target language. So, you might as well learn to speak about those very things.

If you don’t spend time practicing the language you will use then you are doing yourself a disservice. It is tempting to make flash cards and memorize words because it is a tangible improvement you can physically see as your flashcard stack grows. Rarely, though, will you be served or improve in any meaningful way when this is your approach. It might be controversial, but I am almost anti flash card for language learning.

Yes, you should be writing down words you learn, yes you should look at the notes you’ve taken, but you should not be putting 100 words on 100 cards and memorizing those cards on a weekly basis. Languages are better learned in context, so when you go back and look at your notes it has a greater effect than if you just look at stand alone words on a card you prepped for the sake of prepping flashcards. Maybe there will be times when you need to memorize words because you simply struggle to remember them, but that is not the case for every single word.

Eventually, your goal should be to spend most of your time thinking in your target language. All I mean when I say that is, eventually, you should be converting every thought from your native language to your target language. It will start slow, it will probably be frustrating, but stick with it. After a few months you might just notice that you no longer have to consciously think about translating the thoughts, it just happens automatically. At that point, the switch of bilingualism is about to be flipped and you can look forward to it.

Conclusion

The primary reason that learning a language takes many people so much time is because the best way to learn something fast is by doing difficult things and failing. Without a coach, trainer, or instructor failing is enough to drive most people away. If it doesn’t drive them away altogether, it causes them to slow down. That is why Duolingo does so well, they sell the idea of learning a language through 10 minutes of games every day. It is easy and you will rarely fail. Do this for three years and you might be able to hold a basic conversation!

Alternatively, do the above exercises, try your best, fail, learn more, do the exercises, fail, learn more, and repeat for half a year. Make sure you write all of these things down and don’t throw anything away. You will want to see how much progress you make doing this because it will surprise even you. So long as you aren’t failing the same things over and over again, these exercises will get you much closer to fluency than 10 minutes per day keeping your streak alive.

Just make sure your expectations are appropriate, go in knowing you won’t be anywhere close to perfect. As a general rule, if you can get even 10% of the content correct during your first few dictation sections, you are crushing it. Obviously the goal is to eventually get to 100%, but if you try this exercise in your native language you might find out that you actually rely on context clues in your native language several times per day as well. If nothing else, hopefully that will show you just how difficult, and important, it will be to develop this skill.

Second language acquisition is no easy feat, it will be difficult irrespective of how you approach it. Using the strategies listed here can and will enhance and accelerate your language learning experience, it will not be easy. But you can do difficult things and be great, so continue to do difficult things and be great. I will be here by your side endeavoring to do the same.

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