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Post by Delta Dawn on Jul 10, 2018 18:12:32 GMT
Hi I am struggling trying to help my friend in Spain with her English. I taught English in Japan for eons, but this is getting tricky for me. She is writing and speaking English with Spanish grammar and I want to help, but I am a bit out of my league here. She is translating in her head what to say in Spanish and says it inEnglish. Her vocabulary is phenomenal and she is very well-traveled and educated. She wants me to correct her grammar and asks me to fix it all the time. How do you stop the translation and start thinking in the other language? For me it was a light switch and I just stopped overnight and knew how to Speak Japanese.
Thoughts?
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Post by freecharlie on Jul 10, 2018 19:05:46 GMT
Does she watch English tv? That is one of the best ways if she already knows the vocabulary because she will hear English grammar.
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Post by myboysnme on Jul 10, 2018 19:14:26 GMT
I think knowing the vocabulary is key. She can then work on present tense only. Then past, then future. I really don't think it's a problem if she is still translating in her head. Eventually she will know enough phrases that the construct of the sentences will become second nature to her.
English has so many words that sound just like another word that I would really focus on vocabulary. |
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Post by monklady123 on Jul 10, 2018 20:18:08 GMT
I'm convinced that the key is to live somewhere where they're speaking the new language. I studied French for years in the States but my "light switch" moment didn't happen until I'd lived in Africa for a month or so. It was just like that one day...I was certainly getting by just fine up till then, but suddenly I heard things coming out of my mouth that I hadn't even thought about ahead of time, including idioms and colloquialisms.
Other than that, I agree about watching TV. Or Youtube videos.
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Post by joteves on Jul 10, 2018 20:57:13 GMT
The fact that everything is dubbed in Spain certainly doesn't help. She needs as much exposure to English as possible. It's really hard to break people's linguistic bad habits. Translating from native language is a hard one to break.
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Deleted
Posts: 0
Aug 18, 2025 19:43:09 GMT
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Post by Deleted on Jul 10, 2018 21:02:37 GMT
One of the most obvious difference between English and Spanish is the placement of descriptive adjectives. English places them before and Spanish places them after. As an example in English you would say " she has a beautiful house" literally translated from Spanish it would be "she has a house beautiful". So she would need to remember this if she's literally translating even if her English vocabulary is good. Another big difference in the two languages is that all Spanish nouns are masculine or feminine and adjectives or pronouns must match in gender the nouns they refer to. There are very few neutral gender nouns in Spanish.
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Post by mrssmith on Jul 11, 2018 0:12:50 GMT
I don't know how to teach someone to "flip the switch." Continuing to talk with her is good. Perhaps she should also read more in English if she doesn't already and really pay attention to the sentence structure.
Or just tell her which grammar mistakes she's making (as outlined above with the adjectives).
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Post by mammajamma on Jul 11, 2018 3:34:08 GMT
Memorizing lyrics of songs helped me learn Spanish. Eventually when I heard Spanish, it was like I was flipping through radio channels and I would hear words instead of garble.
Lots of conversation practice.
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ComplicatedLady
Pearl Clutcher
Posts: 3,182 
Location: Valley of the Sun
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Post by ComplicatedLady on Jul 11, 2018 3:59:13 GMT
I was just reading about how adults learn new things and one of the examples was a businessman learning English when his primary language is Spanish. The book suggested that we learn more information faster when there is an emotional connection or the learning is fun. Instead of teaching a typical English as a second language course, they had the man bring in one of his WWII model tanks since he was fascinated with WWII history (and especially the tanks.) They started by talking about the tank parts and functions and then gradually expanded the conversations to WWII in general, then other history, until the conversations were completely in English.
Not sure if that helps, but maybe converse about a topic that she is passionate about?
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Post by Delta Dawn on Jul 11, 2018 4:09:34 GMT
I'm convinced that the key is to live somewhere where they're speaking the new language. I studied French for years in the States but my "light switch" moment didn't happen until I'd lived in Africa for a month or so. It was just like that one day...I was certainly getting by just fine up till then, but suddenly I heard things coming out of my mouth that I hadn't even thought about ahead of time, including idioms and colloquialisms. Other than that, I agree about watching TV. Or Youtube videos. You get the light switch thing, though. I just turn English off if I need to. I want to help her get to that point. She works in an English speaking environment and yet has regressed at least 4 months or more. Her pronouciation is much better but the grammar is frustrating both of us. I feel like an ogre correcting her constantly and she tells me that this is what she wants. Today she was telling me the story about the Iberian pig and I love that story and dios mío habían problemos. I get her to tell me this story all the time because she needs to tell it for work. She knows it very well and today I had her add more information about the introduction of the pig to Iberia, how it forages for food and why the meat for it is so prized by the people of Spain and Portugal. There is another story she has to tell about cork trees which we will embellish next. Then the story about what fan gestures mean. (How you hold a fan in southern Spain means a lot of things). Once we are done that I will come up with algo más. |
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