Chinglish Translation
For those of you who speak another language beyond your first learned language: Do you translate a second language into your first language as you speak it in order to understand it?
When I speak Chinese, I translate it in my head. It makes it very difficult to speak fluently, and because I've never been fluent in a language other than English, I don't know if one looses this habit once one is fluent. I guess there are a few sentences that I just understand because I've used them often enough, so maybe it just happens when you are fluent.
When I speak Chinese, I translate it in my head. It makes it very difficult to speak fluently, and because I've never been fluent in a language other than English, I don't know if one looses this habit once one is fluent. I guess there are a few sentences that I just understand because I've used them often enough, so maybe it just happens when you are fluent.
posted by P-Wagz at 4:42 PM
2 Comments:
ha. I think about this too. When I was growing up I learned laotion and english at the same time. When I was 11 I started learning french. When I speak laotion or english I don't really translate in my head, but I think because it was learned at the same time it's very much interchangeable for me. When I speak french, I translate in my head, also proving to hinder fluency. I used to think that losing the translation part was the ultimate sign of fluency, but I am not sure. I think an awesome sign of fluency though is when you dream in that other language and understand what's going down. geez. I rambled again.
~V
Nope. It all just comes out in Chinese. There are times when you use Chinese connecting words and English nouns, but it's all thought out in Chinese. Sometimes you skip a language (English to Chinese when translating English to Spanish).
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