Try not to translate

Some concepts are best described in languages besides your own, and in these cases, it is more useful to try to learn these ideas and phrases in their source language. Translating them may lead to clunky translations, and they will be more difficult to remember. If you have to use your native language as an intermediary, it will also take more time.

Try to get used to learning phrases as chunks of language, and practice saying them to increase your fluency. Eventually you won’t even try to translate them.

There’s no reason why we can’t try not to use this strategy with everyday words and language. There’s no real need to go through a native language, besides the fact that it makes us more comfortable! Next time you learn a language point, try to imagine it on its own, without a translation. Practise it in a sentence and ‘see’ the concept without using your own language. If you are learning the word for ‘knife’, don’t think about the word knife. Think about an actual knife.

Do you think this method can be done successfully? Or do we rely too much on our own native languages?