it's a vicious circle

[silvia_elisa]

Before diving into the posts of the last two days (why do you people have lives?), I have some things I'd like to say. *clears throat*

- French literature. Downright failure. I deprived myself of sleep and forced myself to endless hours of French movies, websites, books, podcasts, music etc. for two months and the result was hearing the teacher

Comments

[lara_everlong]

On translating twice:

this is an interesting phenomena - it seems like it's something that a lot of people get stuck on - you know, first translating into your second language and then into whatever else you're trying to learn. Almost like your brain has trained itself to think "foreign language=English" (or whatever your second language might be) and MUST go through those pathways to get anywhere else.

In Italy I knew a Canadian girl. If you ask her she'd say she "knew" Italian but not that she "spoke" it. She did speak some, I mean, she had lived in Rome for the better part of a decade, and would regularly make pleasant chit-chat with people in Italian, but if she were going to have an actual conversation, it was in English or French. English was her first language, and French was her second (in Canada, everyone learns French in school) and she told me the exact same thing, that first she translates to French, and then to Italian.

I think in a way I had it easy - Spanish and Italian are so similar that it was, at first, extremely helpful to think something in Spanish and then sort of... switch it around so it sounded Italian, and then go with that :P Eventually, though, I had to break that habit cause some things are NOT similar AT ALL and the more I learned the more it became clear that I had to simply put Spanish out of my head entirely.

And as for classroom languages... I work with a girl who has a degree in Spanish and yet comes to me for translations (we have quite a few Spanish speaking coworkers from South America, and I live in a very touristy area so in the summer we often have guests who don't speak English) but I know that whatever work she had to complete to get her degree, exam or paper or whatever, I would NOT be able to pass. So really, who'd be more useful to hire for their language skills, her or me?

Strange situation, really.

[silvia_elisa]

Spanish and Italian are so similar...

Funny, a lot of English people tell me the same thing, but we Italians find it a very difficult language! :D

Almost like your brain has trained itself to think "foreign language=English" (or whatever your second language might be) and MUST go through those pathways to get anywhere else.

How scientific of you. :) When you describe the process, it sounds even more laborious than it is inside my head. And the worst part is that once I go over it mentally, I have to do it all over again to actually voice the thought! I usually open my mouth, my neatly translated French sentence in mind, and... 'Well, as I - oh.'

I'll have to break the habit too...

ps. I'd hire you, not to be rude to your co-worker, but I am always highly suspicious of people with a language degree. Especially after seeing some of my classmates graduate... the obscenities I haven't heard...

[silvia_elisa]

where did my italics go??? ah, whatever, sorry!