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Have you ever noticed how somebody will be doing credibly well in a new language, then they’ll get stuck trying to find a word? Suddenly, they drop back into their mother tongue with something like: ‘How do you say that in ____?’ Even though it’s such a natural thing to happen, this is probably the single most unhelpful thing you can do when you’re learning a language.
You may remember Michael, the CEO in Hong Kong who was learning Mandarin. On one particular day, Michael held up his necktie and said, in perfect Mandarin, ‘Wo de ling dai’ (my necktie). We all heard it.
Then, something happened. He looked a little red in the face, turned, and asked, in English, ‘What’s necktie in Chinese?’ Silently, his own mouth answered the question. You could see the lips forming the shapes, and mouthing out the audibols ‘ling dai’.
Clearly, he knew what to say in Chinese. He said it out loud once,and silently once. His conscious mind hadn’t caught up with the fact.
Slipping back into English to ask about the Chinese was doing himself a massive disservice. He lost a chance to practise one simple phrase in his new language that would help to dig the memory grooves in his mind and to become more automatic in his use of ‘skeleton key’ phrases and words.
To master the new language, you need to remember, over and over again, until it is already second nature, that your goal is to direct connect. To move from thought to words to thought, all in the new language. No first-language mediation. And, like any new skill, you practise with the performance that you want.
Using the language to learn the language can make a major difference in the speed and ease with which you accelerate towards fluency. When you do this, you lay down pathways in the brain. You emphasise the importance of the new language, and your determination to learn. You build memory. And you train the mental and physical muscles that you need for a seamless performance.
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