How to create a second brain in a foreign language- no more translating!

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[anankwasi]

Pro hack: watch movies or documentaries in the target language, with subtitles on. This speeds the association process massively, and you'll start thinking in that language naturally.

[fabledreamor]

I struggled with learning English for 10 years until I realized this on my own.
I had to think in English and stopped translating. I learned like a child: I repeated dialogues from video games and news. I imitated their tones and expressions. I immersed myself in English speaking environments. And my English improved after 2-3 years.

[cynthiawilson]

I asked my boss, who spoke 3 languages, what language he thought in..he had to think about it

[nataliesantana]

From my time learning Korean and Japanese, I think your definition and personality ideas are really true. I've found that English doesn't like to leave anything out. Grammar and sentence structure requires you to really spell out what you mean (and yet most Americans are terrible at it). In Korean and Japanese I've found that you're really mentioning the important parts (topic, subject, object, verb, some adverbs/adjectives) and letting the listener do the work of interpreting that. Its almost more artistic vs English. In English, the work of communication is on the speaker. In Korean and Japanese the work of communication is on the listener (honorifics being the exclusion) The languages are more conceptual where English is more concrete. That makes it really hard to do a raw translation because you lose so much in the process.

[JusFoNo]

A big tip I have is, when using flashcards to revise/learn vocabulary, make sure that the you're translating from your target language into English, and not vice-versa! (basically, your target language on the front, and English on the back).

I did this with Spanish and I never had to think about developing a "Spanish brain", and I believe it was a fair amount due to this! I'm now doing it with French and I'm already starting to express ideas in French without having to think about the English first.

[LOL-cringe]

This is the first time I heard of "Secondary Linguistic Personality" as a term but I totally agree with the concept - you can't learn a language divorced from it's culture.
Just like you said, it's not only vocabulary or even phrases, it's a whole way of communicating.

[kchypnosis_TW]

As a hypnosis therapist and an English teacher myself, I find your understanding of how speaking another language fluently pretty accurate. I help students who are learing English to become more fluent and more confident by creating a "sub-personality" which is reponsible for using the target language, in my case, English.
Nice one!

[robertlogan]

Having learned Korean for the past 20 months and being able to carry on a very in depth conversation with native speakers, I can say that these kind of tips are very accurate. Particularly the point you made about not being worried about speaking perfectly, if a native speaker understands what I am saying then that is a good sign I am doing well with the language. Starting at simple sentences is something I wish I tried before because I truly think I would be able to speak Korean fluently in terms of speed

[MCGrassblock]

I’m so glad you mentioned the personality change depending on the language you use. I tend to be meek and reserved in English, while in Japanese, I sound like a literal anime character!

[cyphi]

I think reading out loud is important also. It helps develop the tongue and the ear

[ojazzista]

There's a recent study that concluded that we basically use the same language center in the brain for any language. Some languages have more complex morphological elements that activate different resources in that area, but it's minimal. That region is like just the central "language processor", or the "language program" in our brain. The data it processes seems to come from the memorization and associations we make when learning a language, and that "language data" seems to be the "second brain" you're referring to. Anyway, as a computer programmer it's fascinating to know that the brain has such an optimized "universal" language processing mechanism.

[singingwithbecca]

I sometimes forget the right words in my native language...

[maddoxtalk]

You are an amazing thinker and speaker. Four Languages? Very impressive. May this year be one of great happiness, wellness, peace and prosperity for you and yours. My 16 yr-son and I are learning Japanese (slowly) as he is into anime, and now Japanese history and culture. I have been a life-long practicioner of Zendo, and a fan of Budo and Bushido. Someday, we hope to visit Japan and Okinawa. Thank you for your dedication and inspiration!

[tadeusilva]

I started to learn english in the past 6, 7 months, and this I can tell, I am now seeing progress. I didn't study the language with boring grammar and that kind of stuff, I just watched videos and played videogames in the target language, repeating words and phrases in english and now i started to talk to people in real life, training my speaking. And after a while, I don't know how, I just started to accept the language on my brain, thinking, speaking, like i was a native myself. Now, I can read and think in english without translator(I am still learning English, I am not a fluent yet).
obs: All of that happen natural. I wasn't seeking for brain be like this, studying, it just happen natural.

[songthanh]

Vietnamese is my native language and now at the age of 26, I’m able to think in English and communicate in it, reading in English is not complicated for me. Well, I don’t think my English is perfect, but I keep practicing and using English everyday. For Japanese, it’s more challenging, but I think I can be fluent in it soon 😊 I came to the USA at the age of 20 and graduated from a university in San Diego Area, and now I’m a graduate student in Tsukuba, Japan. International graduate students in Japan can take courses taught in English, but I really enjoy studying Japanese.
日本語を勉強しています。日本語はすごいと綺麗です！

[jorleane_oliveira]

I'm from Brazil and I immerse myself in a english enviroment like you said and now I can understand a lot of english without translate every single word. I'm able to get more than 90% of this video, but I can't speak in English properly, all works disappears of my mind.
I'm learn by myself and I want to become fluent by the end of this year.
Wish me luck

[orinblank]

The feeling of just being able to have a conversation without focusing on the words you need to express your thoughts is amazing. I remember being in Japan, and having times where my conversations wouldn't even require thought, and I could just immediately understand and respond. It certainly wasn't every time, as I'm only around the N3 to N2 range, but whenever it happened and I became consciously aware of it, it always felt like magic

[daryllebayda]

Love this video, thanks, Ruri! One of my friends recently gave me a language tip I was surprised I hadn’t heard before. He’d said one thing he did when he was a student is, their teacher had them work through a very small portion of a movie or a book over and over and over until they’d just done it to death. But what was great was that, the patterns in speech were really so clear in just looking at, say, the first twenty pages, or the first twenty minutes. So it really gave them quite a good model for learning. Natural speech and dialogue really helped for their conversational language acquisition needs and also prose needs. I think he said they spent like a whole semester on these first twenty minutes lol

[kennykent]

For me who is learning Japanese at the moment, this is the best advice possible. Because the fact that the grammar is very different from French Language forced me to think as much as possible in Japanese, to think about the order of the words, to say things in a certain way to sound polite or more neutral.

[khalilahd.]

This is me right now!! I’m currently learning Japanese and every time I practice speaking I’m so slow due to translating it in my mind. Definitely using these tips! 🙏🏽