Sade - Fear (Lyrics)

Blue is the colour of the red sky
Will he, will he come home tonight?
Blue is the colour that she feels inside
Matador, I can't hide my fear anymore

Azul es el color del rojo cielo
Volvera, volvera a mi esta noche
Azul es el color que siente a dentro
Matador, no puedo esconder mi temor

Can she tame the beast that is her fear?
Puede domar la fiera que es su temor
Waiting for her matador
Will they bring the bad news?

Blue is the colour that she feels inside
Matador, I can't hide my fear anymore

Azul es el color del rojo cielo
Volvera, volvera a mi esta noche
Azul es el color que siente a dentro
Matador, no puedo esconder mi temor

As an educational tool, Essay (Wikipedia)

In countries like the United States, essays have become a major part of a formal education in the form of free response questions. Secondary students in these countries are taught structured essay formats to improve their writing skills, and essays are often used by universities in these countries in selecting applicants (see admissions essay). In both secondary and tertiary education, essays are used to judge the mastery and comprehension of material. Students are asked to explain, comment on, or assess a topic of study in the form of an essay. During some courses, university students will often be required to complete one or more essays that are prepared over several weeks or months. In addition, in fields such as the humanities and social sciences,^{[citation needed]} mid-term and end of term examinations often require students to write a short essay in two or three hours.

In these countries, so-called academic essays, which may also be called "papers", are usually more formal than literary ones.^{[citation needed]} They may still allow the presentation of the writer's own views, but this is done in a logical and factual manner, with the use of the first person often discouraged. Longer academic essays (often with a word limit of between 2,000 and 5,000 words)^{[citation needed]} are often more discursive. They sometimes begin with a short summary analysis of what has previously been written on a topic, which is often called a literature review.^{[citation needed]}

Longer essays may also contain an introductory page in which words and phrases from the title are tightly defined. Most academic institutions^{[citation needed]} will require that all substantial facts, quotations, and other porting material used in an essay be referenced in a bibliography or works cited page at the end of the text. This scholarly convention allows others (whether teachers or fellow scholars) to understand the basis of the facts and quotations used to support the essay's argument, and thereby help to evaluate to what extent the argument is supported by evidence, and to evaluate the quality of that evidence. The academic essay tests the student's ability to present their thoughts in an organized way and is designed to test their intellectual capabilities.

One essay guide of a US university makes the distinction between research papers and discussion papers. The guide states that a "research paper is intended to uncover a wide variety of sources on a given topic". As such, research papers "tend to be longer and more inclusive in their scope and with the amount of information they deal with." While discussion papers "also include research, ...they tend to be shorter and more selective in their approach...and more analytical and critical". Whereas a research paper would typically quote "a wide variety of sources", a discussion paper aims to integrate the material in a broader fashion.^[5]

One of the challenges facing US universities is that in some cases, students may submit essays which have been purchased from an essay mill (or "paper mill") as their own work. An "essay mill" is a ghostwriting service that sells pre-written essays to university and college students. Since plagiarism is a form of academic dishonesty or academic fraud, universities and colleges may investigate papers suspected to be from an essay mill by using Internet plagiarism detection software, which compares essays against a database of known mill essays and by orally testing students on the contents of their papers

Link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Essay#Film

Structure and Content (TOEIC)

Of the four major language skill areas (listening comprehension, reading comprehension, speaking, and writing), TOEIC only evaluates two: reading and listening comprehension.

Section	Parts	Númber of Questions	Time
Listening Comprehension	Scene-sentence matching	10	45 minutes (100 questions)
	Questions-Response	30
	Short Conversations	30
	Short Talks	30
Reading Comprehension	Sentence Completion	40	75 minutes (100 questions)
	Text Completion	12
	Comprehension Textos	48

Score descriptors

TOEIC Listening and Reading test questions are based on a variety of real-world settings and situations:

• Corporate Development — research, product development
• Dining Out — business lunches, banquets, receptions, reservations
• Entertainment — cinema, theater, music, art, exhibitions, museums, media
• Finance and Budgeting — banking, investments, taxes, accounting, billing
• General Business — contracts, negotiations, mergers, marketing, sales, warranties, business planning, conferences, labor relations
• Health Care — medical insurance, visits to doctors, dentists, clinics and hospitals
• Housing/Corporate Property — construction, specifications, buying and renting, electric and gas services
• Human Resources — recruiting, hiring, retiring, promoting, job applications, job advertisements, salaries, pensions, awards
• Manufacturing — assembly lines, plant management, quality control
• The Office — procedures, board meetings, committees, letters, memos, telephone, fax and email messages, equipment
• Purchasing — shopping, ordering supplies, shipping, invoicing
• Technical Areas — electronics, technology, computers, laboratories and related equipment, technical specifications
• Travel — trains, airplanes, taxis, buses, ships, ferries, tickets, schedules, station and airport announcements, car rentals, hotels, reservations, delays and cancellations

Source: http://gmatbarcelona.com/en/toeic-test-center/structure-and-content/

Common reference levels (Wikipedia)

The Common European Framework divides learners into three broad divisions that can be divided into six levels:

A Basic User

A1 Breakthrough or beginner

A2 Waystage or elementary

B Independent User

B1 Threshold or intermediate

B2 Vantage or upper intermediate

C Proficient User

C1 Effective Operational Proficiency or advanced

C2 Mastery or proficiency

The CEFR describes what a learner is supposed to be able to do in reading, listening, speaking and writing at each level.

level group	A
level group name	Basic User
level	A1	A2
level name	Breakthrough or beginner	Waystage or elementary
description	Can understand and use familiar everyday expressions and very basic phrases aimed at the satisfaction of needs of a concrete type. Can introduce him/herself and others and can ask and answer questions about personal details such as where he/she lives, people he/she knows and things he/she has. Can interact in a simple way provided the other person talks slowly and clearly and is prepared to help.	Can understand sentences and frequently used expressions related to areas of most immediate relevance (e.g. very basic personal and family information, shopping, local geography, employment). Can communicate in simple and routine tasks requiring a simple and direct exchange of information on familiar and routine matters. Can describe in simple terms aspects of his/her background, immediate environment and matters in areas of immediate need.

B
Independent User
B1	B2
Threshold or intermediate	Vantage or upper intermediate
Can understand the main points of clear standard input on familiar matters regularly encountered in work, school, leisure, etc. Can deal with most situations likely to arise while travelling in an area where the language is spoken. Can produce simple connected text on topics that are familiar or of personal interest. Can describe experiences and events, dreams, hopes and ambitions and briefly give reasons and explanations for opinions and plans.	Can understand the main ideas of complex text on both concrete and abstract topics, including technical discussions in his/her field of specialisation. Can interact with a degree of fluency and spontaneity that makes regular interaction with native speakers quite possible without strain for either party. Can produce clear, detailed text on a wide range of subjects and explain a viewpoint on a topical issue giving the advantages and disadvantages of various options.

C
Proficient User
C1
Effective Operational Proficiency or advanced
Can understand a wide range of demanding, longer texts, and recognise implicit meaning. Can express ideas fluently and spontaneously without much obvious searching for expressions. Can use language flexibly and effectively for social, academic and professional purposes. Can produce clear, well-structured, detailed text on complex subjects, showing controlled use of organisational patterns, connectors and cohesive devices.

C2
Mastery or proficiency
Can understand with ease virtually everything heard or read. Can summarise information from different spoken and written sources, reconstructing arguments and accounts in a coherent presentation. Can express him/herself spontaneously, very fluently and precisely, differentiating finer shades of meaning even in the most complex situations.

These descriptors can apply to any of the languages spoken in Europe, and there are translations in many languages.

Deutsche Welle suggests A1 is reached with about 75 hours of German tuition, A2.1 with about 150 hours, A2.2 with about 225 hours, B1.1 with about 300 hours, and B1.2 with about 400 hours.^[5]

Cambridge ESOL said that each level is reached with the following guided learning hours: A2, 180–200; B1, 350–400; B2, 500–600; C1, 700–800, and C2, 1,000–1,200.^[6]

Alliance Française has stated students can expect to reach CEFR levels after the following cumulative hours of instruction: A1 60–100, A2 160–200, B1 360–400, B2 560–650, C1 810–950, C2 1060–1200.^[7]

^{Link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_European_Framework_of_Reference_for_Languages}

I Learned to Speak Four Languages in a Few Years: Here's How (lifehacker.com)

Lifehacker reader Gabriel Wyner was tasked with learning four languages in the past few years for his career as an opera singer, and in the process landed on "a pretty damn good method for language learning that you can do in limited amounts of spare time." Here's the four-step method that you can use, too (and you don't have to invest hundreds in a language course like Rosetta Stone).

 

This is the method I've used to learn four languages (Italian, German, French and now Russian); it's the method that got me to C1 fluency in French in about 5 months, and I'm currently using it with Russian (and plan on reaching C1 equivalent fluency by September).

I go in four stages. The stages will take different amounts of time for different languages and depend on how much time you have available per day, naturally. The US Foreign Service Institute makes estimates for language difficulties for native English speakers, and they seem to be spot on in terms of comparative difficulty—Russian seems to be taking twice as long as French did for me, and they estimate languages like Chinese to take twice as long as Russian. That being said, let's say we're talking about a language like French, and you have 30-60 minutes a day to spend on it, I've included estimates for how long each stage might take.

Stage 1: Learn the correct pronunciation of the language.

Time: 1-2 weeks (or longer for languages that have a new alphabet that will take some time to get comfortable with)

Starting with pronunciation first does a few things—because I'm first and foremost learning how to hear that language's sounds, my listening comprehension gets an immediate boost before I even start traditional language learning. Once I start vocabulary training, I retain it better because I'm familiar with how words should sound and how they should be spelled. (Correct spellings in French, for example, are much easier to remember when there's a connection between the spelling and the sound), and once I finally start speaking to native speakers, they don't switch to English for me or dumb down their language, which is awesome sauce.

If you're learning a language with a different alphabet, this is where you learn the phonetic alphabet(s) (Kana, for Japanese or Pinyin for Chinese, for example).

How do you learn pronunciation?

There are a few routes here, and a lot of excellent online and in-print resources (Pronunciation guides with CDs or mp3s are usually very good). Personally, I think it's worth the (short) time to learn the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) for the English language first (Wikipedia / some video tutorials I've been producing), and then see what sounds are different in your target language. In the process of learning IPA, you learn the components of each vowel and consonant and you'll really understand what makes a French word sound French, and a Chinese word Chinese.

Stage 2: Vocabulary and grammar acquisition, no English allowed.

Time: About 3 months. This stage involves two different time commitments: building your vocabulary and grammar flashcards and reviewing the deck.

This stage takes advantage of a few valuable tricks:

First, I'm using Anki, a wonderful, free flashcard program that runs on smartphones and every computer platform. Anki is a spaced repetition system, which schedules reviews of flash cards based upon how often you've successfully remembered a card. In the end, it helps you put a huge number of facts in to your long-term memory very rapidly—you can typically learn 20-30 new words a day in about 30 minutes on your smartphone.

Second, I use a modified version of Middlebury College's famous language pledge—No English allowed! I use pictures and whatever limited vocabulary I have to build the rest of my vocabulary. By skipping the English, I'm practicing thinking in the language directly, and not translating every time I try to think of a word. This results in quicker learning and better vocabulary retention over time, and a much faster transition to comfortable fluency in the language.

Third, I'm using frequency lists to guide my vocabulary acquisition. These lists show the most common words in a given language, and learning those words first will be the best use of your time—after 1000 words, you'll know 70% of the words in any average text, and 2,000 words provides you with 80% text coverage. It's not enough for fluency, but it's a pretty phenomenal base!

Since I'm starting out with zero words, I have to go in a few steps:

• To save time, I start with a basic list of 400 words that are common in English and extremely easy to picture - things like man and woman, dog and cat, to run and to cook, etc. I find good (!) translations of these and put them in my Anki deck without any English - just the word and its picture.
• After those, I grab a frequency list and mark off any remaining words I can portray with pictures alone (basic nouns and verbs), and put them in my Anki deck. Once I have some words to play with, I start putting them together. I use Google translate (Exception to no English rule - just be careful there's no English in your Anki deck) and a grammar book to start making sentences, then get everything double-checked at lang-8.com before putting them into my Anki deck. Fill-in-the-blank flashcards let you drill your grammar and connecting words, and you can usually just type these straight into Anki from your grammar book.
• As vocab and grammar grow, I eventually move to monolingual (French - French, for example) dictionaries and writing my own definitions for more abstract words (again doublechecked at lang-8.com). This builds on itself; the more vocab and grammar you get, the more vocab and grammar concepts you can describe in the target language. Eventually you can cover all the words in a 2000 word frequency list as a foundation and add any specific vocab you need for your own interests.
• Most people's eventual goals (by, say, the end of stage 4) will be ~2000-6000 words, plus around 1000 grammar cards, depending on how far you want to go (Here, we're talking about words that are in your Anki deck - you'll pick up a bigger passive vocabulary from reading). As a very rough estimate, if you end up with ~5000 cards, it will take you a bit less than 6 months to learn them with Anki if you're doing 30 minutes a day (half that if you do 60 minutes/day).

Stage 3: Listening, writing and reading work

Time: This stage overlaps quite a bit with stage 2 and 4. Once you're comfortable reading or writing anything, usually a month or two into stage 2, you can start stage 3. Stages 3 and 4, the immersion part, combined took me about 7 fairly insane weeks where I spent any free time reading, watching TV, and writing.

Once I have a decent vocabulary and familiarity with grammar, I start writing essays, watching TV shows and reading books, and talking (at least to myself!) about the stuff I see and do. Every writing correction gets added to the Anki deck, which continues to build my vocab and grammar.

You should read and watch anything that's enjoyable to you—it's more about quantity than anything; I'm a big fan of the Harry Potter series in translation, and dubbed versions of the TV series 24 are insanely addictive and not that difficult to follow after the first few hours—you can literally spend all day in front of the TV, and it's actually productive! As for writing, you can (and should) write whatever you want—journals, opinions, what you did today, your grocery list, anything. The goal is to get something down on a page that you can submit to lang-8.com, get a correction, and put that correction into your Anki deck.

Stage 4: Speech

At the point where I can more or less talk (haltingly, but without too many grammar or vocab holes) and write about most familiar things, I find some place to immerse in the language and speak all the time (literally). No English allowed or else you won't learn the skill you're trying to learn, which is adapting to holes in your grammar or vocabulary by going around them rapidly and automatically without having to think about it). I prefer Middlebury college, but if you don't have 7 solid weeks where you can cut ties to the rest of the world and just speak the language, you'll still get a lot from even a couple of weeks in your target country as long as you stick to your target language and spend as much time as you can talking. There are internet exchanges and Skype videochats that will absolutely help you practice speaking, and if you surround yourself with foreign language TV and movies, read books and videochat with people frequently, you can sort of simulate the immersion experience on your own.

The more intense you can make it, the faster your brain will adapt and learn how to put all the info you learned in stages 1-3 together quickly enough to turn into comfortable, fluent speech.

Link: http://lifehacker.com/5903288/i-learned-to-speak-four-languages-in-a-few-years-heres-how

Tips Preparación TOEFL

Reading

Para tu preparación en el área de Reading del examen TOEFL, Seeking English te recomienda:

Lee textos en inglés como un buen hábito. Lee revistas, noticias en línea, y también textos de educación. Tienes una amplia variedad de temas como ciencias, historia, tecnología, finanzas, etc. Leer muchos temas, te ayudará a alimentar tu vocabulario.

Practica encontrar la idea principal del texto, qué es lo que se quiere comunicar en esta lectura. Generalmente, puedes encontrarla en el párrafo de introducción, que es el más importante de todo el contenido.

Mientras lees, vas a encontrar palabras que no te sean familiares. Crea una lista de vocabulario, para referencia. Organiza tu lista por temas para un mejor resultado.

Leer sobre temas variados permitirá que crees una lista más nutrida. Un consejo, elabora tarjetas para ayudarte a aprender estas palabras.

En el momento del examen, es probable que te encuentres con alguna palabra que no conozcas. Si praticas leer textos en Inglés, desarrollarás la habilidad de entender el significado de una palabra, por el contexto. Esto lo lograrás con mucha práctica y sin hacer trampa. Saca tus inferencias y luego verifica con el diccionario.

Writing

La sección de Writing del examen TOEFL iBT demanda mucha práctica, Seeking English te sugiere:

Practica tu escritura utilizando un teclado de computadora, ya que para rendir el TOEFL iBT deberás usar este dispositivo. Si no eres muy hábil con el teclado debes practicar para poder desarrollar tu examen sin problemas.

Utiliza un amplio vocabulario y estructuras gramaticales, no temas usar palabras y patrones gramaticales nuevos, ésa es una excelente manera de aprenderlos y de utilizarlos apropiadamente.

En el examen TOEFL iBT se te solicitará escribir un ensayo. Sigue la estructura meticulosamente durante tus prácticas y durante el test real. El ensayo tiene 3 componentes: introducción, cuerpo y conclusión. Cada componente tiene sus aspectos de importancia.

Organiza tu escritura. Antes de empezar tu respuesta escrita, utiliza de 2 a 5 minutos para hacer un resumen de tu ensayo. No te preocupes por el tiempo que está transcurriendo, un buen resumen te ahorrará muchos problemas al momento de escribir. El resumen del ensayo debería incluir las ideas importantes para los párrafos en 2 ó 3 frases importantes por párrafos, así como también ejemplos y detalles que respalden lo aseverado.

Speaking

Speaking es una de las secciones más complicadas para la mayoría de los estudiantes, para que realices una práctica efectiva previa a tu examen, Seeking English te recomienda:

Actualiza tu vocabulario. Elabora una lista de palabras nuevas y dedica tiempo a aprenderlas e inclúyelas en tus conversaciones y en tu escritura. Eso nutrirá tu vocabulario de manera que cuando tengas una conversación en Inglés, no te quedes sin qué decir.

Practica. Habla y no temas a los errores durante tu práctica, solo trata de corregirlos la próxima vez que hables. Pensar en voz alta también es una buena estrategia, dale una voz a tus pensamientos y reprodúcelos en inglés.

Repite en voz alta contenido académico. Toma unos audífonos y repite, así desarrolarás tu fluidez y la correcta entonación que debes emplear durante un diálogo en Inglés.

Estudia las expresiones idiomáticas, en su significado y cuándo se emplean. Usar las expresiones idiomáticas en inglés es signo de fluidez, pero si no lo haces correctamente, tendrás el efecto contrario.

Advanced Level - Confident Communicative Skills

Speaking

Advanced level English learners feel comfortable participating in most everyday conversations and can express themselves with ease and provide detail. They may feel challenged in situations where they are called upon to speak in public, but feel capable of doing so. At work, they can easily participate in every aspect of meetings, conference calls, etc. Their pronunciation only rarely gets in the way of comprehension.

Writing

English leaners at this level feel comfortable writing extended letters and e-mails, as well as writing business reports and shorter essays. They may still need proof-reading help from time to time, but are capable of complex structures and use a wide range of linking language.

Reading

Learners at the advanced level enjoy reading extensively in their own interests areas, and will sometimes read books in English for their own pleasure. When they come across challenging vocabulary, they have little problem in understanding the contextual meaning.

Listening

Learners can comprehend almost any conversation or entertainment format. They only rarely have problems when listening to very topic specific areas in which have little competence. They have no problem understanding others in both one to one conversations, and in more complex situations such as dinner with a number of friends, or business meetings.

Source:  http://esl.about.com/od/teachingenglish/a/ESL-Level-Rubric_4.htm

Upper Intermediate Level - Increased Understanding and Communicative Competence

Speaking

Upper intermediate level English learners have gained more confidence and can deal with a wide range of speaking situations. They generally have begun to become extremely proficient in expressing their opinions on topics they find interesting, or when speaking about their work. They can generally express their opinions on most topics, and ask more detailed questions when engaged in conversation. At work, they feel confident in their abilities to contribute to the conversation. Pronunciation only occasionally causes comprehension difficulties for others.

Writing

English learners at this level can perform most basic tasks with confidence. They have begun to use more complex structures and appropriate linking language in more extended passages. In academic and work situations, they are able to write more extended passages such as short essays, or one page memos.

Reading

Learners at the upper intermediate level begin to explore their own interests in more extended reading passages, or even in short stories and novels. They still need to use a dictionary from time to time, but can increasingly learn new vocabulary through context. They are proficient at skimming and scanning, and perform well in most comprehension activities.

Listening

Learners feel more comfortable with longer listening periods, even if they do not understand every word or phrase. Their grasp of the gist of most conversations help them understand longer formats such as movies, longer interviews etc. They have very few difficulties understanding and participating in one to one conversations.

Source:  http://esl.about.com/od/teachingenglish/a/ESL-Level-Rubric_3.htm

Lower Intermediate Level - Increasing Communicative Skills

Speaking

Lower intermediate level learners can use their English to complete most simple daily tasks such as asking for more information in shops, asking for recommendations in restaurants, asking for assistance in a hotel, etc. At work, English learners can provide basic information about tasks as well as ask for clarification. Learners still have difficulties in expressing extended opinions or using a wide range of vocabulary and structures to dig further into specifics. Pronunciation does not cause incomprehension, but can still provide difficult for interlocutors.

Writing

Learners at this level can write simple letters and e-mails explaining their current situations, as well as describe past events. Tense usage, while still not fluent, is generally clear in terms of past, present and future. Lower intermediate level learners can write some more extended passages, for example asking details about a certain topic, but will use only basic linking language in their written communications.

Reading

Learners at this level can read simple texts, understand gist of newspaper or magazine articles, but still have difficulties with detail. They can understand most service sector texts such as menus, bus and train schedules, brochures, etc. without much difficulty. They have begun to read more extended materials, but still have difficulties with vocabulary and deeper comprehension.

Listening

English learners at this level can deal with most basic situations such as asking for directions, responding to simple questions at work, etc. without having to ask for much repetition. In these common situations, they expect certain vocabulary and phrases and are familiar with usage. They still experience difficulties when listening to the radio or watching TV, but generally can understand the gist of the topics discussed in these formats. 

Source:  http://esl.about.com/od/teachingenglish/a/ESL-Level-Rubric_2.htm

Beginning Level Basic Communicative Skills

Speaking

English learners at this level can performs simple tasks in English such as ordering food in a restaurant with the help of visual aids, as well as complete simple transactions in shops. Learners can also provide basic explanations about themselves such as stating where they are from, their marital status, their current employment status, etc. Learners at this level can respond in many basic situations, but find difficulty in expressing and / or inquiring about further detail. Learners have noticeable pronunciation difficulties that can at times hinder their ability to be understood by others.

Writing

Learners at this level can fill in basic forms and complete simple written tasks such as writing a description of their daily routines, or completing a simple e-mail requesting or providing basic information such as meeting place, time, etc. Learners at this level tend to use simple sentences that lack complex structures such as clauses, generally with a lack of linking language. They also tend to make basic mistakes in tense usage even in basic narrations.

Reading

Learners at this level can scan for specific information such as TV schedule times, use bus schedules, etc. Learners have difficulties reading extended texts, but can generally understand the gist of very simple reading tasks.

Listening

English learners at this level still have great difficulty in understanding anything more than specific information such as time, location and topic. They can understand simple conversations and listening selections after multiple repetition to complete in-class tasks. 

Source:  http://esl.about.com/od/teachingenglish/a/ESL-Level-Rubric.htm

How to think in a foreign language (it does NOT “just happen”)

This is a guest post by the author of Life by Experimentation, Zane, who quantifies the path to self-improvement.  He creates real-life experiments to assess everything from sleeping less to traveling cheaply in order to live a more productive and skillful life. He speaks Mandarin Chinese, Spanish, French and Arabic with varying degrees of fluency.

Recently a friend asked me how long it would take before she started thinking in French.  My response was “a week or so.”  She was shocked (and understandably so).  We worked on it together and within a week we were both thinking in the language despite it still being quite new to us.

Thinking in a foreign language is an important goal that brings you one giant step closer to becoming fluent.  There is also the fact that language and culture are intertwined, and thinking in your target language is an essential part of being able to connect with the people you are trying to get to know.

It is not necessarily easy to think in a new language (especially if you’ve never done it before) but it is still simple – there is no magic here.  First time language learners often believe that if they study long enough and hard enough they will eventually just start thinking in the target language, as if a switch had been flipped.  This is how I approached it the first time around and it did work… eventually… kind of.

Now I know better.  There are two essential parts of thinking in a language: context and conditioning.  If you’re learning your first foreign language you may want to consider learning Esperanto first, as Benny suggests, in order to become accustomed to thinking in a foreign language.  Once you decide to take the plunge, here are some things to keep in mind:

Context

Where you are mentally makes an enormous difference.  Just a few hours ago I was having a conversation in French and the famous surrealist painter Salvador Dalí came up.  I began to talk about the Dalí museum in northern Spain and before I even realized it I was halfway though a sentence in Spanish.  The act of thinking about that place even for a moment, with all the signs and people communicating in Spanish, was enough to shift my mental context.

There are countless examples like this, and not just in foreign languages.  In this video in the Economist a man reverts to the accent of his youth when thinking about his childhood without even realizing it.  Our brains are pattern-matching machines and one of the major cues they draw upon is that of context.  If you interrupt me while I am doing my Mandarin flashcards, no matter what language you speak to me in my brain’s first reaction will be to reach for Chinese – at least until it shifts contexts.

This is exactly why polyglots associate gestures and other cultural emblems with their language learning. The more context that is associated with the knowledge the stronger your recollection will be. One of my hobbies is following the field of neuroscience, but instead of boring you with all the data let me simply refer to the Wikipedia page on context-based learning and cite two important bits.

1) Context-based memory is the reason retracing your steps is useful when you lose something.

2) From the scientific literature it is concluded, “when a person is studying, he/she should match the context as best as possible to the testing context.”

The first and foremost way we can leverage context is to create a language bubble (even if you’re learning from home where nobody speaks your language).  The goal is to be surrounded by the language as much as possible so it actually becomes inconvenient to think in your native language.  Reading news and listening to music in this way allows you to begin to develop a contextual world to live in where everything is tied to your target language.  A language is much more than words, after all.

Conditioning

Thinking in a new language is a decision you can make.  If you know even a few dozen key grammar words you can begin to think in your target language thanks largely to the 80/20 rule in language learning.  It is easier than speaking in the language because you will not be embarrassed (unless you have a malicious alter-ego).  It requires less confidence but more motivation than speaking.

During the early stages you may be using more of your native language than your target language, and that is fine.  You will also probably be translating at first rather than “thinking fluently,” and that is fine, too.  What is important is that you make a conscious effort to use the target language in your thoughts, not just in your conversations.

To keep up motivation, I highly suggest a journal (digital or analog) that you keep with you at all times.  When you don’t know how to say (ahem, think) a key word just write it down.  At the end of the day look up the words, or even better, ask a native.  You now have a list of practical vocabulary to learn (instead of studying “shoelaces” and “aardvark” from a book)!  For extra credit, date each entry – you’ll begin to notice how much smaller your daily lists get (and how much more esoteric).  That’s progress you can see!

If you are ready to put aside your shame (and have understanding roommates or family members) it is also quite useful to talk to yourself. Aside from being quite liberating and useful in organizing your thoughts, it also allows you to practice pronunciation. Sometimes I even have conversations with myself, acting out different personas which each speak a different language, in order to practice switching between languages. I may get strange looks in the street, but this habit has also been the start of some interesting conversations.

I can promise one thing: if you make a conscious and continuous effort to think everything you can in your target language, you will begin to surprise yourself.  One day you will hear yourself think “a mi me encanta” instead of “I like,” and you will not even know where it came from.  The context of thinking in the language will also mean that you pick up new words that you are exposed to without even realizing it.  A couple times a week now I use a word in a sentence that I don’t remember studying, yet I am sure I have heard other people say.

Thinking Fluently

The biggest challenge with thinking in the language is the frustration that comes with not being able to fully express yourself inside your own head.  As I’ve said, it is fine to substitute your native language where needed at first – but the key to thinking fluently is your frame of mind.  You can choose to become frustrated, succumbing to perfection paralysis, or you can choose to see each unknown word as one more key piece in the fluency puzzle.  One day you will wake up from a dream and not even register that it was not in your native language.

Visualization

Thinking in a foreign language is essentially a form of visualization or rehearsal that prepares you for the real deal (an actual conversation). With visualization we can go through the steps of making an attempt, to identifying a mistake, to correcting it in a very short period of time. In other words, the feedback loop is very tight. As researcher Kathryn Schulz points out in this TED video, being wrong is quite normal and perhaps even good – as long as you become aware of your mistakes and correct them when possible.

I love discussing all the benefits of visualization. The most astonishing thing is that the brain cannot fundamentally tell the difference between real and imagined action. One study has shown that the brain sends identical impulses to the legs when imagining running. In another study, participants who imagined playing the piano showed nearly identical development in the motor cortex of the brain as those who actually played the piano. In short, the brain treats visualization like the real deal.

What does all this mean for us? Well, for one, it means that thinking in a language is much more relevant than we may have previously believed. Every thought that passes though your brain has the potential to act as a mini-exercise in your target language, not just as passive rehearsal but also as an active exercise. When you add up all the thoughts you have in a day, the potential for change is quite impressive.

Have you managed to think in a foreign language?  Was your process similar?  Let us know below.

Source: http://www.fluentin3months.com/thinking/