Do you hear and translate (in your mind) a foreign language to your native speak?

I’ve taken three semesters of Latin in the last two years of school. I know what you’re talking about, and it took me about a semester and a half before I started “thinking in Latin”, per sē. It’s en exciting moment when you realize, “Hey! I’m not translating this in my head any more!” It’s just something that happens as you really learn a language. Really immersing yourself in the language (taking a trip to Mexico; or, as a more affordable option, watching a movie with Spanish audio) would be a way to speed up that process.

I’ve only stopped doing that with French in the past four years or so, and I studied it about 10 years. Before that, it was only American Classroom French that I was learning, and I was good at it, but my brain was never forced to do its operating in French until I took grammar & phonetics courses taught by native speakers, and lived in the country for a while. Only very gradually have I come to realize that you can’t approach foreign languages as a code, which is unfortunately the way that they tend to be taught in the early levels. Languages are ways of thinking and feeling.

When it comes to cultural knowledge embedded in idioms, I still often have to consciously translate in my mind, or ask a trusted informant like @thorninmud for help! WordReference.com is excellent for idiomatic expressions; if the idiom you’re looking for is not listed, there is a forum where native speakers will be happy to help you figure it out.

I agree with @RandomGirl that immersion is where it’s at…Being confronted with how native speakers actually use the language is essential. I recommend finding films that have subtitles both in Spanish and in English. If you need to, at first you can start with English subtitles, to learn the plot and the characters. Then you can switch to Spanish subtitles, and eventually end up watching without subtitles at all. You can also find tons of radio online (news, sports, entertainment, talk shows, anything you want), which will help you learn the various registers of the language and will greatly broaden your vocabulary.

Thank you both @RandomGirl and @bookish1. That is some awesome info. The immersion, and the “thinking in” or “operating in” a certain language. I knew something was missing.

I especially appreciate the idea that language cannot be approached as a code so much as a way of thinking and feeling. That really means a lot to me. It’s as if language is a living breathing archetype that transcends the boundaries of code math, but instead embodies a hard won cultural identity. Extremely interesting to me. Thanks so much!

@RealEyesRealizeRealLies : Glad to be of help. It definitely is a living entity… rather than a code, it’s an arbitrary framework to give meaning…and it necessarily focuses on certain things while excluding or minimizing other things…I find language truly fascinating, and could blather about it endlessly! Good luck learning to exist in Spanish ;) Oh, one more idea—I’ve heard that Second World online is good for meeting people who want to do language exchanges.

So @bookish1, I don’t know if you’ve been around long enough understand my philosophies on consciousness and information theory, which are related heavily to my interest in linguistics, such as Bhartrihari’s Sphota Theory of Language and biblical principles of The Word.

The cognitive studies department of Washington University uses over 70 different language tests to determine a patients conscious awareness. I believe that levels of consciousness are directly related to one’s ability to define their world with language.

Here’s why your comments are so important to me. Let’s say, for instance, I have two words to describe an object. Let’s say, “cup”, and “mug”. Those descriptors allow a certain level of conscious awareness of that object. But if Spanish denotes the same object as “taza”, then my potential for expanding consciousness of that object has increased.

The problem, is that if I’m simply translating back to English, then it’s simple code mapping, and no greater conscious awareness has occurred beyond realizing a new way of spelling the representation of that object. But if what you say is true, and the language embodies the ability to actually “think differently”, and I do indeed “think differently”, then my conscious awareness of that object has truly expanded.

As @RandomGirl and @bookish1 suggest, there’s nothing else like immersion &/or practice to make a ‘foreign’ language natural in your mind.
At some point the appropriate word, for your context and meaning, is what pops into your head.
Just keep up working with the language especially with others, and it will happen for you.

If you really want to blow your mind, though, study some sanskrit, whose sounds are jacked straight into the human nervous system by design. Mantras can rewire your mind. I have not fathomed quite how the sounds and meaning correlate, but there is something powerful going on there.

French, Italian, Spanish, yes. English, no.