Thinking in a Language

Discussion in 'General Discussion' started by Cainntear, Jul 23, 2014.

  1. Big_Dog

    Big_Dog Administrator Staff Member

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    Understood. But he asked how he could improve upon his current level. Is your answer then to just continue doing what he's doing?
  2. Peregrinus

    Peregrinus Active Member

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    Sorry, I thought you were asking for general suggestions and not what he asked for, going from there.

    As to trying to move up from there, for myself, I naturally always think I need more vocabulary, which I do :). And also better grammatical accuracy. But as I believe I mentioned earlier in this thread, explicitly studying discourse markers and lexical chunks ("on the other hand", "one would think that", etc.) would help a lot, along with a better command of phrasal verbs. For me, lack of lexical chunks and better and more accurate use of verbs seems to be what is holding my thinking back. Not knowing the vocabulary for all the substantives/nouns in one's house doesn't stand in the way nearly as much as lack of lexical phrases and verb use to apply to those substantives.

    In the end, one's ability to think in a language has to be tied to one's current level of vocabulary, grammar and idiomatics. Bump those up and bump up thinking. But the most important one of those is discourse markers and lexical chunks.

    Worth reading is Splog's post in the HTLAL thread (message 64) How many words do you need:

    What goes for speaking goes for thinking.
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  3. numb

    numb New Member

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    level 4 : it's means thinking fastly
  4. numb

    numb New Member

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    the level that's i'm looking for isn't only saying bla bla bla, because it's easy doing natural discussions with others such as : how are doing or i was sleeping yesterday....... what i means by levels those ideas that make you being intelligent. thinking differently form the others: alone with your universe of ideas. elaborating everything with your mind. there is a lot of thing s that's we didn't discover yet about our capacity of analyzing things in this life. people stop in those levels of experessing just what they want to say or what the others saying or what's happened in the world but there anther level which is thinking in elaborating new ideas and i believe it's possible...



    Does any of you think about that !!!!

    I don't believe on the word intelligence. for me this word doesn't exist that's why i'm looking for the best techniques

    Do you have some answer.

    For those that they speak 4 or 5 languages : how did you do that, could you share with as your techniques.... ?
  5. Peregrinus

    Peregrinus Active Member

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    From the HTLAL archives: Thinking in the language


    Thus Dr. Arguelles is stressing the importance of thinking for maintenance as well as learning.
  6. Big_Dog

    Big_Dog Administrator Staff Member

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    I moved this post from my Maintenance thread to here because I think it's much more applicable. As I've said before, I don't believe practicing "thinking in a language" exercises are necessary, or an efficient substitute for conversing or writing. If someone has no or limited access to native speakers, is terribly shy, just doesn't want to converse or something like that, than this might be a reasonable alternative. But it's not for me, and I didn't see the point of putting it under my learning methods.
  7. Peregrinus

    Peregrinus Active Member

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    Initially not a substitute, but a precursor. And later, not a substitute, but a primer and one of several components of a maintenance program. Just as with assertions that Anki and word lists must necessarily be studying vocabulary "in isolation", when they can be used with example sentences and as part of a larger program, thinking is not advocated by Dr. Arguelles, myself, or anyone else as a solitary method.

    Putting on my pseudo-psychologist cap, I diagnose you as having iso-fixation. The opposite of the way those with autism tend to find patterns in everything. :)
  8. Big_Dog

    Big_Dog Administrator Staff Member

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    Maybe you missed the or. I'm saying that thinking in a language, as some sort of a planned exercise like this, isn't required. Im also saying that my overall learning would be not as efficient if I were to replace any amount of conversing or writing with said exercises. I believe this is true for me and for most learners, but there are probably exceptions, like the ones I mentioned.
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  9. Iversen

    Iversen Member VIP member

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    I just know that I soon get tired and bored if I sit in my own room and speak to myself, whereas I can keep thinking silently for much longer - especially if I have some outer source speaking in my target language - preferably a TV, but a human being can also fulfill the role. For some reason I stop listening if I speak, but I can keep thinking even in that situation, so there are situations where thinking simply beats speaking.

    On the other hand reading aloud or speaking physically stress your mouth muscles, and you need that kind of sheer physical training. In Novi Sad Prof. Arguelles stressed that you may discover your shortcomings (or maybe we should say shortcuts) concerning pronunciation if you read aloud. While thinking you can get away with things you will stumple over if you have physically to utter each and every syllable.
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  10. Wise owl chick

    Wise owl chick Active Member

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    I find that to think in a langauge is natural and great practice. Often the conversations are in one of my langauges, without a plan, but other times I am aware that I put them in a certain language. My head has many conversations, often I wish that they would shut up, obviously, but sometimes it seems natural and for sure it is all in language, and words, phrases etc not other forms. But these days it's all less, before it was terrible. Now, it's ok, and to be honest I can't imagine to not have this conversations. I don't know how I would learn or practise the langauges without them (when they are less like now, not like before, of course).

    Move the thoughts from L1 to L2 is no problem for me, or L3, L4 and L5. The most often in my head are L1 (Fr), L2 (NL) and L3 (De), but now L4 (Eng) as well. I don't translate, generally, but sometimes a conversation can be bilingual or trilingual.

    I think that if I could switch off the talking, or it were silence, it would be very calm, but I don't know if it would feel like death or deaf.

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