How to Think in Spanish (and Stop Translating in Your Head)

I think it’s the ‘wrestling with a new way of thinking’ that puts most students off of learning another language. They don’t seem to understand that the whole point of learning another language is to discover how a different culture communicates and sees the world. It’s a sympathetic study, not an egocentric one.

On a Mexican holiday, I was trying to speak Spanish to a beach venor who knew a bit of English and in reference to my telling her I was trying to learn Spanish she said "You are making good" -- it was at that moment, and when I was explaining this to her in broken English/Spanish that she really meant to say "You are doing well", when I realized how the double meaning of Hacer made it hard for her to translate accurately into English. When I saw your video on this today it made me think of this experience ... Thanks, Bruce

To help with avoiding asking why questions, I used to tell my friends that you need to approach learning Spanish/new language like learning a new sport. You can’t apply the rules of football to rugby or vice versa. They’re similar but different sports with different rules. You need to learn the rules of said sports separately to play it correctly. Same thing with languages. :)

What has made learning Spanish easier for me is first I accepted that languages literally make you think differently than your native language. 2nd I got it in my head that learning new ways to think and express yourself is the honestly one of the best parts of learning a language. I guess I just had the motivation to learn. The struggle is fun hahaha

I found that stopping using a translator when writing forced me to remember words and phrases. I now can turn on thinking in my head by seeing Spanish words not English and connecting them. And I speak to native speakers each day so no time to translate. Great video....I do hate ser...haha

This video was the biggest AH HA moment! I never realized that when I didn't know the Spanish, I'd feel pressure to keep the conversation going. I'd frantically scramble in my head to translate and often what came out was the literal translation that didn't work. I noticed that if I relaxed, didn't struggle, and let my mind flow, I often knew the right vocabulary. More patience and more practice. Thanks Andrew!

Hablo español y estoy aprendiendo inglés, entendí todo el video. Recomiendo al 100% lo que él dice

My first ever Spanish teacher would always say: “How you FEEL and where you ARE, you gotta use the verb ESTAR” I’m getting into a better habit about not trying to apply English logic to everything but his quote was really helpful for me!

Great video! I finally "broke" the logic based thinking by just saying the first word that comes to mind and if someone corrects me then I learn

I learned to think in Spanish when (a) I realised that I had thousands of thoughts in English all day, every day and these needed to be quiet to let Spanish speak to me - a lot like calming your thoughts in meditation, and (b) reaching a stage where I didn't need the live interpreter in my mind to convert everything from Spanish to English

In school I studied German some years. After finishing school I went to Germany with a class mate and visited some of his relatives. At first I struggled with the grammar, but the second day I ditched all my grammar considerations and without hesitation used the vocabulary and grammar that first appeared in my mind. This was well received by the family as communication now began to flow. I got some corrections, usually as a confirming repetition of what I had said, but in a correct way. Trial-and-error-and-adopt.

I think this is why Duolingo is working for me, although I'm supplementing with podcasts and YouTube video tips. I'm about halfway through the Spanish tree and it was extremely frustrating at certain times, when the structure didn't match English. I struggled through and kept at it. Now after about a year and a half, I can't explain why something is right to my friend who's also doing the app, but I tend to just know when something sounds right. Repetition definitely works.

Great video! I'm a native Spanish speaker and I did this while learning English. Now my brain thinks half of the time in Spanish and half of the time in English. Jajaja. Nowadays I'm trying to do the same thing with Mandarin, but it's quite a challenge. ¡Saludos desde Argentina!

Great advice. As a logic-based thinker, I've struggled with learning Spanish. I find this straightforward concept of asking "How" rather than "Why" questions to be an invaluable way to change my approach. Thank you!

I'm English and I am in a relationship with a lovely lady from Mexico. It felt right to learn her language too, despite her being fluent in English. The biggest issue I had/have, is I'm a very logical and process based thinker, so I would get obsessed with word for word translations and it ruined the learning experience. I've tried every possible type of learning, and can honestly say this video highlighted many issues which most learning resources don't address properly. I found myself laughing during this video as the struggles of your students were so relatable to me. 😂 Great video!

Im a Brazilian trying to learn Spanish while seeing English videos, what a day

Brilliant video! When teaching English I found that it was super effective to give my students examples of instances where Spanish didn’t make sense either. As soon as they realized that they had no problem using lots of words and phrases in Spanish despite being illogical they did not need to know “why” nearly as much.

Great video! I was told by my partner who is a native Spanish speaker that Spanish is more feeling than thinking and it's helped me a lot.

I agree with many things said in the video. I also went through it but the other way around(Spanish to English), there are quite a lot of things in English that simply seem wrong if I analyze them thinking in Spanish, you have to just memorize stuff on and on until it becomes second nature. Overanalyzing the language can easily lead to feel frustrated and that will keep you from learning Spanish.

As a native Spanish speaker, who switched to english as everyday language after moving to Australia. I find Spanish being more mechanical and straightforward compared to English. Words in Spanish don't often get many additional meanings to be used different contexts, which means no phrasal verbs. Because of this, it is in some styles of poetry where words get meanings. I am sure you would love to listen to Joaquin Sabina and how he plays with the meanings of words