Learning languages : bilingualism vs. translation

Why is it so difficult for most people to learn languages and get to speak fluently? Why do children have to learn long lists of vocabulary and huge grammar rules when we did not need them to speak our mother tongue?

I would like to write a short article on bilingualism vs. translation in learning languages, although I'm far from being a specialist in neuro-linguistics. I'll try to point out the basic bad and good points of each way.

Let us first remember the basic theory of speech : our brain links concepts to words, directly or not (that's very basic, but enough for what I want to say). We will consider that when you speak in your mother tongue, the concept is directly linked to the word you pronounce.

Translation
I will begin with translation, because it is the usual way of learning languages in school. Most people learn vocabulary and grammar and translate the thoughts they have in their language to the language they want to speak.

With this method, you will first think in your mother tongue, get the word that is linked to the concept you want to express, and then use this word as a new concept to link it to another word in the language in which you want to express yourself.

The only good point I see about this way of learning is that you can translate things quite well... and I'm not even sure this is very true...

Now there are a lot of bad points about it.
First of all, it's obvious that it takes you longer to express yourself, as there are more steps. If you have to do this when speaking and listening, your brain is going to hurt very soon...
Secondly, when you speak a second language this way, you cannot express all you want, because the basic concepts used by different languages are not the same. For example, there is no equivalent to the verb ``may'' in french, so that many french people might not use it where it should be used.

Bilingualism
Bilingualism is often considered a chance that few people have, and an utopia for people who never had this chance. I think this point of view is not very exact though.
Although it is true that people who were raised up in two or more language till they were children are quite lucky, it is not a fate to not have this opportunity, and there are still ways to get to be fluent having not had it.

To me, the key to bilinguism is to get to think in the language. Practically it's not as difficult as it seems. The main issue is a psychological one : if you decide to think in a language you do not speak fluently, it obviously means that your thoughts are going to be much more basic than they are when you think in your mother tongue! Once you accept this fact and take the decision to think in the foreign language you are willing to learn, this fact will indeed ``pull you forward'', in the sense that you will not need to speak fluently only to communicate with people, but also to improve your own thoughts, and you will learn vocabulary very naturally and fast, as you would in your mother tongue!

Why is bilingualism better?
One obvious point is that you can express yourself much more easily in the language than if you were translating, because you think in the language.
Another very important point to me, is that by getting to think in another language, you link more concepts to words in your mind, including concepts that cannot be easily expressed in your mother tongue. So you basically improve your ``thinking ability'' by enlarging the basis of the concepts you can use to think.
This also leads to another important point : you understand better people who speak the other language, not only because you speak the same language as in speaking aloud, but also because you can share the same concepts with them, and grasp their mind much more easily.

Now practically?

How do I decide to think in a second language? It doesn't seem that easy for sure... Well as I said before, the only important obstacle to it is psychological : you might be afraid to have very basic thought when you have few vocabulary... Once you have passed this step, what I do (hoping it can help) is that I take times in the day when I force myself to think in the language, but as it's very conceptual and difficult, I talk aloud to myself. I comment my life and actions in the language I want to learn. This way, knowing enough of the language, I can correct myself on both syntax, vocabulary and pronounciation most of the time. This way I force myself to link directly images and feelings to words, without translating, and talking aloud to myself allows me to hear my accent and try to correct it from how I know it should be.


I've been using this method for a few years now, and I cal tell it's very efficient on me at least. Researchers tend to prove that a second language should be taught before the age of 7, because bilinguism is very hard to aquire after this age. This is mostly true about pronounciation, but to think in a language can be achieved at almost any age in my opinion.

That's all folks! Let me know your opinion :D