You forget languages. You don't get enough practise.
Answer
1 Think in another language.
2 Translate every sentence.
3 Ask every person you meet what other languages they speak. Discuss how easy or difficult it is to learn and translate and why.
4 Ask them to translate one word into that language. Repeat it three times.
Story
Every time I get into a taxi (for example in Singapore) I ask the driver to count 'one two three' in his other language. If I am lucky, he will voluntarily start to think about it and tell me the numbers up to ten, or more.
Tips
1 Make a page in the back of your diary for new words in the language which is your focus this year or this holiday.
2 Translate all the time, even as you type.
English - French
think in another language - Penser dans une autre langue.
do that all the time - Faire çela tout le temps.
English - German
think - Denken.
To do something constantly - immerfort.
English - Spanish
all the time - Spanish todo el tiempo.
English - Italian
all the time / always - tutto el tempo (or sempre)
Italian - English
If you ask for directions and the answer is not left or right you will hear
sempre avanti - literally always ahead / keep going, straight ahead
I translating these words by typing translate followed by the words into the box at the top of my screen (after typing into Safari New Window so as not to lose the page on which I am typing). I didn't need to look for google translate and then type in the words. Life is getting so much easier for translating.
Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author, speaker, speech and language teacher.
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