Why is it that it takes no effort at all to think of and use your first language, but you have to constantly think about it and translate for your second?

Question

I’m taking a German class and despite knowing a solid bit of the language, I still have to constantly think to speak and understand it. Why is that?

In: Culture

Answer 1

Depends how you learn the language.

The ‘natural way’ is the way you learn your mother tongue, by being completely immersed in the language itself without any other language to reference it off.

When I was younger, my family moved to a country that spoke a different language. I eventually became fluent in that language and didn’t have to translate in my head. I could just swap languages and my thoughts would be in the other language.

Learning small parts a few times a week like you would do in class will just enable you to translate between languages, you don’t *learn* it per se in the same way you do your own.