Thinking in pictures

Thinking in pictures, or how to avoid translating from your mother tongue into English...

It is hard not to translate from our mother tongue when we learn a new language. But that can create a lot of problems.

Some languages, such as French or Russian, are more flowery than English. If you translate directly from FR to ENG your English will sound unnatural.


Let's look at an example from a closing of a business communication in French:

Veuillez croire, Monsieur, en l'expression de ma considération distinguée.

Translated directly to English:

Please believe, Sir, in the expression of my highest consideration.

Wow! See how crazy that sounds in English? If you speak like this in English you will sound phoney. It simply will not sound English to a native English speaker.

English is informal and plain in comparison to French. What you should say instead is:

Yours,

or

Regards, 

Some languages are more earthy and direct than English, such as Azerbaijani, Irish, or Arabic. If you translate literally from AZ to ENG, you will sound stilted and crude.

Let's look at an example:

O, pis adam.

Translated directly to English:

He, bad man.

Again, this doesn't sound like English. What you should say is:

He's not a very nice guy.

So, as much as possible, you should try to THINK IN PICTURES. Go directly from the picture to the English, without allowing your mother tongue to influence your choice of English vocabulary.

Let's try an example:


The man -----------------------------------his dog--------------------------taking a walk

Express this pictogram in a full sentence -

It is happening now:

___________________________________________________________________

It happens every day:

Every day __________________________________________________________

It happened yesterday:

Yesterday __________________________________________________________

Can you think of other ways these sentences could be expressed?

Stay tuned for more THINKING with PICTURES posts!!