| How to avoid doing it: | | | | simultaneous interpreters quite a lot of money to do |
| 1. Refuse to give translations for new vocabulary | | | | this and you need to be very good at both languages |
| yourself. Pretend/admit you don't speak the student's | | | | to do it successfully. ("If you are a professional |
| language. | | | | interpreter you may translate in my lessons, no |
| 2. Encourage the students to guess the meaning of | | | | problem" - funnily enough I haven't come across any |
| words they don't know or to ask each other for help | | | | such students yet!) |
| or to look it up in a monolingual dictionary instead. (See | | | | 6. False friends can cause problems. In Italian the word |
| TT6 , TT9 and TT20 for further explanation). | | | | "sensibile" means sensitive. Not sensible. The word |
| 3. Explain that you are a teacher, not an interpreter. | | | | "conveniente" means cheap. Not convenient. I could go |
| 4. Remind students that you are a teacher, not a | | | | on... |
| dictionary. | | | | 7. Often there is only one word in the students' |
| Why to avoid doing it: | | | | language to translate two English words. For example: |
| 1. If student's translate words and you don't speak their | | | | the Italian for make is "fare" and so is the Italian for |
| language you won't know if they've really understood | | | | "do". The Italian for "job" is "lavoro" and so the Italian for |
| or if they've translated it correctly. | | | | "work". In such cases translating is actually the origin of |
| 2. There often isn't a direct translation for a word or | | | | the students' confusion over the words, not the solution |
| phrase, there is only an "equivalent", sometimes not | | | | to it. |
| even that. Try translating a couple of modal verbs (like | | | | Extra Info: |
| "must" or "would" and you'll see what I mean) and I | | | | If I encounter students who are convinced that |
| doubt very much that there is a translation for | | | | translating English into their own language is an |
| "Yorkshire Pudding" in any language (because it's | | | | essential part of learning English I try to discourage |
| something solely British so other countries will | | | | them by explaining like this: Let's imagine that I am a |
| presumably never have needed a word for it). "get" is | | | | piano-teacher and a student wants to learn to play the |
| hard to translate, as are phrasal verbs. | | | | piano so s/he has piano lessons with me. S/he may |
| 3. Translating some things word for word doesn't help. | | | | not be able to play the piano but s/he is an expert |
| For example: My mother -in-law once told me that my | | | | guitarist and brings his/her guitar to the lesson. I play a |
| husband is a "pezzo di pane" which translates as "a | | | | tune on the piano and s/he tries to copy it on the |
| piece of bread". I was none the wiser for having | | | | guitar. But it doesn't sound the same. In fact it doesn't |
| translated this. Did it mean he was soft, I asked | | | | sound like a piano at all. Well, it wouldn't, would it? I |
| myself? Or stale? (It actually means he's a good sort, | | | | suggest that s/he tries playing it on the piano but s/he |
| apparently.) | | | | tells me that s/he will only be able to play it on the |
| 4. Translating slows students down which means you | | | | piano if s/he can play it on the guitar first. The lesson |
| run the risk of getting bogged down in the fruitless | | | | continues with me playing the piano and the student |
| pursuit of a word which isn't English anyway. | | | | "translating" the tunes onto the guitar. At the end of this |
| 5. Thinking in two languages simultaneously (which is | | | | course of piano lessons, do you think the student will |
| necessary for translating) is very hard. People pay | | | | be able to play the piano? I think not. |