Do you know how your brain works when you are learning a new language?
You will start storing a lot of new information, like a cellphone receiving messages: they are stored in memory. As you keep receiving input, you start to relate it to what you know: your mother tongue. As a result, you will begin to produce a mix of both languages and use as many resources as you can to communicate your message: sounds, gestures, related words, etc. If you keep studying, you will start finding the word you need within the “stored messages “in your brain and with time, your speech will have more words in the new language and less words in your native language. Then, you will start using more complex structures, making many mistakes first and improving to just a few within a clear message. How do you know you are “getting there”? when you find yourself able to understand and respond spontaneously, without doubting yourself, having the confidence to speak and deliver a message even making some mistakes: that is communicating in the new language.
As you continue in the learning journey, there will be a point when you will start dreaming in your new language, when you will be listening to the radio , the TV or reading and understanding without realizing you were actually receiving the information in the new language.
So, why not surprise yourself with what you can accomplish? Learning a new language is the beginning to success.
G.D.F.
How your brain works
