Why translation based language learning is a waste of time

Flash cards are the most obvious example of this. with a word on one side and a translation on the other. This one word at a time learning style is at the core of almost every language app.

The problem with this method is that it’s not compatible with how our brains remember information.

Our brains use neurons linked together like a spider web to store information.

Here is a practical, simplified, way to think about how this relates to language learning.

Imagine each English word mapped directly onto a single neuron in your brain. The word Banana is represented by a single neuron. Naturally, it has connections to other related neurons like “eat”, “fruit”, “hungry”, “banana peel”, “yellow”, etc.

It is also connected to experiential neurons related to how a banana tastes, what it feels like to touch, and memorable experiences you had with bananas in the past.

Since these neurons have fired together many times in the past, they are well connected to each other.

“Neurons that fire together, wire together” - Donald Hebb

The biggest mistake language learners make is trying to memorize one word at a time translations.

If you were trying to flash card Banana = banana, you are only stimulating the single connection between the words. Further, when you actually hear the word Banana in real life, you will have to take a moment to do the mental translation.

Instead of flash cards, you need to work Banana into full sentences. “I want to eat a banana”. Now your brain can strengthen the wiring between “banana”, “want”, “eat”, “I”, “to”, and “a”. That’s far more connections and when any of those similar words come of in everyday life, their neurons will fire and be be primed to easily locate banana should it come up.

If you ever hear about people who can understand a language but not speak it, it’s because they have this wiring for words laid out in their brain somewhere but it is difficult for their brains to find it on command. However, when someone says the word or related words, their brain can start at the word and look to the connected neurons to gain meaning and context for the situation.

Again, when you memorize translations, you are only giving your brain one unrealistic way to store and access the information. Conversely, when you learn full sentences attached directly to meaning, your brain gets to strengthen many applicable connections speeding up the learning process by an unbelievable margin.

Further, our memory is the way past events affect future function. The reason you don’t forget about bananas is because they will impact future function. You will likely be hungry in the future, see one at a grocery store, hear about bananas in a TV show, and you might even have yourself a banana split for dinner tonight.

Now, when we are attempting to learn a word in a new language by remembering the translation to a native language, you are only providing your brain with one possible neuron to connect to. You are missing the CRUCIAL relevance to how this will impact future function! Your brain knows that if you are only trying to remember the word so that you are good at flash cards, it will certainly take it’s time wiring that part of your brain and will even quickly forget.

The connections that fire together, wire together.

At it’s core, “our memory is the way past events affect future function”. - Developing mind.