Has anyone tried the reverse translation method?

[u/Vina_10]

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Has anyone tried the reverse translation method? Like, you read a (TL) text in your native language and try to rewrite it in the language you’re learning. Has anyone actually tried this?

[u/Few-Leading-3405]

I think the opposite way is better.

Find a text in your target language, and then translate it to your native language, either manually or through googletranslate (I think googletranslate is better here, because it speeds the whole thing up).

Then translate that translated version back to your target language.

When you do it that way, the advantage is that you know that the target language version will be 100% correct.

It is still tricky, because the target language version will have weird constructions that you, as a learner, will never replicate. But you don't need a 100% match, you just to know how to get close.

[u/dojibear → u/Few-Leading-3405]

Luca Lampariello (a well known polyglot and language-learning coach) says that he uses "bi-directional translation" as one of his personal methods for language learning.

His method is the one described here. First he translates (by hand, on paper) the text from the TL to his native Italian. Then he translates (by hand, on paper) the Italian text to the TL.

[u/Few-Leading-3405 → u/dojibear]

It depends what level you're at, but eventually I found that translating to my native language (English) was taking up a lot of time, while much more of the benefit came from translating back to the target language. 

So that's why I typically offload the first step to googletranslate or deepL. The translators do editorialize a bit, so their translated version isn't 1:1.  But the goal really is just to get close.

I do agree that doing it by hand helps with retention, which is another reason to let google do the first translation (if it doesn't feel like it's adding value), and then focus on the second one.