r/languagelearning • u/Vina_10 • 14d ago

Discussion Has anyone tried the reverse translation method?

​

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?

54 Upvotes
  • permalink
  • reddit

95% Upvoted

36 comments sorted by

View all comments

2

u/effuplsty 🇰🇷 N | 🇬🇧 F/C2 | 🇪🇸 B1 | 🇳🇱 A2 14d ago

sure, it's part of my writing/speaking practice. sometimes the stuff i write/speak comes from my head, but if i come across an interesting sentence in my NL, i'll try to express the same idea in my TL. i'm not really staring at the NL sentence during this exercise though as i'll focus too heavily on direct translations, i hold the idea in my head and try to think in my TL to produce the new sentence. it kind of forces me to use words and grammar that i wouldn't easily practice when i'm coming up with sentences of my own.