Learning a language, from the beginning, has always been a drag for me when textbooks translate like this, for example:
Comment allez-vous? = How are you?
or:
Comment ça va? = How are you doing?
Despite, the latter clearly translating to "How goes it," and the first "How go you?"
By using dishonest translations, you exclude the way of thought associated with your language from your readers! Grammar is so much more easily acquired when you understand that people, in French, use "why is it that," or "what is it that," instead of saying "qu'est-ce que has no translation" when it literally does!
My rate of progress in any new language is higher than in other languages in which I do not use literal translations. I used French as an example, but this is consistently true in all language courses.
I don't care if the writer is too lazy to list an English WORD FOR WORD equivalent, or too stupid to recognize one: literal translations are the most helpful thing to me.
I also see this for things such as verb tenses! Or cases! I've even read a book that claimed English had no conjugation. Ridiculous!
Tl;dr: It is significantly easier to learn when you understand how speakers of a language pick the words they do, and why. By adopting their way of speaking, you need not waste time. By understanding literal translations you can better understand how something in English would be said in Polish, or French, or German.
Sorry for ranting.
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from sewayo | Languagelearning https://ift.tt/2L6WeR5
via Learn Online English Speaking
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