Since her English is much better than my Japanese, I'd advise anyone to learn WITHOUT translating. In fact, whenever I talk about learning a language to my friends who are bilingual (Spanish,French,Russian,Chinese,Serbian,etc.) they say they don't translate in their head. They can "switch" their mind between the languages. This must be critical when watching movies, listening to music, or conversing at normal/native pace because I can't do any of this because I'm too busy translating the first sentence in my head when everyone else is on the third sentence.
I just wanted to point out there is a big difference between being bilingual and learning another language. You should not compare yourself to a bilingual person because that is completely and 100% different than having to learn a language from scratch. I'm also bilingual and can think in either language at any time, mix the languages up, and all that fun stuff, but that's because I grew up in a bilingual family and having two languages is natural. If your friends are naturally bilingual, of course they do not have to translate anything in their head as the words in either language are natural to them. You can't compare that to yourself, who has no first hand knowledge of concepts in the language you are learning.
When learning a language you don't have first hand experience with, in the beginning you will of course have to identify the meaning of a word with a concept you know and already have a word for. But if you continue to immerse yourself in that language and skip the "word" part, right to the "concept" part, it too can become second nature to you. Obviously this is through a much more difficult way than a child learning a language as they grow up.
So don't be discouraged.. how long do you think it took for you to learn English? You might not realize, but a child would probably have to be 10 years or older to formulate thoughts and ideas that let them write a post like you did above. That's 10 years+ of first hand language experience. In reality, an adult learning a second language has it a bit easier because they've already learned concepts, now they're just attaching new words to them. Nonetheless, learning takes time no matter how gifted you are, so let the cliche one step at a time apply here.
) on my part, so I want to apologize on behalf of that. What I was originally trying to say was, since moving to Japan and getting a job is so difficult, it is important that one does not forget how useful their multi-lingual skills are in a country auch as Japan. Instead of translating, I should have referred to teaching.
) and comparing this to his translators words, I can see how different Japanese and English are. Someday I'll overcome that barrier myself.
