Legal English Brain Abnormalities: Thoughts Without the Need for Translation

There are two ways in which you can train the brain to think in a non-native language such as English and its professional lingual counterpart, which is commonly referred to as Legal English. A coaching program in Legal English should emphasize the training of your thought processes such that you no longer translate in your mind from your mother tongue to English. The multi-step process of translation is cumbersome. It can leave you facing the embarrassing situation of searching for the right word to say and never finding it. The slight pause in speech while engaged in this search lends itself to socially awkward moments and anxiety. This will be the case whether you are engaged in conversation socially or professionally. This set of circumstances is an especially challenging burden to overcome if you are consistently translating technical legal language in your mind from your native language into Legal English.

To achieve the goal of thinking in English, you need to devote your time and energy to following these two steps:

1. Establishing the mindset that this process will require hard work. Breaking the habit of translation demands the same wherewithal necessary for breaking bad habits. It demands that you consistently train your mind in such a manner that severs established linguistic cognitive pathways in your brain to create new ones.
2. Commit to converting law-related thinking and writing into one that is considered acceptable by the Legal English community and culture. Coaches help you achieve this goal by teaching and training you in proven methodologies, techniques, and strategies.

One of the strategies is to restrict your use of your native language as much as possible when engaged with your coach. As your coach may have only a rudimentary knowledge of your native tongue. it behooves you to always speak to him or her in English. Parenthetically, as a Legal English coach myself, I am always asked the question of whether I speak the language of my students. My not speaking each one of my student's respective languages provides my proteges with an edge in achieving a high level of Legal English aptitude. Consequently, the process of perfecting Legal English evolves more expediently than someone who is working with a bilingual coach.

The coach needs to encourage you to use strictly English and Legal English dictionaries such as Webster's and Black's Law. If you continue to use your native language dictionaries, you will follow the grammatical structure and word order that is specific to your mother tongue. This acts as an impediment to properly converting from your native tongue to a Legal English way of thinking. Since lawyerly communication requires a high level of sophisticated thinking and a command of technical jargon, it is extremely critical that you eliminate even subtle errors made while using this lingo and its associated grammar. Further, you must prevent yourself from using words out of context. Otherwise, colleagues and clients not well acquainted with your legal expertise will express doubt as to your professional integrity.

A motto of my Legal English coaching program is that reading and listening translate to superior speaking and writing. By watching movies, especially legal dramas, you train your mind to listen in English. The process is temporarily subliminal and then made more permanent with the completion of language exercises on the movie or drafting a summary of its plot. You should eschew reading and listening to the news, especially legal news, in your native language. If you read a minimum of two court decisions in English per day and notate legal terms needing to be defined, you will find that your thought patterns will alter. As a result, you will experience an exponential growth of your Legal English abilities.

One of the exercises my students engage in is reading six recent legal news articles and pinpointing words, terminologies, and expressions they do not understand. They then write down what it is they think these terms mean. Subsequently, they compare that definition with the official definition found in regular and legal dictionaries. This process creates novel neural pathways in the brain that grow accustomed to both regular and professional English thoughts.

These and other coaching strategies apply merely to the form of communication and not its substance. The substance of your speech remains unaffected by the language barrier. You already think like a legal professional because no matter where in the world you studied and practiced the law, you were trained to think critically and logically like all attorneys are required to do. The purpose of learning a language for a specific professional purpose is not to make you think any differently than you already do. Rather, it is to make you think that way in a language you cannot claim to be your own native tongue.

The common thread tying together all these methods you see here is the theme of immersion. Immersing yourself in a language that you are not comfortable speaking can be facilitated more easily by exploring these methods in a one-on-one coaching program. The nature of one-on-one study is complete immersion in your new subject characterized by accelerated learning. Consider this and other options available to you in a one-on-one Legal English coaching program by reaching out to me today!