This may seem to be a complex and time-consuming work to do. However, judging from the improvement that I can get, I am quite satisfied with this method. I usually search for a news article that fits my interest on the Internet. Then, I will paste them into word processing software, such as Ms. Word, print it out, and I can start translating.
By doing this, I expect to encounter the same word repeatedly. The more I encounter the word, the easier I will remember it. Don't you think that it is easy? However, you may need to invest a bit of effort and time to do the translation regularly.
Two obstacles to understanding the articles are lacking grammar and vocabulary knowledge. So, it is highly recommended to keep on improving this knowledge. Different languages certainly have different structure although some could be similar. One of the examples is about the Latvian language. The Latvian language has "ne-" in front of a verb to negate it. For instance, nesaprotu ((I) do not understand). You can see here that "I" is not necessarily written in the sentence. Besides, "don't understand" is written as one word "nesaprotu". Note that the ending of "saprotu" which is "u" changes based on the subject. This kind of form does not exist in English.
Overall, you do not need to worry about grammar because you can always go back to check it whenever you want. There are abundant grammar references available on the Internet, books, or apps.
What do I aim from translating?
I would say learning more vocabulary. I am actually letting my brain accustomed to the foreign vocabulary. The vocabulary may not only be found in daily conversation but also in some fields, like medical, economics, politics, etc
Thanks for reading. Feel free to share this article if you like. If you have any opinions, please leave a comment. I love reading them.
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Dutch American Translations