Thanks for your comment. I am glad about giving you food for your thoughts. I'm sad to say that my English skills declined since I wrote this entry. I hope I'll be back to where I'd already been. (Too much work, too little time to practice)

Hi, thanks for this post, I found it really helpful too. I am learning German, but as a research student I read a lot more German than I speak or write. I have only started getting my head around how to 'think in German' as I write/speak over the last couple of months, but have found thinking of the sentiment, then trying to match it to a German construction, has made my composition noticeably clearer. Still, this discussion has given me even more food for thought so - many thanks! J

Thanks a lot for your detailed response to my question. In an (long) instant I can only produce texts like my entries in the notebook by now. If it comes to more complicated and/or work related matters I have to think and write in German and translate the result into English, if it´s not phraseable? in pre-fixed sentences. I'm very careful, check it by myself and give it to a native speaking college for a review. The more I write the more I learn. But I wish I wouldn't forget so fast and learn so slow. E.g. I pondered over the words answer/response and the word ponder/consider. I don't want to tell how long, I used three books and LEO.

I try to do it 2 ways: write the entry in English and then translate it, or just write in German. Both ways have their advantages and disadvantages. For learning a new language, I think it best to write initially in the new language (English for you), depending on how large your vocabulary is and how well you recall the grammar. It can help to write in your native tongue and then translate, but each language has its own personality, structure, flow and behavior. Learning how to "think in English" (or for me, to "think in German") is the trick, to see in your written German how it would be structured in English. As my vocab in German grows (my knowledge of grammar is pretty good), I just try to write straight in German. Should I take that entry and write it in my native English, I would rewrite it differently to give it a different, more distinct personality that reflects my style of using English. My German writing/speaking style and my English writing/speaking style are two totally different things: each has its own unique personality. It's like trying to translate a German song - you can't usually keep the same words and structure, especially if you intend to keep the rhyme. You have to keep the sentiment, and find new words and phrases to convey the same idea. Imagine how tough it must be to become a translator, say for a government official. You have to pretty much translate exactly what you hear. Might be an idea to keep in mind while translating your entries.