Will I ever stop translating in my head?

„I think it in German first. Then I translate. By the time I’m ready, the conversation has moved on.“ I hear this in first sessions more than anything else.

It’s exhausting. And underneath it there’s usually a quieter question. Will I ever stop doing this?

It doesn’t stop all at once, and it doesn’t need to. What happens is that fewer and fewer sentences need the detour. Short reactions go first. „I’m not convinced“ arrives on its own, while longer explanations still take the German route for a while.

You don’t have to stop thinking in German. And when a sentence won’t come, you’ve stopped freezing. You go another way round. That’s the progress, and it rarely feels like progress at the time.

Quick win: Notice which English sentences already arrive without the detour. Usually the short ones. Those went direct first, and the rest follow.