Translating in your head? It has a name

Video · 0:48 · published 23 October 2026

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Read the transcript
  1. 0:00You see the Spanish word, you think huge, and only then you reach the meaning.
  2. 0:06That detour has a name: lexical mediation. Early learners reach meaning through their first language.
  3. 0:13A translation card trains the detour. A definition card, in the language you are learning, skips it.
  4. 0:21At A1 and A2, translations win: you cannot read a definition with 50 words.
  5. 0:28From B2, flip it: definition first, translation only when you need it. By C1 you may not need it at all.
  6. 0:37Try it free in the guest study tool, no sign-up: every English card there carries a plain definition. The link is in the pinned comment.

You see enorme, you think huge, and only then you reach the meaning. That detour has a name: lexical mediation (Kroll and Stewart's Revised Hierarchical Model, 1994). A translation card trains the detour; a definition card in the language you are learning skips it. The honest answer is staged: translations at A1 and A2, both at B1, definition first from B2, and by C1 you may not need the translation at all.