Studying slides in a second language without translating everything

If you're studying slides in a second language, you don't need to translate the whole deck. What works is splitting the two problems in front of you: the language and the subject. First you build a glossary of the course's key terms, then you read each slide once for the language and once for the content, and finally you practice in the language the exam will be in.

Translating everything feels like the safe option, but it has a catch: translate everything and you lose the words you'll be tested on. The exam, the professor and the readings keep using the English term, and if you studied from a machine translation you end up translating back at the worst possible moment.

English isn't my first language, and in computer science almost all the documentation is in English, so I learned this the hard way. It's just as common for international students in business and economics, where entire courses run on English slide decks. The example in this post is a strategy lecture: the one on Porter's five forces, about twenty-five slides.

Why it takes twice the effort

When you read a slide in your first language, your brain is busy with the topic. In a second language, part of it goes into decoding the words, and what's left for understanding is smaller. That's why you can reach the end of a slide, know what every word means and still not be able to explain the idea.

And the English on lecture slides isn't the English of TV shows. It comes in two layers:

• The course vocabulary. "Bargaining power of suppliers", "barriers to entry", "switching costs". You won't hear them in conversation, and a translator may render them differently on every slide.
• Academic English. "Thus", "whereas", "it follows that", "notwithstanding". There aren't many of them, but they flip the meaning of a whole sentence, and slides are full of them because they compress an argument into one line.

Knowing which layer is slowing you down tells you what to do: the first one is solved with a glossary, the second with more reading, out loud.

Build a course glossary before you study

This step saves the most time. Before studying a lecture, go through the slides and write down every term you don't know or that belongs to the subject. A three-column table is enough:

1. The English term, exactly as it appears: "threat of substitutes".
2. What it means, in your own words, not a literal translation: "how easily customers can solve the same need with a different product".
3. An example: "trains versus planes on a short route".

The glossary is per course, not per lecture: you keep adding to it all semester, and by finals you have the 40 or 60 terms that matter in one place. Half of what looked hard in the deck usually turns out to be vocabulary.

It also doubles as practice: cover the explanation column and say it, or the other way around. Your glossary is your first summary, not a chore.

Read every deck twice: once for language, once for content

Trying to decode the language and understand the topic at the same time is what wears you out. What works for me is two separate passes:

• First pass, fast. Read the deck straight through just for the language: mark what you don't understand, look it up, add it to the glossary. Don't worry yet about whether you get the five forces.
• Second pass, slow. Now go slide by slide, with the vocabulary sorted. This is where you ask the usual questions: what does it mean, why is it here, how does it connect to the one before. It's the same method from how to study from lecture slides, minus the language getting in the way.

When a whole sentence won't make sense, that's when to use a translator, for that sentence only. Read the translation, get the idea and go back to the original. And if a slide is three English words and nothing else, the problem isn't the language: it's a slide that needs the lecture behind it, which is what slides with no explanation is about.

Watch out for words that trick you

Some words look like ones in your first language and mean something else. Others mean one thing in everyday English and another in a lecture. In business and economics, a few of them can change an exam answer:

• Billion is a thousand million in English. In many languages the similar-looking word is a million million, and in economics that's the most expensive mistake there is.
• Actual means real, not current. "Actual costs" are the real costs.
• Eventually means in the end, not possibly.
• Significant in a stats or research slide means statistically significant, not just important.
• Critical in "critical analysis" means evaluating carefully, not criticizing.
• Argue in an essay prompt means make a case with evidence, not fight.

When a sentence with one of these doesn't add up, that's usually why. They deserve their own section in the glossary.

Practice in the language of the exam

You can understand everything in your own language and still freeze in an English exam, because you've never written an answer in English. Understanding and producing are different skills, and the exam asks for the second.

What works is practicing the way you'll be tested:

• Explain each slide out loud in English, with the material covered. If the sentence won't come, it doesn't mean you don't know it: you just haven't practiced saying it.
• Write short answers. Two or three sentences per question from past exams, in English.
• Make term and explanation cards. The glossary rows work as they are. How to build them straight from the deck is in how to make flashcards from lecture slides.

Writing in English under time pressure gets easier fast once you've done it a few times. The first time is always the slowest, so make sure it isn't in the exam room.

Listening to the lecture in English

Reading and listening are separate skills. If your lectures are in English, it pays to get your ear used to the course vocabulary before the exam, especially if there's an oral component. Lecture recordings with captions help a lot: the first time with English captions on, the second without.

Another option is having someone walk you through the deck out loud. Filmina, a web app that explains your lecture slides out loud, explains each slide in the language it's written in, with a native voice: an English deck gets explained in English, pointing at the part it's talking about. It's useful for hearing how the terms are said and following the idea with the slide in front of you. It doesn't translate: if you need an English deck explained in another language, it won't do that. It runs in the browser, needs a connection and an account, and has a free plan with a monthly cap on minutes.

With or without tools, the principle is the same: sort the language out first, so the second pass is only about the subject.

Frequently asked questions

How do I study lecture slides in English if it's not my first language?

Build a glossary of the course terms first, then read the deck in two passes: one for vocabulary and one for content. Use a translator only for single sentences and keep the technical terms in English.

Should I translate my lecture slides into my own language?

To understand a hard sentence, yes; to study, no. If you translate everything you lose the terms your professor and exam use, and a translator may render the same concept in different ways.

How can I write exam answers faster in a second language?

Practice before the exam: explain slides out loud in English and write two or three sentence answers to past exam questions under a time limit. Producing the language is a separate skill from understanding it, and it improves quickly with practice.

What English words are confusing for international students?

In business and economics, "billion" (a thousand million), "actual" (real), "eventually" (in the end) and "significant" (statistically significant in research). Keep them in a separate section of your glossary.