Wow, very interesting discussion

About translation, in general in the modern teaching methods, translation is discouraged even from the beginning. Let's take an example, how do you translate "yo soy"? "I am". And "yo estoy"? "I am". This is the "To be or to be" dilemma, so funny for Spanish teachers, I know not so funny for students

But there is more, "I like" is not "Yo gusto" but "Me gusta"

And you cannot literally translate "red" in Spanish, it is not "rojo" or "roja", because gender works different

I mean, from the very first lesson the beginner student has to deal with some important cases which shows that literal translation is bad business. The problem cannot be postponed as in the sky metaphore

In order to reach A2 you have to master a language much beyond from translation, so in my opinion the challenge is buiding up in those skills you already got, towards spontaneus use of the language, more than unlearn mode 1 to learn mode 2, which I think is less natural and effective,

For sure, when you are starting to learn another language you always translate to your mother tongue at some extent, I know it from both my teacher and student sides, but from 0 you have to know translating is a bad way

In my lessons I try to emphazise this, from the first lesson, even for total beginners. Of course my students translate a lot, but they know is bad business in the long term, so when they have the minimum skills they jump to the other side without a great effort

No sé por qué hablamos en ingles si en este hilo todo el mundo tiene buen nivel de español, pero bien :-)

Un saludo