Is translating useful or a waste of time

Hi Gérard, hi everyone
I am discovering the content of this forum and it turns out to be very rich, and very handy with this new tool.
I was searching for a thread about the adult english learning methods and in particular the importance or not to translate from english to french . I am currently attending an english training class and i think we are spending too much time translating from english to french. Our teacher who is very dynamic and interesting usually gives us some articles from the english press about ordinary life or political topics. At the end of the lesson after usefull pronunciation exercices we usually end with translation which i find very boring. Perhaps i'm wrong because i think most people like that part of the lesson after two hours of concentration , kind of break in a way . I would like to find arguments again and why not for .

Dear JeanPierreD
Dear friends,

In my opinion, it is not really important to translate from English (in)to French and I would rather say that it is not the best way to acquire a better knowledge of a foreign language. During the lesson, your teacher should ask the students if they have any question concerning their reading comprehension. Should it be the case, he should then try to explain them the meaning or the vocabulary with his own words or let them take an active part in a discussion about the English press article. So can he make sure that everybody has understood it. But I suppose, he does!

Hi Jean-Pierre,

Translation is not exactly a waste of time, and, at times, be useful.

However, there are so many things to learn, so many interesting things.
It depends on how translation is led.
If the exercise only consists in finding out, for one student, THE corresponding French words, I'd say it's a waste of time as there's far more in a text.
The original text must be an opportunity to get the general meaning but mainly to discuss around it. For example, words have got several meanings, there are synonyms with subtle nuances, there are homonyms, there are false cognates: which word shall we choose in our French sentence? Why did the author took these particular words? What would be the difference with synonyms, etc. For example, through a text, we have information which may be surprising for a foreigner (this is culture); there are elements on which the French often make mistakes, there are probably words which are very close to (old) French, or very far but close to German (etymology), etc.
Something interesting can be to, then, translate the French back to English and see how far we are from the initial text, and why?

So, if the translation of a sentence is a chore for one student (the others waiting for their sentences with stress), it's boring and useless.
It's not bad to have a better understanding with words in our language but students must not think the couple English-French is unique and think that the same English word in another sentence will always be the same French word and vice-versa.
A very good exercise is to create a list of several "synonyms" in both languages, sort them, and feel the differences so that with a concept (with an idea), we can choose the right word, with the exact degree we want. For example, regarding the height, the surface, the temperature, the weight, etc.
~~
I don't know if I explained well enough... the main 2 cons are:
- students easily think by couples ie for one English word, there is one French words; this is a trap
- most of the time, one student is in charge of one sentence and the others are inactive, and "leave" the class thinking of something else, and... lose time.

Hello Jean-Pierre, Odile, Gérard, everyone
What I find interesting in translating French into an other language is that :  
I want to express a concept and I wonder which language is best to express it.
For instance my daughter who has lived in New York for nearly 5 years still mixes French and American.
I know perfectly that she uses the language which will at best express what she wants to say.
My grand son is staying with us at the moment and speaks English all the time. Anyway he can say "tontion ta tete" or "ça marche" in the middle of an English sentence. In that case  French expresses better what he wants to say.

Bonjour Jean-Pierre, bonjour à tous,

Un sujet répond à ta question -> Traduction - problèmes

Hi Jean Pierre
Just saying that one attent english class because he wants to learn that language to the point where he would like to think in english in oder to improve his fluency. In this case the teacher may break down the hard phrases in simple words, but still in english.
That's all for me