There's a common confusion between Thinking in English and mental translation and in order to do
one you have to stop doing the other
And that's exactly what I want to talk about In this video
Okay I need to think in English okay what now sport I'll talk about sports
Yes volleyball I like volleyball it's a good sport
My favorite player is Giba Giba is, Giba is, o que o Giba é em inglês
Oh no, now I'm thinking in Portuguese Damn does this happen to you?
how can you think in English and stop translating in your head?
Hey, there! Teacher Prix here to help you talk to anyone anywhere anytime in English
thanks for joining me on another video and if you are you new here, hey thanks I hope
you enjoy this video And make sure to subscribe every week i post
different kinds of videos to help people from all over the world improve their English skills
and become more confident speakers Many students tell me it's difficult to think
in English because when they start doing this exercise they get stuck and start translating
things Because they don't know a word they don't an expression They don't
know how to make a phrase so they start translating going back and forth native language English
English native language many people do what I did at the beginning of the video
The start to think in English but when there's a problem when there's a word they don't know
they panic and they go back to their native language
Another possible situation is when students start in their native language they do all
the mental planning in their language and only after
that they start thinking about the phrases they were thinking before in their language
that's mental translation That's not thinking in English to do this
exercise you need to understand there is a difference between thinking in English and
mental translation You may also have some problems in terms of
your limitations you are learning you are an English learner so sometimes you may have
vocabulary limitations verb limitations structure limitations sample present simple past present
perfect well you don't need to know all these names but you probably need to know how to
use them and you may have this limitation as well
Now to truly think in English when you are doing this exercise you need
to start in English and keep going okay but then you may have a question but Priscila okay
I start thinking in English but suddenly there's a word or phrase I don't know how do I do
it I have to stop you know when that when that happens to me I explain to myself well
I don't know this word in English so I will try to think of another phrase of a different way
to say it okay so this is something you can do. Another possible problem that caused
you to have this issue of not knowing the word is the preparation
That's why I make so many videos here on my channel where I show you how to think in English
and talk about your routine how to think in English and talk about likes and dislikes
This is preparation and that's where many students fail to do if you don't prepare yourself
when you try to think in English you won't do it because we are not Americans we are
not Canadians we're not Australians so thinking in English does not come naturally and automatically
to us. We need to prepare to do that, but because
we don't we get stuck No I'm not saying that after you do the preparation
you will have no problems no but you will have less problems If you prepare yourself before
you do it. How do you do this preparation remember the example at the beginning of the
video I was trying to think in English about volleyball
in this case I probably didn't prepare myself to think about volleyball because I didn't
know the position of my favorite player in English so how should I have prepared myself
for it I should have gone on Google and searched for volleyball players positions in English
How to say volleyball positions in English and I need to do this research in English
already another common problem many students have many times with search for English information
in our native language so immerse in English and start doing your research in English already
google is a very smart tool and I'm sure that if you type the right words you can get a
lot of information. I tried I went on Google and I typed volleyball position in English
and I got amazing results I didn't know some names in English you know and I learned.
So that's how you prepare yourself if you want to try to think about a sport or to think
about your weekend or to think about your routine
Preparation but preparation in English Now when it comes to the translation translation
is a habit when you were learning English you probably used a lot of translation at
the beginning and it's okay at the beginning we are a little bit lost
And if you're studying alone it's difficult to have the right guidance and the right direction
so you probably used a lot of translation at the beginning
And I am not saying that translation is 100% bad sometimes we need to do a little translation
it happens what I'm trying to say here that it's not okay is to completely rely on it
and use it as a part of your study and that's what happens to many of us so you
were building this process For a long time now you unconsciously start translating
things every time you see a new word because you trained yourself to do it
So now you are at a higher level you're trying to stay in English all the time to think in
English all the time You are having problems because you trained
yourself to do the opposite. Okay how do you break this habit by continually
reminding yourself that there's a difference between thinking and mental translation
Every time you start doing this exercise and you catch yourself
Trying to translate stop and tell yourself no translation that's what I tell my students
when they translate I look at them and say hey no translation I don't need you to translate
it to me. I already know it.
So This is a reminder. What I'm doing there is breaking a pattern when my student does
that I break the habit I break the pattern if you do that by yourself you are going to
start noticing you will automatically stop yourself and say no translation and you will
go back to the exercise With time you will do this less less and less.
Also keep in mind that this exercise of thinking in English is a great opportunity to show
you what you need to work on even with preparation there will be times when you don't know how
to express yourself and it's okay this is exactly why you do that so that you can better
prepare yourself for when you have to talk to someone at a meeting or when you are traveling
around the world this is preparation for the real world you are going to communicate and
talk to different people so that you can think faster of what you should say next okay so
the practice part is hard but the reward is good I promise you.
To finish up guys, the main focus of this video is to show you that there is a difference between
thinking in English and doing mental translation All these things combined will help you think
in english and ultimately will prepare you for the real world where you need to think
faster and speak English confidently I hope this video was able to give you some
ideas of how to change your habits and the importance of paying attention to whether
you are thinking in English or whether you are translating in english.
And if you are translating don't feel frustrated don't feel bad change that
Today start practicing and prepare yourself before you can do this exercise that is the
end of the video I hope you enjoyed it if you found this video useful please hit the
like button and maybe share it with your friends on your social media why not thank you so
much guys and I'll see you next time bye