hey guys and welcome back to love English
I'm Sabrah it's nice to see you guys again so today it's a lovely sunny day
in the UK spring is on the way I've got some daffodils to brighten up the room
I'm feeling very happy because the nights are getting shorter and the days
are getting longer which always makes people happier there's more sunshine is
it the same in your countries let me know ok so that's enough of that guys let's
focus on the lesson today so today we're going to be looking what about how to
think in English
so number one is retrain your brain retrain your brain so retraining the
brain what does this mean now when we are thinking in our own languages we're
thinking all the time in our heads and we might even talk to ourselves it's
very normal that we'll be spending a lot of time thinking perhaps even talking to
ourselves now what you need to start doing is to start moving some of that
inner dialogue that inner thinking to English now why this is good is because
this way you're more prepared to speak and also you start to think in the
structure of English because the structures of your own language in terms
of sentence structure in terms of vocabulary in terms of the word order of
sentences will be very different to English and if you try and use the
structure of your language to speak in English things come out very funny
so for example think about in Korean I know that the subject and object are in
a completely different position to how they are in English
I think the object comes before the subject so if you're trying to think in
the structures of your language you're never going to be able to speak fluent
English because you'll always be using structures of your language and you
won't start to really get the English language to really absorb the English
language and understand it and produce it so this may seem like a difficult
thing but you're just thinking in your head so nobody is going to be judging
you nobody's going to be knowing what your mistakes are so actually in some
ways it's quite easy because you can be thinking you can be making mistakes in
English in your head but it doesn't matter the thing is you're starting to
retrain your brain you're starting to make room for this new language in your mind
now guys I've learnt Spanish yo hablo espanol pero yo he olvidado mucho
porque no tengo mucho oportunidad para practicar I hope that was correct so I
learned Spanish in the past and I can promise you that I started to think in
Spanish and after a while I actually started to dream in Spanish and this was
when I knew that my brain had changed I made space for these new structures this
new way of thinking , language is a way of thinking actually so once you start to
change some of your inner thoughts to English things are really going to start
to get easier for you so one way to do this is to start to think of things that
you can do every day where you will think in English now you can pick some
activities that you might really enjoy doing for example when you're alone
walking to work walking to school or at the gym or jogging but time when you're
alone when you can think in English now if you're like oh what do I think about
think about what you need to do what you need to buy what you're going to cook
that evening what you want to do in the future just start to think about these
things in English I recommend spending 30 minutes a day doing this and you do
have to focus and concentrate because it can be difficult but the good thing is
is that you feel very comfortable because you know you're not going to
speak so you don't have to start worrying about making mistakes it's your
time to just start to process the language so tell me guys have a try try
doing this try choosing one of your daily activities and thinking in English
as you do it and please tell me in the comments if it works I really really
hope it does work for you Now be honest with me are you one of those students
that loves translating do you love your dictionary do you like your dictionary
from English to your own language because if so I'm very sorry but you're
going to have to stop this this is one of the things that is
stopping you from learning English actually is staying with your dictionary
staying with your own language all the time so you need to let go of the idea
that translation is helping you because actually it isn't it's keeping you
thinking in your own language also some things don't directly translate some
things are difficult to translate that is not the same word in that language or
there's not the same way of expressing that in that language and actually
sometimes you won't be understood if you directly translate so sometimes
sentences can appear very strange when they've been translated I actually
have a funny story about this which I'll share with you so I was teaching a class
about five years ago and I told all the students we were doing the topic of ghosts
and supernatural and all this kind of thing was the topic in class and I'd
given my students the task of writing a ghost story
so off they went and they wrote their ghost story and I had one story from a
student and he'd written that the person was in a dark room and suddenly he heard
a funny noise behind him and then he felt a tapping on his backside now what
he really meant to say was that someone was tapping him on his back but something
had been mistranslated and backside in English means bottom so a ghost tapping
you on the bottom is quite strange and very very very funny
so I remember laughing with my colleagues about this so things don't
always translate directly another example of this would be that sometimes
there isn't even the word for example in Italian there are three different ways
to express loving someone there is ti voglio bene, which is like to care
for you but also to love perhaps the earlier stages of love then there is ti
amo which is romantic love strong romantic love there is also ti adoro
which is I adore you so we have these three different stages now in English we
really have like, like very much, and love we
don't have these different stages we don't have ti voglio bene or ti adoro
so there might not even be the word you're looking for that you want to
translate from so stop translating guys what you need is an English to English
dictionary so the word we explained for you in English usually this will be in
simple English and this will help you to understand how the language works so
other ways to avoid translation are to read more English to listen to more
English obviously to speak more English and this way you will start to absorb
English it structures the words we use in certain situations rather than
relying on directly translating and using that dictionary as your way into
English it's not the way guys no more translating number three be creative now
when we are creative we actually learn a lot better because where our brains are
being entertained they're having fun and we will remember things better we will have
a positive connection with what we are learning and if something is positive
and we enjoyed it we are more likely to remember it so when I say be creative I
mean make funny sentences in your head using English it doesn't always matter
if the grammar is imperfect just try and start thinking in it and
making yourself laugh I did this with Spanish what I did was I started to
think about what I really thought about people in my head but in Spanish so we
all have opinions about people that we don't always say our parents might be
annoying us might be difficult our partners might be difficult our students
our friends our colleagues and in our head we are all always thinking our
thoughts about them but of course we don't always say these so you can start
to have your inner dialogue about what you really think in English now I did
this in Spanish because it was funnier for me actually to do this so I
started to think how could I describe that person in
Spanish they're a difficult person or all they're a person that I don't trust
or they're a person that's really boring or I wonder what which animal
they'd be this really helped me to learn things like animals colors all the
basics but also vocabulary to describe people and things like that so have a
try of being creative with the language every day trying to think something
funny for yourself in English this will help you develop a positive connection
so number four is one that I've talked about before when I did a lesson on
learning vocabulary which you can watch there if you haven't already so this is
it's an easy one but it's a really good way to help you remember things and to
think in English and it is to label objects around the room with something
like post its with the names of the things in English you can also put the
lists up of things you want to learn for example kitchen items in the kitchen
bathroom items in the bathroom could even put lists up of vocabulary for
IELTS for example verbs to describe changes academic words things like that
so it's a really useful way because you'll see it all the time which means
you'll save time because you're not going to the book while looking at this
so cooking doing your hair maybe even in the shower if you can see the list
without them getting wet so it's just a really good way to use your time to
start to think in English and of course to learn new vocabulary so
number five now some of you may be studying English you may be using
English for your jobs you may have English friends and you want to speak in
English in these situations but sometimes the problem is is that when
you go to speak you can't think quickly enough of what you want to say
so you think very slowly or you go and translate so a really good way is to
prepare the things by thinking in English before you might even need to
write it down but thinking about what you want to say for example for that
meeting at work which you know you're going to have to talk in English or for
when you're going to class there might be something that you
want to say in English to your teacher or if you're going on a date or meeting
an English friend prepare before some sentences that you feel confident with
and that you want to say if you've thought about them in English they are
more likely to be correct and natural than going to translate or trying to
think in the moment because that can be quite difficult so think in English
before and prepare for the situations so that you're ready to speak in English
this is very useful guys if you're going to do a business meeting and things like
that I know that a lot of business is conducted around the world now in
English and if you're translating as we said earlier it might not be that you're
not saying things correctly so try to think before what you're going to say and try
to even try saying it you can record yourself saying it practice saying it so
that you're ready to go and say that at the meeting or with colleagues in
English number six last one we're nearly there
I hope you've been doing lots of thinking in English as we've been going
through this lesson it is to listen to English music have it on in the
background when you're going for a run you're doing exercise you're cooking put
on English music and this will help you to actually start to think in English
because music is something that stays in our heads how many times has a song been
in your head and you've wanted to get rid of that song you've wanted that song
to stop playing in your head happens to me all the time so if this happens in
English it's a good thing you're thinking in English there's lots of
English songs which are very catchy catchy means that you can't stop
thinking about the song you can't stop singing it in your own head it's very
easy to get in the brain so perhaps some pop songs things like that they are
usually very catchy I recommend ed Sheeran I really love
Ed Sheeran and think he's a great singer so pick some English singers and English
albums put them on in the background and just have a listen and see how it makes
a difference of how the English words will start to go in your head
right guys they were my six tips on how to start thinking in English please try
these tips and techniques and see if they help you leave a comment below and
tell me if you manage to think for 30 minutes in English what activities did
you choose to do while you thought in English perhaps you can also leave some
recommendations of songs that have helped you to think in English and that
you've enjoyed listening to or if there's any other techniques you want to
share with me and share with other students then please leave a comment and
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lesson thank you so much for watching guys and we'll see you again on love
English bye bye do you think in English? You just think about food
do you think in English