Hey guys! Welcome back. You’re watching the “English Fluency Journey Chanel” with me,
with Anna.
So, today’s topic that we’re going talk about,
I think can be related to almost every English learner.
And that’s why I think it’s really important for this question to be addressed.
How to think in English? How do we learn to think in English?
How can we shift from translating in our heads to thinking in English?
I’m going to be talking from my experience and from my perspective.
So first of all, let’s talk about why is it so important to think in English?
The main reason for me is that we usually can’t literally
translate words or sentences from our native language to English,
because oftentimes it doesn’t make sense in context
and a word that we use to say something in our native language
isn’t used the same way in English.
You’ve probably heard this a thousand times when native speakers say:
“This is not how we say this”
“We don’t use this word like that it doesn’t make any sense”
or “What do you mean?
They truly don’t understand what you’re trying to say,
because it’s confusing to them when we use wrong words.
Another reason is that it takes too much time,
when you’re speaking to someone, if you’re translating
in your head from your native language to English
and the person you’re talking to
may not be that patient or may not have that much time to
wait for you to figure out what to say.
Also, when you’re translating it is very hard keeping up with a conversation
because while you’re translating and trying to make sense of it,
a person keeps talking and you can simply lose track of the conversation.
Not to mention the fact that when you’re nervous, you can forget everything
and the lack of vocabulary affects your communication.
But forgetfulness I think is a totally normal thing
and you can just simply explain something in other words and continue talking.
One more thing!
If you need to translate a word or find an equivalent to an
idiom in your native language because after
reading the meaning it’s still kind of blurry
do it.
It doesn’t mean that translation is something terrible.
In fact,
if you want to be a translator or an interpreter
it's an absolute must have skill.
You need to train yourself to translate.
be patient, take your time with this, just as with everything else.
Don’t rush your progress.
You just simply can’t start thinking in English over night.
Now let’s start from the beginning, because
I really believe that from the very beginning
of your language learning journey
it is very beneficial to have this holistic approach.
Meaning that when you’re starting to learn a language,
you have to work on your pronunciation and accent,
listening and speaking skills as well as grammar right away.
But since we’re talking how to learn to think in English in particular.
I suggest you begin with passive listening if you’re a beginner.
What I mean by passive listening?
It’s when you’re watching or listening something in English
a lot throughout the day.
Whenever you have time.
Trying to understand but not really putting a lot of effort.
Just getting used to hearing the language all the time, basically.
Then after a little while, you switch to active listening.
So now you’re really working on understanding.
So whenever you come across a new word or idiom – you look it up.
Why are we starting with listening?
Because your brain needs to get used to hearing English all the time
and it will inevitably grasp some English. I mean things like
word order, collocations, idioms etc.
And the next time when you’re speaking
in English
your brain will give some sort of a signal if something’s off,
if what you’re saying doesn’t sound right.
Listen to podcasts, audio books, watch YouTube videos , movies all of this in English.
Now when you are at the active listening stage you can start applying
the “describing” practice. That’s how I call it.
Describe your actions in English.
Everything that you’re doing, have done recently or will do in the future.
Just say these actions out loud, like when you’re reading a manual for doing everyday activities.
Then if you don’t know or aren’t sure about how to describe something
take a minute to look it up. Don’t put it off.
Do this at that exact moment when you need it,
because otherwise you’ll forget about it.
That’s a habit training.
And you’re not going to have to do this all the time.
The more you do this, the more you will learn, the more you will know and the less you will need to do this over time.
“speaking your mind’ practice.
That means that whenever you want say something you have to say this in English.
If you’re too shy to speak in English in front of someone or with someone
do this when you’re alone - talk to yourself!
It’s a bit different from the “describing” practice.
So when you describe you just describe your actions
and when you’re speaking your mind you
actually talk about what you frankly think of something
or someone or how you feel about things.
So let me give you a simple example.
“This sweater. It’s so old and threadbare. Why do I even still have it? I need to throw it away.”
Or you know when we’re watching something
talk shows, movies we like to comment on something that we liked
or didn’t like, even when we’re alone.
So do this.
Whenever you’re alone and you’re watching something, and you want to comment on it
comment on it in English.
If you commented on it in your native language, and that happens automatically,
then do this one more time in English.
Again, it’s all a matter of practice and developing it as a habit of practice.
The more you do something the better you get at it.
And everything that you do helps improve your English in general.
At the end, I would work on actually thinking in English,
controlling your thinking process.
If you try it you’ll notice that it’s a tough call to control your thoughts.
We’re thinking constantly, subconsciously. Thousands of
thoughts fly across our minds.
So when you’re just sitting and resting you’re still thinking about something.
And you want to try to train to truly think in English,
start focusing on thinking in English.
That’s not going to be easy. When you catch your first couple of thoughts,
start thinking them again in English.
Then you’re kind of controlling the process of thinking in English.
And the next thing you know you’re realizing
“Hold on now I’m back to thinking in my own language and not in English”
and you’re going back to controlling again.
I think it’s so hard with the actual thinking process
firstly because you can’t hear yourself.
So when you’re speaking you can’t hear whether you’re speaking in English or not.
And secondly for your brain it’s absolutely natural and comfortable to use your
native language. It happens without you realizing it.
And it is hard enough to simply control your thoughts
not to mention to control them in another language.
But it’s possible! It’s that same training that takes time and effort.
Reading. Now if you like to read then it’s amazing.
Read a lot, on different topics, out-loud or to yourself.
It’s that same input.
For me reading is a very powerful tool.
I read out-loud usually.
So I train my pronunciation, the next time I see a word I know
how to pronounce it because I looked it up. Why did I look it look up?
Because the way that words are spelled and the way that they are pronounced
doesn’t correspond in English like 95 present of time.
You need to learn the pronunciation of a word when you learn a word.
And also when I read out-loud,
when I pronounce words or idioms, new words and idioms I memorize them better.
Now to wrap it up I want to tell you.
You have to train a lot and regularly. Be consistent in other words.
You have to get comfortable with consuming and being exposed to the language.
Then over time your brain will start using your target language in the thinking process,
and you’ll notice that when you want to say something you want to say it in English.
Over time it becomes effortless and subconscious. So just keep going, keep working.
Thanks for staying with me and watching till the end. I Really hope
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If you have some more tips or if you want to share your experience
you're welcome to do that in the comments. I’ll see you in the next one.
Bye!