10 Ways to Stop Translating in Your Head

want to speak real english from your first lesson sign up for your free lifetime account at englishclass101.com hi everybody my name is alicia welcome back to top words today we're going to talk about 10 ways to stop translating in your head let's get started identify objects around you in english the first way to stop translating in your head is to identify the objects around you in your target language so if you're studying english that means you look at the objects around the room look at the things in your life don't think of them in your native language first think of them in your target language first so if i look around the room i see a computer i shouldn't think my native language word i should think my target language word so start with the items and the situations in your everyday life if i say computer in english maybe i should say computa in japanese i should say not i don't know water in english i should say omizu in japanese so start associating the words in your target language with your everyday life now so if you're studying english that means start getting familiar with the things in your everyday life in english repeat phrases you hear native speakers use tip number two is to repeat the phrases that you hear native speakers use so if you're watching this channel for example or you're watching a tv show or a movie listen for the way that native speakers make those phrases if you hear a phrase you have never heard before or you hear an interesting combination of words try to repeat them yourself don't just listen try to say them yourself if you're in a public space and it's difficult for you to do that fine practice in a place where you feel more comfortable maybe if you have some private space to practice just repeat them get your mouth used to saying the words the way that the speakers the native speakers do so if you never actually say words if you're only taking in if you're only listening and you're not actually producing the language it's it's kind of hard to to practice and to to really hone your pronunciation to improve your pronunciation so when you listen to native speakers try to repeat after them so for example if you're studying english you can try to repeat after this video you can repeat after the things i'm saying because maybe i'm using an expression or i'm using a certain series of vocabulary words together the way a native speaker would and it's maybe a good idea to try to practice the ways that native speakers put their words together so try to repeat after native speakers especially when you're looking at media and you can do this when you're reading books too you can try to read out read out loud interesting lines of books that you find or something that maybe is difficult for you very nice practice tip make a situation where you can't escape into your native language make a situation where you can't escape into your native language essentially means immerse yourself of course going to that country or going to a place where you can speak only that language is very difficult for some of you totally understand but if in your life you can create a situation in your library in your room in your house somewhere for just an hour or i don't know maybe a day i don't know what your schedule is like but if you can create a situation or create an environment where you have no choice but to use that language and you cannot escape meaning you cannot go back to using your native language as a crutch you can't use the native language at all it forces you to use the language that you're studying so of course if you are lucky enough to live in the country or to live in a place where people speak the language you're studying great but you have to go out and interact with people you have to put yourself in a place where you have no choice but to speak it's very hard and it's very scary and it's very embarrassing at first but if you take time to find places and to make environments that are comfortable for you where you feel comfortable making mistakes and asking questions it's very valuable for your learning process this is actually something that i did totally i totally did this my japanese wasn't very good for a long time but then i started making friends who could not speak english actually i just did this through finding hobbies there was a hobby that i had i joined a group i joined actually a school to where i could learn how to do that hobby and everything was taught only in japanese and the people in my class only spoke japanese mostly and then maybe we would go off for drinks and food late at night or on the weekends and everybody spoke only japanese and if i couldn't communicate even simply in japanese i had no hope of keeping that friendship together so it forced me to study it forced me to think about the words they were using and to try to learn those words those patterns as well as how to produce them naturally myself so i was learning the vocabulary words the people around me were using and learning how to apply them on my own that was only possible because i had no escape in those situations so try to do that even if you can do it yourself in your house it's super helpful i think watch tv and movies in your target language without subtitles tip number four is to watch tv and movies in your target language without subtitles without subtitles so i think that watching uh with subtitles can be very beneficial um so if i'm watching something or if you want to watch something with subtitles on great but i sometimes find that i can in my case i i think too much about reading the subtitles and i forget to listen so maybe if you've seen a movie in your target language a few times with the subtitles on try turning the subtitles off and think about the like characters body language the words they're using um you can always look that up later look up the you know the words you don't know in a dictionary but try to do it where you're focusing completely on the way that people are using their words try not to use the subtitles so um kind of play around with it a little bit if there's a word that's difficult for you to hear you can actually turn on the subtitles in like the in the native uh language of the movie as well that's something that i've done like if uh like if i wanted to study japanese it's very useful when the actual words spoken in japanese appear on the screen sometimes it's easier for me to catch a word if i see it visually and i hear it at the same time so another way to kind of explore how you can use tv and movies is to actually turn on the closed captions like the the um the words on the screen in the native language of the movie so uh so this is sort of two points in one so one watch movies without subtitles meaning subtitles in your native language and hint two is to watch movies um with closed captioning on but the closed captioning is in your target language not in your native language so you can try those two things with tv and with movies don't bring a dictionary to your lesson tip number five is don't bring a dictionary to your lesson okay so give me a second here so i understand the dictionaries especially electronic dictionaries we have them on our phones now are very very convenient of course it's important to use them and it's a they're a great resource to have however one thing that really bothers me and that i think is detrimental it's not helpful for students is when uh students are in a lesson and they're practicing conversation and they reach a point in the conversation where they don't know the word they want to use they know it in their native language and they don't know how to say it in their target language they pull out their dictionary they say to this the person listening to them their practice partner in their lesson where they have a limited period of time just a moment and then they look it up on their phone it takes a few seconds the flow of the conversation stops and then they say a word and it's like whoa no that's not you don't have that ability you don't have the ability to do that in a conversation with a native speaker most people like if you go to a bank and try to open a bank account are you really gonna pull out your dictionary and sit there and try to communicate you know just a moment just a moment as you look up each word you don't know no or if you do that's not a real conversation so instead try using a different strategy by that i mean if you find a word you don't know in conversation explain the word to your conversation partner maybe they know the word if you're speaking with a native speaker this is a chance for them to teach you a word i find that when people take the time to teach me a word i remember the word much better than just looking it up on my dictionary so try to resist maybe you can bring a dictionary to your lesson but don't use it or try not to use it in your conversation practice it's just it destroys the flow of a conversation so instead practice the skill of describing the vocabulary word you want to use and learn how to ask the meaning of a word or learn how to ask for a vocabulary word from your partner so you can use an expression like ah what's the word that means blah blah blah or um you know it's this thing that does this and this and this so this is an opportunity for you to describe characteristics of something or find a different way you can use your body language you can use whatever you have a lot of tools but try not to use a dictionary in a conversation because it's not realistic train responses to common questions number six is a quick one i think number six hint number six i have is just to train responses to common questions train responses to common questions so for example a very common question in english is hey how are you you should know how to answer this question just have a default response hey how are you i'm good if it takes you a long time to answer the question hey how are you you need to practice i think that's a pretty good uh a pretty good indicator so for example sometimes i ask students a question like that they they haven't quite gotten the idea of how to respond just yet they they're not so quick at responding i say uh hey how are you and they say yes and then they think and they go i'm i'm good and it's like that's a very common question so think about just a default response that you can spit out that you can quickly say if it's how was your weekend or hey what's up or what do you want to do for dinner tonight think about like just a handful meaning just a few responses to those questions and train them quickly just how are you i'm good how are you i'm okay how are you not bad there's three so it's just training responses to those questions there's no reason to be surprised by a question like how are you like that's a very common question so for those common questions train responses to that we've got a bunch of videos especially beginner level videos for some example responses you can do so don't get stuck with these little questions just train a few responses practice a few responses till they feel natural to you it'll save you time and it'll help the person asking the question too to move forward in the conversation yay study with materials that don't provide a translation the next tip is to study with materials that don't provide a translation so by this i mean if you're using worksheets and or some kind of textbook or whatever and it has your target language the language you're studying and it has your native language next to it while this can be useful i feel that if you can studying your materials only in your target language and then simplified explanations for more detailed points also in your target language can be a little bit better so i don't want to say like you should only study things in your target language and nothing from your native language because of course like it can be helpful sometimes to look up a word or to understand a grammar point in your native language but where possible if you can find something that provides simplified explanations in your target language it can be really really helpful because again you're thinking you're learning to think on like a simpler on a more basic level about the language you're studying in the language that you're studying so this can be really really good so finding some materials to use where there's no translation maybe you can practice of course with with books and with written materials but also with like video materials as well so there are a variety of different ways that you can um find materials in your target language um like in video and tv so some things to think about there are the level of vocabulary words people are using in the media content you're watching who the media content is intended for children young adults adults uh the speed at which the speaker is talking so like i have the ability to change the level of difficulty of videos based on the rate of speech the vocabulary words that i use and how many like idioms and things i use so i could make a video very difficult we could make a very like a very difficult video series by leveling up our vocabulary use or by speaking very quickly or as you might see in like our english and three minutes series we can also use very simple vocabulary and speak at a low rate of speech so maybe right now this is a very intermediate level video so please think about that so not just for written materials but also for your audio and visual materials think about who your audience is the level of the material and so on it can be really fun uh and it can be helpful to think about your your target language in your target language all right we're almost done study phrases in addition to single vocabulary the next tip is study phrases in addition to single vocabulary words so yes of course vocabulary is important but i find it personally very very useful to look at how a vocabulary word is used in a phrase because sometimes using it in a phrase helps you understand the nuance of that vocabulary word really really well so if i like a word like crazy for example in english depending on the situation where the word crazy is used it could mean something different it could mean like a person who is mentally confused or mixed up it could also mean something really good it could mean something really bad so if we look only at the word crazy it's quite difficult to understand really the meaning of the word but if you look at the way the word is used in a phrase you can get a lot more information so take a look at the way people use words in phrases not just as single vocabulary words you can learn a lot more that way i think do your daily activities in english where possible the next tip is to do your daily activities in your target language so if you're studying english that means try to do some daily activities in english if possible so this can be very very boring stuff but just think about it when you're doing the activity so like right now i'm filming a video for englishclass101.com or i'm going to work i'm cooking breakfast i'm doing the laundry what do i have to do tomorrow so try thinking about your everyday life in english if you're studying english try thinking about your everyday activities the people that you meet what are you doing so this is a way to help you practice your verbs so if you don't know if you're i don't know you're doing something at work and you're like oh my gosh how do i explain the what's the verb for you know a picture like i want to blah blah a picture what's the word you can check a dictionary at that point and go ah it's draw i i need to use the verb draw for draw a picture so you can find these little gaps in your everyday life these little gaps in your knowledge if you think about your everyday activities in your target language if you don't think about it in your target language you might not realize you have vocabulary gaps or phrase gaps here and there so this is a really good and kind of funny actually way to study use a learner's dictionary for new words the last tip is to use a learner's dictionary for new words so in english there are learners dictionaries available in english so my favorite my personal favorite is merriam-webster merriam-webster is a fantastic dictionary resource they're so interesting and they have tons of like historical information i really do just sit and like read things on the dictionary page lately it's true but um of course there's a definition there's a meaning for words there are example sentences for words but merriam-webster also has what's called a learner's dictionary if you find a word that you don't recognize you can check it in a dictionary in a learner's dictionary and it gives you a simplified a simple explanation in simple english of that word so instead of checking it in your native language you can check it in your target language so again this helps you to understand the word um that you are that you're focused on but you understand it from the language you're studying not from your native language so using a learner's dictionary can be really really useful as well all right so those are 10 tips those are 10 tips to help you stop translating in your head i know it's very difficult but it's it takes time and it takes practice and i hope that these are a few strategies that can help you as you study any language of course this is an english language channel an english language learning channel but i think these tips are pretty good for learning just about any language really so i hope those are useful for you if you have tried these strategies or if you have any other comments or other tips please let us know in the comment section below this video if you liked this video please make sure to hit the thumbs up share this video and subscribe to our channel too check us out at englishclass101.com for more good stuff as well thanks very much for watching this episode of top words and i will see you again soon bye [Music] you

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Id: Y82_f6b9BzA

Length: 19min 45sec (1185 seconds)

Published: Fri Apr 05 2019