How to THINK in English

look if you think in English and you stop translating you can speak English more fluently and if you can speak English more fluently you can have more conversations in English and make friends from all around the world but why can't you stop translating from your native language to English problem is whenever you start learning a new language you'll most likely learn through your mother tongue something we call the grammar translation method so for example in my case when I was learning Spanish the teacher would tell me Chris to say hello in Spanish you should say hola to say how are you you should say como estas and so on of course this method seems very natural especially at a beginner level however as you start to advance more and more and you reach an intermediate level it can start to be a problem because you become too reliant on this and it's a habit that you can't really break it's it's hard to stop doing it so when you have conversations with native speakers it can slow you down because you you're still translating from your native language to English although I want you to feel comfortable in English how can I stop translating Chris to begin with you can talk to yourself in your head and keep it simple name the objects around you or the objects you see as you walk to the train station or to the bus stop a bit like this tree cars sky people then when you feel more confident you could try phrases describe what you're doing or how you feel like what a lovely day I'm walking slowly I'm getting hungry oh that outfit is terrible but make sure that you only use words or phrases that you already know this activity is not about learning new phrases or vocabulary but about giving you confidence to have more conversations we're focusing on fluency so only describe what you see or what you're doing or how you feel using words you already know but what if people think I'm stupid talking to myself or maybe I look weird if I'm thinking in my head while I walk to be honest most people nowadays look like they're talking to themselves while they're using their phone with their wireless headphones but I totally understand not everyone will feel comfortable doing this out on the street instead what you can do is talk to yourself at home for example when you wake up in the morning you could talk to yourself about your routine for the day after breakfast I will go to the gym and work out after that I will call my friend and see if he wants to hang out or you could review what you did earlier that day or even the day before yesterday was a beautiful day and I got a lot of work done right so it's not too challenging and this would also help you to focus on the past tenses if that's something that you find difficult when you're having conversations in English focus on what you find difficult and practice by yourself talk to yourself in the past or in the future or in hypothetical situations whatever it may be that you personally find difficult doesn't this is great but what if I don't have that much time aha well in this case I have a secret weapon social media yes platforms like Instagram can help you to learn English what I mean by this is that you can start by looking at photos on your phone and describing what you can see using single words remember start small and then build up let's do it together actually look at this photo and tell me what you can see just use single words now you probably thought of things like men football outside clouds ball pitch well those are the things I thought of anyway this is a great simple activity that you can do anywhere absolutely anywhere and you can even take it to the next level by creating longer sentences like the men are playing football they are celebrating they look like they are friends or they seem like friends now the secret is to do this as a daily habit even just for a few minutes you need to do a little bit and often to help this idea of thinking in English seem more natural now my next tip that can help you to think in English is to write in English writing English how would it helped me to think in English well when it comes to thinking in English the active skill of writing can really help you to process your thoughts and ultimately make it easier for you to speak in English too I like to tell my students to imagine that writing is like walking and speaking is like running if you write things down on paper it will actually help you to visualize what you want to think or say and this will allow you in return to construct longer thoughts in your head you could simply write about your day like today I woke up and had a coffee because I felt tired after that I went to the shop to grab some milk and bread it was raining so hard I got very wet by keeping a diary you can narrate your life in a slow and controlled way the next time when you're out and about walking around or going to the shop you will find it much more natural thinking in English because you've done it many times before in your notebook or wherever you write down your thoughts and this of course will make it much more natural in The Next Step speaking in English I got my notebook and I'm ready to go actually one other thing that someone mentioned is immersion what is it and how can I do it this is probably the best way to think in English with immersion you surround yourself with English usually by going to an English-speaking country like the UK the USA Ireland Canada and so on in that situation you will hear English every day and you will have to use it yourself this would accelerate or speed up the learning process of course this might not be possible for you not everybody can move to another country or study abroad for a few months however you can create an English environment wherever you are in other words near immersion so you need to create a fake England Australia or Canada around you for example with your phone right start the day with English instead of having a normal alarm that goes like or something like that what you can do instead is set your alarm to an English-speaking radio so the lovely British voices coming through your phone wake you up and then it helps you to start the day thinking in English if you're feeling a little bit more adventurous you could use a VPN to access British TV and watch British morning television with your serial or whatever you have for breakfast basically something that the average native speaker does every morning you want to try to imitate or replicate their habits and this will make the whole process of thinking in English much more natural another option could be listening to a podcast while you commute on the bus or train just remember make sure to choose a topic that you actually like or you are interested in in general in my case I often listen to podcasts about football in Spanish so that when I play football I am thinking in Spanish and then phrases like pass me the ball naturally come out without me even thinking too much alright so those are my top tips to help you think in English if you want to keep practicing your English check out one of these videos go on click them click them now this one this one's really good this one's really good and if you enjoyed this video don't forget to smash the like button I'll see you next time

Channel: Instant English

Views: 52,824

Keywords: british english, how to think in English, Instant English, speak like native English speaker, como pensar em ingles, como pensar en ingles, cách suy nghĩ bằng tiếng anh, ingilizce nasıl düşünülür, 영어로 생각하는 방법, come pensare in inglese, 英語でどう考えるか, How to speak english fluently?, advice to speak fluently in English, how to stop translating in English, exercises to speak English better, Speak with natives in English

Id: Jqr0RTVjIKs

Length: 8min 34sec (514 seconds)

Published: Wed Feb 01 2023