How To Think In English | Stop Translating In Your Head And Start Speaking Naturally

I can speak English but before I say anything I have to think of the sentence in my language then I translate to English in my head and then I say it.

 

Does this sound like you? Has this ever happened to you? If it has, then this video is for you.

 

What’s up guys? My name is Shane and today we are talking about how to stop translating in your head and start thinking in English.

 

This is a very common problem that I hear from a lot of my students. And it’s a problem for two main reasons. 

 

The first reason is that if you always translate in your head, you’re going to speak English very slowly. Because first you have to think about it in your language, and then in your head, you have to translate it to English.

 

And the second reason is that translating may make your English sound unnatural.

 

For example, in many languages the sentence ‘it uses time ten minutes’ is correct. But if you translate that into English and say it, it uses time ten minutes it sounds a little bit strange.

 

Because a native speaker would say it takes ten minutes. It takes ten minutes.

 

So in today’s video we look at five things that you can do to stop translating and start thinking in English.

 

Tip #1 to think in English

Starting to think in English is easy.  All you have you to do is to do everything that you can in English. If you can do it in English, do it. 

 

So my first tip for today is: Get your phone and change your phone’s language to English.

 

Yes this might be hard but when learning languages, the hardest things normally give you the best results.

 

And you use your phone for two, three, four, five hours a day, right?

 

So if you’re using your phone and you’re always seeing English like dates, times, click here to send this message, swipe to unlock, this English will go into your head and you will start thinking in English.

 

And seeing more English is one of the best ways to help you to start thinking in English.

 

Tip #2 to think in English

The second thing you can do is to start naming things around you.

 

Wherever you are.  If you’re at work, if you’re on a bus, if you’re on a train, if you’re at home, look around and name things in English.

 

But when you’re naming things, make sure that when you see something, that the English word comes into your head. 

 

You don’t want to translate from your language to English. So let’s practise this right now.  I will point at something and I want the English word to go into your head. Laptop. Table. Phone. Water bottle. Book. Plant. Lamp.

 

And another thing you can do is that when you hear a word in English, try and have a picture of that word go into your head.

 

So for example, if you hear the word laptop, in your head, in your mind, you want to see a picture of a laptop.

 

You want to really feel the meaning of the word. If you start to do this, if you start to practise this consistently, thinking in English will become natural.  It will become really easy for you.

 

Tip #3 to think in English

Now the next thing you can do is to start putting all of those words into sentences. Talk to yourself in your head. 

 

It’s your own little world up there. You can say whatever you like.  You can talk about whatever you like.

 

For example, you could talk about what you see. Wow, that tree is so big.  I wonder how long it took to grow that tall.

 

You can describe what you feel. It’s so cold today but it wasn’t as cold as yesterday.

 

You can describe what you think. That was such a good workout today.  But I think next time I will do a longer warm up.

 

This is meant to be fun.  It’s not meant to be stressful. You can do it anywhere anytime and talk about anything. You can even try having conversations with yourself, in your head in English only.

 

So you say one thing in English and then you can reply to yourself in English all in your head. And if a word of your language comes into your head, that’s okay.  It doesn’t matter.

 

Just stop, start again but try and only think in English.

 

Tip #4 to think in English

And the fourth thing you can do is: every day when you wake up, tell yourself in English what you want to do that day.

 

This doesn’t have to take long.  It can take one minute, two minutes, five minutes. It’s entirely up to you.

 

And I know that some people can’t really think when they first wake up, like me. When I wake up, I can’t really think.

 

So if that’s like you, you can do this activity in the shower or when you’re eating breakfast or when you’re getting ready for work.

 

Just make sure you do it consistently, every day.

 

And you can do it before you go to bed as well.  You can think about your day and tell yourself, in your head in English what was good and what wasn’t so good.

 

Tip #5 to think in English

And the next thing you can do to help you to start thinking in English is to stop using translators.

 

Because like I said in the intro, when you use translators, your English might sound a little bit unnatural or strange.

 

So if you want to know what a native speaker would say, watch a native speaker in that same situation and see what they say.

 

Listen to them and after you’ve seen them and listened to them, you can copy the native speakers.

 

And then you will also sound like a native speaker. No thinking.  Just copy. 

 

And I understand that sometimes you will have to look up words that you hear or you see or you read and that’s okay.

 

But if you’re looking up words, try and do one of these two things. 

 

Number one. Type the word into google images. For example, if it’s a noun, if it’s a desk. 

 

You want to know what’s the difference between a table and a desk. Google desk. 

 

Google table and look at the images. 

 

And then you can get a feeling of what the real difference is between those two words. If it’s something like a verb. 

 

Maybe it’s the word run and you type that into Google images, you will see someone running.  You will get the feeling of the word run.

 

The second thing you can do is to use an English to English dictionary. If you’re watching this video right now and you understand some or most of what I’m saying, you can understand English so you don’t need to use your own language.

 

You can search a word in an English dictionary and then you can see the English definition.

 

Using an English to English dictionary will help you to think in English more and it will also help you improve your ability to explain things in English.

 

Because if you’re always reading definitions in English you will start to see how native speakers explain things.

 

So this is one of the best things you can do if you want to start improving your English and start thinking in English.

 

Conclusion

And that is the end of the video today.  Comment down below and let us know were these tips helpful for you? What are your best tips for starting to think in English?  Comment down below and let us know.

 

But just remember, the tips in this video, they will only work if you do them consistently. Consistently means again and again and again. If you just do it for one day, two days, three days, it’s probably not going to help you.

 

But if you do it consistently for two, three, four, five months, you will feel, you will see a really big difference in your ability to think in English.

 

If you’re interested in a video called why you don’t understand English, you can check it out right here.

 

If you liked the video, please hit like.  And if you haven’t subscribed to the channel already, make sure you subscribe right now so you don’t miss any video that can help you improve your English.

 

And if you’re not following us on Instagram, make sure you go and follow us right now because we have daily quizzes, weekly posts, videos, pictures, updates and much much more.

 

And I will see you in the next video. 

 

See you guys! And the second reason is that … The second thing you can do is to start naming … If you can do something in …