"I have to think and translate in my head before I speak English..."

hi there I'm Drew Badger the world's

first and number one English Fluency

Guide and in today's video what I'd like

to do is answer a question from sheila

and this is how do I stop thinking

hesitating and translating in my head

before I speak English now this is a

very very common problem so if you also

have this one we are going to give you

the solution right in this video but

also remember that it takes time you

can't just learn a tip or some knowledge

about how to do something you have to

practice it practice practice practice

and the reason we practice is so we can

develop habits hopefully you're learning

these things and remembering this with

me each time I'm teaching these things

it's all about developing the habits of

a native speaker so if you learn like a

like a student you're going to speak

like a student if you learn like a

native speaker you're going to speak

like a native speaker it's very

obviously very simple anyway so first

let's talk about learning the wrong way

if you want to be a good speaker

learning the wrong way if you want to be

a good speaker now there are two ways to

learn a language the first way is the

classroom way where they give you lists

of information you do drills and

hopefully try to push and force

information like you're going to hammer

it into your mind so that when test day

comes you can practice these things and

be able to use them and pass the test

but the problem with taking a test is

that you have time to answer questions

so if i get a question it's like which

is bigger this or that and it's going to

give me four different things so i have

to understand what the sentence is

asking me and then choose the right

answer then I've got time to do that

while I'm taking a written test but in a

conversation I don't have time to do

that I can't sit and think like way

we'll wait give me time to think and try

to say this thing in my head I'm going

to translate it so all of that like all

of the kind of tools that you use the

ways of learning to teach you through

the non-native way of learning a

language and this is typically I would

give you like if I'm a Spanish speaker

learning English I would learn like red

and then I would

earn you know like the English word for

red but I'm learning it through Spanish

and again learning a language through

another language you're trying to make a

connection there that does help you for

test but it does not help you when

you're speaking it actually just makes

you more and more frustrated so every

day that you're continuing to learn more

you're watching YouTube videos online

like if I'm from the Ukraine and I'm

trying to like watch and learn with

English videos online I should not be

listening to like you know a Ukrainian

person is trying to teach me English

like you can learn a little bit from

that but really you're just going to

hurt yourself and I hate to say it but

really is true like if I'm trying to

learn Japanese from an American English

speaker like yeah they might know a lot

about that but if they're telling me

things in English that I'm making that

subconscious connection in my mind

between the thing that they're saying in

English and then Japanese and then when

I have to go into a conversation I also

have to make that same step in my mind

so I have to listen to something and

then try to translate it in my head and

then maybe it's correct and then maybe I

try to speak and this is what people get

worried about because they don't even

know if they're using this thing

correctly or not and this is because

they're learning a language for tests

and not to become a confident speaker so

if your goal is to become a confident

speaker you have to stop learning like a

student and start learning like a native

speaker and now this is a perfect way to

do it see right now the way I'm speaking

this is the same thing that a native

speaker would be learning if they're

trying to learn like gardening for

instance or they're trying to learn

science or technology or anything else

whatever they're studying their

listening to a native speaker tell them

things and explain things in a simple

easy way that hopefully helps them

connect information so getting back to

this stopping translating things in your

head before you speak you have to

instead of learning things through your

native language which is again what's

causing you to translate you have to

learn things all in English and even if

maybe your understanding level is up

here if you're speaking level is down

here you have to bring your level of

understanding back down here and start

learning things and practicing with

things that you can maybe more easily

understand so as an example like my kind

of conversation ability in Japanese is

just fine but years ago when I was

trying to

think I had to like read books for

little kids or watch TV shows for little

kids even I still go back and learn

things when I'm watching TV shows with

my daughter who's about she's almost two

years old now but we still will watch

some TV shows in the morning and I'm

always surprised at some new things that

I learned from that but I can learn all

of it in context because i'm learning it

all in japanese and so if there's maybe

one or two words that i don't understand

i understand at least eighty to ninety

percent of what i'm learning but because

it's all in japanese and i can maybe ask

a question or something like my daughter

will back oh you know I'm like hearing a

word from her like oh wow where did she

learn that from like I'm even learning

new words from her already which is

amazing but all of these things happen

because I'm number one learning it in

Japanese and number two it's because I

already understand maybe eighty to

ninety percent of what I'm learning so

all of the things when you're first like

to first speak properly you have to

understand things and be able to

understand like you know what it is

people are talking about now from that

you can start copying the things that

you here so instead of saying things

like I'm going to translate it in my

head just try to speak quickly let's say

something very basic that you can say so

if I if I don't know how to say some

more difficult thing again you bring

your level of understanding in your

ability level back down to where you are

so you can build it up again and so this

means like I can just say a basic

sentence like my name is Drew but I can

maybe improve that to say like her name

is Drew or her name is Sally or you know

whatever so I'm just taking that and I'm

slowly changing one or two things and

i'm adding maybe a little bit more and

this is the second part of that which is

like you expand on the things that you

say over time so you're practicing the

same thing but you build a kind of

slight variation on to that thing and

again my way of learning the language is

really simple you're basically just

doing it the same way a native speaker

does a native speaker learned something

and then they think okay how can i

change that so i could use it in a

different context so i say wow it's hot

in here but maybe I walk outside i don't

like oh it's hot out here oh wow look at

that i can i can take that and like

that's how a native speaker begins to

play

the language and start starting to use

the language in English like that

without thinking about it so you're

taking something and because you

practiced it then you can apply that in

a different situation and as you start

doing that more and more you translate

less and less what's really happening

here is you have bad habits that cause

you to translate so now you need to

remove those bad habits and replace them

with good habits that actually get you

speaking fluently and confidently

without having to think and hesitate now

it really does feel amazing right now I

can speak in Japanese like I even just

think in Japanese if I'm trying to think

about what I want to say and that's fine

maybe I don't know some words or I'm

trying to think about it different or

better way to explain something it's

okay to think about things before you

speak but what you don't want to do is

think about things in a different

language and then try to translate that

in your head so go back to the level

where you can understand at least eighty

to ninety percent and you can actually

speak that so even if it's a simple

thing practice saying that introduce

some variations into that thing like

that sentence so instead of I go to the

park my friend goes to the park

something like that but this is what's

going to help you develop the habit and

it's not about information you learn

like more war words more phrases the

same way that you've been learning the

language before you need to learn it all

in English and then practice it's the

practice that develops the habit of

fluency and if you're not willing to do

that really there's no help there's

really nothing you can do there's no

lesson no program that's going to help

you if you're not willing to actually

just get out in practice but the way you

make practice fun is by changing things

around practicing things like I go out

and say like hey how's it going to

somebody in English that's like a very

common greeting hey how's it going how's

it going or I could say hey how are you

or how are things how's life how's

everything what's up these are all

different ways of saying hello how are

you but when you go out and practice

these things again you're learning

greetings and you're learning to say

things in different ways so it's taking

one idea in introducing some variation

to keep it interesting for you but as

you go through the different variations

you develop the habits could help you

use them automatically well I hope that

explains for you how you should be doing

it so if you're using diff

language to learn English right now stop

do not do that just learn everything in

English but if you have to take it down

to a more simple level that you

understand at least eighty to ninety

percent of whether that's reading or TV

shows or music or anything so that you

can build up the habits that help you

speak confidently well I'm getting hot

over them and speaking speaking too much

always trying to give too much

information but that's how you do it if

you have enjoyed this video do click

that like button become a subscriber to

the YouTube channel and tell tell like

30 people about this if you've got a

classroom where you're learning with

other people that are also like trying

to learn it through your native language

say say hey don't do that anymore go

watch this guy drew it'll explain you

exactly what you need to do and that's

what I will do so I'm happy to do that

but anyway have a fantastic day and

finally the most important part of this

is if you really want to improve not

only the way you sound the way you speak

and you know go into other things that

help you speak automatically take our

free English fluency quiz by clicking on

the link in this video it will share

exactly what you need to do in order to

become a confident fluent English

speaker specifically for the problems

that your most frustrated with and we're

happy to help you do that right now at

English anyone calm absolutely free so

click on the link in this video to begin

doing that and I will see you in the

next video bye bye