THINK in English - STOP translating in your head! ACHIEVE in 5 STEPS!

(upbeat music)

- Hello everyone and welcome back to English With Lucy.

Today I am going to teach you how to train yourself

to think in English and thus stop translating in your head.

I have got five steps.

They may seem simple at first glance,

but the devil is in the detail.

If you follow these five steps,

you'll be well on your way to thinking completely in English

with no need for translating in your head.

Right, let's get started

with step number one, word identification.

So when you're training yourself to think in English

or any other language,

the first thing you should do is start with simple words.

When we are children learning a language

for the very first time, we start off with individual words,

so that's what we're going to do here.

Wherever you are, whenever you become aware of the fact

that you have an opportunity to learn some English,

you might be on the bus,

you might be walking somewhere,

you might be sat at home like a lot of us are at the moment.

Look around you, what do you see,

start picking out words from your surroundings.

They'll probably be nouns at first so I can see windows,

curtains, radiators, boxes 'cause we've just moved.

If you identify a word that you don't know in English,

you're going to need to note it down,

but I don't want you to write it down in your own language.

I want you to describe it using the language

that you do already have.

We need to get out of the habit of relying

on our first language.

At the end of the day,

look at your new word list and go through Google

in English preferably,

trying to work out what all of these things are.

Now let's move on to step number two

which is silent narration.

When we're small children, we start with words

and we move on to simple short sentences

and then as we grow older they become more complex.

It's exactly the same when you learn a second language

or additional language.

Just like we did in step one,

I want you to look around but think more about

what is happening rather than what there is.

Narrate what you are doing, what animals are doing,

what is happening around you.

So this means you're going to start needing to use verbs.

Every time you come across something that confuses you,

something you don't know how to describe

or narrate in your head,

you need to note it down

to ask your teacher or language partner.

Which brings me on to step three.

Step three is daily correction.

You need correction ideally every single day.

It's very, very difficult to learn a language

to a fluent level without having someone else help you.

To keep your mind connected to English all the time,

it is important that you study every day.

The best possible way of doing this is taking

a proper English class

with a native-speaking qualified teacher every single day.

Now, this might seem impossible to many of you

because of time, money, and travel constraints,

but trust me, there is a solution.

Lingoda, the sponsor of this particular segment

has extended access to their Lingoda Language Sprint.

With the sprint, you can learn to speak

a language confidently in just three months,

gain 100% of your money back and gain free access

to the Cambridge online language test.

You just need to take one of their 24/7 classes

every day for three months

to get your full course fee refunded.

This sprint starts on the 8th of April, 2020

and lasts until the 6th of July, 2020.

The super sprint offers a 100% refund

and there is also a lighter option,

the regular sprint which offers a 50% refund.

You can join the sprint in English, business English,

Spanish, German and French

from beginner to advanced level it's suitable for everyone.

I'm very happy to share this opportunity with you

because I've seen firsthand how effective

the Lingoda language challenges can be.

So many of my students have taken them

and it has transformed many of their lives.

I've also tested out a fair few lessons

and the standard of teaching was excellent

as with the materials.

And it's perfect for you and your daily correction

because you can interact with native-speaking

qualified teachers anytime, anywhere,

as long as you have a stable internet connection.

And group sizes are really small

with an average of just three per class.

So how can you participate?

Well, you've got to click on the link in the description box

and sign up before the 3rd of April

and pay for your first month to secure your spot.

You can use my code,

SIGNUP5 for 10 euros off your first month.

Lingodo will refund your tuition fee in full

if you attend the agreed amount of classes

within each sprint month by following the contest rules.

But remember sprint places are limited.

This is a language school, places fill up.

So you have the link in the description box.

You have my code, SIGNUP5 for 10 euros off your first month,

what are you waiting for?

Let's move on to step four.

Step four is self-conversation.

(laughing)

Having conversations with yourself.

It sounds like something a crazy person might do,

but actually it's not at all crazy, it's very, very useful.

This is going to help you practise asking questions

and giving replies.

It's training you to go through the motions

of having a conversation in another language.

It seems simple, but you've got to force yourself to do it.

Not only is this going to help you

train yourself to think in English,

it's also going to help you

with your general conversation in English.

When you become stuck, don't forget to note it down

and then bring it to your teacher

or your language partner

and they should be able to help you.

Now, if you do this enough,

if you have enough conversations with yourself

in English or your chosen language,

you might find that you start to automatically think

in English without even trying.

It happens to me in Spanish all the time.

I was so obsessed with Spanish when I was really

in the process of learning it.

I'm always learning,

but when I was really trying to get to that fluent level,

I always used to chat to myself in Spanish,

out loud at home and in my head when I was in public.

Even now, I've lived away from Spain since 2014 so,

six years (giggling) but I still think in Spanish.

I'm going to talk about this more in step number five,

but what you're doing here is mimicking immersion.

By always having English going on in your head

you are mimicking being in England

and having English conversations

or any other English-speaking country of course

I'm not biassed, well, I totally I'm.

And step number five is actually immersion

or near immersion.

Full immersion surrounding yourself by English

isn't totally possible for everyone.

The best thing you can do

is get up and go to an English-speaking country,

but that's very hard at the moment.

What you've got to do is create a fake England

or America or Canada or Australia around you.

Start and end the day with your chosen dialect.

If you have a TV in your bedroom or a radio in your bedroom

or even on your smartphone,

set it so that in the morning instead of an alarm,

a radio switches on.

A radio that has spoken in your chosen dialect.

Maybe you could use a VPN to access British morning TV

or American morning TV.

Something that seems very mundane and would be very mundane

for native speakers, but mundane is what you want,

it's the every day immersion.

Another great option is making friends

and speaking with natives.

I have a whole video about this.

Many people find this very difficult,

which is why I made the video to help you out.

I'll put it up there and I'll also link it

in the description box, but in general,

people feel like there are more students wanting

to learn English than there are English speakers

wanting to speak to students.

And this is true, but there are ways around that.

So I really do recommend that video.

If you find it really difficult or really anxiety-inducing,

then you could set up English nights or English sessions

with your friends or maybe just with yourself.

It's absolutely fine to continue doing this by yourself.

As I said, it's better to have help,

but not everyone wants that.

Throw a dinner party in English,

buy an English cookbook or look at English recipe websites.

There are loads.

I'll put some recommendations down below.

But BBC Good Food is a great one,

we do a lot of British dishes there.

Look for chefs like Jamie Oliver,

he does a great 15-minute meals range that are really quick

and easy and supposed to be quite healthy.

Follow the recipe in English.

Narrate as you do it,

identify words around you as you're doing it,

and then serve it in English with your friends or not,

and have either real or silent conversation as well.

Now what will you start noticing?

How will you know when you're finally

able to think in English?

One thing I noticed was that I started dreaming in Spanish

and my brain got really confused

and I actually started dreaming

of my parents talking to me in Spanish.

It was very odd because it wasn't my mom's voice,

but it was my mom's speaking to me in Spanish.

You'll also find yourself understanding jokes and humour,

and that's something that's really, really enjoyable.

And you'll also surprise yourself on multiple occasions

when you realise, oh my God,

I was thinking in that language,

when you hadn't even tried to

you realise that it's becoming second nature.

And one of the best things is when you can think of a word

in the language you're learning,

but you can't think of it in your own language.

That's so weird when that happens,

but it really means you're getting somewhere.

Your brain is automatically going to the language

you're learning first.

Right, that's it for today's lesson,

I hope you enjoyed it and I hope you learned something.

Please feel free to share any more tips down below,

especially if you've managed to start thinking in English

and to stop translating in your head.

Don't forget to check out Lingoda and their language sprint.

The link to sign up is in the description box

and you can use my code,

SIGNUP5 to get 10 euros off your first month.

Don't forget to connect with me on all of my social media.

I've got my Facebook, my Instagram, my Twitter,

and my personal YouTube page where I talk about everything

that isn't related to English.

I will see you soon for another lesson.

(kissing)

(upbeat music)