Do This to Start Thinking in English and Stop Translating in Your Head | Become Advanced in English

hello guys and welcome back to my youtube channel  in this video i wanted to talk to you about  

thinking in english and how you can stop  translating in your head so i think the  

main reason why you might have problems thinking  english is that one your level is just too low two  

you hate challenges and like staying in your  comfort zone and three you just don't listen  

to enough english and i'll be discussing these  three problems in this video so let's start  

with the first problem your level might be too low  guys it's very natural for us when we first start  

learning a language to be you know unfamiliar  with the most important rules the patterns of  

the language and that's why we always have to  translate because for us this language still  

doesn't really mean anything especially when we  don't communicate with native speakers from the  

very first day and here you want to use myself  as an example because when i talk about english  

i started learning english a very long time ago  and right now my level is obviously very different  

from what it was like eight years ago right so  i think it's better to talk about my chinese  

or even like my spanish learning experience  because i have just started learning spanish  

and it's a very interesting thing for me because  i'm a complete beginner and i use myself as a  

guinea pig in this journey and every single time  i learn a new expression a new phrase i always try  

to maybe come back to russian or for example the  pronunciation in spanish right i try to connect  

it with some of the words in english or russian  instead of just thinking about it as a separate  

language but it's very very natural guys this  is something we do in an unfamiliar situation we  

try to remember the things the patterns we already  know and this is the exact same thing that happens  

in language learning too so for you the reason  why you can't really switch to english you can't  

forget your native language might be just because  your level is not that high and it's totally  

fine guys you shouldn't be worried about it you  shouldn't be criticizing yourself for that just  

enjoy the process and one day i promise you guys  one day you'll start thinking in english let's  

now move on to the second problem so the second  problem lies in our human laziness you know a lot  

of people are very lazy and i'm definitely one of  those people i think it's very natural for us to  

be lazy sometimes and i'm not gonna tell you guys  that i'm never ever lazy and so the second problem  

is that you really like staying in your comfort  zone and you don't like challenges you feel like  

you're pretty comfortable you actually don't care  if you translate or you don't translate you know  

for you it's good you know your english is fine  you don't really care but i think the reason why  

you actually clicked on this video is that maybe  you actually do care just a little bit this tiny  

little bit and this is something that is bothering  you and so i have the same problem when it comes  

to sport i like sport and when i was a little kid  i always did gymnastics and then track and field  

and then i also did cheerleading for some time so  i was always very active but right now you know  

because of work obviously i use it as an excuse  sometimes i just don't want to exercise i don't  

want to run i don't want to do yoga i just don't  want to do anything and this is for me staying in  

my comfort zone because my comfort zone includes  reading books watching something on my computer  

scrolling on my phone it is my comfort zone and  right now i'm actually reading a memoir by will  

smith and there he says that if you're comfortable  you're not growing and guess just think about it  

i think it's so so true because again if we  use sport it is an example let's forget about  

english for a second let's imagine you wake up at  like 6 a.m to go run i think for a lot of people  

it's going to be very uncomfortable you know  we don't want to wake up at 6 a.m on a sunday  

to go run but this is exactly how you grow you  know just doing those little challenges getting  

out of your comfort zone and again the same is  true about english you have to feel uncomfortable  

you have to feel weird sometimes and challenge  yourself and get out of your comfort zone and a  

very good example here might be joining an english  speaking club because speaking for a lot of people  

is very very hard but speaking is actually  part of this process of rewiring your brain  

and making it think in english and when i  created my own english speaking club i was  

pretty uncomfortable too because i had to teach a  lot of students at the same time and for me was a  

challenge i'd never done anything like that before  but i still decided to keep on going to keep on  

doing this english speaking club and right now  it is my pride and joy i love my students and i  

love talking to all of them at the same time and  i can honestly tell you guys that thanks to this  

english speaking club thanks to being a little  uncomfortable at first i have grown so so much  

and i really hope you'll do the same with english  and now let's talk about the third problem which  

is that you don't listen to enough english i've  just talked about speaking for a little bit but  

what i think is even more important is listening  and actually guys while preparing for this video  

i read an actual scientific research paper on  listening and language learning i know i'm a  

total nerd but basically in the paper they said  that it is so important to dedicate more time to  

listening than to any other aspect of language  learning like speaking or reading or writing  

or doing grammar exercises of course speaking is  extremely important too this is how we communicate  

but if you don't have this opportunity to speak  in english every single day because for example a  

couple of years ago i didn't have this opportunity  right and a lot of people use it as an excuse but  

here what you can do you can dedicate all this  time to listening instead and listening is exactly  

something that helps you get familiar with all  the rules and patterns of a language something  

that i've talked about when i was talking about  the first reason like that your level is not  

high enough and the way you can get to this high  level is by listening a lot a lot and a lot and  

again here i can use myself as an example and talk  about my spanish journey and my chinese journey  

because with chinese it was pretty interesting  when i first started learning chinese i learned  

it in college and unfortunately in russia  no one really wants to speak chinese or even  

english to you in class which is really really  sad and we spend a lot of time on grammar and  

well guys you know what happens when you don't  listen to you know anything in chinese you don't  

watch anything in chinese you just do grammar you  don't learn the language you know all the rules  

but you can't speak and you can't think in this  language that's the main problem and then when i  

was at home one day i was like i can't do that  anymore i need to do something about it i need  

to do it myself if i go to college i attend all of  these classes and they're not giving me anything  

i can't just sit around and complain i have to do  something about it so i found some chinese dramas  

and i just started watching a bunch of them but as  was expected it was too hard for me and obviously  

what happened is that i was discouraged i was like  nah don't wanna do that i'm just gonna complain  

and go to college and attend classes and do  grammar because it's easier it is in my comfort  

zone it was not something i wanted to do at that  time and again i was comfortable which meant that  

i wasn't growing and so there was one time when  i discovered a youtube channel where the creator  

was speaking chinese and it was so much easier  for me to understand them and i was like okay so  

maybe now i can actually improve my listening you  know improve my chinese and of course at the very  

beginning it was really hard for me too because  i was like oh my god he's speaking too fast  

you know he's saying all of these words like he's  merging them together i can't follow him at all  

it's so complicated but i decided that it was  time for me to stop complaining to stop being  

comfortable and start growing and basically what  i want to tell you guys with the story is that at  

the very end i found myself sometimes thinking in  chinese i can't say right now for example that i  

always think in chinese no it's not  true right now i think in english and  

in russian because obviously russian is my native  language and english i think i have a pretty high  

level in english i work in english i read in  english i watch something in english so that's  

why my brain is able to actually think in english  i sometimes have thoughts in chinese you know from  

time to time like fun expressions for example but  like not full-on phrases or dialogues with myself  

and guess if you really think about it i  think even right now you are thinking in  

english a little bit because you are watching  this video and i'm sure you're not translating  

every single word essay so again i'm a huge  believer that listening is the most important  

skill in language learning and this is something  you should really focus all your attention on  

if you want to switch your brain to english and  stop translating in your head and i also wanted  

to remind you guys quickly that i teach english  and russian on italki where you can book a class  

with me and also get 10 dollars as a gift from  me as always all the links are going to be in the  

description thank you guys so much for watching  this video on my channel i also have another  

video about thinking in english about switching  your brain to english so if you're interested  

you can keep on watching and click right here  and i'll see you guys in my next video bye