When I write, should I translate from my native language to English? Q&A

hey hello how's it going awesome Go

Natural English learners I'm your

English teacher Gabby here for a special

first question and answer live video

here on YouTube I'm just going to check

to make sure that our sound and audio

video are good I can't talk and check at

the same time I get confused I'm just

checking on my phone if you can see me

and hear me then and say hello

great everything looks good so let's get

started

I'm so excited to do something new and

different today our question-and-answer

live video I decided to do this because

I got a comment on YouTube from a viewer

who felt bad that I was not responding

to his comments and I felt really bad

because I'm here to help as many English

learners as I can now you know there's a

lot of people in our amazing Go Natural

English community and I try to answer

all the comments but sometimes it's

impossible because there's so many and

it's just hard to answer all of them one

by one so I thought what can we do to

help more

why don't we do a live question and

answer video so that i can answer

questions one by one and today's

question is really great this is a

question from a student named Yen

I'm actually going to share it with you on

my screen so you should be able to see

my screen so her question is she wrote me

this email this is exactly what she

wrote just have been studying with you

for a couple months but I feel engaged a

lot with what you teach I also bought

the English

Power Pack and I'm so glad to say that I

feel more powerful now about my english

thank you for everything you did Gabby

one last thing I want to ask you is I

like to write in English do you think

it's a good idea to translate what I'm

interested in my language to English I

know I shouldn't translate too much

while learning english so I would like

to hear your thoughts about that

Thank You Gabby appreciate it so I think

that is a good question

so I wanted to make it our first

question today if you would like to know

the answer to this question then type

yes in the comments and I'm going to answer

it

I'm actually going to do an answer first

and then I'm going to ask you a question

so please stay until the end I'm going

to make this video and our other Q&A

question-and-answer live videos as

short as possible you know sometimes I

do live lessons like today I did a live

free lesson and it was long it was an

hour long but I want to keep this really

short

um before I forget I want to say a big

thank you to all of the Go Natural

English YouTube channel subscribers we

have just passed 260 thousand

subscribers so I am delighted that we

are growing and that I can help more

English learners like you you are

awesome

so if you subscribe thank you if you

haven't subscribed then what are you

waiting for click on that big red

subscribe button and join us

um you know I've been thinking about

doing something like this a live... a live

Q&A for a long time but I got kind of

shy I started thinking well you know I'd

like to do it but sometimes I don't feel

like I am ready or I don't look very

good today I'm you know my hair is messy

I don't have makeup on I'm just wearing

a t-shirt and I started to think these

things I get worried

what will people think what are they

going to say in the comments but then I

reminded myself I'm not a beauty and

make up YouTube channel and I don't

think I would be a very good one

I am an English teaching channel Go

Natural English is here to help you with

your English fluency not your beauty

so you know sorry not sorry if I show up

to help you in our live video every day

and don't look like a model but you know

what we're gonna do it anyway because

I'm here to help you with your English

so I see a lot of yeses in the comments

so that means that you would like to

know the answer to this question let

me actually show you what I wrote and

I'll read it to you as well so I'm going

to share my screen again

okay great so this is what I wrote to

Yen in speaking and writing I recommend

not to translate from your native

language to English it may feel strange

at first this is the way we are taught

to learn English

however this gives us bad habits your

native language may have different

structures different idioms and

different ways to express yourself than

English I strongly recommend learning

phrases in English and constructing your

writing all in English not translating

it's a good idea to read a lot so you

can see how other people write in

English got it

so the short answer is do not translate

I know it's difficult because this is

the way that we're usually taught in the

classroom is word in English equals word

in your native language and sometimes

that's ok but when you're more advanced

when you're writing you have to learn

English phrases the way that we use them

as native speakers so instead of trying

to translate try to read more try to

listen more to native conversations

and understand how we use phrases not by

translating them but by seeing how we

use them in the conversation in a book

in an article

ok so you're going to learn through the

context and really try hard not to

translate because it's just different

your native language has a different

structure it has different idioms it has

a different culture a different feeling

and so when you directly translate that

gives us big problems with your

communication it makes your writing

really unclear and if you're in a class

you're going to get a lower grade if you

translate all your words from your

native language and trust me if you use

an online translator like Google

translate for your whole essay trust me

this is not a good idea you do not want to

do that it's better to write in your own

voice this means ideas from your own

head

yes it's difficult but you're going to

do a lot better if you do it this way if

you read a lot more if you listen a lot

more and if you use the structures the

phrases the vocabulary from native English

you process those through your own mind

in English not using your native

language and then use them again when

you're writing or speaking in your own

way you're going to be much more fluent

in the end so this is what we do in Go

Natural English premium courses but I

wanted to share my answer with you for

this one specific question so I sent out

an email about going live on youtube so

if you want to know the next time i'm

going to be on YouTube live you should

be on my email list it's easy you can go

to GoNaturalEnglish.com enter your name

and your email address and I will send

out a notification because i don't know

exactly what time of day I'm going to do

this I can't really say right now that

i'm going to do it at the same time

every day because i'm traveling and

different people like to do you know to

do YouTube I mean different people like

to watch YouTube at different times of

the day let me just give a shout-out to

people who are watching this is awesome we

have hundreds of viewers Sriana, Amoul

Mr. Ows10, Adolfo

Elton, Josee or jose Schweka, Isaac,

Ibrahim before I forget I want to ask

you all a question it's a very simple

question

tell me in the comments do you celebrate

Christmas in your culture in your

religion in your family do you celebrate

Christmas in North America where I'm

from we celebrate Christmas you know

more like most people I guess the

dominant culture celebrates Christmas

but we have a very diverse society so

some people don't celebrate Christmas

there's other religions other cultures

that we're proud to have in the US my

family is Catholic so we celebrate

Christmas but it's not a very big

holiday for us I mean it's a big holiday

for Americans in general and I will call

my family and may be with my friends for

Christmas which would be great but in my

family in particular

Christmas is not like a very very big

holiday so it's not a big problem if I'm

not with my family I know it sounds

strange but that's just something about

me and my personal life so thanks for

understanding thanks for listening and

yeah I wanted to know if you celebrate

Christmas I'm just curious i just want

to know more about you and I want you to

know that go natural English is closing

from Saturday the twenty-fourth of

December to January 8th of 2017 so

little announcement so that if you want

to buy a course if you want to get help

by email you need to do it before we

close

okay thanks alright a shout-out to everyone

who was watching there's hundreds and

hundreds of comments so I can't say

everyone's name but I am really excited

to see you all my goodness so many great

comments

awesome okay well keep commenting and i

will check back for all your comments

and I'll see you again very soon for

another question and answer I'm gonna

try to come back tomorrow alright have a

great rest of your day

bye for now