How to THINK in English - STOP Translating in Your Head & Speak Fluently Like a Native

I can speak English, but before I say anything, I have to make a sentence in my native language,

translate that into English, and then say it.

I feel like I’m not speaking fluently because of this.

That is one of the most common complaints I hear from my students.

So in this lesson, I’m going to teach you three exercises that will help you to stop

translating in your head.

These exercises will make you think 100% in English and speak fluently without hesitation.

So, let’s jump right into it.

Here is exercise number one – Make sentences in your head.

This is the number one fastest way to start thinking in English.

Throughout your day, make sentences about what is happening around you.

For example, let’s say that you’re sitting on the bus and you’re going somewhere.

In your head, you can start talking in English – “I like this seat, it’s nice and comfortable.

Look at that couple sitting over there – what are they doing?

They look very happy.

They’re joking and laughing about something.

Anyway, let’s look out the window.

Oh, what a beautiful park.

I wish I could visit it sometime.”

And so on.

You can do this in any situation: when you’re at home, when you’re bored at work or school,

when you’re waiting at the doctor’s office, when you’re walking in the park and so on.

And it will train your brain to make sentences in English.

Now, while you are doing this, if you start translating, it’s OK – don’t get disappointed,

because as you keep practicing, you will collect more and more sentences for everyday situations,

and over time, you will translate less.

Remember to do this exercise many times every day – make it a habit to regularly make

sentences in your head.

Exercise number two is prepare sentences for conversations.

For this exercise, think about a conversation that you are going to have in the future,

and come up with sentences that you can use.

For example, if there’s going to be a meeting in your workplace tomorrow, what would be

some useful sentences?

Well, if you’re going to present an idea to your colleagues, you might say – “I

strongly believe this will help our sales.”

a-ha!

Keep that in mind to use tomorrow.

Maybe you have a colleague (let’s say his name is Teddy) and he always interrupts you

while you talk – if he does that tomorrow, you can say “Hold on, Teddy, let me finish!”

– there’s another sentence.

In this way, for upcoming conversations, you can prepare a lot of sentences and have them

in your mental store – and you can even write them down to review later.

As you do this exercise more and more, you will be able to use these sentences in many

future conversations automatically without thinking too much.

So take time to regularly prepare sentences for conversations.

Exercise number three is recap your day.

Do you know the meaning of ‘recap’?

Recap means to remember and summarize something – in this case, your day.

So this is an exercise you should do at the end of the day – maybe just before you go

to bed – or you can even do this as you’re lying in bed before you go to sleep.

Imagine that you’re telling a friend about your day in English – you might say “Today

was a regular day for the most part.

One interesting thing that happened in college was that a friend of mine told me she’s

got an internship interview coming up in two days.

So I helped her prepare for it.”

and so on and so forth, you get the idea.

You can also make sentences about how you felt about the different things that happened,

you can say what you expect to happen tomorrow etc.

Aim to do this for about 5-10 minutes before you go to sleep.

What I like about this exercise is that you can do it at the same time every day, which

means it’s very easy to make this a habit.

And so all this practice in making sentences will help you think in English automatically.

OK, those are my top three exercises for learning to think in English – make sentences in

your head throughout the day, prepare sentences for conversations, and recap your day before

you go to sleep.

As a bonus tip, there’s one more powerful exercise that you can use to build your fluency,

and it’s called JAM.

This is short for Just-A-Minute, and it’s a fantastic speaking exercise that you can

do by yourself to improve your fluency.

If you want to learn it, I have a lesson just on this exercise - you will find the link

in the description, so make sure to check it out.

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Happy learning and I will see you in another lesson soon.