5 Brain Games to Help You Learn to Think in English!

- Hi, Bob the Canadian here.

Welcome to this English lesson

where I'm going to teach you four different games

that you can play with your own mind

in order to practice and improve your English.

These are games that you can play when you're by yourself,

maybe sitting on the subway,

maybe when you're driving,

maybe if you're sitting on something like a park bench.

They are games that help you to practice

and improve your English because they help you to start

to think in English as you practice them.

These games are designed so that you can just imagine

the words or phrases in your mind.

You might want to whisper or say them out loud.

If you're somewhere where that works,

or if you want you can even write them down.

You can write the words and phrases down

on a piece of paper

if you're somewhere where that works as well.

The first game that I wanna teach you

is called the alphabet game.

And this is a very common game.

We even play it with our own children

when we go for a long drive.

So if you are driving in your car,

maybe if you're just walking through a shopping mall,

or maybe you're looking out the window

while you ride the train,

what you do is this,

you look for something that starts with the letter A.

As soon as you find something that starts with the letter A,

you look for something that starts with the letter B.

If you wanna make it more difficult,

when you see something that starts with the letter A,

you say it out loud and then you use it in a sentence.

So if I was walking through my house,

I could look in the kitchen and see an Apple and say Apple,

and then say, "Apples are delicious."

Then I would look for something

that starts with the letter B.

This is a really fun game to play especially

if you're driving for a long distance

or if you're sitting on a train,

looking out the window and just seeing the city go by

as you ride the train.

So, the very first game you can try,

the game that you can play in your own head

is called the alphabet game.

The next game I want to teach you is called

the connection game.

And here's how the connection game works.

Let's say you walk past a restaurant

and they are selling pizza.

In your mind you say the word pizza,

or you can say it out loud.

And then you think of something that's connected to it.

So you might say pizza, and then you say cheese

and then you think for a little bit and you say milk,

and then you say cow,

and then you say farm.

So you can see how we are connecting the words together.

If you want to make this harder,

you use phrases instead of words.

So you might look at the pizza and say,

"Pizza has cheese on it."

"Cheese is made from milk."

"Milk comes from cows."

"Cows live on farms."

The connection game is a really good game to play

to help you to start to think in English.

If you look at the things around you

and you play the connection game,

it just starts to make you think in English

and eventually it'll be a lot easier for you.

The next game that I want to teach you

is called the opposites game.

And this is a great game to play

if you're somewhere where it's really busy.

Like at the grocery store,

maybe at the train station,

or while walking along the street.

In this game you try to find someone

or something that you can describe,

and then you immediately try to think of the English word

that is the opposite of the word you used.

So you might say things like this,

"That man is tall."

"That man is not short."

So you can see how I used two words

that are the opposite of each other.

You might say, "It is sunny today."

"It is not raining today,"

or "It's not cloudy today."

You can see again how I used two sentences.

And I tried to think of the English word

that was the opposite of the first word that I used.

You might also say something like this,

"That car is going fast."

"That car is not going slow."

So, you can see what the opposite game,

you're trying to think of a descriptive word

and then trying to think of a word

that is the opposite of it.

This is a great game to play

if you're somewhere really busy.

The next game I want to teach you

is called the questions you might ask.

And this is a game that works best

when there are a lot of people around you.

Maybe when you're riding on the subway car

or when you're on the airplane.

And you think of questions that you could ask people

but you don't actually ask them this question

cause it might be rude if you went to every person

on the subway car and asked them a question.

But what you do is this,

you look at the person beside you and you think of

a question that you could ask that person like,

"What book are you reading?"

Then you look across the aisle and you see another person

and you think of a question you might ask that person like,

"How long have you worn glasses?"

Then you might see a gentleman standing

at the end of the train who has a really nice hat.

And you might think of the question,

"Where did you buy that hat?"

So, when you play this game, you simply look at people.

You don't actually ask them these questions

because again it would be a little silly to go

to every person on the train and ask them a question,

especially if you live in a country where people

on the train don't speak English,

but you simply look at a person and you think of a question

you could ask that person.

The next game I want to teach you is called

the I like, I don't like game.

And this is a great game to play

if you're walking along the street

or if you're driving in your car

and you're seeing different things every few seconds.

And in this game,

you simply respond to everything you see by saying,

if you like it, or if you don't like it and why.

So as you're walking along,

you might once again walk past a pizza shop.

So in your mind you would say, "I don't like pizza."

or you would say it quietly out loud.

Then you need to say why you don't like pizza.

So you would say,

"I don't like pizza because I don't like how it tastes."

As you walk along you might see a dog

and you might say to yourself,

"I like dogs."

And then you need to say why,

"I like dogs because they are friendly

"and they are always happy."

So when you play the, I like, I don't like game,

you're simply trying to respond to everything you see

in a positive or negative way

and then explaining why you feel that way.

Well, Hey, thank you for watching this English lesson

about little games you can play in your mind

to practice and improve your English.

If this lesson was helpful for you,

please give me a thumbs up.

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And if you have a little bit more time,

why don't you stick around and watch another English lesson?

(bright music)