How to THINK in English | Stop Translating in Your Head!

When I was living in Germany, I had such a hard  time thinking of what to say, figuring out how  

to say it German, what words would I had  to change because my vocabulary was limited,  

and then finally saying it. Needless to say,  

I struggled with conversation. And I know this is  true of my students who are learning English too.  

Even my intermediate and advanced students.  So let’s work on that. What if you could  

start thinking more in English and less in  your native language when you wanted to?  

That’s possible. There are real techniques to make  that happen, and today we’ll practice just that.

This is part of a series of videos  where I outline different techniques,  

training your mind to think in English and today  we’re using a more advanced technique, and if  

you’re not ready for that, I’ll put a link to a  more basic training video in the description.

Today we’re hitting you with conversational  questions. You’re going to see a timer,  

and it might make you nervous. If you  can’t think of a sentence in English,  

just think of words that you would use in your answer.

For example, if the question is “how did you  celebrate New Year’s?” you could come up with:  

Nothing. Covid-19. Home. No champagne. Video call.

Or, if you can put together a  full sentence, you might think:

Because of covid-19, we all stayed in this year.  It was just a regular evening at home. We didn’t  

drink champagne, we didn’t stay up until midnight,  but we did do a video call with some friends.

Now, often, I’m trying to get my students  to practice speaking. Out loud, everything,  

but this is a little different. We want to work  on the habit of the brain thinking in English.  

So just think it in your head. You are not coming  up with your sentence in your native language and  

then translating; we don’t want to practice that.  We want to avoid that. So think in English only,  

and if you have to simplify what you’re doing  to do that, then stay away from full sentences.  

If a word in your native language, no big deal,  let it go. Guide your mind back to English.

English, English, English.

Let’s do one question, then we’ll talk a bit  more about strategies. So I’m going to ask  

you a question, and you’ll have 10 seconds  to think of your answer. My question is:  

Tell me something about your  hometown I might not know.

How did you do? Did you feel nervous? On  the spot? Since you’re watching this video  

in English, I know you know enough about  English, you have enough English skills  

to think of at least think of a few  words associated with the question  

in English. And if you were able to answer that  question in a conversational sentence and maybe  

you were still going when the timer was over,  awesome! You’re pretty advanced in this skill.  

But no matter where you’re starting,  if you’re not yet at your goal,  

intentional practice thinking in English, like  we’ll do today, we’ll move you towards your goal.

If you have no idea what to say, then  think that in your head, in English.

Hmm, I don’t know how to answer that  question. I don’t know what to say

Just think it in English.

Ok, here’s another question: What’s one  thing you hope to achieve this year?”

You may have started your answer with “I hope to”,  

“I want to”, “I plan to”, or “I will”. Or  maybe, “One of my goals is.” Here’s my answer:

One of my goals this year is to  get to know some of my YouTube  

audience a little more personally  through my YouTube membership. Hmmm,  

they might not know about it, I should tell them to click the join video below this video.

Remember: some of you can put together  endless sentences in English, and some can’t.  

Wherever you are, build on that. If  you can only come up with a few words,  

that’s okay. At the end of this video,  I’ll tell you how to build on that.

Now I’m going to give you three minutes of  questions in a row. This is a good place to  

figure out your stamina for this kind of exercise.  The questions will just keep coming at you.  

Can you stick with it? If you get frustrated,  just wait for the next question. Each question is  

a chance to start new, bringing up a few words in  English in your mind that relate to that question.

Ok, ready? Take a deep breath, let’s do this.

What were you doing this time last year?

Describe one of your best friends.

Name five things you’ve done today.

Why do you want to work on your English skills?

Tell me about one thing that  you love about your job.

Tell me one thing you hate about your job.

What do you think is the greatest  TV show of all time, and why?

Who are some of your favorite  YouTubers and why do you watch them?

Are you satisfied with your financial  situation, and, yes or no, why?

You’re going to be trapped on a desert island for  1 year and you can take one person with you. Who,  

and why did you choose that person?

What’s your favorite season of the year, and why?

Tell me about one of your  most frustrating experiences.

If you could be any animal,  which would you be and why?

Ok, that part is over, it’s done, and you did it.  Let’s talk about a couple of strategies to improve  

your English based on this exercise. Actually,  really quickly, first, I want to let you know  

that just two months ago, we launched a Think  in English course as part of my online school,  

Rachel’s English Academy. My school focuses  heavily on accent training, listening  

comprehension and spoken English skills. But we  recognize that being able to think in English  

is an important part of that so we’ve added a  course to help you train your mind with exercises  

like this one here to think in English on a  regular basis. If you might be interested in this,  

please check out rachelsenglishacademy.com and  sign up, I would love to have you as a student.

Okay, let’s talk about some strategies. First,  

let’s start with people who found it  very hard to think in full sentences  

in English. You should probably spend some time  going back a step, to a more simple exercise of  

naming objects. You can move on to verbs  too. For example, if you see someone:

You can think arm and scratch. Then you’ll have  the building blocks for "She’s scratching her arm."  

And as you look around you, and you’re  naming nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs,  

if you don’t know the English word for  something, look it up in the dictionary,  

learn it, add it to your vocabulary list. In  this video I do that kind of exercise with you.

If you can think in sentences, but  you want to get more sophisticated,  

then you’ll want to do some exercises where  you are speaking out loud, recording your  

answers. Then you can go back and listen or  watch your videos and find words that you use  

over and over again, look up synonyms,  a different way to say something,

now that you’re taking the time to figure it out.  You can use an online random question generator  

to give you prompts as you record yourself.  Take the challenge a little bit further.  

Record a 10-second answer in a video, post it  to your Instagram stories, and tag me in it  

so I can share it. Let’s all do the work, and  watch and support each other doing the work.

Make this a daily practice and I guarantee you’ll  get more comfortable thinking in English and in  

English conversation. It’s all about practicing  spontaneously. When you don’t know what question  

is coming, you have to think on your feet. You can  only use what you know, there’s no time to look  

something up. So you’ll get better at using what  you know, and finding the gaps in what you know.  

And I can’t wait to have you build your  confidence in English conversation.

Right now, keep your learning going with this  video, and don’t forget to subscribe with  

notifications on so you never miss a lesson. Huge  thanks to all my YouTube membership supporters,  

I hope you’re enjoying your perks. To learn more  about Rachel’s Circle and Rachel’s superstars,  

which includes exclusive audio lessons,  click the join button to know more. Come  

back tomorrow and watch another lesson,  I have over 800 videos here on YouTube.  

I love being your English teacher. That’s it and  thanks so much for using Rachel’s English.