Think Out Loud in English — 4 Instant Strategies for Introverts

How many times have you worried that your English just isn't good enough?

Because when someone asks you a question in a business meeting,

you struggle with expressing your ideas clearly in English,

or maybe it's hard to find the exact words you want to use.

Even after years of studying and using English at work,

it's still a challenge to express your ideas out loud. Recently,

a group of my students had a conversation on this exact area of struggle

and in the conversation, an interesting question came up.

One student asked "when we face obstacles at work,

or when we struggle to express our ideas in English right away.

Is it about our English or is it our personality?" What a

fascinating question.

And I want to tell you exactly why this question came up and why it's important,

but first, if you don't already know,

I'm Annemarie with Speak Confident English,

everything I do here is designed to help you get the confidence you want for

your life and work in English.

And now let's go back to why that question was asked.

Why was my student curious if the problem or the difficulty

was her English or her personality?

In that particular conversation,

my students and I were discussing introversion as a personality trait.

If you are a fellow introvert like myself and many of my students,

you know,

that you prefer to think before you speak,

you naturally like to have all your ideas fully formed before you

share them out loud. That is simply how your brain works.

It's how you prefer to communicate in English and in your native language as

well.

This is very similar to how many of us prefer to communicate in a second or

third language. Again,

we prefer to have time to think before we speak,

there are so many different things we need to work through. In our mind,

we're thinking about grammar, structures, rules, pronunciation,

vocabulary.

We want time to put all those puzzle pieces together before we

express ourselves. The challenge is,

we don't always get that luxury. For example,

if you're in a job interview,

or if you're in a quick 10-minute brainstorming session with your team

members to solve an immediate problem at work,

you don't always get the time that you would prefer or like to

have before you share your ideas.

You have to respond to questions immediately.

If thinking out loud in English is a struggle for you either

because your brain is actively working through grammar rules,

pronunciation vocabulary,

or if you also struggle with thinking out loud,

because you naturally prefer to think before you speak as an introvert

today's lesson is for you.

I want to help you feel comfortable with that process of thinking as

you speak when you need to.

And this means you may also need to share your ideas before they are

fully formed as introverts. That's a real challenge.

So today's lesson is all about four instantly effective strategies

to help you think out loud in English.

[Inaudible].

Before we dive into the first strategy,

I want to talk a little bit more about why this is so important.

Why do you need to learn how to think while you speak?

Again, if you're using English as a second or third language,

or if you're naturally introverted,

you prefer to have everything clear in your mind and prepared

before you say them out loud.

This is opposite to the think out loud

communication style that is preferred by extroverts. In fact,

just as you need a lot of alone,

quiet time to think carefully about what you want to say and form those

ideas.

An extrovert actually needs to speak out loud to

put those puzzle pieces together.

That is how they think most clearly we could even say

they speak in order to think.

The reason this is a challenge is in many workplaces,

particularly in the United States,

an extroverted communication style is preferred,

and it may even be expected.

It may be expected that you're able to communicate your ideas

quickly. Even if you're not ready. Several weeks ago,

I did a lesson on the topic of how to brainstorm in English,

particularly if you're a naturally shy and introverted.

One of the recommendations I made in that lesson was to learn how to

think out loud, how to express your thoughts,

even when they're not fully formed.

This lesson today is the continuation of that.

And we're going to focus a hundred percent on how you can begin

to practice thinking out loud so that when you need to,

you're able to do it successfully.

Strategy number one is when you're in a conversation

and you're asked to speak in the moment with little time to put your thoughts

together,

verify relevance and ensure that you're on the right track.

Let's unpack that a little bit.

Sometimes when you're trying to put your thoughts and ideas together,

it's like looking for different pieces of a puzzle and putting them in different

places to see if they fit. There's a lot of internal thinking going on.

So while your team members may be having a conversation,

you might start to get lost in the conversation.

You're not focused on what they're saying.

You're more focused on what you're thinking internally.

This might be because you're processing everything in English. Again,

trying to find the right grammar structure and vocabulary.

It might also be because it's your natural preferred communication

style as an introvert.

So if someone suddenly asks you a question and you're expected to respond in the

moment, it might come as a surprise or a shock to you, and you might think,

I don't really know what everybody was saying.

I'm not prepared to say what I want to say in that moment.

You can do a couple of things to ensure that you're on the right track and

buy yourself a little bit more time to get your thoughts together.

First,

you can ensure that your ideas or what you might say are relevant.

This is a great way to double check whether something has already been mentioned

or discussed. For example, just to clarify,

have we discussed to clarify,

have we already reviewed the data from last August when we experienced a similar

downturn in the market? When I asked that question,

I'm making sure that my thoughts are relevant to the

current conversation.

I'm also giving myself a little bit more time to think. Now,

if you're afraid that you've totally missed part of the conversation and you

want to get filled in on the details and buy yourself a little bit of a

time, here are a few more questions you can ask to make sure that your thoughts,

your ideas are on track for the conversation. Sorry, before I answer that,

I'd like to circle back to the details you shared on data from last

August or before I answer that,

could we briefly recap the details or the main points of the discussion so far

once more and asking these questions,

you're ensuring that whatever thoughts you had internally,

whatever ideas you're considering to share are appropriate

or relevant to the current conversation. And now strategy number two,

this strategy is particularly helpful. If like me,

you're a fellow introvert and prefer to have your ideas fully

formed before you share them.

You like to have the whole puzzle put together or the whole picture ready.

But again, we don't always get that luxury.

So to help you feel more comfortable,

you can preface what you're going to say to let others know that your

idea is not fully formed.

It can reduce some of that anxiety that we feel when we have to

communicate ideas that we don't feel ready to share.

This is also helpful when you're in a conversation where everyone is expected to

bounce ideas off one another.

And I also like to remind my introverted students that when you share an

idea in a brainstorming session, you're not married to it.

You don't have to fully commit to it. It's okay to change your mind later,

especially when you're in a brainstorming conversation where everyone is sharing

initial ideas that aren't fully formed.

So here's how you could preface some of your statements. This is just a thought,

but what if we, I'm just thinking out loud here,

but I'm still thinking this through. However,

let me give you a full example of what that might sound like.

I'm still thinking this through, however,

would it be possible to have everyone on a rotating schedule so that all of

us are back in the office, but on different days by starting with the preface,

I'm still thinking this through, or I'm just thinking out loud.

I'm letting others know that my idea is not fully ready

and it helps take the pressure off me as well.

Here are three more ways that you can do that.

I haven't figured out the logistics,

but I'm just brainstorming here, but,

and I'm still putting the pieces together,

but here's another example. I'm still putting the pieces together,

but one option may be to reschedule the event.

I know it may require more work upfront because we've already reserved the venue

and sent out invitations,

but rescheduling might allow us to have much better attendance.

Those particular sentence starters are some of my favorites to use,

especially when I'm feeling anxious or feeling pressure to share something

that I just don't think is ready. And now let's move on to strategy.

Number three of how you can get more comfortable with sharing your

ideas out loud, invite others to share their mindscapes.

I love that word mindscape and it might be new to you.

A mindscape is a mental scene or an area of the

imagination. When you invite someone into your mindscape,

you're inviting them into your imagination. And of course,

in our imagination, we're just thinking of all the possibilities.

The possibilities are limitless,

inviting others into that conversation can be a really fun discussion.

And again, there's no pressure.

There's not an expectation that the ideas are fully formed

and ready as a result,

it can reduce your anxiety and create more mental space for

ideas that are in the works. If an idea is in the works,

it means it's still in process. You're still thinking it through or forming it.

So if you'd like to take a discussion into another direction and invite

others into your mindscape, here are a different ways to do that.

For this sake of exploring a different perspective.

How about those are great ideas,

but what are your thoughts on exploring?

Let's explore some alternatives together. What if we, and finally,

I'm pondering whether this will work, but what's your opinion on,

did you notice that in many of those examples, I use the word explore,

which is perfect. When we want to look at alternatives, other perspectives,

and really get into imaginative thinking again,

where our ideas are not fully formed. Let me give you an example,

sentence of how I might use one of those phrases.

Those are great ideas, but what are your thoughts on exploring,

switching to a totally new platform?

When I say that I'm simply introducing one of my own ideas

and my idea might not be fully formed. In fact,

maybe I don't even want my company or our team to switch to a new platform,

but I'm just introducing it to the conversation so that we can consider it as an

option.

And now our final strategy for today on how to confidently think out loud in

English, whether you're struggling,

because you're trying to put all those English pieces together,

or it's a challenge because you're naturally introverted.

Our strategy is piggyback with confidence in a

brainstorming conversation.

You'll often hear others piggyback on each other's ideas to

piggyback on someone else's idea means to use their existing

idea as the basis or foundation for your own in

brainstorming. This is fantastic. When you hear someone else's idea,

you want to say that you agree with it and you want to add to it in

doing so that also alleviates some of the pressure you might feel

of needing to share a completely formed idea instead of sharing

your own.

You're simply adding to someone else's here are four great ways that you can do

that. I'd like to explore Susan's idea further.

What if we, Susan made a great point.

I wonder if I agree with Susan and how about,

and finally I like Susan's idea and we could,

let me give you an example of what it would sound like using one of these in a

sentence.

I like Susan's idea of each team member focusing on their own project

rather than splitting up tasks within a project.

And we could look into using a project management tool to make sure that

everyone's on track with that you have four instantly

effective strategies to help you think out loud in English with confidence so

that you don't have to worry about sharing unfinished ideas.

Let me do a quick recap of the four strategies. Number one,

verify relevance and ensure you're on track. Number two,

preface your ideas when you don't feel that they're ready. Number three,

invite others into your mindscape and number four,

piggyback on other's ideas with confidence to finish up.

I have one simple question for you.

If you struggle with sharing your ideas out loud or thinking out

loud, particularly when you don't feel that they're ready,

either because you're struggling with putting all the pieces together in your

English skills or because you're naturally introverted.

I would love to know which of these strategies you're most excited

about. Which one did you hear and think, yes,

I'm going to try to use that in my next business meeting or my next

brainstorming conversation.

I would love to know which one really fit with you.

And I'd like you to try using one of the example,

phrases that you learned today. You can use it in a real life example.

Think about a conversation you've had recently where you had to share one of

your ideas.

How could you have used one of these phrases to help you do that?

You can share your example with me in the comments below.

If you found today's lesson useful to you, I would love to know.

And as always you can tell me in one very simple way,

simply give this lesson a thumbs up here on YouTube, and while you're at it,

subscribe to this channel.

So you never miss one of my Confident English lessons.

Thank you so much for joining me. And I look forward to seeing you next time.