How to think in English and stop translating in your head

- Hey guys.

Welcome to my channel.

Today I'm gonna share my story of

how I started thinking in English.

And when we don't think in English, we tend to speak slower,

we tend to translate things in our heads,

and we just tend to be less proficient in our English.

So, thinking in English is a key thing

for you to move from being intermediate

to upper-intermediate, advanced and native speaker level.

So, if you're interested, continue watching.

If you think that this could happen overnight,

it cannot, unfortunately.

So, my story is I started thinking in English

for a couple nights when I was in the UK.

I think it was my second or first visit,

it was really early on.

I was a teenager, so the process went faster.

So, what happened, every morning

when I woke up in my homestay, with the host family,

I would be really embarrassed about my English

because my brain is still sleeping

and they would ask me questions in English,

and I would be like, oh my God,

they're asking me about my breakfast

but the only way I can say what I want is in Russian,

in my native language, 'cause I just woke up.

This was the hardest moment

to switch languages throughout the day.

But by the evening,

because I was communicating solely in English

with other people, it would be really easy for me

to talk about what I want for dinner,

or just, you know, discuss anything.

And because I spent the whole day thinking in English

I went to bed thinking in English.

And then I think it was my week three,

and normally when you go to learn your language somewhere,

during summer, you stay there for like,

maybe four or five weeks, or whatever,

but by week three I went to bed thinking in English,

and I had a dream in English,

and I woke up in the morning,

and I realized I'm actually thinking in English.

And that was like, this huge transition for me,

because I didn't have this switch in the morning,

because I woke up with my brain functioning

in English already.

And my level back then was, I think upper-intermediate,

so I was pretty good in English, not spoken English.

I was good at grammar, I was good at vocabulary.

But this switch was crucial.

I remember coming down to the kitchen

and sharing with my homestay,

"Hey guys, I just dreamed in English."

And

it went away.

I came back to Russia, it went away,

because I switched back to speaking Russian,

I switched back to reading in Russian,

But I created some tips for myself,

because I really wanted that feeling to stay with me

throughout my life.

And I really wanted to still be able to think in English,

even in my own home country.

So, I have created a couple of rules for myself

that I followed carefully until I moved to the US.

And when you're in an English-speaking environment

it's super easy.

Rule number one, travel to an English-speaking country,

stay with locals, as often as you can.

Linguatrip.com, all the programs are listed there.

You know, select the one that fits you.

But yeah, that requires your time and money.

But this is the most effective way.

This is when I went through this transformation.

When I came back to Russia, the second thing I did,

I brought a lot of books in English with me,

and a lot of magazines.

You don't have to go somewhere to bring stuff in English,

you can just go online,

but for me, switching to reading in English only,

and I told myself, okay, starting this day,

for all the non study-related materials

I'm switching to English,

Because this is the way to introduce this practice of

consuming information in English, into my everyday life.

So maybe you follow this rule as well.

Maybe you tell yourself, hey from now on

I will only do fun stuff in English.

So whether it's a YouTube video, whether it's Instagram,

whether it's a book that you're reading,

maybe switch it to English.

And the third thing

that is really still working for me here in the US,

when you learn a new concept in English,

so for example right now I'm learning a lot

about childbirth and pregnancy,

and I've realized that

when I encounter a new topic in English,

and I learn all the terms, I cannot think about this topic

in my native language, 'cause I

don't even know what things mean.

I cannot translate them.

Because I learnt the concept in English straightaway

I'm not doing this translation in my head.

The fourth tip is that all of us

are doing these translations,

like when we're at school we learn that this is a pencil,

but we don't learn the concept, we learn the translation,

and they tell you a pencil in your own language,

and this is how your brain learns the word.

But this is the wrong way.

This is not how kids learn language,

and your goal is to learn a language as if you're a kid.

So, when you're learning a new concept

you get rid of this stuff.

For example, if you want to read more about photography

or if you want to read more about filmmaking, blogging,

do that in English.

And if you encounter a new concept, you just Google it,

you go to images, and you read what that word means

without translating it.

And this is the key.

I remember when I moved to Germany for a semester,

to study mathematics,

I learned so many new words,

regarding econometrics and mathematics in German,

and then I came back to Russia,

I couldn't speak Russian during my classes

'cause everything I knew was in German.

This is like a game-changer as well.

So learn new concepts in English, and do not translate stuff

from your own language into English.

Try to learn them as a concept.

And of course, other daily activities

that you can switch to English,

again, our goal, we have 12 hours a day, right?

We do a lot of stuff in our native language,

just because we're surrounded by it.

But our goal is to take all the things during the day

that can be done in English, and do them in English.

So, the next thing of course,

switching your phone, your smartphone,

your laptop, to English.

This is like number one thing you should do

after watching this video,

'cause this is the key.

The next thing you could do is if you have a daily planner,

if you have your habits tracker,

if you have whatever, like a calendar

where you're writing things down, do that in English.

Again, this would tell your brain, okay.

When I was a kid, by the way, I had a diary

where I wrote down all of the activities

that happened to me during the day,

well, I think I did it til I was 18 or 19,

I did it at first in English,

because I didn't want my parents

to understand what was going on,

and then I switched to German, and I did it in German.

That was again, amazing practice for me,

because I really wanted to do it

and because I really had a goal of other people

not getting what I'm writing about.

It was a great way to practice languages.

Another exercise that I would recommend doing

is if you have a favorite song

try to write down it's lyrics while listening to it.

There would be some words you won't be able to understand,

you will look them up later.

So your goal,

when you're listening to a song,

is just writing down everything you understand.

Maybe leave some blanks.

My task to you, there are a lot of songs out there

that you can practice with.

But the most challenging song for me

was a song by Modest Monkey, "Float On".

Do that first.

Like, start with that song.

You'll be so confused, but the other songs

will be so easy.

So you just switch on the song

and you write the lyrics down.

Helps you with listening,

helps you with thinking in English.

Well, it's gonna improve your listening dramatically.

And the key thing, in all of the things that I mentioned

is being regular.

So, you start with just one thing, for a day,

maybe even switching your phone to English,

and then you introduce more and more.

If you have an activity tracker,

and it really looks like it's, oops.

Hello.

It's a really simple thing when you can make it yourself.

Like activity tracker,

for example you have English

song

and here you have gym

and here you have your supplements, or whatever.

And like every day, you just put a plus

in front of a thing that you've done.

So, try to introduce a daily habit

of like an English song or reading in English.

But when you do reading,

tell yourself read at least 10 pages

because otherwise reading is very vague,

you're like ugh.

I've read a text message in English.

10 pages at least.

And then everyday, like Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday,

so super easy to make,

you just put a dot in front of things you've done.

And this way you develop a regular habit.

That was it from me guys.

I hope you enjoyed watching this video.

If you're not yet thinking in English

subscribe to this channel,

'cause watching more of this content

would definitely help you switch your brain

from your own language into English.

Like this video if you enjoyed this content

and please let me know, down in comments below,

what is this thing that you're doing in English everyday.

Thank you so much, and I will see you

in the next videos.