STOP TRANSLATING IN YOUR HEAD | Tips For Thinking In English

Hey, in this week's English lesson, I want to help you. Yes. You finally start thinking in English. You heard me, right? You're going to stop translating in your mind. Instead, you'll start thinking in English and speaking English with confidence. Are you ready? Well, then I'm teacher Tiffany. Let's jump right in tip number one. Tip number one is to surround yourself with English. Let me break this down. In other words, you need to immerse yourself in English speaking environments as much as possible. This includes watching movies, listening to music and reading books in English. The more you expose yourself, the easier it will be to start thinking in English. Now, let me say something that will hopefully encourage you. When I was teaching English in South Korea, I had thousands of students, but there was one student, one student that I will never, ever forget this individual. He came into my class and when he started speaking to me, I literally wondered in my mind, why is he in my class? That's how good his English was. His pronunciation was great. His thought process was amazing. And the way he articulated his ideas blew me away. So I asked him, I said, have you ever lived abroad? Did you ever study in America? He said, no, I've never lived abroad and I've never studied abroad. So immediately I was curious. How are you able to speak English so well? And you know what he told me this tip right here, he immersed himself. He surrounded himself with English, watching English movies, watching YouTube videos in English, listening to English podcasts so much so that his English became amazing. So if you're wondering, is this possible? Yes. It doesn't matter where you live. There might not be any other English speaker around you. Don't worry. Remember this tip. When you surround yourself with English, your English will improve and your ability to think in English will also improve. You got me. Let's keep it moving. Tip number two, tip number two is to speak out loud. Yes. You heard me speak out loud. Listen closely. It's important for you to practice speaking English out loud whenever you can, for example, describe your environment, think of English words to describe various situations, or simply talk to yourself in English, this will help you become more comfortable with thinking in English, it will literally force you to organize your thoughts in English before you speak. You have to think, right? So it doesn't matter if you are living alone or if you are living in a country where there's no one else around you while you're sitting there in your room, in your kitchen, or maybe while you're at work, think about your activity and speak about it. Now, maybe if you're at work, your coworkers might look at you a little funny. So try this when you're in an environment where it won't matter if you're speaking out loud, but it's important to articulate your thoughts. It's important to say them out loud. And when I say out loud, I don't mean, Hey, my name is, and how are you? No, listen, as your English teacher, remember, I believe in you and you need to believe in yourself. When you believe in yourself, your shoulders go back. You speak with more confidence, speak out loud and with confidence. You have to believe in yourself. So tip number two, speak out loud. Makes sense. Right now, before we go on to tip number two, I want to remind you that every week I send out tips that help English learners around the world improve their English. So if you're not already getting my newsletter free newsletter via email, all you have to do is go to www.speakenglishwithtiffany.com forward slash newsletter. I want to help you. And if you'd like to get these free emails, please go to the link and join this email newsletter. I want to help you even more. All right, so let's now go to tip number three. Tip number three is to use images, use images instead of relying on translating words in your head, try to connect English words to their meanings by using actual images. Yes. Pictures. You can also create flashcards in order to connect English words with their concepts. Now I used this in my classroom all the time when I was teaching English in Korea. I remember I was hired to help some, um, soldiers. They were on the military base and they were trying to learn English and I used images and they absolutely loved it. Why? Because it was a fun way to learn English. I'd show them a picture and then I'd ask them individually, Hey, describe this picture, pick a word that describes this picture. And they would start thinking of different words because there's something that happens when you use images, it activates a different side of your brain and it makes the learning process more enjoyable. So in order to start thinking in English, start using images and it will trigger certain things in your brain. So no matter what word you say, or if you find a new word, that word will now moving forward, be connected to that image in your brain. Makes sense, right? Okay. Let's move on to tip number four. Tip number four is also an important one. Think in English during everyday activities. You see, when you're performing simple tasks like cooking or driving, it's important for you to try to think in English. For example, describe the steps you are taking, anticipate what you need to do next and create simple English sentences to describe your daily activities. I used to do this when I was in South Korea, studying Korean, whenever I had to take a taxi and the taxi was driving me from one destination, from one location to another location, I would in my mind in Korean say, okay, he's about to turn left or right now he's about to turn right. Okay. He's going to go forward. He's going to stop at this light, but I was saying it in Korean. Why? To practice using Korean over and over again, and you can do the same thing. Think in English during your everyday activities. I'm pouring some water in my cup. I'm calling my friend to tell them something. Think in English and describe your everyday activities. You'll be amazed how quickly you'll start thinking in English. Makes sense. All right, here we go. Let's go to tip number five, tip number five. Another important one. Tip number five is practice thinking in English during quiet moments. You see use the quiet moments of your day to think in English. This is a great tip because it will encourage you to be calm when you think in English, let me break this down. Normally when you get in a situation where someone asks you a question in English, someone that's a native English speaker, or even another English learner that is maybe a little bit above you. What happens? You immediately feel a little nervous. Maybe your palms start sweating and it seems like your mind goes blank. Right? Nervousness becomes attached to speaking English, but now we are switching that emotion. Tip number five, again, in your quiet moments, when you're calm, when you're relaxed, start thinking in English. Think about your day. Think about your friend, your family member, your spouse. Describe that person. Describe that situation. Now a feeling of calmness, a feeling of relaxation will be attached to thinking in English. Makes sense, right? Speaking English. Yes. It's about learning words, expressions, but it's also about managing your emotions, staying calm. There's an expression, cool, calm, and collected. This is a tip that will help you starting today. Let's move on to tip number six. Tip number six, avoid using translation apps too much. Notice. I didn't say all together. Translation apps are not bad, but don't use them too much. Let me explain. Translation apps can sometimes be helpful, but relying on them too much can hinder your ability to think in English. Instead, what I want you to do is to challenge yourself to find alternative ways to express your thoughts in English without relying so much on translations. Here's something interesting. I was just teaching a class about two weeks ago, and there was a new student that had joined our family and the student, I could tell they were looking for a specific word, but now I've spoke, I've literally taught thousands upon thousands of students so I can read students quite well. I know when it's important for me to help. And when it's important for me to simply wait and let them process it and let them figure it out. It was that type of moment. It was the moment where I needed to sit back and just listen and let her figure it out. I could tell she wanted me to give her the word, but she could also tell by my facial expression that I was simply going to wait and that I wanted her to figure it out. So she didn't say the word she was looking for, but she found an alternative way, an alternate way of saying what she wanted to say. And then I smiled. This is what happens when you don't rely on translation apps too much. When you don't rely on, Hey, let me stop and find the exact word. It's okay. Find other words in your database, in your brain that you can use to express yourself. And then later on, look up that word, but in the moment it's okay, figure it out. So again, tip number six, avoid using translation apps too much. You don't want to rely on them too much. Tip number seven, use context clues. We're talking about thinking in English. So let me explain when you encounter unfamiliar words or expressions in English, don't get frustrated or nervous. Remember we talked about being calm, cool, calm, and collected. Don't get frustrated or nervous. Instead, try to understand their meaning based on the context in which they are used. We're talking about thinking in English. So look at the text, look at what the word, where the word is located and try to think about what's going on. This will help you rely less on translations and focus more on understanding the overall message. In other words, it will help you think more in English. Remember these tips are going to help you transform your English. It's possible. My friend, I believe in you. You can do it. Just apply these tips that you're learning. Tip number eight, keep a journal, keep a journal. I actually have tons of journals. Now I have these journals sitting right here. I use journals for many different aspects of my business, but I also use them for personal reasons. I write down many things. I write down things when I'm having my worship, studying the Bible. I write down things that pop up into my head throughout the day. When you keep a journal, you'll notice that you'll be able to start thinking in English even more. You see, start writing a journal in English on a regular basis. For example, write about your thoughts, write about your feelings and your experiences. This will help you practice thinking in English and improve your writing skills at the same time. Remember it doesn't have to be long. It's just getting into the habit of writing in your journal on a regular basis, forcing yourself to organize your thoughts, to organize your ideas, to lay out using words, what you experienced throughout the day, improving your ability to think in English. Tip number nine, engage in conversations with native English speakers. Now, before I break this down, I want to remind you of something. Native English speakers. We're nice people. Now there are always going to be some people that are not nice, but in general, we're nice. Come on now, look at my smile. Come on now, go ahead. You can smile too. Listen, we're generally, we're nice people. So engage in conversations. Don't be shy. We'll talk to you now. Again, as your teacher, of course, a little bit different because I'm here, I'm teaching you a lesson, but we're speaking about when you are in an environment where English speakers are around you or even online English forums or, or Facebook groups. Engage in conversations. Let me break it down. It is important to seek opportunities to engage in conversations with native English speakers. If you don't personally know any native English speakers, you can find online forums and start speaking to people there. This will help you gain more confidence in your English and also help you think faster in English. This is the goal to think faster in English practice. You can be at home having your keyboard and typing, start the conversation. You can do it. Tip number 10. I want you to pay close attention to be patient and persistent. It is important to remember that thinking in English is a skill that takes time and practice to develop. Please, my friend, please be patient with yourself and keep going. Even when it gets difficult, because it will get difficult over time, you'll start to notice how much easier it is for you to think in English. In other words, don't give up these tips that I'm sharing with you. Put them into practice and be patient with yourself. You're amazing. You're learning another language. You're already awesome. You're amazing. Be patient with yourself. You're learning a brand new technique, a brand new skill, and your brain needs time to adapt. But practice more and more practice makes progress. You like that practice makes progress. I believe in you and I want you to believe in yourself. I hope you enjoyed this lesson. Remember to speak English and I'll talk to you next time. Hey, you still there? You know what time it is. It's story time. Hey, I said it's story time. All right. So I want to tell you this story and this is a story also about thinking. So there's something very interesting about females, right? We are very unique. Now guys, we love you too, but there's something that females are able to do that I've noticed that guys, our brothers are not able to do. Honestly, I haven't seen it happen ever, but maybe, maybe you're an exception to the rule. Let me explain. So I was teaching this class in South Korea. It was an early morning class, 6 AM, very early. And I had four students in the class, three gentlemen and one woman. Now on this day, only two individuals came to class. Sometimes, you know, it was a little early. It's hard to get up in the morning. So the female and one of the guys came to class. Now I really enjoyed both of their company, right? So on this day I said, you know what? Let's kind of just take it easy. We took a break from the lesson and we just enjoyed having a conversation in English. And during the conversation, the guy was telling us about his wife and we were trying to explain to him how women think and he wasn't getting it. And I said, okay, I want us to stop really quickly. And let's say his name was James, right? I said, James, I want to show you something. Now the woman was Korean, right? I am African-American. She was Korean. I said, James, I want to show you something. I said, women, we have a natural ability to know what each other is thinking. No matter what, like we know what we're thinking. He said, what do you mean? He said, that's not possible. I said, watch. Now we didn't plan this. We didn't decide on a topic. Nothing. I said, James, watch. And I immediately turned my gaze to the woman. I looked at her and I said nothing for about 10 seconds. We just looked each other in the eye at the end of that 10 seconds. I said, and I looked back at James. James was sitting there like what just happened. Then I asked the woman, tell me what I said. And she said exactly what I was thinking. Now, of course, James was in shock, but she and I, we just laughed. Why? Because as women, we already knew that we had this innate ability to understand each other, to know what we were thinking without saying anything. Now, just as a sidebar, this is why, to be very honest, guys, we apologize. We expect you guys to know what we're thinking because as women, we understand each other, right? So guys, husbands, we understand. Sometimes you get a little stressed because your wives, they want you to know what they're thinking. You just don't have that ability many times. And it's okay. So women, as women, we have to do better. We have to explain to our husbands that our spouse, we have to explain to them when we're thinking, right? So that's just, you know, truth. All right. So, but again, in that moment, he realized, oh my goodness, you guys actually understood each other. And I laughed and she laughed as well, because again, it was not planned. And I had always done it with American women because I'm an American, but I knew even though she was Korean, we would be able to understand each other, even without saying words, honestly, I think it's a gift from God because I've seen it happen. Another sidebar, whenever we play games and we have men against women, the women always win. If it's anything dealing with like a mental game, the women win, not because the men aren't smart, extremely intelligent, but we as women have the ability to pass messages to each other without saying anything. I don't know how it works. I don't know what God did, but it definitely happens, especially with my best friend from college. Oh my goodness. We can be across the room, have a full conversation and never say a word. So men be careful, but yes. So that's just an example of one of the amazing abilities that women have. And gentlemen, we know you have amazing abilities too, but right now we talking about the women, I hope you guys enjoyed this story. I hope you have an awesome week and I'll talk to you in the next lesson.