Stop Translating in Your Head! 5 Tips to THINK in English

Hey everyone, welcome back to my channel. I'm Claire, your English teacher, and I'm a native speaker from the US, here to help you sound more natural and become more confident in English. In today's video, I'm answering a question I've seen a lot across my social media channels, and that's, how do I stop translating English from my native language in my head? And I know this feeling. I've lived in Germany for about six years now, and I can't think in English anymore when I'm speaking German with friends or coworkers. It just breaks up the flow of my brain too much. So I've trained myself to completely switch to the language I'm speaking. Even to the point where, when I try to speak Italian, which I'm currently studying, I'll often accidentally say a German word for something instead of my native language, the English word, because my brain thinks, okay, it's a foreign language, so it's used to thinking in German. So I'm going to share with you some techniques that have helped me, and I think will help you to stop translating in your head. This topic was also voted on for this week's video by my channel members. If you want to have a say in what videos I do in the future, click the join button below and join our amazing community of English learners. Okay, let's get started. English made easy with Claire. Before we begin, I want you to ask yourself why you want to improve your English. What are your goals with learning English? This video is coming out at the beginning of 2025, which for a lot of people is a time of reflection and goal setting. So I invite you to set a goal for yourself right now with your English learning. And keep that goal in mind as we go through a few techniques you can use to start thinking in English. No more translating from your native language. The first thing you need to do is stop looking up the definition of English words in your native language. Instead, you need to look up the definition in English. Why? Because this way you're giving your brain a chance to stay in English instead of jumping back to your native language. For example, if you look up the word excited, you'll see something like feeling very happy and enthusiastic. And that's already helping you by giving you two synonyms of this word in English. And that's going to stick in your brain better than if you just read the equivalent word in your native language. Because your brain understands that immediately and will probably forget the English word for it. Another tip I have is to label things around you in your home in English. You can use sticky notes on your mirror, refrigerator, desk, or light switch. Seeing these words regularly keeps English in your head without translating. You also have this visual connection to the word and visualization in general is really helpful to, again, stop translating into your native language. Also, when you are walking around your house, maybe when you're just on your own, describe what you were doing in English. So for example, as you open the fridge to get some milk, you could say out loud, I'm opening the fridge to grab some milk. It might feel silly at first, but it can be really helpful. Another great way to stop your brain from translating in your native language is to give it too much to do that it can't even stop to think in your language. What do I mean? You can train your brain by listening to an audio book and reading the words of that book on the page at the same time. As you see the words and listen to them at the same time, your brain doesn't have a chance to stop and try to comprehend each and every word you read. It also doesn't have time to translate. So this is actually a great way to train your brain to think and comprehend English quickly. Shadowing is a great technique to train your brain to think in English. I've talked about this before on my channel, but all you have to do is listen to a native speaker and then repeat what they say immediately after copying their pronunciation and rhythm. You can use podcasts, YouTube videos, or audio books for this. It might feel redundant or kind of boring, but it does force you to stay in English and it improves your overall fluency. Finally, possibly the best way to stop translating is to practice speaking as much as possible, even if you make mistakes. Having a conversation in English may still seem scary to a lot of you, and I still feel this way sometimes in German, especially with meeting someone new. But when you're actually faced with communicating with someone, you don't have time to translate in your head. You might only understand 80% of what the other person is saying, but that's okay. Your brain is working in the moment to get the main point and taking what it can to understand and coming up with responses in real time with the vocabulary you already have. There's no time to look up a word. You have to use what you got. If you're thinking, that sounds great, but I don't have any opportunities to speak English with anyone. You know I got you. In the description below, I've linked Speak Duo, where you can meet and speak with English learners and native speakers alike for speaking practice, and it's completely free to try. You can also use my code below to get a discount on any of their plans. I host a session there every week, so you can join live with me. And chances are, the goal you set at the beginning of this lesson had something to do with feeling more confident and fluent in English. And speaking practice with others in real time is how you're going to do that. And Speak Duo is free to try, so why not? Oh, and here's a quick bonus tip. Change the language settings on your phone and social media to English. That way, English becomes part of your daily life and you'll start to think in English automatically. Alright, thanks so much for watching, guys. If you found these tips helpful, make sure to like this video, subscribe to my channel, and turn on notifications so you never miss a lesson. And if you want more exclusive perks and to support the work I do, click the Join button below to become a member. Let me know in the comments what your goals are for 2025. I love to hear from you guys. Until next time, bye for now.