Name: ? How to Think in English and Stop Translating in Your Head (4 Ways!)
Uploaded: 2023-07-24T16:36:09.000Z
Duration: 9 min 44 s
Description: 學習該如何使用英文去思考。Learn the English Usage: grammar,translating,spanish,start thinking,speaking english,vocabulary,milk,chunk,cafe,black coffee,french,reply,wanted,waiter,thinking,frustrated,focusing,focus,speaking,express,fluency,banana,translate,worry,learned,language,speak,black,france,perfect,copy,adapter,modal...

Do you translate from your language into English when you're speaking English?

If you do, it's a really bad habit to have.

So in this lesson, I want to give you four

ways to start thinking in English and stop translating in your head.

This is going to help you speak more fluently and make less mistakes.

improve your pronunciation and fluency speaking English.

Now, if you translate from your language into English, you are not alone.

French at University before I went to live in France for one year.

And during those ten years of studying French, I used to do the same thing.

I used to think what I wanted to say in English, then get frustrated because I

didn't know the vocabulary or the correct grammar to say that in French,

so I couldn't say the things that I wanted to say.

I spent too much time focusing on vocabulary that I didn't know and too

much time worrying about complex grammar that I didn't know either.

And to be honest, it wasn't good for my confidence because I

was thinking of what I wanted to say in English, translating it in my head

and trying to say something equally perfect in French.

This is not a good way to speak a foreign

language, and it was difficult, but I fully understand why you do it.

but it was a very different experience because my goal in Spanish was to go

to Spain and talk to the people, enjoy the culture, talk to the people.

No, of course I wanted to learn different

tenses so that I could express myself so that I could talk about the past

and the future, the present, hypothetical situations.

I wanted to learn that, I wanted to learn

vocabulary so that I could talk about different things.

But I didn't care if that grammar or vocabulary was right.

to start thinking in English is to not get too obsessed about perfect grammar.

And this takes us to the second way that you can start thinking in English,

and that is to focus on the words you know, not on the words

If you only know a thousand words in English, use those words.

It's probably enough to express yourself and get what you want.

According to the BBC, there are more than 170,000 words

in English, but the average native speaker uses about 20,000, so we do it too.

to express ourselves, to tell stories, to ask for things, to work, to live.

We don't worry about the 151,000 words. We don't know.

It's not important. So on a much smaller scale, you can do this in English, too.

And on an even smaller scale, I can see how my daughter is doing this now.

She doesn't have a big vocabulary, but she can tell us exactly what she

wants, and she can tell us very simple things about her day.

So let's have a look at an example of this.

Imagine you go to England and you go to a cafe.

You want one white coffee and one black coffee to go.

But you don't know the word white coffee,

and you don't know many grammar rules either.

So you say something like this: two coffee, one milk, one milk, coffee go.

So you have focused on the words, you know, and you have got what you want.

And if you do that, and if you just focus on the words you know,

it's the best way to start communicating because you don't get so frustrated about

all the grammar and vocabulary that you don't know.

Okay, so to recap, you are not going to worry about mistakes,

and you're going to only focus on the words and grammar that you know,

and you're not going to worry about everything that you don't know.

So back in the situation of the cafe, if you say to a waiter,

something like one milk, one milk, the waiter naturally will probably reply

to you with the correct expression just to make sure that he has understood.

he will probably say one white coffee and one black coffee.

the waiter might reply something like, oh, you want it to go? That's your opportunity

to listen, copy and repeat. Want it to go. I want it to go.

So you're learning, you're expanding your

English, but you're still following points one and two.

And you are focusing on the words that you

know – which is getting bigger – and not on what you don't know.

to fluency. I see this too with my two year old daughter.

Me hungry nanana Daddy. And I will reply something like, oh, do you want a banana?

Now the fourth way to start thinking in English and not translating

from your head is by focusing on chunks rather than individual words.

Now, chunks are groups of words that always come together.

So let's use the example in the cafe from earlier.

And what I really wanted to say was this:

Please can I have one black coffee and one white coffee?

Please, can I have... That is a chunk of words.