Name: Speaking English: ADVANCED Conversation Training Lesson
Uploaded: 2025-07-25T18:32:37.000Z
Duration: 11 min 21 s
Description: Thousands of YouTube videos with English-Chinese subtitles! Now you can learn to understand native speakers, expand your vocabulary, and improve your pronunciation...

Gerund

When I was living in Germany, I had a hard time thinking of what to say, figuring out how to say it in German, what words I had to change because my vocabulary was limited, and then finally saying it.

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Needless to say, I struggled with conversation.

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And I know this is true of my students who are learning English too.

Even my intermediate and advanced students.

What if you could start thinking more in English and less in your There are real techniques to make that happen.

This is part of a series of videos where I outline different techniques, training your mind to think in English.

And today we're using a more advanced technique.

If you're not ready for that, I'll put a link to a more basic training video in the description.

Today, we're hitting you with conversational questions.

You're going to see a timer and it might make you nervous.

If you can't think of a sentence in English, just think of words that you would use in your answer.

For example, if the question is, how did you celebrate New Year's?

You could come up with nothing, too much travel, too tired.

Or if you can't put together a full sentence, you might think, I had just gotten back from 11 days of travel and was too tired to do anything.

Now, often I'm trying to get my students to practice speaking out loud, everything.

We want to work on the habit of the brain thinking in English.

You're not coming up with a whole sentence in your native language and then translating.

And if you have to simplify what you're doing, then do that and stay away from full sentences.

If you think of a word in your native language, no big deal.

Let's do one question, then we'll talk a bit more about strategies.

So I'm going to ask you a question and you'll have 10 seconds to think of your answer.

My question is, tell me about something in your life right now that is really important to you.

Since you're watching this video in English, I know you know enough about English.

You have enough English skills to think of at least a few words associated with the question in English.

And if you were able to answer that question in a conversational sentence, and maybe you were still going when the timer was over, awesome.

But no matter where you're starting, if you're not yet at your goal, intentional practice, thinking in English, like we'll do today, will move you towards your goal.

If you have no idea what to say, then think that in your head in English.

Hmm, I don't know how to answer that question.

What's one thing you hope to achieve this year?

You may have started your answer with I hope to, I want to, I plan to, or I will, or maybe one of my goals is.

One of my goals for this year is to read one novel per month.

Reading makes me really happy, but I hardly make time for it anymore.

Remember, some of you can put together endless sentences in English, and some can't.

If you can only come up with a few words, that's okay.

At the end of this video, I'll tell you how to build on that.

Now, I'm going to give you three minutes of questions in a row.

This is a good place to figure out your stamina for this kind of exercise.

The questions will just keep coming at you.

If you get frustrated, just wait for the next question.

Each question is a chance to start new, bringing up a few words in English in your mind that relate to that question.

What's your favorite way to relax after a long day?

What's your favorite meal, and why do you like it?

Describe one of your favorite places to visit.

If you could instantly learn any new skill, what would it be?  Who's a person, real or fictional, that you look up to, and why?

Tell me about a time when you tried something new.

If you could relive any day of your life, which one would it be, and why?

What's one thing that always makes you laugh when you think about it?

If you could meet any historical figure, who would it be, and what would you ask them?

What do you do to stay motivated when studying or working?

Tell me about a goal you're currently working toward.

Okay, that part is done, it's over, and you did it.

Let's talk about a couple of strategies to improve your English based on this exercise.

Actually, really quickly, first, I want to let you know that a while ago, we launched a Think in English course as part of my online school, Rachel's English Academy.

My school focuses heavily on accent training, listening comprehension, and spoken English skills.

But we recognize that being able to think in English is an important part of that, so we've added a course to help you train your mind with exercises like this one here, to think in English on a regular basis.

If you might be interested in this, please check out rachelsenglishacademy.com and sign up.

First, let's start with people who found it very hard to think in full sentences in English.

You should probably spend some time going back a step to a more simple exercise of naming objects.

For example, if you see someone, you can think arm and scratch.

Then you'll have the building blocks for she's scratching her arm.

And as you look around you and you're naming nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs, if you don't know the English word for something, look it up in a dictionary, learn it, add it to your vocabulary list.

If you can think in sentences, but you want to get more sophisticated, then you'll want to do some exercises where you are speaking out loud, recording your answers.

Then you can go back and listen or watch your videos and find words that you use over and over again.

Look up synonyms, a different way to say something.

Now that you're taking the time to figure it out, you can use an online random question generator to give you prompts as you record yourself.

Take the challenge a little bit further, record a 10 second answer in a video, post it to your Instagram stories and tag me in it so I can share it.

Let's all do the work, watch and support each other doing the work.

Make this a daily practice and I guarantee you'll get more comfortable thinking in English and in English conversation.

When you don't know what question is coming, you have to think on your feet.