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 englishspeaking 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 podcast 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 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 co-workers 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.sp englishwith tiffany.com 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 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 every day activities you see when you're performing simple tasks like cooking or driv ding 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 a about to turn left all 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 make 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 to 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 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 un familiar 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 trans 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 it's 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 tip number 10 I want you to pay 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 I am just excited 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 a very unique unque 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 6:00 a.m. 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's 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 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 Co 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 mm 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 our husbands and our spous 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 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