Want to THINK in English? Here's how to train your brain.

معنی واژه با لمس

1. 0:00You can know a lot of English and still feel like it disappears as soon as someone asks you a simple question.
2. 0:09You've probably had this, right?
3. 0:11You understood what they said, and you know what you wanna say, but somewhere between the thought and your mouth, it's like there's this very busy little meeting happening inside your head.
4. 0:25First, you've gotta check that you understood correctly.
5. 0:29Is this what they said?
6. 0:30Then you need to think of your answer, and you've gotta try and find the right English words to help you give that answer.
7. 0:37You've gotta check your grammar, and then you've gotta worry if you've chosen the right words or not.
8. 0:44And sometimes by the time that you're actually ready to speak, that connection has been made, the conversation's moved on.
9. 0:53It's exhausting, and it's no wonder that so many of my students ask me, " Emma, help me to think in English.
10. 1:12Hey, ladies! Welcome back and a big welcome to anyone who is joining us for the very first time.
11. 1:19This is The Confident English Podcast.
12. 1:23My name is Emma.
13. 1:24I'm the founder of Hey Lady!, an online community that brings women together from all around the world to practise speaking English.
14. 1:35Every week, we break down the barriers that keep you from speaking with confidence, whether that's at work, while you're traveling, or in everyday life.
15. 1:45And if you've been learning English for a long time and you are asking yourself, " Why am I still translating in my head every time I try and speak?" You are in the right place, and I'm excited that you're here.
16. 2:02Let's get into the episode.
17. 2:13This week's episode was inspired by a message from one of our listeners.
18. 2:18Hi Emma, I've studied English for four years already while complete my university degree.
19. 2:23I would say my English is quite good nowadays.
20. 2:26But still I always thinking in both language.
21. 2:29Mandarin, Hokkien, and English together.
22. 2:31I want to, to think in English.
23. 2:34Like just think and speak.
24. 2:36What should I do now?
25. 2:37My cert is around B2, C1.
26. 2:40I feel like still need more study, but I don't know what.
27. 2:43Thank you.
28. 2:44Oh, this is such a great question.
29. 2:48It is so frustrating when you've put so much time and effort into learning that it almost feels unfair that you have to go through this slow mental process every time you speak, and you're thinking, " Oh my God, how much more do I need to learn before this stops feeling so hard, until it just happens naturally without having to think about it?" Well, the good news is that if you have reached this stage in your journey where you can understand English but you're not yet thinking in English, then you are ready to start developing this skill.
30. 3:36So today, I'm gonna share with you two different ways that you can practise thinking in English.
31. 3:44First, I'm gonna show you how you can practise on your own, and then how to take that skill into real conversations for practice.
32. 4:01When you first started learning English, most of the language probably came to you through a lesson of some kind, a, a textbook or a course or a YouTube video.
33. 4:14Unless you grew up surrounded by English, well, your teacher probably wasn't standing right beside you in the supermarket saying, " That's a trolley." They weren't walking down the street with you saying,"She's walking her dog.
34. 4:30It's starting to rain.
35. 4:33That boy is crying because he fell down." That way of learning creates direct connections between the language and the meaning because it's literally right in front of your eyes, and this is how we all learned our first language, and our teachers, our parents, or our grandparents were right there with us the whole time.
36. 4:58But when you learned English, that connection between the language and the meaning was not quite so direct.
37. 5:07So most of the time, you learned the English first, and then you connected it to meaning through another point of reference.
38. 5:16An explanation a picture, or through your first language.
39. 5:22Because you learn what that word means in your native language Your native language helped you to build little bridges to connect the meaning with English, and that's really useful when you're learning.
40. 5:38But as you probably now realise, you are constantly crossing bridges in your mind.
41. 5:45You're going back and forth between English and your native language, and going back and forth like that takes time.
42. 5:54What you now need to do is practise making more of those connections in the moment directly between meaning and English.
43. 6:10So here's a little exercise that I want you to do.
44. 6:13I want you to look around the room or the place you're in right now and describe what you can see directly in English.
45. 6:25I don't just mean name things, table, book, window, computer.
46. 6:33I want you to start with a simple observation and then build the thought in English.
47. 6:40So let's look at an example.
48. 6:42She's walking her dog.
49. 6:45Then add something else.
50. 6:48She's walking her dog to the park.
51. 6:51Add another detail.
52. 6:54She's walking her dog to the park on a really hot day.
53. 6:59Keep going.
54. 7:01She's walking her dog to the park on a really hot day, wearing a heavy jacket.
55. 7:08And then maybe add a reaction.
56. 7:12I don't know how she can stand it! I would be so hot! Notice what we're doing here?
57. 7:19We're not creating a long, impressive, complicated thought in your native language first, and then trying to translate the whole thing.
58. 7:29You're practising having the thought in English as it develops, and this is not about being impressive or complicated.
59. 7:38It is about being basic and building from there.
60. 7:42Don't worry if you don't know every word you need.
61. 7:46Just use the English that comes to you in that moment, even if it does feel really simple.
62. 7:53And don't be surprised if the words that come to you aren't exactly the ones that you imagined you would use.
63. 8:01That's okay.
64. 8:03In fact, that's actually perfect because the goal is not to create the perfect sentence.
65. 8:11The goal is to practise building your thoughts directly in English without crossing that bridge and going back to your native language again.
66. 8:21And you can do the same thing with something that you've just listened to or watched.
67. 8:28You could listen to this podcast or a video.
68. 8:32When you finish it, turn it off and explain the main idea back to yourself in English.
69. 8:40Don't repeat the exact words that I said, but use what you know to explain what happened.
70. 8:49Maybe express what really interested you.
71. 8:52Maybe share your own opinion about the topic.
72. 8:56And that forces you to find the English yourself instead of simply just recognising someone else's English.
73. 9:05If you want to think in English, you need to practise producing thoughts in English.
74. 9:17So the first exercise is something that you can do on your own, and you can do it as much as you like.
75. 9:24It's really useful.
76. 9:26But the next step, and the most important one, is to use this skill in conversations.
77. 9:34But I don't want you to make this complicated.
78. 9:37Start simple.
79. 9:39A simple, casual conversation can give you something that solo practice can't.
80. 9:48Another person.
81. 9:50And when you're speaking with another person, it changes everything.
82. 9:55Someone can ask you a question that you didn't expect.
83. 9:59They might ask for more detail.
84. 10:01You might hear another opinion, Maybe someone makes you laugh.
85. 10:06And so the experience is different.
86. 10:09Now you are listening, and you're thinking, and you're responding spontaneously in that moment.
87. 10:17We want English to feel less like something that you have prepared for and more like something that you can adapt while the conversation is happening.
88. 10:30So the second exercise is simple.
89. 10:35Have more real conversations in English.
90. 10:44There is one technique that makes this even more effective, and that is come back to the same general topic multiple times.
91. 10:57The first time that you talk about something in English, there is a lot going on.
92. 11:02You are deciding what you think about this topic.
93. 11:05You are finding the words that you need, building the sentences all at the same time.
94. 11:12But the next time that you return to that topic, well, some of the language, some of the ideas and the thoughts that you want to share are already familiar.
95. 11:25You've used some of those words before.
96. 11:28You've heard other people share ideas about this topic.
97. 11:32You've already thought about some of those ideas again yourself.
98. 11:36So now you have a little bit of space to refine, to listen, and to think, and to respond in a better way.
99. 11:46And the best part about this is you're building on what you know.
100. 11:52You're reinforcing the connections between your brain and your ears and your mouth.
101. 11:59And all of this makes each conversation about this topic a little bit easier, a little bit smoother, a little bit faster.
102. 12:14This is a technique that we've developed very deliberately inside Hey Lady! Every month, our coaches introduce a new conversation theme, one broad topic, and in each topic you get vocabulary lessons, useful expressions, grammar lessons, pronunciation, all of these things that help you to establish familiarity with the topic.
103. 12:45Then we create lots of different conversations around this topic.
104. 12:51So for example, one topic might be healthy eating, and your first conversation could be,"What does healthy eating mean to you?" And so you talk about what you cook, what you eat at home, and maybe what healthy food looks like in your country.
105. 13:14Now, that first conversation, it might feel difficult.
106. 13:19You might be translating in your head.
107. 13:21Searching for specific words that you need to articulate your idea in English.
108. 13:27You might hear other people using new words or new ideas that you hadn't thought of.
109. 13:33But then a few days later, you come back to talk about the same topic, but the question changes.
110. 13:43Why does healthy food seem so expensive?
111. 13:47Hmm.
112. 13:48Now you need an opinion, but you're not starting from zero.
113. 13:53You've already got words like fresh ingredients, processed foods, and meal planning.
114. 14:00They're already familiar and easier for you to use.
115. 14:04So you can build on those ideas and everything that you learned from your first conversation in the next one.
116. 14:12You get to refine and improve.
117. 14:15Each time, the conversation is new, but more and more of the English that you need is familiar.
118. 14:24You're building on that familiar English to express new ideas and to respond to new people or share a different opinion.
119. 14:34It's all familiar language, but it's new thoughts, and you're practising getting those thoughts into your head quicker.
120. 14:43The more often you do that, the more natural it becomes to listen, to think, and to respond in English about this topic without needing to cross that bridge and go back to your native language to translate each and every time.
121. 15:02So that building on the topic is really important.
122. 15:12Now, if you would like to build fluency like this and to speak more freely and effortlessly in English, you'd need a place to practise, people to practise with, right?
123. 15:27Well, that is where Hey Lady! can help you.
124. 15:30Our online community was designed for speaking practice.
125. 15:35Speaking practice in a safe, supportive environment where you won't feel judged about making mistakes.
126. 15:42You'll always be encouraged to try.
127. 15:46And you can try Hey Lady! for free for seven days.
128. 15:50You can experience the community, join some conversations, and do all of that before you decide if you'd like to continue and become a member.
129. 16:01The link is down in the show notes, or if you're watching here on YouTube, you can scan the code you see on screen next to me.
130. 16:09As always, I love to hear from you, so if you've got a question or a challenge that you're facing with your English, then leave me a comment down below.
131. 16:20I read every single one.
132. 16:23Your question might even become a future podcast episode here.
133. 16:28If you enjoyed this episode, please make sure you hit that like button subscribe to the channel so that our message gets out to more women who need to hear it.
134. 16:40Thank you so much for spending time with me today, and remember, if you want to think in English, you need to practise thinking in English.
135. 16:48Bye for now, but I will see you next week.