if you're translating in your head then you know that that's a frustrating way to speak english but the good news is there are concrete things you can do to practice to stop translating in your head and start thinking in english in this video we're going to give you tips and strategies to start thinking in english stop translating in your head and increase fluency speaking english and what a better way to start 2020 than with this goal first i want you to name one reason why you want to start thinking in english i want to learn to think in english so i can easily participate in conversation whatever your reason is i know it's a good one and i think in 2020 you can make that happen the first tip is to start simple and name objects around you in english i remember when i was learning german and i was doing this i had to learn the article as well deya di das their computer we don't have that in english but it doesn't hurt to really focus on the pronunciation as you're thinking of simple objects in fact that's why i started my youtube channel and even my academy when i was learning german french and italian as an opera student i couldn't find any resources that focused enough on pronunciation and i knew that to be effective i needed the right pronunciation right from the beginning so i created my youtube channel and my academy to put pronunciation forward so take a moment as you're naming objects to think about pronunciation closet box million subscriber button cool globe window and if you're not sure about the pronunciation listen to some native speakers you can use an online dictionary also uglish is a great resource for this this record is replicated on every computer that uses the network computer generated movies are really mainstream today something that we couldn't possibly do with our classical computer they want him to be able to distinguish you know the telephone from the computer whatever they did with him computer computer they're all saying that with a flap computer a flap instead of a t sound computer computer middle syllable stress if you can add this step of focusing on the pronunciation and listening to native speakers awesome if not if you only have 15 seconds and you're naming as many objects as you can that's okay too so that's step one and it's simple take a moment look around you and name all of the objects that you can in english if you can do that very easily then you can move on but if that's a challenge for you spend some time on object naming every time you're in a new room a new environment take a few seconds to do it note words you don't know look them up learn them the context will help you remember them the next step is to think in simple sentences stop right now and think of the beginning of a sentence i'm i'm hungry i'm tired i'm working do it in english i'll wait a few seconds you're starting with i'm now look around you what can you say about anything in your environment this chair is comfy the drawer is open my desk is messy that one's easy because it's almost always true if there's something you can't describe look up the words you need in a dictionary memorize it memorize that phrase learning in context like this will help speaking of dictionaries see if you can do this get an english only dictionary rather than a translating dictionary between english and your native language if you come across the word in english that you don't know use the english only dictionary a learner's dictionary can you see what we're doing here we're building your mind to work in english mode rather than translation mode there is a thing called a learner's dictionary and it describes every word in english in simple words and terms try it miriam webster has one oxford cambridge and if you have to learn and understand a word by reading in english by studying what it means in english then you'll know it as an english word not as a translation of your own language so you've named single words and you've made simple sentences the next step is have small conversations with yourself in english with yourself yes you don't feel pressured to speak quickly to come up with the next thing you can keep the pace slow relaxed i absolutely did this when learning spanish in fact i remember a car trip that i did by myself from sarasota to gainesville where the whole time i spoke to myself in spanish if this is hard for you stop and give up no it will get better and easier with practice do it every day set aside two minutes every day to have a simple conversation with yourself give yourself 30 days do this every day for 30 days don't take a day off if you have five minutes one day do it for five minutes a whole conversation as simple as it needs to be in english in 30 days you'll see wow i did improve this is worth my time and then rededicate 30 more days once you're able to do this i think you're able to do step four which is really exciting change at least one of your everyday life things to english everyday life things what's that switch your calendar to english use the english months and days of the week and write what you're going to be doing in english or do you do to-do lists try it in english a grocery list or change your facebook settings so that your language is in english everything you see you've got a friend request and so on will be in english maybe try internet searches in english or read an english newspaper or listen to news in english do you write a journal try writing it in english yes i love this take one thing every day and do it in english switch your brain every morning when you wake up before you get out of bed take two minutes to think about your day in english here's another idea of an everyday thing you can do in english take one thing like getting dressed making breakfast getting from your car to your desk cleaning up as you're doing it in your head narrate in english laundry day that's light that should go there let's see does this need to be sprayed for stains yeah better spray it all right let's load up the washing machine [Music] oh that's too light that should go there [Music] okay shove it all in [Music] and let's get some soap where is that here it is put it in there close the door press start there we go and here's another one i love learn how to do one thing in english it can be really small like how to poach an egg research it and learn about it in english only watch only english videos and read only english instructions or maybe it's something bigger a bigger project like how to knit or how to draw take an online course in english only on that topic pick something you're dying to know how to do anyway this will make it a super enjoyable lesson the next step is something you're actually going to want to be doing all along with all the steps and that's keep track so you're doing it every day once you choose that you want to think in english and stop translating in your head write down every day what you do and of course do this in english it could look like this today i named everything around me that i could think of in english two different times i watched a three minute news story in english just having a place to write it down can motivate you to do it and the last thing is something you can do every night after you lay down for bed but before you fall asleep recap your day in english you're taking advantage of this opportunity that you'll have every day no matter where you are or what your day was like no one i know falls asleep the moment their head hits the pillow what a lovely day that was i got to meet my mom for lunch go for a walk in the afternoon and i even had time to watch a movie after i put the kids down to bed and who knows by putting your mind in english mode just before bed maybe you're even setting yourself up to dream in english continuing your practice the brain does amazing things with what it's learned that day while you sleep what have you done to build a consistent english practice to help you start to think in english put it in the comments so others can learn from your best tips which of these ideas is new to you or which are you most excited about let me know the next video i want you to watch is one with tips on increasing your vocabulary this can help with naming objects and of course starting to have those conversations with yourself in your head please don't forget to subscribe with notifications i make new videos on speaking english every tuesday that's it and thanks so much for using rachel's english