English is one of the most powerful tools you can master if you want to improve your career prospects or if you want to be much more confident in life in general.
When it comes to English, spoken English is basically what matters in any environment, whether it is professional or social, but managing to speak fluently can be quite challenging for someone whose primary language is not English.
In this process of learning to speak English fluently, one of the biggest challenges for non-native English speakers is definitely breaking the habit of translating English into their native language and vice versa when having a conversation with someone.
So, how do you break this habit of translating everything you hear in English into your native language in your mind?
We are going to help you out with this in this blog, as we will find out how to think in English and stop translating in your head.
But before we do so, we need to understand why you should stop translating in your head and why this habit can slow down your English fluency journey. So, let’s begin
Why You Should Stop Translating in Your Head
Slows Down English Fluency Journey
One of the reasons why experts warn against this bad habit of translating in your head is simply because it ultimately slows down the English fluency process.
You must understand that a native English speaker never has to translate and that is why if you want to reach native levels of fluency, you need to think like a native speaker.
That simply means you need to hear and then respond without trying to bring in your native language in between.
Creates Unnecessary Mistakes
Not every language is the same because different languages have different structures and syntax, which makes one-to-one translation often impossible. For instance, if you take two languages that are very similar, such as Italian and Spanish, then perhaps you can use the translation trick.
But if you take two languages, such as Hindi and English, the structures of these languages are very different.
And that is why if you continue with the habit of translating in your head, it will give rise to unnecessary mistakes that will be bad for your English fluency practice.
Blocks English Fluency
One of the other reasons why the process of translating in your mind is not good for your English learning journey is simply because this process of translation takes time when you are trying to do it while speaking with someone.
That means the words will not connect automatically and you will spend at least a few seconds translating the sentences, which will simply break the fluency.
How to Train Your Brain to Think in English
Start Small: Think in Simple English
You need to think of stopping this habit like climbing a set of stairs. If you think about all the stairs together, then it will look like a lot of work but if you simply start with one stair and move up, then things will become easy.
Similarly, you need to start small and start with simple sentences and try and answer them directly without translating them in your head.
If you feel that’s complicated, then you can simplify this even further by simply describing every object you see near you. You need to see the object and say it out loud without ever thinking about the name of that object in your native language.
You can then move on to saying out loud small actions such as walking, sitting or standing etc and then move on to simple sentences.
Use the “English Only Zone” Rule
Once you have started small, you can then move on to something like an English-only zone or moment. This is quite fun because this is when you designate a room where you are only going to speak in English or you can designate a moment of the day when you will only speak in English.
This will trick your brain into speaking in English naturally.
This can be done any which way you want, for instance, you can decide to have the English-only moment when you are driving and you can continuously describe everything you see on the road directly in English. You can also have English-only moments when you are, for instance, ordering something like food delivery or when you are speaking to customer support.
Learn Phrases, Not Just Words
Once you are comfortable with simple, small words, you can then move on to phrases because phrases will be a very practical way of improving your English and it will also be a very good method of avoiding translation in your head.
This is because the people who are fluent in English actually use phrases just like you use phrases on a daily basis when you are speaking in your native language.
This is important because memorising is always a very good technique to master a language and instead of memorising a single word, if you add one or two words in front of it or behind it, then it will trick your brain into learning bigger chunks of the language.
Practice Inner Conversations
The simplest way to master the art of English fluency and to stop yourself from translating every word into your native language and then English, is to just speak in English by yourself in your mind.
This can be done when you are alone at your home but it becomes even more effective when you are outside.
When you are outside and you hear someone say something in English, just try and reply to them but in your mind. Similarly, when you are seeing something like an ad in English, you can reply to that ad in your mind in English.
Watch, Listen, and Imitate
If you are planning on stopping the bad habit of translation in your mind, then you should surround yourself with English. This will put you in the habit of listening to English naturally and understanding English naturally.
It is easy if you live in a country where English is the native language but if you do not live in a country like that, then your second-best option is to watch shows and movies as well as YouTube videos in English without subtitles.
When you are going to the gym or perhaps driving, you should listen to English audiobooks or podcasts and when you are commuting, you should listen to English songs.
When you try and create this habit of always being surrounded in English, English will seem much more familiar to you and you will just be automatically getting rid of this habit of translation.
You must keep on practising this and also embrace mistakes because mistakes are definitely a part of this journey.
However, this journey of stopping the habit of translation in your mind can be quite difficult without any guidance and that is why if you are looking for the best guidance in the industry when it comes to English fluency, we are here for you.
We are Love U English and we can help you get rid of this bad habit of translating English into your mind with the help of our industry-renowned spoken English courses.
Our courses have been designed in the CLT method of English learning in collaboration with some of the best English academics in the industry.
We welcome you to visit our website for more details regarding our spoken English courses and we can help you get rid of the habit of translating English into your native language in your mind so that you can finally think in English.
