Have you ever had such an experience that after intensive English lessons you caught yourself thinking English? Yes? Congratulations, you have every chance to learn to think in English! If this has not happened yet, you still have something to come, and our article will help.
Practical benefits
Why think in English? Are thoughts no longer suitable? Here are some of the benefits of thinking in a foreign language:
- The more often you use English instead of native words in your mind, the livelier and faster your speech will be.
- And lively and fluent speech (even with errors) is perceived better than protracted and slow due to the selection of words and the construction of phrases
- Learning to build phrases fluently can help avoid anxiety when communicating with native speakers
- Switching thinking to a foreign language can be compared to brain fitness: the convolutions will strain, as a result, speech, memory and intellect will also train
- Thinking in English is a new, advanced level.
5 easy steps
If you decide to try switching your thinking to English, follow the algorithm:
- In your free time, when you are not busy with anything and your mind is clear, concentrate on your thoughts and try to selectively insert English words into phrases. Yes, at first it may not work, yes, in the first couples it will be simple vocabulary. Over time, the vocabulary will increase, the number of English words will grow, gradually reaching 100%.
- Work to increase your vocabulary. Switch your phone and apps to English, post stickers with new words around the house, watch movies with subtitles.
- In the evening, before bed, replay in your mind the events of the day and the dialogues that happened to you today. The story can be either from 1 person or from 3 person - so it is even more interesting. Imagine yourself as the author of a novel! Remember, practicing mental speaking in English is challenging, but effective.
- The next stage is not words, but phrases and short sentences in English. Remind yourself to wedge in the sentences in English during the thought flow. It doesn't matter if they are correct or not - the main thing is to do it as often as possible.
- When you feel progress and realize that thinking in English is interesting and new, throw out the English dictionary and buy an English-English one. Dictionary entries there are given in English - this plays into our hands, because the last step in mastering thinking in English is the refusal of translation and complete immersion in the language.
And a few more tips
- Give a description to the world around you. Riding a tram - come up with a story of a bald man with a newspaper in his hand or a girl in a pink skirt and headphones. We went into a store - mentally trace the path of Ecuadorian bananas or Brazilian Arabica.
- Chat and read in English
- Expand your vocabulary. He is the key to successful language acquisition.
Good luck!
