Shadowing Practice: 2649 - 3 Tips to Start Thinking in English - Learn English Speaking with Video
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Hello Michelle. How are you today? Hi Aubrey. I'm good. I'm good. Aubrey, what do you think is the best way to teach your brain to stop translating from your first language? Oh, this is such a good question and we have students ask us this a lot and it's to start thinking in English or for me thinking in Spanish, thinking in French. any language you're learning, you need to think in that language instead of first thinking it in your first language and then translating it into your second language. But the trick is how do we do that? What do we need to do in order to start thinking in English? And that is what we are diving into today. I'm excited. Yes.
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And that's because we have a wonderful listener question um from it looks like it's from uh oh sorry I scrolled JB. Yes. We apologize if we are not pronouncing your name correctly. Hopefully we are. Um, do you want to read the question for us, Michelle? Sure. This question comes to us from YouTube. So, it says, "Hello, Lindsay and Michelle. I love your podcasts a lot, and they are not they not only accompany me along the way to classes, but also really teach me many things." A big thanks. Thank you. I love that much. You are so glad. Thank you for letting us know. Yes. It says, "But I find it challenging to speak English and connect with other people in an unnatural and spontaneous way. I mean, I'm always having to prepare for a long time to speak.
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Could you please share some suggestions?" Thank you so much. Have a nice day. Thank you so much. This is a really great questions question. I mean, this is one of the biggest issues ESL speakers face in English and it's a huge part of connection. Exactly. Because when you're speaking spontaneously, you're not just talking. You are reacting to the other person or people if it's a group, expressing yourself, joking, keeping the conversation alive and building that connection. That's a lot to think about. And constantly stopping to form sentences or think about what you want to say can make all of that very difficult. Yeah. Yeah. Exactly. So, I mean, speaking spontaneously is really tricky, Aubrey. I mean, it's all about what's going on in your brain. And if you're translating, for example, from your first language, how quickly you can think of the words that you need. So, what happens is you're translating and this ultimately slows you down. And not only that, we talk about this a lot on the podcast. It slows you down and it causes errors that you wouldn't make if you are instead observing English and thinking in English.
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Because when we translate between languages, the grammar is always different. The vocabulary is always different and we make these mistakes when we're expecting it to work differently in our first language and in English and it often does not. Yeah, exactly. So today we are going to give you tips on how to think in English. Right. So this can speed up the process and you're going to start to remember vocab faster. Grammar becomes more automatic. Um and just you're you're going to loosen up, I think. So guys, before we talk about these tips, make sure you've hit the follow button or subscribe wherever you are listening to the All Ears English podcast so you never miss anything from us. Yes. So let's dive in. How do we start thinking in English? That's the question. We are giving you three amazing tips today with some good details, but also give yourself some grace.
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This takes time and consistent practice, but you can speed up the process with some really good tricks. Yeah, I love these. So, the first trick, guys, is to narrate your activities in English.
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This sounds it it I'm, you know, I'm sure some listeners are hearing this and they're thinking it sounds a little bit cheesy, right? Or it might feel cheesy the first time you try it, especially if it's out loud. If you're like, I'm walking from my bed to the door, and now I'm opening the door.
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It might feel strange, but this is making your brain think those things in English without first thinking it in your first language. Exactly. And what's great is you can do this alone, you know, just while getting ready in the morning. Okay. You know, oh, I'm I have to brush my teeth. Um, let me make breakfast. Um, yeah. And even all the steps of that, I'm going to brush my teeth. I'm opening the tube of toothpaste. I'm squeezing it and putting some on my toothbrush. Now I'm Maybe don't talk while you're brushing your teeth. You're going to make a mess. But then think in your mind. Now I'm brushing my teeth with my mouth as closed as possible so I don't make a mess. This is what I tell my children. Like why why is there toothpaste dots all over this mirror? Um but even yeah, if you're walking somewhere or talking to pets, that's a really great one. Um people talk to their pets all the time. So give that a try. That's just as much as you can say as possible.
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And you don't have to be with a human person speaking English in order to do this. Exactly.
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This is because that's one of the hardest things sometimes is finding that conversation partner, those those speaking partners. This can either be in your head if you're on the subway or somewhere in public, just saying it in your head and then out loud whenever you're alone. And you can if you're walking to the park, if you're on a run, if you're alone at home, do this out loud. describe what you're doing as you're cooking out loud and then you will start to recognize vocabulary gaps. If you want to say, "I'm using a spatula to flip this egg and you don't know how to say spatula," look it up, right? Figure out, use your vocabulary notebook and add to your vocabulary so that you can describe what you're doing. Yeah. Exactly. So, this might sound like, you know, oh, I'm running late or where did my hairbrush go? Or, wow, this food smells good. Right. This is just um anything anything that's happening. And I love all of those points because it's not just I'm doing this and then I'm doing this and I'm using this to do it. It's also how am I feeling? What am I smelling? What am I missing? What am I thinking? Right? There's a lot that you would think in your first language. I'm feeling tired or maybe plans for later like oh I can't forget to call you know Stacy later or something like that. Exactly. Think that in English. And don't do this all day long.
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you will be exhausted. Like 30 minutes a day, take 30 minutes to really focus and have all of your thoughts be in English and narrate what you're doing in English. And then maybe if you don't feel too exhausted, do it again later in the day for another 30 minutes. Right. Right. And so this is going to start to, you know, as Aubrey said, you turning it into active vocabulary, you're going to start to just get more comfortable with getting the words out. So removing some of that spatula might be on in your vocab note notebook somewhere. Maybe it's passive vocabulary that you have learned but you haven't actually used it in a conversation. How often do we say spat? I don't know that word in Spanish or French because I don't have conversations about cooking.
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So if I were to narrate my thoughts in French that this has happened to me. That was a gap where I wanted to think you know um I'm like trying to think it in French. I'm like I don't know how to say spatula. Got to go look it up. And clearly it's not in my active vocabulary yet because I can't say it right now. But if I kept narrating my thoughts, eventually I would be able to, right? And I love what you said about like finding the gaps. I mean, that's a that's huge, right? So, just you will find gaps. Wait, I actually don't know how to say that. And so, you're going to find different ways to learn and you're going to be practicing while you're relaxed. So, that's huge as well. Yes, this will remove that fear of speaking or at least a lot of it because it will feel more natural. It's low stress. You're building confidence by yourself as you narrate your thoughts and start thinking in English. Hey, quick question. Do you want to feel more confident when you speak English? If so, we made a free guide for you. It'll help you avoid those common mistakes and start speaking more naturally in real conversations. Go grab it in the description below. And if this is helpful for you, make sure that you like and subscribe.
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We're here five times a week to help you connect in English. All right. And the number two tip here is to think in phrases. So, this means to learn common phrases, chunks we often call them, used by natives. These are not just one word responses. It's a whole chunk. They are go-to phrases that are related to new vocabulary words. And that when you're thinking in those whole chunks, those whole phrases, trains your brain to think in English. Yeah. So, this might sound like instead of saying nervous, saying I'm pretty nervous about or what else are right. Yes. Or instead of saying just funny, you might say that's so funny. That's the funniest thing I've ever heard. And as you're observing English, shadowing English. Add these words in the chunk they were used by the native speaker to your vocabulary notebook. And then practice when you are thinking in English, use the whole phrase. Yes, exactly. um or busy like I've been really busy lately. I can't I can't believe how busy uh this this week has gotten something like super busy. I have such a busy crazy week, right? These chunks where we would use that word instead of just I am busy, right? Yes. Use these more native chunks and that's yeah this is how native speakers think, right? This is how you think in your first language and you need to do it in English as well. It will make you sound more natural. It's kind of a shortcut. There's no need to construct a whole new sentence because you've learned the vocabulary as part of a chunk. Yeah. Yeah. Exactly. And the third thing is let go of perfection. And I bet you're not surprised to hear us say that because we believe in connection, not perfection. Yeah. This reminds me of our roast. If you guys heard the roast, all of us AI is like, you guys talk about connection, not perfection a lot. It's because we really believe it. AI.
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True. Get off our books. Yeah. Exactly. Leave us alone. Um Yeah. So, you know, um you know, respond before you feel ready and start your sentence and fill in the words as you go. So, you don't have to wait to create a full sentence in your head. And then again, accept the mistakes.
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We're all going to make mistakes. And just realize it's part of the process. I mean, my son is learning to um is really getting into drawing. And at first, he was really, really hard on himself when he would make a mistake. And so, I had to kind of teach him to accept that that's part of the process. And I actually think that he's starting to really grow from that. So, it's just part of the process and that's fine. Yeah. And we have all experienced that with language learning.
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All we've seen all of this where we do hesitate to make those mistakes. We know we sound, you know, that it might we maybe feel like someone's impatient with all of our mistakes, but they're not. They're just excited to connect with you. And this advice to start the sentence and then fill in the words. As you are speaking, you are seeing the need for this because when you're in a group conversation and someone says something, you don't have time to think through that whole sentence before you say it. The moment's gone, someone else says something. You have to be able to jump in, start saying it, and build that sentence as you go. And if you practice this in advance, you'll get better and better at it. Yeah, I love that. So, yeah, this might be a a little messy, and that's okay. Um, and you might start sentences with well or I think, and that's okay. But guess what? Native speakers do that, too. I mean, jump in a conversation. Well, I think and that might be me kind of gathering my thoughts and deciding how do I want to express this opinion? How careful do I need to be? I'm judging the what register should I use? How formal should I be? Think about that.
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There's all so many things you think about when you go to talk about the relationships and how are these and and let me remember really quick what this person thinks or what do I know? How am I going to change? There's a lot that we're thinking about. You have some time to start that sentence and think about the vocabulary, the phrase, the chunks you want to use as you go. Oh, definitely.
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Yeah. I mean, and this works because speaking imperfectly helps develop fluency. Um, you know, mistakes often just kind of work themselves out in time or show, like we mentioned before, the gaps where you need to improve what you need to learn. And ultimately, this practice is just going to help build your confidence. Absolutely. Just like speaking with real people in conversations.
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When you find speaking partners, when you come to our live speaking events, when you join one of our classes, you come to open conversation club fluency parties, students are running speaking practice as well. All of that builds so much practice, so much fluency and confidence. But also this doing it on your own whenever you have time, narrating your thoughts, thinking them out loud, that also is going to build that confidence so you're ready for conversations with people.
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Absolutely. Yeah, I love that. Um, yeah, I mean this is such a good question. Um, just I think that this listener is really going to grow by, you know, thinking like this and um guys, all of you out there, right? Every single Exactly. Everyone, yes, you are going to become more fluent and confident. Try it out. Try these tips and you will see a difference quickly. Yes. Exactly.
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Exactly. Check out episode 26:45. That was little versus small and great versus big. Anything we want to leave our listeners with today, Aubrey? I mean, you've heard this before, but connection, not perfection, guys, right? This is how you do that. You don't have to jump into a conversation, having never spoken English, and expect to be confident and expect to not be worried about making mistakes. There's so much you could do in advance to prepare so that you're ready to dive into those conversations with confidence knowing that sure you might make a few mistakes, but you are going to be able to connect. You're going to be able to have that conversation and then you can really believe that, okay, I am ready to connect. I'm ready to have these conversations and I don't have to worry about everything I say being perfect. Love it. All right. Well, thanks again for the question and Aubrey. I'm glad we spoke about this today and guys, we'll see you on the next one. Yes. See you guys next time. Bye bye.
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Why This Video Is Perfect for Speaking Practice
This video is a goldmine for learners aiming to speak English more naturally. It focuses on thinking in English—a key skill that bridges the gap between translating and fluency. The conversational tone mirrors real-life interactions, making it ideal for practicing shadowing (repeating phrases aloud to mimic rhythm and pronunciation). Plus, the tips are actionable, so you can start applying them immediately to improve your speaking and reduce translation delays.
Breaking Down Natural Phrases
The dialogue is packed with native-like chunks that sound natural because they’re how real people talk. For example: - “I’m pretty nervous about” (instead of just “nervous”) shows how to use phrases, not just single words. - “That’s the funniest thing I’ve ever heard” uses a common structure to express strong emotion. - “I can’t believe how busy this week has gotten” blends vocabulary with casual grammar, making it easy to remember and reuse. These chunks train your brain to think in English, not just translate, which is key for spontaneous speaking.
A Simple Practice Routine for Shadowing
Use this repeat-and-record loop to master the video’s lessons:
- Watch and listen: Play a 30-second clip, focusing on intonation and rhythm.
- Shadow speak: Pause and repeat the clip aloud, matching the speed and tone. This improves pronunciation and fluency.
- Narrate your day: After shadowing, spend 10 minutes describing your activities in English (e.g., “I’m making coffee—this mug is hot!”). Note gaps in vocabulary and look them up.
- Record yourself: Compare your recording to the video. Notice where you hesitate and practice those parts again.
Whether you’re using shadowspeaks techniques or learning English with YouTube, this video offers practical steps to move beyond translation. Remember: connection, not perfection, is the goal. Start small, stay consistent, and watch your confidence grow.
Grammar in this video
The structures the speaker uses most, with the exact words from the video:
| Structure | In the video |
|---|---|
| Conditional sentences if + clause, will/would + verb — a condition and its result | if you practice this in advance, you'll get |
| Present perfect have/has + past participle — a past action that still matters now | you've hit · have learned · has happened |
| Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does it | will be exhausted · are related |
What is the Shadowing Technique?
Shadowing is a science-backed language learning technique originally developed for professional interpreter training and popularized by polyglot Dr. Alexander Arguelles. The method is simple but powerful: you listen to native English audio and immediately repeat it out loud — like a shadow following the speaker with just a 1–2 second delay. Unlike passive listening or grammar drills, shadowing forces your brain and mouth muscles to simultaneously process and reproduce real speech patterns. Research shows it significantly improves pronunciation accuracy, intonation, rhythm, connected speech, listening comprehension, and speaking fluency — making it one of the most effective methods for IELTS Speaking preparation and real-world English communication.