Shadowing Practice: 7 Smart Ways to Think in English - Learn English Speaking with YouTube

If you can think in English and stop translating,

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If you can think in English and stop translating,

then you can answer questions more fluently and participate in conversations more easily.

Let's find out how to do it.

Hi, this is Keith.

I run the website, The Keith Speaking Academy and the YouTube channel here, English Speaking Success.

By the way, if you want to build up your fluency,

check out my fluency course on Udemy.

It'll help you naturally use your grammar,

improve your pronunciation, and help really build your fluency

so you can move from being a struggling English student to a successful English speaker.

Now then, talking about thinking in English.

It's a challenge for some students, right?

And I think this is because in many schools across the world,

students are taught with what we call the grammar translation method, right?

We're taught to translate.

When I learned Chinese, right?

The teacher would say, okay,

Keith, to say hello in Chinese,

you say, great, to say, how are you?

You can say, and to say,

and so on and so on.

So it seems natural, right?

And logical at a beginner level,

you're translating to learn the language.

However, the problem is this becomes a habit that is very,

very hard to break as you move up the levels.

But it's essential that you break this habit because otherwise you're not gonna build up the fluency you need, right?

When you can start thinking in English,

then you can really answer questions more easily.

And in IELTS speaking, that's really important, right?

So in this video, I'm gonna show you seven smart ways that you can start thinking in English.

Let's begin.

So I would say the first step to thinking in English is to surround yourself with English.

Now that does not mean you have to go and live or visit an English speaking country.

Although it's great if you can, you don't have to.

No, you can do this in your own home by giving yourself even just 10 minutes a day of English.

And you can build up to 20 minutes,

30 minutes a day, build up slowly.

And it's important to see this English time as fun and enjoyable,

not study time, right?

So I'm talking about things like listening to podcasts,

listening to the internet radio,

listening to songs, reading some books,

novels, magazines, blogs, things that you like,

maybe watching TV series or films in English, right?

But having this moment when you are surrounded in English.

And during this moment, there are three things you can do, right?

First of all, you can listen passively, that's fine.

Secondly, you can repeat words that you hear or see.

Third, you can repeat phrases that you hear or see.

Now, listening passively is great because when you listen passively,

you're reducing the stress and the pressure.

And we know from research,

this can help us learn more deeply.

Repeating words and phrases is also fantastic because then you're starting to activate the vocabulary,

which means you can start to use it more fluently.

So by, I wouldn't say creating an English environment because that sounds very big, right?

And very difficult.

It's very hard to have an English environment in your home.

I prefer to call it English moments.

By creating these English moments,

maybe 10 minutes or 20 minutes,

then what you're doing is you're enabling yourself to start thinking in English because you're surrounded in English for that moment.

Great, let's move on to number two.

Okay, the next one is to only use words that you already know.

So when speaking in English,

sometimes students want to express an idea,

but they lack the vocabulary.

So they go to a dictionary and they look up the word or they ask somebody the translation, right?

¿Cómo se dice climatizar en inglés?

Ah, gracias, right?

And so you're getting a translation.

Now that's great for building your vocabulary,

yes, but it is not good for your fluency, right?

A great way to improve your fluency

and to start thinking in English is to only use the words you already know when you're speaking.

Now I know what you're thinking.

You're thinking, hang on Keith, come on.

That's too simple.

I'm just gonna be speaking simple English.

Yes, and that is the beauty of it.

It's simple.

And you can focus 100% on fluency because you're not translating.

And so you're starting to think in English.

Now, if you come across an idea you want to express,

but you lack the vocabulary when speaking,

there are two things you can do.

Not two, two things you can do.

Number one, you can either try and find a way round it to say it in another way,

paraphrase it, essential for IELTS speaking, right?

Or number two, ding, is that you can let the idea go.

The idea go.

Say something else.

Stay with the words that you know.

Trust me, I've done this with Spanish.

I've even dreamt, not only thought in Chinese,

but I've dreamt in Chinese.

This is a game changer, right?

Try this one out.

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It seems strange, but try it.

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I think you'll like it.

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Let's move on.

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Right, the next one is to start small and build up.

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So it's probably very hard to try and think in English the whole day long, right?

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Not easy at all.

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So don't think big, start small.

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Just start even thinking single words in English, right?

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And remember to always use words that you already know, right?

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So a common technique is to look at a picture.

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And as you look at the picture,

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you think of the things that you see.

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Try this.

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Have a look at this picture and just don't speak.

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Just think one word of the different things you can see.

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Try this.

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Great.

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Now, you probably all thought different things, right?

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I was thinking yoga, plants, t-shirt, lights, mat, right?

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Those are the things that I thought of.

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This is a great and simple activity, right?

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You can do this anywhere.

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You can just do it for a few minutes when you're waiting in line,

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if you're queuing in the bank or commuting on a train.

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You can use a picture,

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but probably more natural is just to look around you and describe the things that you see in your head, right?

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So, you know, you're queuing in the bank and you look around and you go,

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bank, queue, security guard, gun,

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lights, camera, noisy, and so on,

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just going on in your head, right?

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Very, very simple.

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Remember, with words that you already know,

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the secret is to do this as a daily habit right even just for a minute

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but to do it every day

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and it's starting small right atomic habits have you read

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that james clear come on if you haven't read it go

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and check it out atomic habits

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so you build up this small habit every day right that's the first thing

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and the second thing is to start small and build up

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so in my previous example we started with individual words right

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but then you can move up to collocations right two words

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or three words chunks or phrases so

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when we look at the the yoga situation right whether it's a picture

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or your yoga class you might say yoga mat blue t-shirt bright lights indoor plants right thinking Not saying,

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but you're thinking these.

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And then you can build up and you can start making phrases.

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Oh, there's a yoga mat.

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She's wearing a blue t-shirt.

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Those indoor plants are nice.

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Right, have a go.

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Here's the picture again.

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Either try collocations or short phrases.

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Have a go.

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Right, nice.

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So you can see you're starting small and building up with this daily habit, thinking in English.

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Lovely.

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Next.

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Right, next up is talk to yourself.

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So in the last activity,

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right, start small and build up,

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we were focusing on just thinking,

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right, those words and phrases in your head.

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Now we're going to extend that to actually talking to yourself,

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saying the words out loud.

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Again, the goal is not to build vocabulary, right?

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The goal is to work on fluency.

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The reason for this is I turned to the Russian psychologist and educator Lev Vygotsky, right?

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And he said that the inner voice,

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your thinking, comes from the internalization of your outer voice.

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the speaking, right?

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If you think about it,

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right, that inner voice in your head,

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it's the same voice as when you speak.

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The only difference is your muscles,

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you're not using these muscles.

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So this cycle of thinking,

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speaking, thinking, speaking, through practice,

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we can reinforce it and help us to think more in English.

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Now we're not here engaging with other people, right?

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It's just talking to yourself, right?

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So maybe as you're walking down the street,

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you go, oh, silly hat.

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That's a silly hat.

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What a lovely day.

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I love the sun.

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Oh, I'm getting hungry.

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Right?

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You're saying little snippets, little phrases to yourself and reinforcing that thought in English.

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Okay.

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Some simple activities you can do here are maybe,

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and you may want to do these at home you're not comfortable speaking out loud in the street.

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I mean, to be honest,

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nowadays, lots of people talk to themselves in the street, right?

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Potatoes, carrots, peas.

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Yeah, yeah.

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Yeah, I think I've got everything, Julie.

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Yeah, yeah.

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I'll be back home shortly.

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All right, darling.

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Cheers.

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Bye-bye.

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Or so we think.

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I mean, sometimes they're speaking on the phone.

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But if you're not comfortable talking to yourself outdoors,

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just do these at home.

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So for example, in the morning,

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you could talk about your routine for the day or your plan for the day.

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Oh, today I'm going to go shopping.

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I've got to pick up some vegetables, right?

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You can describe an activity you're doing, right?

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For example, I'm cooking, so I need two eggs.

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I need a bit more flour, more salt, I think.

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Or you can just review what you've done today, right?

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So today was a good day.

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In the morning, I did this and that,

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and ooh, that was a good idea.

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And so you can do simple things where you're actually just talking to yourself and reinforcing this thinking as well.

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Right, let's move on.

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Next is to write in English.

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So when it comes to thinking in English,

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I think the active skill of writing

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compliments the active skill of speaking in helping you create this English environment

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or what I called English moments throughout your day that will help you think in English.

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Now, of course, the way that we speak and write are very different, right?

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And I do not, do not encourage you to speak the way you write.

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They are two separate forms of communication.

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However, there is some research that suggests that writing and speaking are connected and actually influence each other.

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So I think by writing things in English,

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we can also help start thinking in English.

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Remember, only use the words that you know and start small and build up as before.

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Some simple activities could be, right?

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Writing your shopping list in English.

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Leaving a message to the family,

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pick up John at six o'clock, right?

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Or putting a post-it, a post-it?

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No, a post-it on your computer.

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Remember to email Udemy.

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And you can build up, right?

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Maybe then you write a diary in English or a blog post or a complete blog in English, right?

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But all of these are creating moments of English that are gonna help you start thinking in English.

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Let's move on.

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Now, listen, we have an expression in English,

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which is the proof is in the pudding,

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which means you can say the pudding or the dessert is delicious,

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but only when you taste it,

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do you know if it's delicious?

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The proof is in the pudding, right?

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So only when you do something,

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can you know if it works?

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So, so far, we've been looking at thinking in English to yourself,

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talking to yourself, writing notes to yourself.

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It's all about you, right?

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Next is to practise with others,

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because you need to be able to think in English when you're communicating with other people as well.

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So I think it's really important to practise speaking with others.

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And as you're doing that,

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to practise this thinking in English as you're doing it, right?

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In fact, the more you engage in conversations in English with your teacher,

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friends, students, colleagues, the more you're gonna have the chance to practise thinking in English as well.

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And when you're practising, Have some conversations where you just focus on thinking in English, right?

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Keep it simple, use the words that you know, simple conversations.

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You may want to tell the other person you're actually practising thinking in English

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so that they've got patience with you and have specific conversations just focusing on that.

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Try it out and see.

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Let's move on.

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My next and final tip is to be monolingual.

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Monolingual, let me explain.

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So one of the biggest game changers for me

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when I was learning French in particular was to move from using a bilingual dictionary,

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so French, English, to using a monolingual dictionary, French, French.

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So when I went to look up a word in French,

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it didn't translate to English.

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It gave me a definition in French.

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Mind-blowing, game changer, absolutely brilliant.

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This was a critical step because it forced me to start thinking in French.

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Yes, it was more difficult.

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Yes, it took more time.

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It was an effort, but really the change over several months was huge.

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Now, another expression we have in English is There's no such thing as a free lunch, right?

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Meaning that really you have to pay to get some benefit, right?

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So like using the monolingual dictionary,

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it's hard, it takes effort,

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but by paying, using that time and effort,

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you get the benefit and you get big, big rewards.

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So you won't make the change or transformation from thinking in your native tongue to thinking in English overnight, right?

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It just won't happen overnight.

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It takes time, it takes effort,

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and, but the rewards are huge.

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And I think the monolingual dictionary is a great one to do.

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All of the steps above,

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I think can be really, really useful.

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Try them out and let me know in the comments down below which ones work for you,

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or any other tips that you may have.

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Do remember, check out my fluency course if you want to improve your fluency

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and help you thinking more and more in English.

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In the meantime, turn on the subscriber button.

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Don't turn it on, press the subscriber button,

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turn on the notification button.

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And I look forward to seeing you very, very soon next time.

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Take care, my friend.

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Bye-bye.

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and

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Shadowing Practice: 7 Smart Ways to Think in English - Learn English Speaking with YouTube

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Shadowing Practice: 7 Smart Ways to Think in English - Learn English Speaking with YouTube

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About This Lesson

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What is the Shadowing Technique?