Today, I'm going to give you 5 techniques that you can use to practice thinking in English.

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Okay, so, thinking in English.

Why is it important to think in English?

Well, basically, because it can help you to stop translating so much in your head, which can help all of your English skills, but especially your speaking.

Things will just be easier and faster if you don't translate so much.

That doesn't mean you have to be thinking in English a hundred percent of the time.

That's very unrealistic, particularly if it's not the only language you speak.

But the more you practice, the easier it becomes.

I'd also like to say that unlike a lot of teachers, I'm not going to tell you to only use an English monolingual dictionary.

In my opinion, it doesn't really matter whether you use a monolingual or bilingual dictionary.

But I won't say any more about that because I already made an entire video on it.

If you'd like to watch that, you can click on the card above or the link in the description.

So, what are some things you can do to help you think in English more often?

The first thing you can do is change the language of your electronic devices and apps.

Nowadays, most people look at their phones or computers several times a day.

If you change the language to English, not only will you possibly learn some new vocabulary, but English will become a bigger part of your everyday life.

And remember, I said apps as well.

Think about the apps that you use on a daily basis.

Maybe it's Instagram or WhatsApp or Facebook.

Change the language settings.

The second thing you can do is write lists in English.

If you're someone who writes to-do lists, you can start writing them in English.

Here is an example of a to-do list.

Buy cat food, email Frank, wash towels, sort out insurance, call the police about the neighbors.

I don't know⏤everybody has different things on their to-do lists.

If you're not somebody who writes to-do lists, you could write shopping lists in English.

A shopping list is simply a list of all the things you want to buy when you go shopping.

The third technique is to look around you and describe what you see in English in your head.

You can do this when you're sitting at home, walking in a park, or sitting on a train.

It doesn't matter.

If you're a beginner or if you're feeling lazy or you don't have much energy, you can just use single words.

For example, lamp, cat, tree.

However, it is better if you can use full sentences.

For example, if you're on a train, you might think:

That's a nice tree.

It has long branches and the leaves are starting to change color.

I wonder if Frank would like that tree.

Another technique is imagining sentences that you might use in a conversation.

It can also be a good idea to write the sentences down and practice saying them so that they almost become automatic.

Try to predict the types of conversations that you will have.

For example, if you've recently arrived in an English-speaking country and you're going to go to a party, it's likely that people will ask you questions.

They might ask you where you're from or how long you've been there or what your plans are.

So, you can think of sentences like:

I'm from Spain.

I've been here for two weeks.

I've come to England because I really want to improve my English.

I'm currently looking for a job.

I know that might sound silly or very simple, but lots of people make mistakes with simple sentences like that, particularly if they're feeling a bit shy.

The final technique is something you can do at the end of the day.

Before you go to bed, think of all the things that you did that day, but think about them in English.

You can also write them down if you want.

You can either write full sentences or short phrases.

It's up to you.

If you think that will take too much time, a nice alternative is thinking about all the positive things from that day and writing them down.

So, anything that made you happy or that you enjoyed.

This is actually something that life coaches and motivational speakers often recommend.

Not only might that put you in a better mood, but we are also more likely to do things if it seems like less work.

I remember one time when I was getting a bit lazy about my exercise, I found it quite effective to say to myself,

"You only need to go for 20 minutes."

Because if I said to myself, "You should go for 40-minute run," I often didn't go running at all.

However, if I had in my mind, "You only need to go for 20 minutes," I was more likely to do it.

And often, I ended up running for half an hour or 40 minutes, anyway.

I think the lesson is clear.

If you set yourself short, pleasant tasks, you're more likely to do them.

I hope you find some of these techniques helpful.

Let me know in the comments if you already do some of these things or if you use other techniques to practice thinking in English.

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See you next time.