You need to stop translating in your head from your own language into English.

You need to start thinking directly in English.

And that's why in today's video I want to talk to you about why this happens, why it's a bad thing to translate from your own language into English, and how you can start thinking directly in English.

Now before we start, let's talk about why this is actually a problem.

Why shouldn't you translate from your own language into English?

Now think about this.

If you're like most students, you have translated, you have done this before.

You want to say something, you have an idea, you translate that idea into English, you look for the correct grammar, you look for the correct vocabulary, maybe even pronunciation, and then finally you say it.

You say it out loud in English.

And what happens is it slows you down.

It's unnecessary.

You're creating this unnecessary step.

And we don't want that.

Because you should be able to speak just like that, right, without having to actually think about the mechanical side of the language.

You want to get rid of that extra step.

Because it's not natural.

It's not a natural way of speaking.

You don't do this in your native language.

You don't even think about language when you're speaking your native language.

So why should it be any different in English?

And obviously there is the problem of, well, grammar in certain languages is completely different from grammar in English.

Some words in other languages don't have a translation in English.

So yes, it's obviously going to slow you down if you translate, but in some cases it might not even be possible to translate from your own language into English.

It might be totally incorrect.

So forget translation.

Forget that.

You need to think directly in English without worrying about the mechanics of the language.

Now I want to talk to you about how you can actually do this.

How do you think directly in English?

How do you make speaking English something natural?

Something comfortable?

Something that you don't need to think about?

Well, in English we have an expression.

Fake it till you make it.

Fake it till you make it.

It means you pretend to do something until eventually, after you do it a lot, you got it.

You've made it.

You've succeeded.

Okay?

Fake it till you make it, we say.

And what I want you to do is fake being a native speaker.

Fake being a native English speaker.

Now the reason why your native language is so natural to you is because your whole world when you grew up was in that language.

Your whole environment was in your native language.

And when you learn a second language or a third language, which might be English or another language, suddenly you have a different environment.

It's not the same.

Your parents might not speak it.

Your friends might not speak it.

You still do things in your native language.

And when I say fake it till you make it, I mean pretend you're a native English speaker and live your life like a native English speaker would.

Surround yourself with the English language.

Think about what a native English speaker would do in the morning when he or she wakes up.

They'd turn on their phone.

Their phone would be in English.

Put your phone in English.

They would go get ready for the day.

Maybe they would watch YouTube as they brush their teeth in English.

Maybe they would turn on the radio as they prepared breakfast.

The radio would be in English.

Everything in their life would be in English because that's their native language.

And since they're exposed to the language, since they're surrounded by the language, it's natural to them.

They don't need to think about it.

They just speak.

And that's the key.

That is the key to becoming fluent in a language.

Surrounding yourself with the language.

Making the language part of you.

Part of your life.

If you don't do this, it will always just be a school subject.

It will always be something that you have to study, that you have to think about.

It will never be part of you.

So as I said, fake it till you make it.

Do the things that a native English speaker would do in their life.

It's not rocket science.

If you do the same things a native English speaker does to learn the language, to live their life, then you can achieve the same results.

It's very simple.

And I think a lot of students forget this.

They're too focused on the textbook.

They're too focused on conjugation tables.

They're too focused on all these academic things.

And I think a big problem or a big part of this problem is the school system.

Because in school, when you learned English, you probably learned in a very unnatural way.

You probably divided your day into one hour of English.

And you sat down, you read a textbook, you did some exercises for that one hour.

And then after the class was over, you switched into your own language.

Which is fine, of course.

It's obvious why, but that method of compartmentalizing English or just blocking it off in a way won't help you become fluent.

Because it doesn't allow the language into your whole life.

If you're serious about becoming fluent, you should allow the English language to consume you.

To be part of everything in your life.

As much as possible.

Obviously, some things you can only do in your native language.

But the point here is that you need to pretend you're a native speaker.

Let's say you like to cook.

A student came to me recently and she loved cooking.

She loved reading recipes.

And I asked her, okay, what language do you read those recipes in?

And she read them in her native language.

So that's a simple change.

I told her, read them in English.

You're cooking, you're doing something you love, and you're also improving your English at the same time.

We say you're killing two birds with one stone.

Maybe not a very nice idiom, but we say that in English.

You're killing two birds with one stone.

You're doing two things at the same time, and you're getting double the benefit for less the time.

So it's not about creating extra time.

It's not about trying to find extra hours in the day.

It's about using the time you have in the 24-hour day and replacing some things.

Replacing things that you're already doing in your native language with things in English.

Maybe you're on the bus.

Maybe you're commuting to school or to work, and you like to scroll through the news in your native language.

Well that's another great fix you can make.

You can make that change.

You can now start to read the news in English.

Or maybe you like to listen to podcasts.

You can listen to the podcasts in English.

Maybe you like to create a to-do list before bed every night.

You can create this list in English.

Maybe you have a calendar.

You write things in your calendar.

You can do this in English.

Once you've allowed English into your life, and of course you need to speak too, it's great to surround yourself with the language, but you also need to speak.

If you don't have anybody to speak to, you can speak with yourself, but there are so many resources online you can find people to speak to on various platforms.

One of those, by the way, is the English at the Ready Club.

If you are interested in learning more about the club, click the link in the description below.

It's an amazing opportunity to meet people, to practice speaking, to have live classes, and to study English every week, but as I was saying, the key is speaking and surrounding yourself with the language.

Now eventually, when you make this a habit, don't do it for a week.

Don't do it for two weeks.

You need to do it for a month, two, three, or four months to actually see a difference, but if you do this, if you allow English into your life, speaking is going to feel so much more natural.

Eventually you're not actually going to have to think about language.

You'll just be able to speak.

You'll be able to express your ideas without allowing language to slow you down or to burden you, and when we talk about fluency, that's the key to fluency.

Fluency doesn't mean being perfect.

It doesn't mean being able to conjugate verbs in all 12 tenses on the back of your hand 50 times, because honestly, most native speakers probably couldn't do that either.

Fluency in a language, whether that's English or your native language, just means that you can express your ideas, you can communicate your thoughts without allowing language to slow you down or to burden you or to be a problem for you.

I'll give you an analogy.

Think about when you're sick.

Think about when you have a bad cold and your nose is really, really stuffed.

You can't breathe through your nose.

All you can think of in that moment is, ah, I can't breathe.

My nose is so stuffed.

But then think of the remaining time in your life, 99% of the time, when you can breathe just fine, you're not actually thinking about your nose.

It just happens.

So when you're allowing yourself to translate from your own language into English, it's like you have a stuffed nose, because that's all you can think of now.

But if you clear your nose and you think directly in English, you won't even think about the language.

Everything will just flow.

It will be in the background operating while your ideas, while your thoughts that you're communicating are in the front.

And that's what fluency is.

That's all it is, allowing yourself to express your ideas without feeling restricted by language.

So what I want you to do now, if you've made it this far into the video, I want you to create a plan.

Sit down, take 10 minutes, 15 minutes, come up with a list of things in your life.

Maybe that's reading recipes, maybe that's creating a to do list, a calendar, your phone, your computer, anything.

But create a list of things in your life that you can change into English.

Because remember, fake it till you make it.

Pretend you're a native speaker.

Do that for a while, and I'm very confident you will be surprised at how much progress you can make and how confident you can feel with the English language.

I hope you found this video useful.

If you want to support the channel, make sure to leave a like.

Let me know in the comments what you are going to do to make English a part of your life.

Let me know, I'm curious to read your list of things that you created.

Don't forget to subscribe to English at the Ready here on YouTube so you don't miss any future lessons and videos on English.

If you want to learn more about how I can help you improve your English this year, then click the link in the description below to learn more.

I hope you have a great day, and I'll see you in the next class.

Bye for now.