Want to THINK in English? Here's how to train your brain.

You've studied English for years. You understand it. You know what you want to say. So why do you STILL have to translate everything in your head before you speak?

It's frustrating. It's exhausting. And after all the time and effort you've put into learning English, it can feel almost unfair.

If you're thinking, "How much more English do I need to learn before I can just think and speak naturally?" this episode is for you.

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In this episode of the Hey Lady! Confident English Podcast, Emma shares practical exercises to help you stop relying so heavily on translation and start building your thoughts directly in English.

You'll learn how to create stronger connections between English and meaning, how to practise producing thoughts using the English you already know, and why taking that practice into real conversations helps you learn to listen, think and respond spontaneously.

Emma also shares an advanced practice technique: returning to familiar topics multiple times. Each conversation gives you another opportunity to use familiar language to express new thoughts, so responding in English gradually becomes easier, smoother and faster.

If you want to stop translating everything in your head and start thinking more naturally in English, this episode gives you practical ways to start training that skill today.

💬 About Emma

Emma is the founder of Hey Lady! and creator of the YouTube channel mmmEnglish, trusted by more than 6 million English learners worldwide.

Hey Lady! is a global English-speaking community where women build confidence through real conversations, connection and consistent speaking practice.

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🎙️ Have a question or challenge you'd like Emma to talk about in a future episode?

You can send a voice message or share your experience below.

Transcript

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You can know a lot of English and still feel like it disappears as soon as someone asks you a simple question. You've probably had this, right? You understood what they said, and you know what you wanna say, but somewhere between the thought and your mouth, it's like there's this very busy little meeting happening inside your head. First, you've gotta check that you understood correctly. Is this what they said? Then you need to think of your answer, and you've gotta try and find the right English words to help you give that answer. You've gotta check your grammar, and then you've gotta worry if you've chosen the right words or not. And sometimes by the time that you're actually ready to speak, that connection has been made, the conversation's moved on. It's exhausting, and it's no wonder that so many of my students ask me, " Emma, help me to think in English. Hey, ladies! Welcome back and a big welcome to anyone who is joining us for the very first time. This is The Confident English Podcast. My name is Emma. I'm the founder of Hey Lady!, an online community that brings women together from all around the world to practise speaking English. Every week, we break down the barriers that keep you from speaking with confidence, whether that's at work, while you're traveling, or in everyday life. And if you've been learning English for a long time and you are asking yourself, " Why am I still translating in my head every time I try and speak?" You are in the right place, and I'm excited that you're here. Let's get into the episode. This week's episode was inspired by a message from one of our listeners. Hi Emma, I've studied English for four years already while complete my university degree. I would say my English is quite good nowadays. But still I always thinking in both language. Mandarin, Hokkien, and English together. I want to, to think in English. Like just think and speak. What should I do now? My cert is around B2, C1. I feel like still need more study, but I don't know what. Thank you. Oh, this is such a great question. It is so frustrating when you've put so much time and effort into learning that it almost feels unfair that you have to go through this slow mental process every time you speak, and you're thinking, " Oh my God, how much more do I need to learn before this stops feeling so hard, until it just happens naturally without having to think about it?" Well, the good news is that if you have reached this stage in your journey where you can understand English but you're not yet thinking in English, then you are ready to start developing this skill. So today, I'm gonna share with you two different ways that you can practise thinking in English. First, I'm gonna show you how you can practise on your own, and then how to take that skill into real conversations for practice. When you first started learning English, most of the language probably came to you through a lesson of some kind, a, a textbook or a course or a YouTube video. Unless you grew up surrounded by English, well, your teacher probably wasn't standing right beside you in the supermarket saying, " That's a trolley." They weren't walking down the street with you saying,"She's walking her dog. It's starting to rain. That boy is crying because he fell down." That way of learning creates direct connections between the language and the meaning because it's literally right in front of your eyes, and this is how we all learned our first language, and our teachers, our parents, or our grandparents were right there with us the whole time. But when you learned English, that connection between the language and the meaning was not quite so direct. So most of the time, you learned the English first, and then you connected it to meaning through another point of reference. An explanation a picture, or through your first language. Because you learn what that word means in your native language Your native language helped you to build little bridges to connect the meaning with English, and that's really useful when you're learning. But as you probably now realise, you are constantly crossing bridges in your mind. You're going back and forth between English and your native language, and going back and forth like that takes time. What you now need to do is practise making more of those connections in the moment directly between meaning and English. So here's a little exercise that I want you to do. I want you to look around the room or the place you're in right now and describe what you can see directly in English. I don't just mean name things, table, book, window, computer. I want you to start with a simple observation and then build the thought in English. So let's look at an example. She's walking her dog. Then add something else. She's walking her dog to the park. Add another detail. She's walking her dog to the park on a really hot day. Keep going. She's walking her dog to the park on a really hot day, wearing a heavy jacket. And then maybe add a reaction. I don't know how she can stand it! I would be so hot! Notice what we're doing here? We're not creating a long, impressive, complicated thought in your native language first, and then trying to translate the whole thing. You're practising having the thought in English as it develops, and this is not about being impressive or complicated. It is about being basic and building from there. Don't worry if you don't know every word you need. Just use the English that comes to you in that moment, even if it does feel really simple. And don't be surprised if the words that come to you aren't exactly the ones that you imagined you would use. That's okay. In fact, that's actually perfect because the goal is not to create the perfect sentence. The goal is to practise building your thoughts directly in English without crossing that bridge and going back to your native language again. And you can do the same thing with something that you've just listened to or watched. You could listen to this podcast or a video. When you finish it, turn it off and explain the main idea back to yourself in English. Don't repeat the exact words that I said, but use what you know to explain what happened. Maybe express what really interested you. Maybe share your own opinion about the topic. And that forces you to find the English yourself instead of simply just recognising someone else's English. If you want to think in English, you need to practise producing thoughts in English. So the first exercise is something that you can do on your own, and you can do it as much as you like. It's really useful. But the next step, and the most important one, is to use this skill in conversations. But I don't want you to make this complicated. Start simple. A simple, casual conversation can give you something that solo practice can't. Another person. And when you're speaking with another person, it changes everything. Someone can ask you a question that you didn't expect. They might ask for more detail. You might hear another opinion, Maybe someone makes you laugh. And so the experience is different. Now you are listening, and you're thinking, and you're responding spontaneously in that moment. We want English to feel less like something that you have prepared for and more like something that you can adapt while the conversation is happening. So the second exercise is simple. Have more real conversations in English. There is one technique that makes this even more effective, and that is come back to the same general topic multiple times. The first time that you talk about something in English, there is a lot going on. You are deciding what you think about this topic. You are finding the words that you need, building the sentences all at the same time. But the next time that you return to that topic, well, some of the language, some of the ideas and the thoughts that you want to share are already familiar. You've used some of those words before. You've heard other people share ideas about this topic. You've already thought about some of those ideas again yourself. So now you have a little bit of space to refine, to listen, and to think, and to respond in a better way. And the best part about this is you're building on what you know. You're reinforcing the connections between your brain and your ears and your mouth. And all of this makes each conversation about this topic a little bit easier, a little bit smoother, a little bit faster. This is a technique that we've developed very deliberately inside Hey Lady! Every month, our coaches introduce a new conversation theme, one broad topic, and in each topic you get vocabulary lessons, useful expressions, grammar lessons, pronunciation, all of these things that help you to establish familiarity with the topic. Then we create lots of different conversations around this topic. So for example, one topic might be healthy eating, and your first conversation could be,"What does healthy eating mean to you?" And so you talk about what you cook, what you eat at home, and maybe what healthy food looks like in your country. Now, that first conversation, it might feel difficult. You might be translating in your head. Searching for specific words that you need to articulate your idea in English. You might hear other people using new words or new ideas that you hadn't thought of. But then a few days later, you come back to talk about the same topic, but the question changes. Why does healthy food seem so expensive? Hmm. Now you need an opinion, but you're not starting from zero. You've already got words like fresh ingredients, processed foods, and meal planning. They're already familiar and easier for you to use. So you can build on those ideas and everything that you learned from your first conversation in the next one. You get to refine and improve. Each time, the conversation is new, but more and more of the English that you need is familiar. You're building on that familiar English to express new ideas and to respond to new people or share a different opinion. It's all familiar language, but it's new thoughts, and you're practising getting those thoughts into your head quicker. The more often you do that, the more natural it becomes to listen, to think, and to respond in English about this topic without needing to cross that bridge and go back to your native language to translate each and every time. So that building on the topic is really important. Now, if you would like to build fluency like this and to speak more freely and effortlessly in English, you'd need a place to practise, people to practise with, right? Well, that is where Hey Lady! can help you. Our online community was designed for speaking practice. Speaking practice in a safe, supportive environment where you won't feel judged about making mistakes. You'll always be encouraged to try. And you can try Hey Lady! for free for seven days. You can experience the community, join some conversations, and do all of that before you decide if you'd like to continue and become a member. The link is down in the show notes, or if you're watching here on YouTube, you can scan the code you see on screen next to me. As always, I love to hear from you, so if you've got a question or a challenge that you're facing with your English, then leave me a comment down below. I read every single one. Your question might even become a future podcast episode here. If you enjoyed this episode, please make sure you hit that like button subscribe to the channel so that our message gets out to more women who need to hear it. Thank you so much for spending time with me today, and remember, if you want to think in English, you need to practise thinking in English. Bye for now, but I will see you next week.