How to think in English?

We want to look at an important question, how to think in English and how to avoid mental translation.

To master English, you need to get to the point where you can even think in English with no dependence on mental translation. But how to get to this point?
Our mastery of the mother tongue has been acquired over time, with practice and education both formally in school and informally in the environment, etc., so we must follow this process for English as well.
There are ways we can succeed in this path. In this article, we try to introduce methods that you can use to achieve the desired result.

Approaches to the problem of mental translation

In order to think in English, we need learn how to put ourselves in either a natural or an artificial English-centered environment. We do not recommend overdoing it, as it will take time.

A: Use English to English dictionaries, the monolingual

The main source for each of you to find meaning of words must be a dictionary, but in order for your mind to be English-oriented, you need to use only English to English dictionaries. By using these types of dictionaries, you are not referring to Persian equivalents. Instead, you are teaching yourself new concepts through simple examples using simple words that you know the meaning of; thus, you will learn how to think in English.

Besides, if you come across a word in English to English translation that you don’t know the meaning of, use the same dictionary again and again to find its meaning. Over time, you will not only be able to activate your mental language learning competencies by staying away translation, but you will also learn new concepts, articulate and give examples of each of those concepts.

B: Have a partner for yourself

It is recommended that you persuade a friend, colleague, and family member to accompany you on the path to learning and mastering English. When you share what you have in mind with someone who shares your taste, you are doing mental exercise to break the difficult habit of translation.
In this way, you tell all the needs and wants and even your arguments in English to that person. Ask your partner to do your work just in time or to accompany you as you express it in English.
This method is very effective because it engages your mind during the day and during everyday events in English.

C: Change the language of your digital devices to English

Change the language of your mobile phone, computer, etc., which you usually use during the day, to English. By doing this, you have to know English to meet your communication needs; and thus, you can gradually replace some terms with English equivalents. It can be the first step towards making you avoid mental translation.

D: Watch movies, listen to music

I recommend that you do this. You may have seen a lot of English movies or listened to music. But, have you ever put yourself in the shoes of that actor or singer?

You can make most fun of what you’ve viewed being involved in interesting mental activities, instead of doing that boring translation. In this way, you repeat the dialogue of a movie or music text in front of a camera. Then you listen to it yourself. Compare the differences in your style of expression with the main role and try to eliminate the shortcomings in the next steps.
After a while, talk to yourself implicitly about an issue and record it. Make it more specialized over time, and you can even consult a language teacher to point out your shortcomings and help you address them.
We recommend this method for those who want to strengthen their English mind and be more successful in pronouncing words.

Again, your success in this endeavor requires practice, perseverance, and language immersion which can be meant trying to avoid mental translation. For further studies, you take a look at these articles “Ways to Prevent Mental English Translation” and “How to Think in English (It’s Easy)“.

The abstract of article:

In this article, we looked at how to think in English. And we presented methods for thinking in English.

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How to think in English?