Thinking in English - A Good Way of Learning the Language!

Dear EC fellows,

Some of my friends have asked me about my tips in learning English. And thinking in English has always been the advice I gave them. And "How?" has always been their next question :D No surprise! And I often have trouble explaining what I mean to them. Today I write this blog in the hope that you would take this advice and apply it to improve your English.

I'd like to talk about the benefits of thinking in English first. Well, when you think in English, for sure you'll write and speak much faster. You simply just write down what you think and speak out loud what you think. There's no translation process. And besides, by thinking in English, you really learn English wherever and whenever you can. As for me, I used to take advantage of the time walking to school to practice thinking in English. Now I do realize how helpful that practice was!

Next, regarding the main question "HOW?". I think my above experience would be an understandable answer for this question. All the things I saw on the way to school, I described them in English. All the ideas I thought about the lessons, I rethought on the way home. In my free time, or whenever I remembered to practice, I tried to think of something totally in English. Doing this time after time has made thinking in English the habit I can't break (and also don't want to :D). So you guys, if you have never thought in English before, give it a try! I believe this would gradually help you improve your English.

Last but not least, I surmise that you'll make less mistakes this way. I continually realize and correct my own mistakes while thinking. But you know what; looking back what I've written, I could recognize tons of mistake :P And I'm sure my writing skill is better than my speaking skill, so you can imagine how many mistakes I would make while speaking :D But what do we learn without making mistakes? We all know that what's really important is that we learn from our mistakes and try not to make the same mistakes next time.

I hope I've made my points clearly and you can understand my messages. Please share your ideas about this in the comment box. I greatly appreciate that!

Tags: corrections, learning English

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SpamBuster Comment by Ha Nguyen on January 26, 2013 at 11:51: Hahaha, what a funny story! :D Sometimes my sister and I also speak in English together, not to avoid being understood by others but simply to practice, sadly it seldom happens since she now often arrives from work quite late. However, you know what, I do sometimes relieve my stress by telling it all out loud to my ...pet :D It's laughable, but we kill two birds with one stone by doing so, don't we? :P

Really appreciate your share of experience and a great quote picture here, Bright Rubies :)

Comment by bright - rubies on January 24, 2013 at 13:26: Dearest Ha, I agree with that that thinking in English is the best way to improve our skills. I always imagine that I talk with someone by English. Imagine that I describe her/him something in English or even fight with her/him in English. Last year, While my sleepless time in my bed, I intented to fight with my relative about something. So I arranged the words and sentences together in English. I decided to do that in English to avoid others o understand me. The day after that, I met him at started the fight. I admired myself how I could speak English loudly and fast. His mum asked me about what we are talking about.. I told her that we are practicing English :D It was really a good way to improve English and fight freely :DDD

SpamBuster Comment by Ha Nguyen on September 21, 2012 at 8:43: Hello Nai,

Knowing that you also practice thinking in English brings a great pleasure to me :) Right, it takes time, patience and determination to make this become a habit. Your English is already good, and I believe it'll get a lot better! :)

SpamBuster Comment by Ha Nguyen on September 21, 2012 at 8:37: Dear Reliance,

Thanks so much for your dropping by my blog and adding such a great picture quote. We do gain valuable lessons though learning from mistakes. I hope you find this blog of mine useful somehow in learning English, my dear friend :)

Comment by nai on September 21, 2012 at 3:20: Very nice write up! Can't help but to agree with this. I do think in English sometimes. But most of the time I forgot. hehehe Very good reminder to all of us :D

Comment by Reliance kh on September 20, 2012 at 14:09: It's really very nice blog and I'm with you in that we can learn from our mistakes and correct it later so I'll join this pic with you :)

SpamBuster Comment by Ha Nguyen on September 20, 2012 at 13:20: Hehe, Sis, don't you see that the 4th paragraph is a little illogical?! I'm telling everyone that the habit will help us to make less mistakes, then giving an example of myself making mistakes every day :P

Sis, you're just being such a perfectionist!!! I'm very very sure you're able to write an admirable blog! And I'm still waiting for that day to enjoy reading your very first blog :)

SpamBuster Comment by Ha Nguyen on September 20, 2012 at 13:08: Maia, I've been admiring your English since I first read your blog :)

Thank you for leaving such a pleasing comment! I'll keep trying :)

SpamBuster Comment by Ha Nguyen on September 20, 2012 at 13:04: Thanks for your nice comment, Frank!

Yes, it feels like challenging at first, and after some time, you really earn an reward of your improvement in English skills. I hope thinking in English will become one of your habits very soon :)

SpamBuster Comment by Charos on September 20, 2012 at 10:01: Don't be so modest, Sis, come on... Or are you making me praise you more? :P I will, and it will be my pleasure!!! :D Now just compare the things: for example, I still don't find myself ripe enough to write blogs, for it still seems to be a big deal for me. LOL... And while reading your blogs I'm usually under the impression, that you do it so easily, expressing yourself in a perfect way. :)