(Video Transcript)
How to THINK in English!
Do you ever feel like your mind goes blank when speaking English? Or maybe you struggle to find the right words, leaving you stuck and frustrated in the middle of a conversation? Or how about that ‘deer in the headlights’ feeling when it’s your turn to speak, and your nerves take over?
If any of that sounds familiar, you’re in the right place. In this video, I’m going to share my top practice tips to help you organize your thoughts, think directly in English, and respond naturally—without that awkward pause to translate in your head.
And here’s the best part: These techniques are simple, practical, and they work. By the end of this video, you’ll feel more confident, more fluent, and ready to handle any conversation that comes your way.
So stick around—because today, we’re not just talking about speaking English. We’re turning you into a conversation pro.
How to Think in English and Organize Your Thoughts: Words
Today, you’ll learn some of my best practice techniques to help you become a master at English conversation. I want you all to start with step number one, which I’ll discuss in a few minutes. This step will help you to know where your conversation skills rank. If step one is easy, then move on to step two. If step one is challenging, then later in the video I’ll show you a more basic technique that you can use to build up the foundation of your English conversation skills.
So get ready to practice with me, and let’s see how you do.
Here’s a question that you could be asked when someone is getting to know you; it’s called an ice-breaker question or a small talk question.
“If you could only eat one thing for the rest of your life, what would it be?”
I want you to think of single words you’d say in response to this question. At this point in the practice, you don’t need to focus on full sentences, unless you feel that that’s easy for you to do, then by all means, think in full sentences. But for those of you who struggle to answer questions quickly in English, then stay at the word level.
I’ll give you 10 seconds to come up with words that you might use to answer this question.
So what words did you think of? Maybe you thought:
Ice cream; chips and salsa; sushi
Or maybe you thought something like:
I’d eat ice cream; Chips and salsa are my favorite foods, so I’d eat that; I never get sick of eating sushi - it’s just delicious.
If you thought of words in your native language, don’t worry. This will happen; it’s perfectly normal. As quickly as you can, gently redirect your focus back to thinking in English.
The fact that your native language crept into your thinking process isn’t a big deal. What you want to do is notice that it happened, be mindful of it, and gently redirect your focus back to English.
So let’s practice this step one more time. Remember - you’re just thinking the words, you’re not saying them out loud yet.
Here’s your next question:
“What's one thing that can instantly make your day better?”
Okay, what words did you think of this time? Maybe you thought something like:
Sunshine; nature; watching my favorite show on Netflix; cat videos on Instagram
Great! Whatever you thought of, that’s the first step. You’re reinforcing the habit of thinking in English without the added pressure of forming full sentences, unless of course, you’re already at that point that full sentences are the easiest thing for you to come up with.
How to Think in English and Organize Your Thoughts: Sentence Practice
If step one was easy - you easily thought of many words and phrases to answer these questions, then that’s great! You’re ready to move on to Step two. But if you felt like thinking of single words was challenging, then either stay at the word-level or go back down to a more basic technique, which I’ll demonstrate in just a few minutes.
Here’s step two. We’re going to use another small talk topic again, and now I want you to think of how you’d answer this question in a complete sentence. You’re just thinking the response in your head; you’re not saying it out loud yet. You’ll have ten seconds to answer this question.
“Do you have any hidden talents or surprising hobbies?”
How did you do? What sentences were you able to come up with? Maybe something like:
I can whistle through my teeth; I can walk on my hands; I like to carve bars of soap into the shape of a beautiful flower; I like to go ghost hunting in old, abandoned houses.
Maybe you couldn’t think of anything to say at all. That’s okay! Then think that response in your head:
This question is dumb. I don’t know what to say. I can’t think of anything!
The important thing is you’re reinforcing the skill of thinking in complete sentences in English!
Notice, too, that the responses I came up with followed a sort of template at the beginning. I either started my response with, “I can…” in response to the question about hidden talents, or “I like to…” in response to the question about hobbies. As you’re practicing your response to these questions, see if you can create a few templates to get you started, and then use that template over and over again, depending on the question.
How to Think in English and Organize Your Thoughts: Naming Objects
If step one was challenging, or you want to start with the most basic technique of conversation practice, then do this. Look around your environment - wherever you happen to be at this moment - and think of the names of the objects that you can see. You’re trying to build your basic vocabulary here - nouns and adjectives.
Maybe you’re sitting in your bedroom, watching this video on your phone. So you might think:
Bed; wall; window; mirror.
Can you increase the complexity and add an adjective?
Soft bed; purple wall; dirty window; round mirror.
If you see some sort of action - maybe you see a bird flying in the sky when you look out of your window - now start to name the actions that you see, along with the nouns and adjectives:
Small bird fly sky
This step doesn’t necessarily have to be grammatically correct; it can still be just words at this point.
These are the basic building blocks to full, grammatically correct sentences, like:
“I see a small bird flying in the sky.”
If you see something or an action that you don’t know the English word for, then look it up, write it down, learn it, and use it every day until you know the word.
How to Think in English and Organize Your Thoughts: Advanced Practice
Now if these steps were easy for you - you easily came up with complete sentences and now you want to refine your English skills and polish up your vocabulary even more - then do this:
Record your answer to these questions. Say your responses out loud and record your answer, either audio or video. Listen to or watch your recording and write down exactly what you say, word for word. Then read the transcript and identify words or phrases that you used over and over again.
Maybe do this for several responses to see if you tend to use the same type of vocabulary every time you answered a question.
Then look up synonyms or other ways of saying those words that you repeated. You can easily do an internet search: “What’s another way of saying _____?” or use ChatGPT, or look up synonyms in online dictionaries.
Now answer the same question again, but this time use that synonym.
Complete this exercise daily. And the key is you want to answer random questions that you didn’t come up with yourself. You want questions that are more spontaneous to force you to think on your feet and come up with unplanned, spontaneous answers in English, because that’s what happens in conversations.
To help you with this, you can use the internet. Just search for “random question generator” and you’ll get a bunch of free websites that give you random questions that you can practice answering.
The more you intentionally think in English and practice this skill of thinking on your feet - spontaneous thinking and speaking - the better you will get at English conversation, the more fluent your English conversation will be, and the faster you’ll be able to organize your thoughts and come up with a fluent response in English.
This takes practice - intentional practice - but you can improve!
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Thanks again for watching, and happy practicing!
