If you live in a place where most people speak the language you are learning, you may use the language for several hours each day. It may become part of your "inner speech. "In other words, you start thinking in that language. Your mind stops trying to translate things from your native language into the second language. But most of the English learners live in places where English is not the main language. This maybe true for you. You may not have many chances to practice English. You may even be self-taught.
When you speak, your speech might be slower than you would like. This is because your mind is still translating from your first language, which can also sound unnatural. English, has its own sentence structure.
The good news is that thinking in English can bring you a huge step closer to fluency (流利). It is not very difficult but it does need practice.
Most experts note that its best to start small. So, a good first step is to think in individual (单独的) words. Look around you. What do you see? In your head, wherever they are. Start with nouns and then add in verbs, he suggests.
Another exercise that Thomas suggests is describing in your mind objects you don't know the words for. For example, if you're looking at your house and you see your garage, but you can't think of the name in English. You can say, such as It's similar to…"or" It's the opposite of. "Thomas says doing this can help learners of any language. As a Spanish learner, he does it himself.
Next, you can move to exercises like thinking in simple sentences and in conversations. So, how much time should you spend on these exercises? Thomas says you do a little everyday. "When you make things a habit, before you know it really, you're thinking in English."
