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I'm student. We take English lessons at school. But they usually teach grammar. Because of that my ear is not familiar with English. I can't understand someone who speaks fast and fluent English.

My teacher said that you gotta think in English if you wanna learn English. But I can't think in English. Should I improve my English before thinking in English or think in english before improve English?

James K
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tuxthepenguin34
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    Only advice I can give is the more you use it, the better you will get. So try to use English with English-speaking people--the more you use it, the better you'll get. Also: you should try to get in touch with a professional teacher, and see what resources your school has. – LawrenceC Dec 27 '21 at 14:23
  • Thanks for your advise. – tuxthepenguin34 Dec 27 '21 at 14:26
  • I've edited to remove some unnecessary parts of the question, and focus it on the question "Should I improve my English before thinking in English" – James K Dec 27 '21 at 14:38
  • @tuxthepenguin34 - advise is a verb; you meant 'thanks for your advice'. – Michael Harvey Dec 27 '21 at 15:00
  • You should avoid forms like gotta and wanna, first of all. You need to actually say: going to and want to. There are four skills: listening, reading, writing and speaking. To speak better, you have to listen to exercises in books or online. – Lambie Dec 27 '21 at 15:04
  • Letters are so small. Also s and c letters are near in my keyboard. Sorry for spelling errors. Thanks for your advice. I'll practice more. – tuxthepenguin34 Dec 27 '21 at 15:13
  • Watch a good movie. Turn on closed captions. Listen and repeat. Just do it and don't ask questions when doing it. In six months, your spoken English should have improved if you do this three hours a week. – Lambie Dec 27 '21 at 15:26

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I'm afraid there is no short-cut. You just have to practice. There is no real answer that we can give you, except "keep trying" and "You'll get better!". Just like with any skill, the more you practice in different ways, the better you'll get. But your teacher is right - you can't think in one language and translate.

But it is not a case of "first improve then think" or "first think then improve". As you learn more English, you will be able to construct sentences in English. You won't be "thinking" about the grammar, because you will just know it. Improvement lets you think more in English. More Thinking in English causes more improvement. You do both at the same time, step by step.

You already can do this. When you say "It's a pen" (for example) you probably don't need to think it out in your native language and then translate. You've learnt the "It's a ...." pattern. You just keep going, and get better by learning more words, more patterns, more idioms.

James K
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  • That sounds logical. This answer seems like solution of this question. Yes, I can make some sentences without thinking. Thanks for your recommendation. – tuxthepenguin34 Dec 27 '21 at 14:47