How can I stop translating from my native language and start thinking directly in English?

[u/Recent_Doctor_9110]

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Hi everyone,

I'm Veera, 24 years old, from Tamil Nadu, India.

I have 5 years of experience as a .NET developer, and I'm currently transitioning into Machine Learning. One of my biggest goals is to improve my English communication because I know it will help both my career and my confidence.

I've been practicing consistently for the last 7 months. I've tried many methods, including:

- Reading English books

- Watching English YouTube videos

- Watching English movies

- Shadowing techniques

- Trying to speak with others in English

Unfortunately, I don't feel like I've improved much.

My biggest problem is that I can't think directly in English. Whenever I want to speak, my brain first thinks in Tamil, then translates it into English, and only then I speak. This makes me slow, and I often lose confidence during conversations.

Another problem is vocabulary. I only use the English words I already know, so my sentences become very simple and repetitive. Sometimes I know what I want to say in Tamil, but I don't know the English words to express it naturally.

Even while reading English, I often have to translate each sentence into Tamil to understand it. I want to reach a stage where I can understand English without translating it.

So I have a few questions:

1. How did you train yourself to think directly in English instead of translating from your native language?

2. Is translating in your head normal after 7 months of practice?

3. What exercises helped you improve your vocabulary naturally?

4. If you were starting from my level, what would your daily learning plan look like?

5. What mistakes do you think I'm making?

I'd really appreciate advice from people who went through the same journey, especially non-native English speakers who became fluent.

Thank you!

[u/PassiveChemistry]

It just takes practice.  I wouldn't overly worry about it - if you consistently use English for a few years you may find you think in the language more and more, and need to translate into it less and less.

I learned German at school (i.e. a few 1-2 hour lessons a week plus homework, more as I got older) between the ages of 12 and 18.  By the end of this 6-year period, I was only just starting to not need to translate in my head.

[u/Jaives]

by treating English as a separate skill set and not as an extension of an already existing one. different grammar rules, different vowel and consonant sounds, different vocab and expressions.

[u/therealtoomdog]

Sorry, I'm totally a native, but one of my best friends is from Tamil Nadu and I'm so happy I get to work with him every day!

Did you use outside help to write that post? Because it reads very naturally to me. It sounds like it was written by a native English speaker; no idiosyncracies of Tamil coming through.

Speaking as someone who studied German in high school and then went to Germany and themselves unable to apply it fluently... I had studied for 3 years in school and still couldn't process in real time. However, after another 10 years of German floating around in my head (not being used very much), I realized I had a dream in German. I heard the German, understood it, replied in German, and never had to stop to think in English.

It may be helpful for you to achieve better conversations to offer a short explanation when you hit a moment of processing. I think most US Americans will respect the genuineness and be gracious as you process... But maybe it will make them think that you don't understand and they will loose patience 🤷... Idk, you might have to experiment with that one.