Think in English

Many of us are in the habit of talking to ourselves. When we are alone and don’t have anything important to do, various random thoughts drift in and out of our minds. Now if we are asked in which language we think or talk to ourselves, most of us will say that we think in our mother tongues. Even in response to a question in English, we think about the reply in our mother tongues and try to translate it into English. However, sometimes we find that we do not have/ know English equivalents for all the words in our regional languages which constitute our reply.

In professional lives, this might lead to the serious problem of being unable to express ourselves. You cannot always rehearse your speech while making presentations or explaining the nuances of a project to your clients or colleagues. You have no way of knowing what questions might be thrown at you or what new ideas you might get out of interactions. In order to be proficient in a language it is extremely important that you think in that language. So if you are learning English, make sure you also think in it. You will figure alternate ways of expressing certain concepts or words in your language for which there are no exact English equivalents. In addition to gaining confidence while communicating, this will add a lot of flexibility to your thinking.