Train Your Brain To Think English | 5 Exercises

I’m going to teach you a method that you can use, anytime, anywhere to improve how often you think in English.

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Video Transcript: 

Let’s think in English. When you can build a habit for your brain thinking in English, it’ll make expressing yourself, English conversation so much easier and faster. 

There are steps you can take to build this habit in your brain and today we’re going to do exactly that.  

I’m also going to give you an assignment so you can keep going with this practice. Together, we’re going to make awesome things happen for you.  

And don’t forget, if you like this video or you learn something new, please give it a thumbs up and don’t forget to subscribe with notifications.  

Did you know that there are actually step by step exercises that you can do to build your brain’s habit of thinking in English.  You can practice anywhere because well, it’s thinking, it’s in your head. It’s not like you need to practice out loud. Today we’re focusing on training your brain to quickly go to English by focusing on words. Sometimes we do whole phrases but today we’re just doing words. And if ever you can’t think of one of the words, you don’t know it, no problem. We’ll go over everything.  

Let’s just start with me. For ten seconds, think of every word you can that describes what you see in English.  They can be very basic words. Ready? Go.  

There’s so many things you could have said.  

Woman, hair, gray hair, gray streak, shirt, white with blue pattern, plain background, eyebrow, hairline, nostril, ear, ear lobe, neck, chin, jaw, lips, smile.  

Maybe you went into words that describe things you can’t see like teacher. Maybe even you use the word friend. Were any of these words new to you? Watch this part again, pause at the new word and make up a sentence using it. Close your eyes, think of a sentence, think the picture. This will help you remember. Now, the same thing only not me, do yourself. Think words in  English that describe your appearance. What you’re wearing. Ten seconds. Go.  

Now we’ll look at my environment, where I am now, my office. It’s a little bit messy, it always is no matter how hard I try. So this is a little seventeen second clip, a scan of my office.  Let your mind bring up all the English words for what you’re seeing.  

Now let’s go over some of the words you may have said.  

Tree, window, window sill, window pane, office chair, storage cube, light switch, blinds, power lines, tree, shelves, books, plants, planters, cactus. I have a lot of plants don’t I? Maybe you notice I have some of them up on two yoga blocks. And some on mixing bowls I turned upside down. I even have a pair of tiny dumbbells so I can do a quick little ten-minute arm workouts when I need a break from work. 

Laptop, door, door knob. What’s this? It’s a sign I put outside my door when I don’t want to be disturbed. It’s like a do not disturb sign, only since my kids can’t read, it’s just an X. What else?  

Hinge, floor, baseboard, corner, rug, lights, equipment, cords, outlet, ring light, overhead lights, pull cords for my ceiling fan, magazine, glasses case, poster, flowers, vase, desk, stamps, tissues, papers, calendar, water bottle, hard drives, candle, lamp, coaster, computer, daybed, pillow, duvet, vent, wall, ceiling, fan.  

And maybe you saw some things that I didn’t even notice. Maybe some of the things you saw, you didn’t know the English word for. And now you do. Now, you’re going to do this for yourself, your own environment.  

An exercise like this is great because it’s simple and it can have a couple of benefits. First, when you tell yourself I’m going to think of these things in English. It trains your brain to do just that. To think in English without having to translate from your own native language.  

The other benefit is you’re building vocabulary that is incredibly useful to you. Because you’re using words in your life relevant for you. For example, the word ring light. From my office is not relevant to most people but around you, everything is a word that it would be useful for you to know in English.  

First, do the exercise for just ten seconds where you name things in English, go!  

Now take a minute to look around your environment more, is there anything that you don’t know how to say in English? Think just three of these things and look them up in a translator. Get the English word, think it a few times or say it. Look at the object. Close your eyes and visualize yourself making the scan around your room again. And thinking the word in English. If you have a method of tracking and learning vocabulary, add these new words to your list.  

Now, let’s take a scene from a movie. We’re going to watch it together. It’s a short scene, it’s full of objects. Tell your mind now, name the things you see in English. Let’s watch.  

Oh, hello.  

Oh, hello. 

Hi, how are you?  

Fine.  

This scene by the way is from the movie “Good Will Hunting”. A few days ago, I posted on Instagram asking you to suggest movies, TV, even specific scenes to use to learn English and Good Will Hunting is a movie that came up. Thanks everyone for your suggestions.  

Let’s go back now and name some objects. 

Okay, we have a lot of people. They all seem to be men in this shot. We’re in a bar, I see a lot of baseball caps or baseball hats. He’s wearing a jacket, these are taps, they’re for pouring draft beer out of a keg. We have a lot of glasses. This looks like it might be an ashtray. You can’t smoke in doors in the US anymore but this movie is pretty old. Pendant lights. There are a couple of neon signs. A string of colored lights. This guy has on a watch. He just grabbed a glass of beer. We start to see another character. Woman. She’s wearing a tank top. It could also be called a camisole. When a shirt or dress has really thin straps like this, we call them spaghetti straps.  She has her hair on a ponytail.  

Now we see another character. She has a bar barrette and you can see the part of her hair. She has on a T-shirt, it’s striped. The flag above also has stripes. He has a cut on his face. He has a logo on his shirt. You can see her collarbone.  

You can get very detailed. And don’t forget to look up words you don’t know. This is such a great way to build your vocabulary. Your assignment is:  

Do this at least once tomorrow whether you’re at home or somewhere totally new. Take a minute to think of the names of things around you In English. Then put in the comments below where you were when you did this exercise. And if you love it, do it every day. The more consistent you are with asking your mind to think in English, the easier for your mind to go there and respond in English. Now, we’ll review all the words we went over together. See the object, read the word and think the word in your head. Build that connection.  

Thanks for learning with me, I really love teaching you. Keep your learning now with this video and don’t forget to subscribe with that notification bell, I make new videos every Tuesday and I love to see you back here again. That’s it and thanks so much for using Rachel’s English.  

 

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