Hi, this question crossed my mind suddenly when I travelled on the underground as I like translating ads, headings, rules, etc. during my underground journey. Would you like to spend one day, thinking in English (or translating your thoughts into English immediately)? Do you think it would be easy or difficult for you?
For me, it would have been a day that took a lot of concentration.
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Hi Irina,
You have to make a habit of thinking in English. If you do you’ll see it won’t take so much effort to translate your thoughts into English immediately. I also strongly recommend you to read English articles, novels, from inspiring sources, every now and then. Don’t use a dictionary every time you come across a word you don’t understand. That way you will never finish reading a novel. The word you don’t understand will occur again and evertually you’ll be able to define it. In other words you’ll know what it means.
Dear Irina, I hope this has been useful.
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Thank you, @Masme, for your comment.
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Hi Irina;
You’re very welcome. But I’d like you to read my response again, because I edited it whilst you were writing your reply. No need to thank me again. The pleasure is all mine.
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Irina, sometimes I write too fast and that means I have to correct typos. Now, my latest reply is completely what it should be. 
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Hey there, Irina
I’m m from Bulgaria a d it was nice reading your post. I completely support Masme. Well, I don’t want to show off as I’m an English teacher. I have had this habit since I was at English language school as we had journals to put down our daily routine the previous day and then to say in English.
Here is my piece of advice if you don’t mind or just omit it.
When you wake up before you get up, start planning your daily routine thinking in English and try to apply this for all forthcoming activities. So, don’t forget to do it all day along, of course, when possible. Furthermore, if you can talk to/with sb who speaks English even at a lower level or make friends with people speaking English/on the internet there sites on that, I don’t mean a love affair though it helps a lot about
things like that/.
So, I think if you start doing that gradually, you won’t experience being so focused as it is tiring and you need concentration about other things.
I’d like to tell me if this has been of help.
A nice day
Krisi
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Hello Krisi,
Thank you for your helpful advice. Certainly, I’ll keep that in mind. Besides, I keep the small notebook where I write down everyday words and expressions which I suddenly encounter during the day. These are English words translated from Russian.
Take care,
Irina
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Hi IRA,
Thanks for your message. Why don’t you try not to translate. First, try to guess yourself, then look up the online dictionary or whatever resource you use.
Definitely, keep to that daily.routine to think/ plan about your daily activities in English if possible say them aloud so that you can hear your voice or talk to a colleague silently, etc.
Every single day find time to do one of the 4 skills; speaking, listening, / from a reliable native speaking resource/reading, writing. Also, there are so useful and helpful articles by Torsten on this forum. Don’t forget about YouTube, you can find everything there.
Just type the key words ",How to improve my English “How to be successful in English…”
All the presenters are Teacher trainers and you can understand everything and it’s great fun and you’ll enjoy as they know how to behave in front of great audience and not make you feel bored though as a teacher I have heard these on the training sessions I have been and they sound a bit common but for learners they’re fine.
There more tips I can give you only if you are willing to accept them.
Happy learning If you have any questions I’ll gladly answer.
Kris
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Hi, It is not easy but. you will try to practise everyday.
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Hello everybody. I’m Oleg. I thought of another useful exercise to help one start thinking in English. That’s memorizing and reciting pieces of text. Anything you like. The longer the better. It’s just that a word or a simple phrase can be remembered mechanically or meaninglessly while to memorize more or less significant piece of information you have to form respective pictures in your mind. When you recite you start the reverse process and turn those images into words. That’s quite similar to thinking in English.
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Hi, I’m cyndi
First of all i always wanted to be into english like i would like to think speak read understand everything in english as a native English speaking because i feel more comfortable in it.
Also it’s a way for me to make english my second language as I speak well french. Someday I’m searching the best way to make this happen and learn fast but here is a confusion .
basecaly i been learning english so much that must of topics are easy for to understand to speak like there’s no word i don’t get but since i traveled to where I live presently they don’t speak English but sometimes you meet people who do and when it come to chat as a good english student all this year I’ve learned in school i started speak like I’m a beginner and don’t know why I’m thinking hard before speaking and that’s frustrating for me because i started doubt on my knowledge.
So i hope one day i could pass this bug and be excellent in translate everything around me in english. I know it’s easy for me to write I’m very good at it but it’s more difficult now to talk i want to change that. Thank to everyone who’s spending time on my comment 
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Hi, i am Tatiana.
Yes i would like to spend one day thinking English. It was shocking 
experience when I first time visited colleagues in Austria and need to find me in totally new foreign situation. Thinking in Russian I was lost, German I could only read. My shocked emotional state refreshed my English - that period I used it only for scientific articles.
I find Oleg’s idea to learn English by memorizing pieces of significant information grace imagination - pictures- very interesting.
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Hi Tatiana. Thank you for appraising my advice. Actually the idea is not mine. I read about it way ago. And the author in turn learned that from a woman, Armenian as far as I remember, who spoke perfectly purest Russian though it wasn’t her mother tongue. She told him that when she was a young girl she was fascinated with Russian classical literature and often she’d find a secluded place and recite passages she liked in full voice just for her own pleasure.
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Thank you too, Oleg for interesting story. It lets me suppose that Armenian woman was talented artistic personality. Living emotional parts from Russian literature she was aware of new Russian expressions. Maybe real Russian or other foreign personages existed in her life and impressed her for developing Russian communicative language. I agree with you that humans culture and traditions encourage in learning languages. It is interesting that If you don’t speak Italian, German or English anyway you could feel atmosphere and understand opera masterpiece.
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That’s true. Emotional component plays its role. I remember it was funny and curious to watch our son playing with German kids, each speaking their own language, not understanding a word but somehow getting the idea.
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Kids live playing, action, emotions transfers sense.
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Hi, I used to think in English while walking with my friend. Also, we were speaking in English with each other on the street and this improved my speaking skills as well) So, do not be afraid to think and talk in English)
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Hi there! 
At Uni, we had the task to take from 30 to 50 sentences from our books. Then we had to write a literary translation of them. And we learned both variants by heart. It was hard because many English ideas don’t have proper Russian alternatives. But that task helped a lot.
To make it easier to think in English, you should learn not just words and phrases but also the whole sentences. Or even short texts. That way, you wouldn’t need to translate everything word for word. You would just recall a suitable phrase. 
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What Consume Your Mind, Controls Your Life…
- Imagine yourself writing:
Imagine Yourself Writing. if you can imagine it, you can achieve it.
if you can dream it, you can become it
- Remind yourself the REASON why you’re writing:
Don’t write, because other people said so.
Don’t write, because you heard it’s a useful skill.
Don’t write, just because you want to say something.
Write, because you genuinely enjoy it.
- Commit to a daily goal:
100 words. 1 paragraph. 20 minutes. 1 draft.
Whatever daily goal you set, COMMIT to it. No whining. No postponing. NO
excuses.
If you’re going to make excuses, lower the numbers until you can.
- Listen to music that fits your writing:
Music kicks our mood for practically everything -
from dinner dates at home to workouts. Yes, even writing.
And it’s especially effective if you’re writing an emotional piece.
Just don’t choose songs that have lyrics in your native tongue, because
that’ll distract you.
SO KEEP WRITING 
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So why are not writing yourself but pasting and copying? And what exactly does the text which you have not written yourself to do with the topic at hand?
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