do you struggle with translation are you always translating in your head and because of that you feel like you can't communicate freely with people I know this can be extremely frustrating but translating in your head constantly is actually hurting your fluency so we stick around because in today's episode I want to talk to you about how you can start getting rid of this habit of always translating in your head when it's time to speak in English to other people hey everybody how's it going Chiago here and welcome to another episode hope you're doing well and
in case you're new here I created this podcast and YouTube channel to help intermediate and advanced Learners of English communicate with more confidence more accuracy more clarity and more awareness if this sounds like something you want for yourself and your English subscribe to the channel and follow the show if you are on Spotify or apple podcasts today the conversation we're going to have here is all about translating in your head constantly before I get started with the topic though I want to remind you that my pronunciation course is already available on pre-sale at a very
special discounted price this is a course designed to help you master the main sounds of the English language when it comes to making them and also the main connected speech patterns that native speakers use in real media and real life so if you want to take your listening skills and pronunciation and speaking skills to the next level consider buying the course it's already on pre-sale Link in the description for you to learn more about it or in the show notes check it out you're going to love it all right guys so this is a very
important topic because I know it's a real pain point that many of you out there have and many of my students have already voiced this frustration the fact that they always translate in their head when they have to speak English so I divided this episode into three main parts first of all we're going to talk about why translating constantly is bad is damaging to your fluency and then part two I'm going to give you some tips on how you can start getting rid finally getting rid of this habit of translating constantly and lastly I'm going
to talk about when I believe personally that translation could be useful all right I'm going to give you some examples of situations where actually translating could be beneficial all right so without further Ado let's get started here first of all why translating constantly in your head is bad for your fluency let me give you some reasons first of all it slows your speech down more than necessary because it's almost like you are adding another and unnecessary step to your communication usually fluent speakers of a language they follow two basic steps when they communicate they think
about something and they speak when you translate you are adding an extra step to this process first you think about something in your native language then you translate that something into English and then you speak you see so it adds an unnecessary extra step and because of that naturally you will communicate much slower than you needed to all right so it's going to take much more time for you to finally UT a complete sentence or a complete idea or argument another reason why translating is bad for your fluency because it prevents you from actually feeling
truly fluent you never feel truly fluent when you are constantly translating in your head why because translating adds extra tension to the whole communication process it's the effort it's that struggle you know and remember uh fluency is all about flow naturalness effortless and easy communication as a matter of matter fact I made a video here on the podcast I made an episode talking about fluency and Proficiency in this episode I actually Define what fluency is remember those of you who have listened to that episode It's All About smoothness naturalness flow so if you're always Translating
that doesn't add fluidity to your speaking it adds more tension more struggle and you don't want that right nobody wants that everybody wants to communicate freely a little side note here this is actually kind of ironic because think about it one of the reasons why we translate so much we I mean people in general right is because they don't want to get confused right so maybe you'll see a word or you see a phrase in English and you don't want to be confused by that phrase so your natural reaction your uh your instinct is to
translate that sentence to your native language to really understand what it says there because you don't want to get confused but the But the irony here is that when you actually translate every single word all the time you are getting more confused than you would have been if you hadn't translated in the first place because English is full of idioms you know idiomatic expressions it's full of phrasal verbs you know uh words and expressions that are not so obvious if you translate them literally if you translate them literally it's just going to get you or
make you even more confused you see the irony here another reason why translating in your head is bad for your fluency is because it creates a mental roadblock all right just like a just said you never feel truly fluent or you never feel truly free when communicating and remember that when it comes to speaking English with people in real life in real situations at work when you travel uh with your friends most real life communication happens in the moment it happens in the moment it's usually unscripted conversations in real life are usually unscripted many things
could happen all right during a a real life conversation people usually go on tangents you know when you go on a tangent during a conversation you deviate from the main topic of the conversation for a little bit you talk about something else and then hopefully you come back to the main topic some people never come back to the main topic you know so that happens people go on tangents make side comments or funny remarks yeah so you got to practice being in the moment being more in the moment because you're not going to have time
in a real life conversation when you travel when you work in English you're not going to have time to translate everything in your head before writing something or before saying something in English so start developing that in the moment feel that in the- moment attitude when it comes to communication now this is really really important I just said that translating slows down your speech considerably it also slows down your listening comprehension your listening comprehension doesn't get fully developed actually it never develops because you are always translating and like I said Communication in real life is
usually in the moment many things happen and usually at a faster pace so your listening comprehension is going to suffer tremendously if you don't practice being there in the moment all right when you translate you're not in the moment you are in your head that's what happens when you translate when you translate constantly you are always in your head you're not really observing what's happening in the situation how people are feeling what they're actually saying to you you know you are in your head constantly worrying about translating everything so translating constantly slows down your speech
considerably so you speak way too slow and it also hurts your listening skills it's much harder for you to understand people talking in real life and also natives in media like movies TV series and podcasts all right and overall I would say that this habit of always translating in her head makes your journey to fluency much much longer okay let me bring an analogy here picture this picture yourself having to run a marathon okay imagine you have to run a marathon all right but there's something you have to wear in that Marathon you have to
wear a backpack full of heavy rocks all right can you picture that you running a marathon with a backpack full of rocks you might get to the end of the marathon of the race but it's going to take you way more time and way more effort to get there and that's exactly what this habit of always translating in your head does to your overall English development and English fluency maybe what you could achieve in two three years might take you 10 15 or even more years if you get there you might give up before you
know what 10 15 years passed you know uh this is really common among people who quote unquote study English for years and still can't communicate fluently I'm sure you know somebody like this or even maybe you your myself have already said this oh I've been studying English for so long I've been studying English since I was a kid since I was a teenager it's been 10 years 15 years but I never feel fluent I don't feel fluent yeah there are a couple of problems here yeah one possible problem for this or reason is that people
usually have a on and off relationship with English studies so they never really commit to learning their language um consistently so they might start something take a course here and then quit and then 6 months later they come back then they do one more year and then they stop you know this on and off relationship that you may have with your English learning is really bad this is one reason why this happens but also another reason is because you haven't really gotten rid of this habit of train translating in your head years have passed since
you started learning English and you are still translating in your head so you got to become conscious of that and you have to be deliberate and conscious when it comes to okay I have to stop translating I won't translate because many times guys translating can be or it can act like a crutch you know a crutch is uh an object that you use when you break lag for example it helps you walk you know when you don't have both lags working well so translating can be a crutch for some learners but you have to resist
the temptation resist the urge to translate if you listen to something in English just absorb it just embrace it resist the urge resist the temptation to translate all right so uh I've already started giving you some tips here so let's move on to part two of this conversation today we just talked about why translating is bad for you now let's talk about how to stop translating in your head so much first of all guys the first tip I have to give you here is immersion surround yourself with English listen to music listen to podcasts watch
movies watch TV series read books in English read articles in English immerse yourself in the language I've already talked about this many times here on the podcast nowadays is really easy actually for you to create your own immersion in English from your home country not having to travel to an english- speaking country to have that immersion so start there if you don't have this habit of watching things in English listening to things in English every day is going to be really hard for you to get rid of this habit of translating okay and I mean
every day guys you know English should not be something you study only it should be part of your life you have to make English part of your life so English should be present in your daily life everywhere think about this okay another tip practice speaking any chance you get so you can talk to native speakers or talk to other Learners you can join language exchange programs or groups you can take online classes you can find a language partner or a language friend who is also learning English to communicate with to talk with why because you
have to do more of what you fear or do more of what you feel UNC comfortable with usually people who translate all the time in their heads don't feel very comfortable with speaking okay so for you to become better at that you have to do more of what you feel afraid of or or of what you feel discomfort with this actually reminds me of uh that movie Batman Begins you know have you seen that movie Batman Begins is uh Christian Bale playing Batman and Bruce Wayne and uh there is this part where he is becoming
the Batman you know he's getting ready to finally become the Batman and then he decides that as a symbol he's going to dress like a bat bats will be his symbol and then Alfred asks him Master Wayne why bats and then Bruce Wayne says bats frighten me in other words bats make me afraid scared it's time for my enemies to share my dread or to share my fear dread is fear here okay so he was terrified of bat and because of that he actually chose to become a bat as the symbol you know the superhero
yeah so he became the Batman yeah so this is about embracing discomfort embracing her fears getting out of her comfort zone and and when you start deliberately thinking in English more often and you deliberately refuse to translate in your head it might feel uncomfortable at first it might feel terrifying at first but you got to embrace that do more of that okay force yourself to think in English more and more and more and not resort to translation with time it will will get easier and then it'll come a point where you don't even feel the
need anymore to translate all the time okay another tip here learn in context learn vocabulary in context so learn your words and phrases in sentences and real life situations always contextualize the the vocabulary you come across and the grammar too all right so focus on chunks of language groups of language not individual words okay because like I said earlier the English language is full of Expressions idiomatic expressions that sometimes are full phrases that carry one meaning or phrasal verbs you know phrasal verbs usually have two or three words a verb and a preposition but they
have their distinct meanings so learn language learn vocabulary in context and in chunks in groups not individual words that's why when I teach vocabulary here on the channel for example I always make sure I give example sentences with those words so you can see those words being used in a potential scenario those words could be used in all right it's not enough to just give you the word give you the definition and that's it I got to give you examples as well because conversation and communication happens in sentences not individual words okay this is a
good one guys um I had this uh let's say Epiphany this Revelation when I was thinking about this topic right be okay with speaking like a child another way for you to get rid of translation be okay with quote unquote speaking like a child what do I mean I mean that it's better to speak simple phrases without translating but speaking them fluently and effectively then maybe trying to speak at a higher level when you don't have enough proficiency yet I always give this example I think of successful Professionals in their field you know maybe you
know somebody who is a very successful lawyer or engineer or doctor you know in in their first language that person communicates extremely well and then what happens usually is that person when studying English tries or wants to communicate at the same high level as he or she does in their native language but they realize that they can't because they don't have the tools yet they need more baggage in the English language to be able to do that so what do they do they resort to translation oh what is what is that word again in my
language okay how can I say that in English so they feel stuck they block because of that that's why they resort to translation because they want to communicate at a higher level than they can okay so my tip here is be okay with speaking like a child be okay with maybe communicating in English not in a uh as sophisticated way as you would in your native language but trust the process because if you keep learning and developing it will come a time when you will start communicating in English with more sophistication just like you communicate
in your first language but it takes time okay and another tip here related to that you know speaking like a child is get rid of your security blanket you know usually a child a small child child has a security blanket you know it's that blanket that the child always carries around the child sleeps with you know because of the smell because of the texture it gives the child that sense of comfort that sense of security right but that child can have can't have that security blanket forever as the child grows and matures the natural thing
to happen is for that child to eventually get rid of that security blanket now the child doesn't need that anymore the same thing happens with translation okay for many Learners translating is like a security blanket you know it gives you that security you know that extra layer of protection yeah but it's also preventing you from growing and developing as a competent English speaker so you have to get r of the security blanket throw it away in this case throw translation away translate on a regular basis I mean throw it away and start just embracing the
language as it comes I guess that point of learning a language like a child would in that sense it makes sense you know from that angle because a child usually just absorbs language as it comes the child has no agenda no prefilters the P the child just consumes language as it comes embrace it as it comes so start doing the same with your English just Embrace English as it comes if you can't understand everything you hear it's okay just embrace it try to understand as much as you can and if you don't understand everything you
can always study what you didn't understand later or you can just let go you know and with time both deliberately and in an organic way way you will develop more and more but get rid of that security blanket okay it can be painful yes guys it can be painful I know it can be uncomfortable it can be painful and we as humans we we tend to avoid pain right we we always want to avoid pain we don't want to feel pain we don't want to feel discomfort we don't want to feel you know insecure or
uncomfortable but that's how growth happens okay think about it do you prefer to avoid some pain now by always translating but on the other hand you always feel like you will never be fluent or would you prefer to embrace the pain now of getting rid of translation and suffering a little bit now but in the long run that's going to do wonders for your English fluency and I want to close this point with this thought the best things in life are usually outside of her comfort zone think about that okay the best things in life
are usually outside of her comfort zone okay do you want to get that International job at that global company well maybe you're going to have to go through some English interviews go through a lengthy process to be selected and you risk being rejected in the end this is not comfortable is it but that might be what you have to do to get that job you want okay bringing that to English do you want to be that confident natural English speaker do you want to be that fluent sophisticated Communicator in English Okay one of the things
you're going to have to do is get rid of translation it's going to be uncomfortable but you got to do it think about that okay now let me close this episode guys by talking about when translation can actually be helpful because of course it's not all bad is translating all bad of course not things are usually not so black and white they're always nuances to any discussion right so let me give you here now to close this episode today some situations when I actually find that translation or translating can be helpful in your journey first
of all translation can be helpful for beginners okay if you are at a one level okay if you are really a beginner using translation from time to time can actually help you because um it helps to make sense of this new language that you don't have much experience with yet okay but then the idea is that as you keep learning and studying English you gradually reduce this Reliance this need for translation and the idea is that the more English you consume and the more English you are exposed to the more you start building a natural
radar inside of you for the English language it's almost like uh you develop some sort of intuition as well the more English content you consume and that intuition usually guides you very well in your journey yeah and then you don't have to translate all the time but for beginners people who are just starting out translating can be useful translating can also be useful when dealing with very complex comp Lex words I'm talking about very complex words words that usually have one very specific meaning like you know when you are preparing for C2 for example you
know if you want to learn a very specific C2 word like a super Advanced technical word you know it might be useful for you to actually learn the translation of that word to your native language because it's a very specific meaning that you're dealing with here okay kind of related to that translating can also be useful in my opinion for a specific terminology or specific jargon in your professional field or area Okay so again if you are a lawyer there's a lot of uh legal Lees we call it a lot of legal jargon that you
have to learn in your native language it could be useful for you to actually learn the exact equivalent of of that jargon of those words in English so you can communicate with Precision all right the same thing happens if you are a doctor an engineer or if you work with anything that requires you to learn specific words specific terminology that only you and your fellow professionals you know no in that case using translation can be beneficial and also for specific words like conjunctions for example I could try to explain to you that we use the
conjunction or the linking word however when we want to contrast two different ideas in the same paragraph or in the same argument right but if I'm talking to a Brazilian for example many times it's just easier for me to give the person the exact translation for however because the person then knows okay I know how to use that word in my native language now I know how to use it in English I know the meaning that it actually carries you know so for specific words like conjunctions let's say however nevertheless nonetheless due to owing to
it could be useful for you to know the exact translation to those words but you see that's it aside from these situations here I would say most of the time guys translating is bad for your English fluency and if you have this habit of always translating in your head this is actually hurting your fluency and development in English I hope you enjoyed this episode I hope this episode made you reflect some more on your relationship with translation and how that relationship is affecting your English learning okay and I also hope that you leave this episode
with some tips and some pieces of insight for you to carry in your journey from now on all right guys don't forget to check out my pronunciation course available on pre-sale at a very special discounted price Link in the description for you to learn more about the course also has a pined comment on YouTube here if you are on Spotify or apple podcasts the link to learn more about the course is in the show notes all right and of course don't forget to subscribe to the channel if you're not a subscriber yet and share this
Channel with people you know who don't know this channel yet and who are interested in taking their English skills to the next level if you are on Spotify or apple podcasts also don't forget to leave me a Fest star review there because that helps me a lot on those platforms as well guys thank you so much I'm Chago I'm signing off and I'll be talking to you very soon bye-bye
