AEE 2649: 3 Tips to Start Thinking in English

Summary

All Ears English Podcast Summary

Episode 2649: 3 Tips to Start Thinking in English

Hosts: Michelle Kaplan & Aubrey Carter
Date: July 9, 2026

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Episode Overview

In this episode, Michelle and Aubrey tackle a common challenge among English learners: how to stop translating from your first language and start thinking in English instead. They share three practical tips to help intermediate and advanced ESL listeners boost their spontaneity, fluency, and confidence for real-life conversations. The discussion is inspired by a heartfelt listener question and is packed with humor, personal stories, and actionable advice.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The Real Problem: It's Not Just About Vocabulary

• Aubrey: Many learners believe they need to "learn more vocabulary" when the real block is the habit of translating from their first language, which slows them down and causes grammatical errors.

  “Most English learners are solving the wrong problem… One hidden mistake may be preventing you from using the words you already know.” (01:20)

• Translating inhibits natural flow and authentic connection. Overcoming it requires active work to think in English directly.

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2. Listener Question — The Challenge of Spontaneity

Listener “Shin J8B” asks:

“I find it challenging to speak English and connect with other people in a natural and spontaneous way. I’m always having to prepare for a long time to speak. Could you please share some suggestions?” (02:58)

• Hosts’ analysis: Spontaneous communication requires reacting, joking, and keeping a conversation alive – all made harder by the mental “pause” for translation.

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The 3 Practical Tips to Think in English (with Examples & Details)

1. Narrate Your Activities In English

(05:40)

• Michelle: “The first trick… is to narrate your activities in English. This sounds… a little bit cheesy, right?”

• Aubrey: Encourage talking through mundane daily acts, out loud or in your head, e.g.,

  "I'm walking from my bed to the door, and now I'm opening the door..." (05:55)
  “If you want to say, 'I'm using a spatula to flip this egg,' and you don’t know how to say 'spatula,' look it up, right.” (07:07)

• Benefits: Enhances active vocabulary, boosts memory, and helps identify vocabulary gaps naturally.

• Tips:

  • Practice during daily routines (morning prep, cooking, walking, talking to pets).
  • Start with 30-minute focused sessions to avoid exhaustion.

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2. Think in Phrases, Not Just Words

(11:07)

• Aubrey: “Learn common phrases… used by natives. These are not just one-word responses. It's a whole chunk… When you’re thinking in those whole chunks, those whole phrases, it trains your brain to think in English.”

• Michelle: Examples:

  “Instead of saying 'nervous,' [say] 'I'm pretty nervous about—'” (11:29)
  “I've been really busy lately. I can’t believe how busy this week has gotten.” (11:56)

• Key strategies:

  • Observe and "shadow" phrases used by native speakers.
  • Add full chunks (e.g., “That’s so funny”, “Wow, this food smells good”) to your vocabulary notebook and practice them—don’t just learn isolated words.

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3. Let Go of Perfection

(12:31)

• Michelle: “Let go of perfection... You don’t have to wait to create a full sentence in your head… accept the mistakes. We’re all going to make mistakes, and just realize it’s part of the process.” (12:31, 12:50)

• Aubrey: Reminds listeners that even in their first languages, native speakers start sentences with fillers and revise their thoughts as they go.

  “Native speakers do that too… that might be me kind of gathering my thoughts … deciding how do I want to express this opinion, how careful do I need to be...? There’s a lot that we’re thinking about.” (14:23)

• Key advice:

  • Start speaking before you feel fully ready—fill in details as you go.
  • Use conversational fillers like “Well…” or “I think…” to give yourself time.
  • Mistakes are natural and often highlight key learning gaps.
  • The goal is "connection, not perfection."

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• Aubrey: “Give yourself some grace. This takes time and consistent practice, but you can speed up the process with some really good tricks.” (05:22)
• Michelle: “Speaking imperfectly helps develop fluency. You know, mistakes often just kind of work themselves out in time or show... the gaps where you need to improve.” (14:57)
• Aubrey: “Start the sentence and then fill in the words as you are speaking. You are seeing the need for this because when you’re in a group conversation and someone says something, you don’t have time to think through that whole sentence before you say it. The moment’s gone.” (13:32)
• Signature phrase: “Connection, not perfection—guys, right? This is how you do that.” (16:24)

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• 01:00 — Introduction to the challenge of translating and thinking in English
• 02:58 — Listener question: Struggles with natural and spontaneous speaking
• 05:40 — Tip 1: Narrate your activities in English (detailed discussion & examples)
• 07:44 — Finding active versus passive vocabulary; filling vocabulary gaps
• 09:36 — How self-narration helps overcome fear of speaking
• 11:07 — Tip 2: Think in phrases/chunks, not just individual words
• 12:31 — Tip 3: Let go of perfection; practice responding before ready
• 13:32 — Why quick, imperfect responses are key in group conversation
• 14:57 — Mistakes as a path to fluency
• 16:24 — Recap: “Connection, not perfection” mindset

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Final Takeaways

• Try These Tips: Practice narrating daily activities, focus on full phrases, and interact with less concern for errors.
• Build Confidence Over Time: Self-practice augments real conversations and prepares you emotionally and linguistically for live interactions.
• Celebrate Progress: Adopting these strategies fosters genuine connections and more natural English fluency.

Hosts' closing encouragement:

“You are going to become more fluent and confident. Try it out. Try these tips and you will see a difference—quickly.” (16:07)

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For further listening:
Check out episode 2645: Little vs. Small and Great vs. Big (16:14)

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Signature Message:
“Connection, not perfection.”

Transcript

[Aubrey Carter]

This is an Allers English podcast. Episode 2649 Three tips to start Thinking in English

[Podcast Announcer]

welcome to the All Ears English podcast, downloaded more than 200 million times. Are you feeling stuck with your English? We'll show you how to become fearless and fluent by focusing on connection, not perfection. With your American host, Michelle Kaplan, the New York radio girl, and Aubrey Carter, the IELTS whiz coming to you from Arizona and New York City, usa. To get real time transcripts right on your phone and create your personalized vocabulary list, try the Allears English app for iOS and Android. Start your seven day free trial at allearsenglish.com forward/app.

[Michelle Kaplan]

Do you find yourself translating from your first language into English? Today we'll share three tips to help you think in English instead to improve vocabulary, grammar and connections.

[Aubrey Carter]

Most English learners are solving the wrong problem. You may think you need to learn more vocabulary, but after teaching hundreds of thousands of English learners, we've discovered that's probably not what's holding you back. In fact, one hidden mistake may be preventing you from using the words you already know. We're about to release something brand new at Allers English that tackles this problem. We can't share all the details yet, but if you want early access and behind the scenes updates, join the early interest list now. Go to allersenglish.com vocabulary and get on the list today. Hello Michelle, how are you today?

[Michelle Kaplan]

Hi Aubry. I'm good. I'm good. Aubry, what do you think is the best way to teach your brain to stop translating from your first language?

[Aubrey Carter]

Oh, this is such a good question. And we have students ask us this a lot and it's to start thinking in English or for me, thinking in Spanish, thinking in French. Any language you're learning, you need to think in that language instead of first thinking it in your first language and then translating in your second. Anyway, but the trick is, how do we do that? What do we need to do in order to start thinking in English? And that is what we are diving into today. I'm excited.

[Michelle Kaplan]

Yes. And that's because we have a wonderful listener question from. It looks like it's from. Oh, sorry, I scrolled.

[Aubrey Carter]

I think it's Shin J8B. Yes, we apologize if we are not pronouncing your name correctly. Hopefully we are. Do you want to read the question for us, Michelle?

[Michelle Kaplan]

Sure. This question comes to us from YouTube. So. So it says, hello Lindsay and Michelle, I love your podcasts a lot. And they are not. They not only accompany me along the way to classes but also really teach me many things. A big thanks.

[Aubrey Carter]

Oh, I love that. You are welcome. Thank you for letting us know.

[Michelle Kaplan]

Yes, it says. But I find it challenging to speak English and connect with other people in a natural and spontaneous way. I mean, I'm always having to prepare for a long time to speak. Could you please share some suggestions? Thank you so much. Have a nice day. Thank you so much. This is a really great Questions, a question. I mean, this is one of the biggest issues ESL speakers face in English, and it's a huge part of connection.

[Aubrey Carter]

Exactly. Because when you're speaking spontaneously, you're not just talking, you are reacting to the other person or people. If it's a group expressing yourself, joking, keeping the conversation alive and building that connection, that's a lot to think about. And constantly stopping to form sentences or think about what you want to say can make all of that very difficult.

[Michelle Kaplan]

Yeah, yeah, exactly. So, I mean, speaking spontaneously is really tricky, Aubry. I mean, it's all about what's going on in your brain. And if you're translating, for example, from your first language, how quickly you can think of the words that you need. So what happens is you're translating and this ultimately slows you down. Down.

[Aubrey Carter]

And not only that, we talk about this a lot on the podcast. It slows you down and it causes errors that you wouldn't make if you are instead observing English and thinking in English. Because when we translate between languages, the grammar is always different, the vocabulary is always different. And we make these mistakes when we're expecting it to work differently in our first language and in English. And it often does not.

[Michelle Kaplan]

Yeah, exactly. So today we are going to give you tips and. On how to think in English. Right. So this can speed up the process. You're going to start to remember vocab faster, grammar becomes more automatic, and just, you're. You're gonna loosen up, I think. So, guys, before we talk about these tips, make sure you hit the follow button or subscribe wherever you are. Listening to the All Ears English podcast, so you never miss anything from us. Yes.

[Aubrey Carter]

So let's dive in. How do we start thinking in English? That's the question. We are giving you three amazing tips today with some good details, but also give yourself some grace. This takes time and consistent practice, but you can speed up the process with some really good tricks.

[Michelle Kaplan]

Yeah, I love these. So the first trick, guys, is to narrate your activities in English. This sounds. It. It sounds. I. You know, I'm sure some listeners are hearing this and they're Thinking it sounds a little bit cheesy. Right.

[Aubrey Carter]

Or it might feel cheesy the first time you try it, especially if it's out loud. If you're like, I'm walking from my bed to the door, and now I'm opening the door, it might feel strange, but this is making your brain think those things in English without first thinking it in your first language.

[Michelle Kaplan]

Exactly. And what's great is you can do this alone, you know, just while getting ready in the morning. Okay. You know, oh, I'm. I have to brush my teeth. Let me make breakfast.

[Aubrey Carter]

And even all the steps of that. I'm gonna brush my teeth. I'm opening the tube of toothpaste. I'm squeezing it and putting some on my toothbrush. Now, I. Maybe don't talk while you're brushing your teeth. You're gonna make a mess. But then think in your mind. Now I'm brushing my teeth with my mouth as closed as possible so I don't make a mess. This is what I tell my children. Like, why. Why is there toothpaste dots all over this mirror?

[Michelle Kaplan]

But even. Yeah. If you're walking somewhere, are you talking to pets? That's a really great one. People talk to their pets all the time, so give that a try. That's just as much as you can say as possible. And you don't have to be with a human person speaking English in order to do this.

[Aubrey Carter]

Exactly. This is because that's one of the hardest things sometimes, is finding that conversation partner, those. Those speaking partners. This can either be in your head if you're on the subway or somewhere in public, just saying it in your head and then out loud whenever you're alone. And you can. If you're walking to the park, if you're on a run, if you're alone at home, do this out loud. Describe what you're doing as you're cooking out loud. And then you will start to recognize vocabulary gaps. If you want to say, I'm using a spatula to flip this egg, and you don't know how to say spatula. Look it up. Right. Figure out. Use your vocabulary notebook and add to your vocabulary so that you can describe what you're doing.

[Michelle Kaplan]

Yeah, exactly. So this might sound like, you know, oh, I'm running late, or, where did my hairbrush go? Or, wow, this food smells good. Right? This is just anything. Anything that's happening.

[Aubrey Carter]

And I love all of those points because it's not just, I'm doing this, and then I'm doing this, and I'm using This to do it. It's also, how am I feeling? What am I smelling? What am I missing? What am I thinking? Right. There's a lot that you would think

[Michelle Kaplan]

in your tired, I'm feeling tired. Or maybe plans for later, like, oh, I can't forget to call, you know, Stacy later, or something like that.

[Aubrey Carter]

Exactly. Think that in English and don't do this all day long. You will be exhausted. Like 30 minutes a day. Take 30 minutes to really focus and have all of your thoughts be in English and narrate what you're doing in English. And then maybe if you don't feel too exhausted, do it again later in the day for another 30 minutes.

[Michelle Kaplan]

Right, right. And so this is going to start to, you know, as Aubrey said, you're turning it into active vocabulary. You're going to start to just get more comfortable with getting the words out.

[Aubrey Carter]

So removing something that's spiritual, that might be on your. In your vocab note notebook somewhere. Maybe it's passive vocabulary that you have learned, but you haven't actually used it in a conversation. How often do we say Spanish? I don't know that word in Spanish or French because I don't have conversations about cooking. So if I were to narrate my thoughts in French, that this has happened to me, that was a gap where I wanted to think. You know, I'm like, trying to think it in French. I'm like, I don't know how to say spatula. Gotta go look it up. And clearly it's not in my active vocabulary yet because I can't say it right now. But if I kept narrating my thoughts, eventually I would be able to.

[Michelle Kaplan]

Right. And I love what you said about, like, finding the gaps. I mean, that's a. That's huge. Right? So just. You will find gaps. Wait, I actually don't know how to say that. And so you're going to find different ways to learn, and you're going to be practicing while you're relaxed. So that's huge as well.

[Aubrey Carter]

Yes. This will remove that fear of speaking, or at least a lot of it, because it will feel more natural. It's low stress. You're building confidence by yourself as you narrate your thoughts and start thinking in English.

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[Aubrey Carter]

two tip here is to think in phrases. So this means to learn common phrases. Chunks, we often call them, used by natives. These are not just one word responses. It's a whole chunk. They are go to phrases that are related to new vocabulary words. And that when you're thinking in those whole chunks, those whole phrases trains your brain to think in English.

[Michelle Kaplan]

Yeah. So this might sound like instead of saying nervous, saying I'm pretty nervous about or what else, Aubrey?

[Aubrey Carter]

Yes. Or instead of saying just funny, you might say, that's so funny. That's the funniest thing I've ever heard. And as you're observing English shadowing English, add these words in the chunk they were used by the native speaker to your vocabulary notebook. And then practice when you are thinking in English, use the whole phrase.

[Michelle Kaplan]

Yes, exactly. Or busy. Like, I've been really busy lately. I can't. I can't believe how busy this. This week has gotten.

[Aubrey Carter]

Something like super busy. I have such a busy, crazy week. Right. These chunks where we would use that word instead of just I am busy. Right. Yes. Use these more native chunks. And that's.

[Michelle Kaplan]

Yes.

[Aubrey Carter]

This is how native speakers think. Right. This is how you think in your first language. And you need to do it in English as well. It will make you sound more natural. It's kind of a shortcut. There's no need to construct a whole new sentence because you've learned the vocabulary as part of a chunk.

[Michelle Kaplan]

Yeah, yeah, exactly. And the third thing is let go of perfection. And I bet you're not surprised to hear us say that because we believe in connection, not perfection. Yeah.

[Aubrey Carter]

This reminds me of our roast. If you guys heard the roast, all of us, AI is like, you guys talk about Connection, not perfection. A lot. It's because we really believe it AI true. Get off our back.

[Michelle Kaplan]

Yeah, exactly. Leave us alone. Yeah. So, you know, you know, respond before you feel ready and start your sentence and fill in the words as you go so you don't have to wait to create a full sentence in your head. And then again, accept the mistakes. We're all going to make mistakes and just realize it's part of the process. I mean, my son is learning to. Is really getting into drawing. And at first he was really, really hard on himself when he would make a mistake. And so I had to kind of teach him to accept that that's part of the process. And I actually think that he's starting to really grow from that. So it's just part of the process and that's fine.

[Aubrey Carter]

Yeah. And we have all experienced that with language learning. All we've seen all of this where we do hesitate to make those mistakes. We know we sound, you know, that it might. We maybe feel like someone's patient with all of our mistakes, but they're not. They're just excited to connect with you. And this advice to start the sentence and then fill in the words as you are speaking. You are seeing the need for this because when you're in a group conversation and someone says something, you don't have time to think through that whole sentence before you say it. The moment's gone. Someone else says something, you have to be able to jump in, start saying it, and build that sentence as you go. And if you practice this in advance, you'll get better and better at it.

[Michelle Kaplan]

Yeah, I love that. So, yeah, this might be a little messy and that's okay. And you might start sentences with well or I think, and that's okay.

[Aubrey Carter]

Guess what? Native speakers do that too. Oh, all the time in a conversation. Well, I think. And that might be me kind of gathering my thoughts and deciding how do I want to express this opinion, how careful do I need to be? I'm judging that. What register should I use? How formal should I be? Think about that. There's all so many things you think about when you go to talk about the relationships and how are these. And, and let me remember really quick what this person thinks or what do I know, how am I going to change? There's a lot that we're thinking about. You have some time to start that sentence and think about the vocabulary, the phrase, the chunks you want to use as you go.

[Michelle Kaplan]

Definitely. Yeah. I mean, and this works because speaking imperfectly helps develop fluency. You know, Mistakes often just kind of work themselves out in time or show, like we mentioned before, the, the gaps where you need to improve, what you need to learn. And ultimately this practice is just going to help build your confidence.

[Aubrey Carter]

Absolutely. Just like speaking with real people in conversations, when you find speaking partners, when you come to our live speaking events, when you join one of our classes, you come to open conversation club, fluency parties, students are running speaking practice as well. All of that builds so much practice, so much fluency and competence, but also this, doing it on your own whenever you have time, narrating your thoughts, thinking them out loud, that also is going to build that confidence. So you're ready for conversations with people.

[Michelle Kaplan]

Absolutely. Yeah. I love that. Yeah. I mean, this is such a good question. Just I think that this listener is really going to grow by, you know, thinking like this and as well as

[Aubrey Carter]

all of you out there, right? Every single.

[Michelle Kaplan]

Exactly. Everyone. Yes.

[Aubrey Carter]

You are going to become more fluent and confident. Try it out. Try these tips and you will see a difference. Quick, quickly.

[Michelle Kaplan]

Yes, exactly. Exactly. Check out episode 2645. That was little versus small and great versus big. Anything we want to leave our listeners with today?

[Aubrey Carter]

Aubry, I mean, you've heard this before, but connection, not perfection, guys, right? This is how you do that. You don't have to jump into a conversation having never spoken English and expect to be confident and expect to not be worried about making mistakes. There's so much you could do in advance to prepare so that you're ready to dive into those conversations with confidence, knowing that, sure, you might make a few mistakes, but you are going to be able to connect. You're going to be able to have that conversation and then you can really believe that. Okay, I am ready to connect. I'm ready to have these conversations and I don't have to worry about everything I say being perfect.

[Michelle Kaplan]

Love it. All right, well, thanks again for the question. And Aubry, I'm glad we spoke about this today. And guys, we'll see you in the next one.

[Podcast Announcer]

Yes.

[Aubrey Carter]

See you guys next time.

[Michelle Kaplan]

Bye bye.

[Podcast Announcer]

Thanks for listening to all ears. English. Would you like to know your English level? Take our two minute quiz. Go to allearsenglish.com forward/fluencyscore. And if you believe in connection, not perfection, then hit subscribe now to make sure you don't miss the anything. See you next time.

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