Communication Solutions for Global Business

Do you still translate from your native language when speaking English? Are you having difficulty communicating because of it?

This week I received a question from one of my YouTube subscribers facing this problem and she asked how she could stop translating from her native language to English.

In this video I give you a couple of my top tips for getting over this hurdle in the language learning process.

Add your ideas to the comments! 🙂

Happy Speaking!
Heather

If you’d like to learn more about clear speech and pronunciation, please visit me at http://bit.ly/free8-partproncourse and sign up for my free, 8-part pronunciation short course.

I’ll see you there!

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Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Heather Hansen

    [VIDEO] – How to Stop Translating and Start Speaking English Naturally! How
    to Stop Translating and Start Speaking English Naturally!

  3. Anh Nguyen

    Thanks for the video Heather. I greatly appreciate it. I have the feeling
    that I’ve just got a special tutor online Youtube and hope it is not unfair
    for the other people lol.

  5. Heather Hansen

    Thanks for your comments, Mauro JESUS! Such a great point about thinking in English! I agree! How to speak freely without feeling self-conscious – you will always feel self conscious until, one day, you decide: "You know what?! I'm done with that! Yeah, I might make mistakes. Yes, some people will unfairly judge me. Some people might even laugh at me. But you know what?! I'm not going to let it hold me back anymore!" The unique message that you have to share with the world is SO much more important than whatever people think of your English. Truly. Go out there and SPEAK. If people don't like your English… oh well. The people who matter will still listen.

  6. Heather Hansen

    Haha! When there's a good question that I know a lot of people are struggling with, I like to do a video. Especially if it needs a longer answer. You're definitely not the only one with this challenge!

  7. Heather Hansen

    That's great you're past the translation phase. Now you just need to have more focused English input. By "focused" I mean that you need to really start paying attention to how things are said and written. Notice when it is different from how you would have said it. Make a mental note and start making these small changes to your own speech. Either that or sign up for an advanced grammar refresher to fix those little errors.

  8. Mauro JESUS

    That's very true Heather Hansen… I know I shouldn't be put off by it. It's just something I've got to overcome as the time goes by.

    Thanks a lot for your tips!

    You're fantastic.

  10. Lindley Craig

    I speak English as my 1st language and find this completely relevant to me too!  I still read every word instead of skimming documents or books for the overall meaning.  I also struggle with finding the "right" word instead of just a word that is close enough.  Great tips Heather!  I'm going to practice using these tips this week in my work.

  11. Ezechiel Rosalie

    Hi, first of all I want to thank you for all the videos, I'm a fan, and what you share is very helpful. I have a problem with pronouncing death and deaf, it's as if they both have the same pronunciation, I've been trying to practice the pronunciation of both word but I'm not sure if I'm getting it right. Can you help please 🙂

  12. Heather Hansen

    Ezechiel Rosalie, be sure that your tongue is coming out between your teeth on the final TH in 'death'. Changing this sound to an F is very, very common (normal, in fact) in Singapore and Malaysia. Is that where you live? Watch yourself in the mirror when you say the two words. When you say 'death', your tongue MUST come out to create the TH sound. When you say 'deaf', your top teeth will touch your bottom lip to create the F sound. Do NOT let your teeth touch your lip when you say 'death'. You shouldn't be able to do that because your tongue should be in the way making the TH sound!! Hope this helps! 🙂 Heather

  14. Bimal Rathnagoda

    Dear teacher,
    I really agree with your idea. As you mentioned, it is a natural process,
    so we don’t have to get disappointed about it. But through my experience, I
    know that there are some practical activities we can easily use to reduce
    the time period taken for this process. For example, watching English
    programs, movies, conversations, dialogues and so on the internet, on TV;
    listening to English programs on radio are good activities to overcome
    these passive barriers in a steady way. As you have pointed out, English
    has become the lingua franca in the current world, so English belongs to
    people who use it. in this context, we have to speak “global English”. On
    the other hand, for me, it is easy to understand your accent.
    Thanks and bye for now!

  15. Star Valino

    Thank you for all the tips. I believe it’s a process. I have been here in
    the US for 11 years now. I was born and raised in the Philippines. While it
    is true that our acquaintances help us to learn better and enhances our
    vocabulary. I also learn not forget about my heritage as a bi-lingual
    person. To be more accepting and not be ashamed of my accent. Slowly, I
    have come to make sense of what to make out of these things like moving
    away from translating that slows our thought-process. I learn also to
    appreciate of not being afraid but being myself. It is good to ask help
    and to not be afraid to do and say and commit mistakes. I am more open to
    people helping me out on how to pronounce. To write better grammatically
    and to think that I am not alone for life is a process. To learn and to
    accept other words from different cultures like Spanish, French and other
    languages are part of being interconnected and to learn from each other.

  16. Ярик Акулов

    наверное чтобы рассказать как перестать пользоваться переводчиком и начать
    разговаривать на английском нужно было объяснять на русском)

  17. Aye Su Paing

    Hello! Heather Hansen. I have a problem in listening. My problem is when
    people are talking to me, i am understand what they says but when i do the
    exam for listening in the class, they ever get a low mark.I don’t know what
    is happening on me.Could u give me any suggestion to improve the listening
    when we make like the exam? I am here your student as well.Thanks and i am
    waiting for your suggestion.

  18. Heather Hansen

    Interesting. How are you tested? Do you listen to something and then answer a multiple choice test? Do you have to write a short answer? I wonder if there is a problem with you explaining what you heard, and NOT actually with you understanding what you heard???

  19. Aye Su Paing

    When i take the listening exam, i could not catch up the main point what
    they says.That’s my problem and i never get a high mark in listening and if
    the teacher give us 20 question, i am almostly get a half. When i listen
    to your youtude, i can understand clearly but what kind of listening
    problem i am feeling now is no idea to explain more.I’m just only worried
    about that.

  20. Jorge Vidal Cano

    sometimes I think I understood what I was told, but then, I ask something or I am asked something and then I realice that I misunderstood, maybe that's your problem, when you have a conversation or read, one does not always can prove if you really catch what it was said, when you have an exam, there are just one correct answer and you really need to know this, must be quite clear.
    other thing, a normal conversation with anyone it usually easer than watching tv, listen to the radio or doing an exam (where they normally try to confuse you)

  21. Russell Vale

    Hello Heather H. I don´t wanna be rude or offensive with some people, I am
    foreigner and I got a question, that is like a pain in the neck to me : I
    was studying english for 4 years and I can understand american, british or
    australian people easily but Is difficult to me understand to black native
    american people, I could notice they pronounce many words in different way
    when they speak fast is too difficult to understand to many foreigners and
    me. Could u explain that please? Why it happen in real english? Which
    consonant they change or vowel or rhythm? U know u r native PLEASE. many
    people would be grateful to u

  22. Irrestry Naritasari

    Hai, thanks for the tips, I am still having problem to respond native
    speaker when it comes to group setting. I notice that somehow my brain
    still translates to English. When they are all speak in the group, people
    talk reciprocally, and when I am still thinking and trying to understand
    another person starts speaking another topics. Eventually, I don’t get
    chance to speak and this is really frustrating. 🙁 Could you please give me
    some solutions for this?

  23. Danova Kontrola

    i had same problem, and i had class mates with very good english and noone ever understood the record.. in the record it was said in very bad way,voice and also wrong pronunciation.. but anyway, i would like to ask how to learn translate, if i know except my native language, 2 other languages.. is there also any tip/tric how to translate fast from one language to second language directly and skip the part of translating to native?

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