Don’t Translate Directly When Speaking English!

By Robby

If you are new here please read this first.



Hi Boys and Girls!

I’m back with the second video episode – and I hope you enjoyed the first one!

I’m still getting a hang of the video recording equipment in my home studio – so you may spot some small glitches here and there. But I think the video quality is decent enough for you to understand what I’m saying, what you think?

So this time I’m covering a few seemingly unrelated topics – direct translation to English from your native language and English collocations. However, it just takes a few minutes to grasp the connection between those two.

Basically, your English speech won’t be fluent for as long as you prepare the speech in your head using your native language. And mind this – you don’t necessarily have to be aware of this process. It’s not like you’re actually speaking in your mother’s tongue with yourself and then translating into English (although it may happen, too!)

It’s more like the first thought corresponding to what you want to say is in your language. And then you’re translating it into English subconsciously.

Consciously or not, the end result is the same – slow and unnatural spoken English.

So how to stop this vicious circle? The answer is – by re-building your spoken English! If you understand the importance of English collocations, phrasal verbs and expressions, you can start taking the action right now!

In my video I’m explaining simple ways of making collocation learning your habit. It’s not as hard as it sounds, by the way – so better watch the video right now and see for yourself!

OK, thanks for your time and I really hope you’ll improve your spoken English at least by a small degree after watching the second video episode!

Talk to you soon again,

Robby

P.S. Are you ready to get on the fast track to spoken English fluency? Check out my English Harmony System HERE!



English Harmony System

P.S. Are you serious about your spoken English improvement? Check out the English Harmony System HERE!

English Harmony System
  • Faiza

    Hello sir,
    my english is not good , but i confuse every time how to speak english. whenever i type letter or emails there is all grammar mistake … please sir teach me

  • Raheel100

    Sunita ! I have the same problem while speaking. What to do?

  • Thanks a lot for your comment, Sattar!nnThe problem you describe is the very same English fluency issue I’m discussing in nearly every blog post and yes, it may drive a one mad! It makes you think you’ve lost your fluency all of a sudden and it requires quite a lot of work with yourself.nnObviously you’ve been working with yourself the same way I’ve been experimenting with my English speech in pursuit of the best fluency management methods and the way you describe it in your comment is brilliant.nnThe way you describe certain aspects, for example – “how to align my mind with my body by quieting my mind every now and then…” and “as it there was a much higher intelligent mechanism…” – you totally nailed it and I have to agree I couldn’t have said it better!nnIf you don’t mind, I’d like you to read this blog post of mineu00a0http://englishharmony.com/english-fluency-management/u00a0where I’m elaborating on the speech management methods very similar to the one described by you.nnThanks a lot and talk to you soon,nnRobbyn

  • Sattar

    very well said. I wanna share one tip that I found very helpful with myu00a0English speakingu00a0fluency. Last time when I was struggling with myu00a0English speaking skill, I found that I could be very fluent one time, but could be crawling some other time. Latter I came to realize that it was very difficult for me to speak fluently when my mind and body (mouth) was out of sync. This happened when my mind was racing with thoughts. After that I learned how to align my mind with my body byu00a0quieting my mind every now and then. In this perfect alignment, I found that words just came out of my mouthu00a0spontaneously during conversation. Not just words, but the whole ideas of conversation just came out naturally andu00a0spontaneously as if there was a much higher intelligent mechanism taking care of all that for me with very lease conscious effort from my side.u00a0u00a0

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  • Hi Yeliz,

    Your method is actually very similar to mine, maybe the way I explained it was a bit too complicated! 😉

    Explaining new words and collocations using other English words is the most important thing and that’s what you’re doing as well when forming your dictionary.

    Thanks a lot for sharing it with us,

    Robby 🙂

  • Yeliz

    Hi,Robby
    I want to learn your idea about my new tecnique in learning spoken english.it looks a bit complicated . Mine is to listen to everyday english-listen to a song,watch a film etc- and then form A DÄ°CTÄ°ONARY writing that english(!) instead of mine.For example I listen to a conversation like “your son crashed mine’ or my computer crashed”…Before hearing ‘crash’ in this sense ,I used to prefer only ‘bump or break down “.Now my point is to put these new words in my dictionary but as equivalent to mine like:

    bump into a child=crash a child (real life)
    (computer)break down=crash (real life)

    When I decide to say sth with my old(!) english,I look up my (!) dictionary and use my new English instead.maybe there are such dictionaries but the new words in my dictionary are taken out of my listening ….I hope it is clear.your advice is important for me.
    Bye!!!

  • Hello Sunita,

    Well, your problem illustrates very well why traditional English studies fail. We’re not taught to SPEAK correctly – too much focus is put on writing.

    Some might tell you – just speak out in whatever way you can, it’ll be fine! It is an option all right, but that way you risk developing incorrect speaking patterns permanently.

    To avoid it you can rebuild your spoken English from the ground up – get more details here:
    http://englishharmony.com/improve-spoken-english.html

    Regards,

    Robby 🙂

  • sunita

    hi
    robby sir
    i am very keen intersted in spoken english but i have problem while speaking i am not able to speak due to fear of that what ever i am speakin is correct or not plz help me

  • Hi Yeliz,

    You made a very good point!

    In fact, my English Harmony System is structured so that you acquire most of English collocations and phrases. It wasn’t an easy task to filter out the relevant ones etc., but it is possible. In 60 lessons I’ve covered all the possible topics beginning with having a chat during a launch break and ending with discussing global issues.

    The seriousness of a topic is actually not a hurdle – your mind will instinctively know how to replace certain words from a word combination that you’ve learnt – as far as it’s English!

    So for instance, if you’ve memorized a phrase “We should drop the subject of politics” you’ll also be able to say “We should drop the subject of recession” or “Please let’s drop this subject!”

    You see – once the blueprint of a certain collocation is settled in your mind you will be able to naturally use it in many different life situations by replacing the words depending on that particular situation.

    So the bottom line is – of course you can’t realistically memorize all sentences used in English language. However, by learning the most commonly used ones you’re get your fluency going and the rest is just learning a number of specific terms for the given subject.

    Hope this clarifies the issue,

    Robby 😉

  • yeliz

    First of all,I want to thank you for sharing your experiences with us.Now I want to ask you a general question, not directly related with this video.
    Well, I understand the importance of collacations,just memorizing the words with their friends but how can a man find all the collacations in all the fields of real life ;I mean there are lots of topics people talk about in different places(AT HOME ,Ä°N BUSÄ°NESS,AT SCHOOL,AT THE PARK ETC).they can’T put a limit to the contents.They can’T say like “I beg your pardon but ı dont study that topic”.
    Maybe your point is real english,you know,the language in the street and just get your daily message through but there are lots of serious topics people are supposed to make comments.How can people get acquainted with these ‘serious’ collacations!
    looking for your answer,thanks!