After 300 main episodes of Thinking in English, it is finally time to talk about the problem of the thinking in different languages, including English!
We’ll discuss the definition of thinking, talk about whether you need language to think, consider whether thinking in English (or any language) is possible for people without a “voice in their head”, and end with a discussion on how you can start thinking in English and whether you actually should!
This has been one of the most requested topics of all time, so I hope you enjoy listening!
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Vocabulary
- Conscious (Adjective): Aware of and responding to one’s surroundings; awake.
- She was conscious of the people staring at her as she walked into the room
- Neuroscientist (Noun): A scientist who studies the brain and nervous system.
- The neuroscientist conducted an experiment to understand how the brain processes language.
- Stroke (Noun): A medical condition in which poor blood flow to the brain results in cell death.
- After his stroke, he had to undergo months of rehabilitation to regain his speech and mobility.
- Visualise (Verb): Form a mental image of something; imagine.
- She tried to visualise her future success as she worked on her business plan.
- Inner monologue (Noun): The internal dialogue one has with oneself in one’s mind.
- His inner monologue was filled with doubts and questions as he prepared for the big presentation.
- Polyglot (Noun): A person who knows and is able to use several languages.
- Being a polyglot, she easily conversed with the international guests at the conference.
Introduction
This in the 300th episode of Thinking in English… kind of. There are actually over 370 episodes uploaded publicly from my account, plus nearly 100 bonus episodes uploaded to Patreon for my supporters!
Despite this, I like to think of this episode as the 300th main episode of the show.
I started Thinking in English back in September 2020, nearly 4 years ago. Over the course of these 300 episodes, I have covered an incredibly wide range of topics, from space travel to the future coffee, from tips on how to argue in English to Chile’s controversial constitution, from the problems of overtourism to the debate around student loans.
There is one topic, however, that I have not covered yet. A surprising topic, and one that people often ask me about, that I have never discussed.
How to Think in English?
That’s right… the Thinking in English podcast has never talked about the process or methodology behind Thinking in English!
Why?
Why Haven’t I Talked About How to Think in English Before?
There are a few reasons why I haven’t discussed this topic before.
First, the show title “Thinking in English” is more about thinking about various and interesting topics that are presented in the English language.
Second, this topic is incredibly oversaturated. Every single podcast, YouTube channel, or blog for English learners has an article titled something like “How to Think in English?”.
Just search that phrase on Google. You will find hundreds of articles on this topic. The advice they give is usually pretty basic and generic, which is fine but makes it difficult to be unique.
I try to be a little more unique and scientific in my approach to the topics I cover on Thinking in English, and I don’t want to make an episode that is just repeating what other people have said.
But I do want to make an episode about thinking in foreign languages.
So, in this episode of Thinking in English, I am going to explore what it means to think, the relationship between language and thoughts, how multilingual people “think”, and finally whether you should actually try to “think in English.”
What is Thinking?
Let’s start with a highly complicated question – what is thinking? Or what is a thought?
I’m sure I have philosophy students, psychologists, therapists, doctors, and neuroscientists who listen to this podcast, and who all have a much deeper understanding of “thinking” and what it means to “think” than I do.
In fact, there is no one simple or universal definition of “thinking.” It is a complex process in which we use our minds to consider, analyse, evaluate, and generate ideas, beliefs, and perceptions about the world around us.
It involves mental activities such as reasoning, problem-solving, decision-making, imagining, and remembering.
Thinking can be conscious or unconscious. Some of our common actions are done without the realisation that we are thinking – instant replies to questions or natural reactions to situations. When we blink our eyes, breath, walk, and run, we are thinking but don’t always know it.
Other things take a great deal of mental effort. Writing a podcast episode, for example, often requires me sitting and thinking about possibilities for hours (sometimes even days). I experiment inside my brain, think of different ideas and questions, and try to estimate or guess how you guys will respond to a topic.
Thinking can also occur in various forms, including logical, creative, critical, and abstract thinking.
Commonly, philosophers have divided thinking into “problem solving” thinking and “reasoning” thinking. Each of these involve various different processes of thinking.
Thought Without Language
This episode is titled “how to think in English?” and my podcast is “Thinking in English”, which suggests that we think in a language. I think in English, my native language, and you guys think in your native languages most of the time.
But do we need language to think? Do you always think in a language, when thinking?
This was one of the main problems that philosophers tried to tackle in the past. Ludwig Wittgenstein, for example, famously wrote that “the limits of my language mean the limits of my world.” Bertrand Russell similarly believed that language’s purpose is “to make possible thought which could not exist without it.”
Does this mean we can’t think at all without language?
Experiments have been conducted on patients who experienced traumatic brain injuries or strokes and lose all ability to use language. The results show that people without the ability to use languages can still solve mathematic problems and can still perform complex reasoning tasks.
One of the most famous examples in history comes from the respected Soviet music composer Vissarion Shebalin. Shebalin suffered two strokes in the 1950s, which left him severely aphasic. In other words, his strokes damaged the language part of his brain, and destroyed his ability to use and process languages.
Without language, many of us would question how we could still think or be creative. Shebalin, however, completed his fifth full symphony without any language capabilities. And it was described as a brilliant piece of music.
There are other reports of people losing the ability to use or process languages, but still be able to play chess or other strategic games.
Of course, language is a very useful tool for thinking. In the case of Shebalin the composer, he became a brilliant composer while he could use language and was able to maintain that when he lost his ability to use languages.
In my research for this episode, one of the best explanations I found came from an article publish by MIT’s McGovern Institute: they wrote “while the language system may not be directly involved in the process of thinking, it is crucial for acquiring enough information to properly set up various cognitive domains.”
In other words, while we might not need a language to think, languages are very useful in learning how to think. A person who loses their language as an adult due a brain injury might still be able to count and solve math problems, but probably because they learned how to do this as a child with language.
Language is so closely tied to thinking for many of us, that we can’t imagine thinking without a language. But the reality is, that we can think without language… just in a different way.
What Does It Mean to Think in English?
At the beginning of the episode, I mentioned that there are hundreds, probably thousands, of articles published online trying to give you tips on “how to think in English.” They say learning to think in a foreign language will make you a more fluent and better English speaker.
This is not necessarily wrong, but I think it is a little simplistic. As I’ve tried to show, thinking is a complex process and is not necessarily always tied with language.
You don’t need to think in English, to be a great English speaker. In fact, you don’t even need to think in any language to speak a foreign language.
One of the great mysteries of the mind in current science and psychology is people without an inner monologue or people with an unusual inner monologue.
An inner monologue is a “an inner voice where you “hear” yourself talk in your head.” As I’m planning Thinking in English episodes, I’m constantly “hearing” my own voice generating ideas or considering what words to write down. There is language clear and present while I’m thinking.
In fact, I can also think in Japanese. When I am engaging in a Japanese conversation, watching a Japanese movie, or just try to think about something in Japanese, the voice in my head switches to use Japanese language.
I actually find it really difficult to speak in Japanese while thinking in English, because of my inner monologue.
Many of you listening will understand what I mean about an inner monologue, but not everyone will. And this is because not everyone has an “inner monologue”.
There are people who don’t hear their own voice in their head while thinking. There are people who hear no language in their head, there are people who hear different voices, and there are a wide variety of different ways of “thinking.”
I found an interesting Guardian article which interviewed a variety of people without “normal” internal monologues. There was a man who described his brain as like “a tiny island, surrounded by an infinite ocean” – he had no voice at all in his head. He never criticised himself, never shamed himself, never talked himself through situations – he said he could spend an hour without a single conscious thought in his brain.
Other people reported seeing, rather than hearing thoughts. If they need to buy milk, they see an image of buying milk instead of hearing the words, “buy milk.” Others talked about feeling, rather than hearing.
No one knows why some people have inner voices, and others have nothing in their brain. Deaf people, for example, can’t hear sound so sometimes visualise their inner voices rather than hearing them.
The reality is that many of you listening will not have “typical” inner monologues, or in fact there might not be a typical inner monologue.
So, when we talk about thinking in English, or thinking in any language, it just might not make sense for some of you. If you are a native Polish speaker, but you don’t actually hear Polish language in your head when thinking, then it is unrealistic to expect you to actively “think” in English because you don’t do this in your own language.
Do You Need to Think in Your Target Languages?
For most people, including bilinguals, it is not as simple as changing your entire brain into another language. Your brain, and its ability to speak in different languages, can be developed through constant practice and exposure.
I speak Japanese. Do I always think in Japanese while speaking? No – of course not. There are definitely times, in most conversations, when I have to think in English to find a meaning or structure in the depths of my brain.
But the more I study, speak, and practice, the less I need to do this. I’m not constantly translating in my brain when I speak. Japanese and English are such different languages, with completely different grammars and sentence structures, that direct translation often doesn’t work.
As we get better at languages, we need to translate less words and less phrases. Often I hear something now, and I instantly recognise the meaning and instantly know how to respond, without needing to think at all.
In fact, this is probably how you speak in your native language. We have an entire phrase in English, “think before you speak”, because it so common for people to instantly react and say something without thinking at all.
To speak in English, you don’t actually need to think consciously at all – that is the level of fluency most of you guys are striving to reach. As you get better at English, more comfortable and confident in speaking, the better you will be at using English fluently without needing to think in your native language.
Of course, you may want to think in English for other purposes. You may want to consider philosophical questions in English, or write a poem in English, or plan a presentation in English – all of which require thinking, reasoning, and preparation.
I actually tried to plan this episode while thinking in Japanese – and it was really difficult. I just don’t have the vocabulary or creativity in Japanese to make a great episode, and I was getting confused with the constant switching of languages.
But I could do it to some extent. And with more practice, I’m sure I could get better and eventually produce content in Japanese.
Should You Try to Think in English?
Finally, I want to talk about whether you should actively try to think in English. Whether you should force yourself to use English as the medium of thought in your brain.
You might think I’ve missed a section of this episode – how to think in English. I’ve on purposefully not given a detailed answer to this question because I think it has been mentioned already in the episode.
To give you a simple answer, improve your English ability, practice, and get comfortable using the language. There are so many different ways to do this, and nothing will work for every single person. I think speaking as often in English as possible is a great way to stop translating in your head – you can join a conversation club like the one I run to help if needed.
The more comfortable you become in using English, the easier it will be to think in English.
But should you actively try to force yourself to think in English? Should you concentrate all of your effort into changing your inner monologue into English?
For some of you the answer is simple. If you don’t have an inner monologue, there is no way you can force yourself to think in English.
For those of you who can force yourself to do this, like I can with Japanese, the answer is more complicated.
I mentioned previously that I tried to think in Japanese, make my inner monologue speak in Japanese, to plan this episode. While I could do this, I found myself becoming frustrated. I couldn’t quite grab the right ideas or clearly see the topics I wanted to talk about in the episode.
Steve Kauffman, the well-known polyglot and YouTube language expert, made an interesting video on this topic. He mentioned that forcing yourself to think in a language, and stop thinking in your native language, can introduce stress into the process of learning.
It can make you uptight, less flexible, and, like I was, frustrated. This is not the best situation or context for learning, communicating, or living.
And his ending advice was great as well. You just need to relax and let yourself naturally start to think in English, or whatever language you are learning. If you force yourself, you will get stressed.
But if you don’t worry about thinking in English, if you simply focus on learning language through the means you enjoy, you will naturally and gradually find yourself thinking more and more in English!
Final Thought
After nearly four years, I have now finally covered the topic of thinking in English, on the Thinking in English podcast.
I always try to be unique and different, so hopefully you have enjoyed this slightly different approach to the topic of thinking in foreign languages.
I’ve looked at the process of thinking, the relationship between language and thinking, the fact some people don’t think in a language at all, and finally talked about how (and if you should) think in English.
The best advice I can give is that thinking in English should come naturally to you. The more you learn, study, practice, and use English, and the more confident and comfortable you become, the more you will find yourself thinking in English!
What do you think? How would you describe your thoughts and thinking process?
Extended Vocabulary List
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