Who taught : Carol

When in Rome (source: eternallycool.net)

Do you know what is one of things that non-native English speakers have a hard time to catch or understand? It is number.

For example, phone number! Living in the U.S., it is inevitable to make many phone calls to talk to customer services of any company. I remember I had to make phone calls to Comcast to talk about my Internet service’s monthly charge when I first got here. They talked about numbers like my plan and monthly charge and told me other phone numbers to which I need to make phone calls. It was so hard for me to catch all of the numbers they were mentioning. So, I thought about it, asking me, “Why is it so hard? And how can I get better?” And, I realized that I was thinking in Korean. For instance, every time I went shopping and see price tags, I was speaking the prices in Korean in my mind. To fix that issue, I decided to think every number in English. One of the hardest numbers is my credit card number. So long to think in English. 🙂

But, that is not the only thing to think in English. If you want to be able to speak English well enough to have conversations in business context, you should speak pretty fast. Even with the situation that you are just hanging out with your friends, you should be able to speak English fast. If not, it is hard to be involved in conversations. So, HOW can you speak English faster? The answer is easy. You gotta think in English in your daily life. Even better, you want to dream in English. Now, let me give you a tip! Start with number. Try to count phone number, card number and address, etc. in English. Then, try to spare some time like 10 or 20 minutes every evening and rewind your day in English. Let me give you my example!

This morning, I had an waffle made by Jessy. It was good. After breakfast, I went to school to teach students. Oh… I stopped by a Starbucks to grab a coffee. How about lunch? Subway foot long sub is too much for me. I could not finish it at all. I wonder how my American friends can finish it. They must have bigger stomachs. 🙂 Walking with Jessy after dinner was good. The weather today was so awesome. The end!

How is it? So simple, isn’t it? It is like an elementary school student’s diary. You can do this. As President Obama said, YES WE CAN! I can guarantee that the more you think in English, the faster your English would be. I am not talking about correct grammar here. To be honest, when it comes to speaking English, grammar does not really matter. The point is ability to communicate. You should practice English so that you can communicate with your friends.

I met a lot of non-native English speakers in America who have lived really long enough to be able to speak English well but actually not. You know why? It is simple. They have not practiced English. Some of them do not even want to practice at all. Well, they say “When in Rome.”

The full expression for “when in Rome” is “When in Rome, do as the Romans do.” But, you would rarely hear the full expression. Again, we need to speak faster. 🙂 You can use this one in any situation that most of the people around you do the similar thing. Suppose that you went to a party where all of the people drink beer, then you might say to the host, “I want to drink wine but when in Rome. Let me have a beer.”

My friends out there! From today, let’s practice to think in English! That will make a big difference.