This video was recorded on June 24, 2017.
The transcription and analysis:
1) “Hi! Volibor Zastavkin here. Today I will explain you how to think in English.”
—What’s wrong with this sentence? Let’s try to see how it’s built. The structure of the sentence looks familiar, doesn’t it? Everyone who speaks Russian will immediately see what’s going on here. If we translate it directly, we’ll get: “Ñåãîäíÿ ÿ áóäó îáúÿñíÿòü òåáå êàê äóìàòü íà àíãëèéñêîì”. If I had time to think about it, I would probably replace the sentence with: “Ñåãîäíÿ ÿ ðàññêàæó î òîì, êàê äóìàòü íà àíãëèéñêîì”. To say, “explain you” instead of “explain to you” is a common mistake that shows one’s innocence of grammarwashing. Let me state that clear. There is no chance for an average person to learn spoken English if they will pay attention to all the nuances of using this or that verb. I do not deny the importance of learning these nuances, but it has to be done only after one is capable of using English to describe his regular daily experience. If I can’t remember ten thousand rules, I still can learn to speak without rules using words that I know and trying to make sense out of whatever I’m getting through.
Now, let’s see what can be done with the sentence.
Today I’ll explain to you how to think in English.
Now, I’m gonna tell you how to think in English.
In this video, I wanna talk about thinking in English.
Moving on.
2) “I will teach you English thinking… No, no. It’s, it’s doesn’t, uhm, doesn’t right.”
—What the hell is going on? Well, I wanted to say something, but after making a mistake and realizing it, I got distracted and started complaining. Again, behind the English sentence—or a quasi-sentence—there are patterns borrowed from Russian. ß áóäó ó÷èòü òåáÿ àíãëèéñêîìó ìûøëåíèþ. Íå, íå. Ýòî… ýòî íå òî, ýòî íåïðàâèëüíî. This is actual thinking by the way. I say something, then notice that it doesn’t fit in my thought and immediately make a correction. Here you can see the occurrence of self-dialogue when one part of psyche takes the position of a judge or critic and interferes with another part. I express the intention to teach English, to teach people to think in English, and at the same time, this expression doesn’t even sound like an English sentence. This is where the complaining comes from. I simply annihilate the sentence and give myself a new task.
3) “Okay, uhm, I must learn to speak with camera. I will use the camera to improve my pronunciation and my speaking English. I will record the video and try to work with it.”
—In Russian it would sound like this: “ß äîëæåí íàó÷èòñÿ ãîâîðèòü íà êàìåðó. ß áóäó èñïîëüçîâàòü êàìåðó, ÷òîáû óëó÷øàòü ñâîå ïðîèçíîøåíèå è ñâîé ðàçãîâîðíûé àíãëèéñêèé. ß áóäó çàïèñûâàòü âèäåîðîëèêè è ðàáîòàòü íàä íèìè.” Now, we have two intentions. One is to teach “you” to think in English; the other, to learn to speak with the camera. Let’s see how these intentions are gonna interact with one another, but first, let’s get it a little bit more clear.
I must learn to speak to the camera. I’m gonna use the camera to make my English better. I’m gonna make videos and work on them.
4) “I want to teach you think in English and speak in English fluently.
—Again, what’s wrong with the sentence? “Teach you think?” “Speak in English?” How can one teach someone to think in English making mistakes in every sentence? A teacher should be always perfect; he must lead by example! Who wants to learn anything from such a jerk? Let’s go and listen to professional teachers, those impeccable masters of English grammar.
I wanna teach you how to think and speak English fluently.
I’m gonna teach you how to speak English fluently by learning how to think in it.
Moving on.
5) “How you can see it, I don’t speak fluently in English because I study English not so much.”
—First of all, let’s translate it in Russian: “Êàê âèäèøü, ÿ íå ãîâîðþ ñâîáîäíî íà àíãëèéñêîì, ïîñêîëüêó ÿ èçó÷àþ åãî íå òàê äàâíî.” Now, let’s try to figure out what’s wrong with the sentence. Perhaps, I had to say, “As you can see, my English is not fluent because of lack of practice.” Obviously, I couldn’t have said that then because of lack of knowledge.
Moving on.
6) “But I train myself every day and I will have a progress, progress, maybe in the few, few near, few next month, monts, mons.”
—Do you see the critical dialogue here? Look closer. “I wanna teach you English” and then two “defense towers” to hold the fire from fools in tuxedos occupied the media. Your English is bad! Tell me more about that. But actually, these are just excuses. Excuse me for my inability to express myself clearly, but I wanna talk and I have no time to wait until my brain digests all the rules. I have something to say and I have to say something. Now, let’s correct the sentence.
I practice day in and day out; soon, there is gonna be progress. I need just a couple of months.
Moving on.
7) “Okay, In order to develop my speaking skill and my thinking, I will work with the camera.”
—This is a repetition of the third sentence. I’m trying to use a different form to express the same intention.
To develop my linguistic skills, I’m gonna work with the camera.
Moving on.
8) “I will speak with myself, I will explain myself how to speak more better, how to improve my ability, how to work with it; and maybe, if it will help for someone else I will publish these video in my group Crazy Fish, the group that last two months I conduct in social network."
—So “working with the camera” means self-talk. I put myself in a situation where there is no escape. After saying that I’m gonna talk to the camera for five-ten minutes, there is no other way but sink or swim.
I’m gonna talk to myself. It’s gonna teach me how to speak English better; it’s gonna improve my communication skills. I’m gonna learn to use self-talk and if I succeed, I’ll publish these videos in my group Crazy Fish, which I’ve been running for the last two months in vk, to help other people.
9) “Okay, I will work with myself, I will speak, speak fluent, fluent, I will train myself work with the camera.”
—Looking for the best way of expressing the same thought.
I’m gonna work on my language, I’m gonna speak fluently, I’m gonna get used to the camera.
10) “Before that I worked with the camera a bit, and in English I don’t speak at all in the, on the camera.”
—Making more excuses to cope with anxiety.
I have some experience of talking to the camera, but not in a foreign language.
11) “But I tried to do work with dictaphone and I recorded myself, uhm, maybe about ten times, uhm, ten times during 30 minutes, and it was very helpful for me, but then I begin to, to speak, to speak… there were some problems and I stopped do it.”
—More excuses.
Earlier, I used a recorder to talk to myself for 30 minutes. I did it about ten times. It was quite helpful, but then there were some problems and I had to give up.
12) “Now, I must continue, uhm, do it with the camera.”
—Too many imperatives.
Now, I wanna get back to this practice and I wanna use the camera.
13) “I will speak in the camera and work with it. Maybe it helps someone else.”
—How many times should I repeat it before moving on?
I’m gonna use the camera to record self-talks. Hope that later it’s gonna help others too.
14) “Okay, how to think in English? Before you will think in English you must understand what is it, what is thinking.”
—At last, there is a step forward.
How to think in English? Well, at first, you have to figure out what thinking really is.
15) “If you use your Russian language and try to translate your thoughts from Russian into English it does not work because you will need a lot of time and no one will speak with you”
—Which means, no Russian in your head!
If you think in Russian and then translate whatever you come up with into English, it does not work. You won’t have time for that; people won’t talk to you.
16) “But if you think in English and you using the words that you already know you can speak fluently and understand other people and other people of course will understand you because you don’t translate language from one, from your own language to English and you don’t translate that other people to say you, you receive this words with your imagination, your mind, directly, directly, ha, ha.”
—How elegant! It’s time to practice self-irony, isn’t it?
Thus you have to learn to think in English using the words you already know; it’s gonna make you fluent and help to communicate with other people, who will better understand you because you’ll sound more natural and there will be no need to translate what they are gonna say. You’ll be able to get it automatically; your imagination will generate mental pictures instead of just words.
17) “Okay, okay, don’t use, don’t use this kind of words. I don’t know how to use it exactly, and I have some mistakes, but I will work with myself and this practice, this practice must make, must make, ha, ha, must make me, must make me very perfect language that I want to get through four, maybe five, maybe six months.”
—I mispronounced “directly” in the previous sentence and it brought up a new wave of self-criticism.
I guess I have to avoid using words that I can’t pronounce correctly. It makes me nervous. I need more practice to make my language sound perfect. It’s probably gonna take four or five or six months.
18) “I think I need one year in order to speak in English automatically without translating.”
—An interesting assumption.
I think it’s gonna take a year to learn to speak English without translating from Russian.
19) “Right now I’m speak 50/50. Fifty, I think in Russian. Fifty I think in English and when I speak, when I speak I do a lot of pause because I’m trying to translate and nothing, nothing turn, turns out, but it first video, I do it, I do it, in first.”
—I’m sorry, I’m stupid; I’m sorry, I’m stupid; I’m sorry, I’m stupid.
Now, I still think in Russian for half of the time. That’s why I have to make lots of pauses; translating takes a lot of time, but it’s just one of the first videos, I don’t have enough experience.
20) “I will continue and gradually my level will growth more and clear.”
—I know lots of people who still talk like that after decades of “studying” English.
I’ll move on and my level will gradually rise up.
21) “And then when I give a habit I will speak more confident and it allows me translate my thoughts don’t speak stupid, silly, like I speak right now, because I’m speak, I’m set a goal to speak five or ten minutes without stopping; doesn’t matter if I will mistake, it’s okay.”
—Can you imagine that I was running an English Speaking Club at that time and talked like that to people who came to practice English? It’s true. I live in a place where many people believe that those who can say a few sentences without mistakes are better at English than those who make mistakes but can speak for hours without getting tired.
I’ll build a habit and become more confident, so I’ll not sound stupid as I do now; I have to talk for five-ten minutes a day without judging myself; making mistakes is not a big deal.
22) “I must speak with myself using camera and do it every day better and better.”
—This is a protocol for creating an insatiable desire for learning.
I must talk to myself and record it on the camera trying to get better.
23) “If I will do it ten minutes per day, I need one or two minutes and my speech will improve more, more, more.”
—I’m a language god, don’t you see it? God of mistakes!
If I talk to myself ten minutes a day, my speech will be perfect in one or two months.
24) “If I speak with myself correctly, I can speak with everyone else correctly too because I train speaking.”
—See how profound. Have you seen such brilliant, eloquent logic before?
There is no big difference between taking to oneself and talking to somebody else. If I master the former, I’ll master the latter.
25) “When I train I become… become? ha, ha, I become, become, became, okay, become, I become more confident and when I speak with other people I use some direction that I develop before.”
—To the issue of learning irregular verbs. I still have to check out all three forms when I use some of these verbs though it’s been eight years since I learned them. Whenever I remember one form, two others appear out of thin air.
Training makes me confident. I’m paving linguistic paths that I can use later in a real conversation.
26) “But when I speak with other people and when I try to translate my thoughts into Russian it’s, it’s not, not so good like when I speak clearly in English that I was speaking before with myself some thoughts that I had, had early and I work, worked with.”
—Have I already said that I’m a god of mistakes? There is nobody on the entire YouTube who made more mistakes than I did. You know, the more mistakes you make, the more you learn. Does it mean that I’ve learned more than anyone on YouTube?
When I try to think about what to say in Russian while I’m talking to people, it’s not good; when I use the ideas I’ve already talked about to myself, it’s much better.
27) “Okay, now, I read a lot, I listen a lot of people and I need practice, practice, speaking practice, because it’s doesn’t matter when you listen native speakers you can speak with yourself and recorded yourself and understand everything what you trying to say.”
—Now, think about it. What if all people around you speak like that? Everyone speaks like that and nobody can see it. This is what happened to me when I was 22. I suddenly (after reading ten volumes of Saltykov-Shchedrin within a couple of months) realized that I was speaking like that in my native language all my life. And everyone around me did the same. And they still do. And it’s not a joke.
I have a lot of experience in reading and listening to other people on YouTube; now I need practice, practice, and practice. There is no big difference between listening to a native speaker on YouTube and recording a video in response and a “real” conversation. The same neural circuits are involved in both processes.
28) “If you do it, if you speak with yourself then you watch video native speakers and then you speak with yourself again, your level develop more, more, your thoughts develop and develops and everything develops because you speak in English right now and you listen and then you speak again, then you listen, and speak again. It’s the same like to spea…”
—That’s it. The last sentence I leave without correction. If you figure out what it means, let me know.