I was wondering too if Rosetta Stone English would be of any help.
I don't know very much about Rosetta Stone. But considering that Saint has a very large vocabulary, knows all the basic rules of grammar, and understands everything we say, I think it would probably be too elementary for him. Rosetta Stone is for beginners and Strunk & White is for people who are almost experts. He's somewhere between those two extremes.
It is hard for me to answer this question.
This sentence is perfect!
Subconsciously, I think most of the time I thought in Chinese before English was spoken out, there was a mechanism in my mind did the translation between brain and mouth.
"Subconsciously, most of the time I think in Chinese." It's awkward to use the verb "think/thought" twice--not exactly wrong, but difficult to make it not seem redundant. Also note that this sentence is better in the present tense. You're talking about something that still happens
all the time, not something that
used to happen in the past. "A mechanism in my mind translates the Chinese in my brain into the English that comes out of my mouth." Sometimes it's clearer to divide a long sentence into two pieces. Then you can rearrange the words and add a few more words. I have this same problem, so I always review my writing and divide three sentences into six. And again, you're talking about something that is currently happening, so the sentence should be recast in the present tense.
Now to answer, first I need to ask more questions. How much of your everyday speech is in English? I think you once implied that English is widely spoken in Malaysia so it's easy to get lots of practice; is this correct? I have only known one person who has been there, but he went once a year to give lectures in English and everyone he worked with spoke it fluently.
The reason I'm asking this is that the key to learning to
think in a foreign language is simply to
speak it and hear it as often as possible. If you have friends and colleagues who speak English, ask them to speak English with you instead of Chinese, at least as often as they're willing to do it. Perhaps they can benefit from the practice too! Maybe you could organize a group that gets together for 30 minutes every day and must speak only English during that time--or even just 15 minutes. Immersing your brain in an English-only environment will help it develop new synapses that process English as a primary language rather than secondary.
Remember, I said that 40 years ago I asked my Chinese girlfriend to speak only Mandarin with me at home every day. Now understand that this did
not increase my vocabulary, at least not by a large amount. What it did was transform Mandarin from a
little project into an
tool for communication. The words that I know now pop into my head automatically, instead of an English-Chinese dictionary that I try to use very quickly. I've been told that I speak Chinese like a four year-old child. I don't know a lot of words but I use them correctly with the right cadence and good speed, and
my grammar is always correct. If you think in one language and translate into another, no matter how fast, what you say will always come out sounding like a translation--because it is! Translation is a distinct skill, and it is very difficult to do well. It's better to speak correctly, even at the simplified level of a child, because that gives you something to build on. Make your sentences short; don't try to pack too many thoughts into one sentence. Speak as though you're speaking to a child; make it as easy for him to understand as possible. Children get lost in long sentences.
Another good way to train yourself to think in a foreign language is to
speak it to yourself. Now I know you don't want to walk around the office talking to yourself because people will think you're crazy.
But when no one is listening, that's the time for it. You should be able to do it at home because your wife and family will support your effort to improve your command of English--maybe they would like to practice with you! When an idea comes into your head, just say it out loud,
in English.
You'll start to discover the many, many ways in which an English thought is not exactly the same as a Chinese thought. The two languages emphasize different things, ignore different things, and take different things for granted. For example, in English it's very important to make clear whether you're talking about one
dog or many
dogs. In Chinese it doesn't matter most of the time, and when it does, you just say
yi tiao gou, san tiao gou or
hen duo gou (one dog, three dog, many dog). In English you have to make clear whether you
ate breakfast in the past,
eat breakfast in the present, or
will eat breakfast in the future. In Chinese you don't, and on the rare occasions when you need it you just say,
zuo tian wo chi fan, jin tian wo chi fan, or
ming tian wo chi fan (yesterday I eat, today I eat, tomorrow I eat). On the other hand, some things that we never think about in English are important in Chinese. "He is my brother." In Chinese you have to say
ta shi wo de ge ge or
wo de di di (my older brother or my younger brother--in a Confucian culture age difference is extremely important).
This illustrates a point that I always stress: Learning to think in a second language
gives you a new way of thinking. This is very useful and will automatically
make you smarter!
My wife and I always tell people that one of the best things about having dogs is that you can now get away with
talking to yourself. Just pretend you're talking to the dogs. They will love it and you will improve your English. Our dogs understand my Spanish and Mandarin, and her Italian and Hebrew.
Finally, a test: If you hear people speaking English in your dreams, that means that you are thinking in English. Your conscious mind is asleep and your unconscious mind can't translate.
