There’s a slight pause before you speak, as if every sentence goes through a filter of your native language. This makes you slower, and it makes you sound more complicated than you need to. You don’t need to eliminate this entirely, but you want to replace it with instinct. You want to connect the words and phrases directly to the intended meanings in your brain, rather than connecting them to words in your native language. This will take some practice, but it can start with the way you construct sentences when you practice your daily speaking.
Practice speaking with things you can see or visualize. Describe your surroundings in simple sentences. Don’t think about the sentence beforehand. Just start talking, even if it seems obvious. “The window is open. I have a cup here.” This will help your brain connect the English words directly to their meanings, rather than translating from your native language. With time and practice, this direct connection will become faster and more automatic.
One major obstacle is trying to create long, grammatically perfect sentences in your head before you speak them. This will almost always cause you to translate, because you’re looking for the exact right words. Instead, focus on short phrases that you can speak now. If you need to express a longer thought, break it up into two or three sentences. It’s always better to say “I was late. The bus was slow.” than to pause and try to come up with a more complicated explanation.
Fluency is about flowing from one idea to the next, not about using complicated sentences. You can practice this every day. At some point in your daily speaking practice, forbid yourself from translating. Spend a couple minutes describing the objects around you, then spend a couple minutes describing something you’re doing, and finally talk about something that happened to you earlier in the day.
If you get stuck, don’t revert to thinking in your native language. Just pause for a second and find a simpler way to say it. This will keep you in English and will help you develop your recall even further. You’re still going to find yourself translating at times, especially when you’re dealing with topics you don’t discuss often. When you catch yourself doing it, don’t stop what you’re saying. Keep talking, even if you can’t think of the perfect word.
Over time you won’t need to translate so often, and eventually it will become second nature to think of the right words when you need them. You’ll start to feel like you’re speaking more directly, without needing to filter every sentence through your native language.