Beliefs

BELIEFS

Hello, welcome to the fourth lesson. This one called “Beliefs.” Let’s get started.

Beliefs are another important part managing your psychology, of strengthening your psychology so that you will learn English, or anything in fact, faster. And there are two kinds of beliefs to categories of beliefs. Limiting and empowering.
Let’s talk limiting beliefs first. Now limiting means, limit is something that stops you. It’s like a boundary. It stops from going ahead. So a limiting belief is a belief stops you from improving, a belief that stops you getting better. And I’d say most English students have limiting beliefs and many English students have very strong beliefs. I call these beliefs English trauma and I got that from a few of my Japanese students. They would me “AJ, I can’t speak English well because I have English trauma.”
What is trauma? What is that, what are they talking about? Well, trauma means kind of injury, some kind of hurt. Emotional hurt, deep emotional hurt. So what they mean is that had some very negative, painful experiences with English in the past. In other words, when they were school in English classes, even as adults going to other English schools, they very negative experiences. And all these negative experiences have created some very negative beliefs, some very limiting beliefs. example, they say “I am not good at English.” Well, that’s belief. It may be true, it may not be true. it’s an opinion, it’s a belief that they have.
Another belief, very common belief, English is difficult. Or, English is complicated. Well, that’s just a belief. me English very easy, because I’m a native speaker, just your native language for you is very easy. Tomoe speak Japanese fluently because she’s Japanese, so I might “Japanese is difficult,” and she would say “No, Japanese is super easy.” These are beliefs that come from our experiences. The problem is these limiting beliefs limit us. They in fact limit us. They stop us from
getting better. cause a lot of problems for us as students, as learners. have them, too. As I try to learn Japanese, for example, I have lot of these limiting beliefs I realize. I think “Oh, Japanese is so difficult.” is complicated, just look at the writing system. It’s so different from English. And these hurt my motivation. They lower my energy, and in they’re wrong.
They’re not true. Japanese does not have be difficult, it does not have to be compli- cated. small child, even a small American child, could learn Japanese effortlessly, very easily. And the reason is, the number one is, they don’t have the limiting beliefs. They can sing songs and play and enjoy the language, and they’ll learn it so quickly, so easily, they’ll say “Japanese is easy.” Well, it’s same with English with you. You learned in a very painful, way in the past. And so you developed, you created these beliefs in your head. is difficult. English is boring. English is painful. I’m not at English. I’ll never speak excellent English. These are just beliefs.
So how do eliminate these beliefs? Okay, you have these beliefs. You know they’re negative, you they’re not helping you. But we have to figure out, can we get rid of the limiting beliefs? That’s first step, you have to weaken them. You have to make weaker and weaker and weaker. You have to cut them down. Well beliefs get from references. And reference is just an experience or a memory. it’s just something you imagine, actually. But it’s a specific experience or a imagination, a specific moment, that makes the belief stronger or weaker. So, for example, you have idea “English is painful and boring.” And when you think this belief, where does it come from?

Well, you think of all these past experiences. You of the time in middle school where your teacher corrected mistake and you felt terrible. And you think of maybe the bad you got on the test or all the red on your English papers. And you start adding more more and more memories, more of these negative experiences, these negative references. And if you get enough, will develop a very, strong, deep, powerful belief “English difficult. English is painful. I’m not good at English.” So to weaken these, you just have to question references.

You have to question the experiences. Take the power away from the experiences. And an easy to do that is just to ask questions about them. For example, let me ask this question. past English schools, were they excellent? Were they just fantastic schools with fantastic, amazing, fun, positive English teachers? Did you have great time every day? Well, I know for most you the answer is no. So that’s interesting, so if your were not excellent, maybe the school was the problem. it’s not you. Maybe your English is not great because you not go to great schools. And did those schools that you went to, or the books you used, they use proven methods? Did they use research-based methods? Did they know a lot about the research about learning, English teaching? Did they only use the best methods? Or did they just use the textbook everybody else uses?
Well, I know from my experience as a teacher, schools just use the same textbooks. They don’t know why. Maybe the boss tells “We must use this book.” But they’re not choosing the very, very methods. They’re not choosing the very, very best books. so maybe the reason you believe English is difficult is because you used difficult methods the past, or your teachers did. Maybe you think English is boring because in the past used boring methods. You went to boring schools. You boring teachers. Maybe English isn’t the problem. Maybe it was these past experiences. Maybe it was way you did it or where you did it. Ask these questions. Think about them in detail. Weaken your beliefs. Challenge your limiting beliefs. Another question, in school you learn deeply? For example, did you take one chapter your book and learn it for a long time so that totally mastered it, so that you knew it completely, 100% never forgot it? Probably not, most schools I have seen and the ones I have in, it’s quite the opposite. The teachers go very, very, very quickly. You learn chapter in your book, boom, after one week on to the next one, the next one. Each chapter has so many new words, so new grammar.
For example, my experience with Spanish in high school university, I took Spanish, I’ve had a total of maybe years of Spanish, but I forgot it all. Because we never deeply. They just tried to make us learn as many words possible, a lot of words, a lot of words, lot of grammar, very, very fast. And then, of course, I forgot everything. about you? Did you learn deeply in your schools? If not, maybe that was of the problems. Maybe English feels difficult because you never deeply. Maybe English is not the problem.
Finally, did learn with a grammar translation method? Did you study a lot of grammar rules? Did take a lot of tests? Did you feel good about that? Again, maybe the method was problem. Maybe the school is the problem, not English. So think about these questions and about them every day. Think about them a lot, especially this week as you to Lesson Number 4. I want you to think about these questions again and again again. And really be honest about it. And start to these limiting beliefs. Get rid of them. They’re wrong. English is not difficult. English is not painful. is not boring. It’s only a belief. It’s only a past experience. You can that now and in the future. So let’s do that.

Let’s talk now about beliefs, the positive side. So to empower, the verb, to empower means to make stronger. means to give power to another person. Or in this case, it means the beliefs give you power. empowering belief is a belief that makes you feel powerful, that gives power. That’s the kind of beliefs you want and you to choose them. You must decide which beliefs will make stronger. For example, here’s an empowering belief. You can your old limiting belief, add this one instead. You can “My brain is a natural language learning machine.” Because that’s what all the scientific research shows, our brain naturally learns languages. It is designed to language. It should be easy. It should be effortless. It should feel good. You learned your language that way. It wasn’t difficult was it? English was easy for me to learn, because did it in a totally natural way. And the more I tried to learn Japanese, for example, or Spanish, the it feels. So this is a new belief and you write it down, think about it. Write down this idea, this belief “My brain is a natural language machine.” Think about it every day. Decide to choose belief. Here’s another belief you might decide to choose “English can fun and effortless.”

English can be fun and effortless. That’s an empowering and it’s also true. You can think of a lot of for this. Some of these mini-stories you’re listening to, right? They’re fun. They’re stupid, sometimes. They’re crazy, sometimes. they’re not serious. English can be fun and effortless. That’s empowering belief you want to choose and you want remember it every day.

And to make these beliefs stronger, you experiences. Remember, you need references, you need examples that prove belief. So I’m going to give you some examples and you can find more. Go find who speak English very well. Or maybe even that have learned language very well. I’ll give you one of my favorite examples, Steve Kaufman of Linguist speaks, I believe, twelve languages now. I want you find these people and look at their beliefs. I’ll tell you of his beliefs because he’s a friend, I’ve talked to him number of times, and Steve believes, for example, that language learning easy and effortless. That’s his belief. He’s a native English speaker, he speaks Cantonese, speaks Mandarin, he speaks Japanese, he speaks Russian. These are all, supposedly, languages. For him they’re not difficult. They’re easy and effortless. That’s a very strong belief he has.

Another he has is that you must learn language naturally and you must focus meaning. So in other words, he doesn’t focus on the grammar. He’s not focusing on textbooks. He’s reading interesting things that he enjoys. He’s listening interesting things that he enjoys. So, for him, language is interesting. What’s really interesting for me is that these are the same beliefs all of my best students have. They all have these same ideas. The students, the ones who learn the fastest, the ones who have the best test scores, ones with the best speaking, they all believe these things. They believe that English is fun, interesting and effortless. They all believe that language is natural. They all believe that they should focus on meaning, not on the grammar and the little pieces of language. So if you want to be like these people, you need to think like them. You need to the same beliefs as them.
So here’s what want you to do. Here’s your homework. This is last thing, the last part of this lesson. What want you to do is write down two, three, four beliefs, beliefs that give you power about English. Maybe “My brain is a natural learning machine.” Maybe “English can be fun and effortless.” Maybe “I English.” I don’t know, write down, two, three, four empowering beliefs about English. every day you’re going to do an incantation. That’s a word, that’s a new word, incantation.
An incantation is a phrase or sentence that you again and again. It has almost a magic idea, it comes from magic. incantation is a magical sentence. It’s a sentence, you the sentence something will happen. That’s where it comes from. But for an incantation is just a belief you are going to repeat again again and again every day.So here’s what you’re going to do. For example “English can fun and effortless.” You’re going to say that out loud every day while you’re along and you’re doing your posture. And you’re breathing and you’re smiling. Well, you’re going to one more thing. As you walk, as you’re getting for the lesson, you’re going to repeat this out loud. You’re to say “English can be fun and effortless.” You’re going say it with some emotion. Say it with feeling you’re smiling, you’re breathing deep, you’re moving your body, have good posture and now you’re also saying these beliefs. English can be fun and effortless. You repeat it again. can be fun and effortless. And then you say it again. English can be and effortless.

You can do this in your room and its fine. You do it outside and make everyone look at you and think you’re crazy. Why not? It’s better than powerless, right? It’s better than being bored. I promise you will learn so faster if you do this. So do these incantations day just before you do a lesson. Get your body strong, peak emotional state, then say these incantations. English can be fun and effortless. English can fun and effortless. Now your body, your mind, your beliefs, they’re together, very strong. Then you’re ready to learn.

Okay, that the end of the main story for “Beliefs.”