Beliefs

BELIEFS

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

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

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

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

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

English can be fun and effortless. That’s empowering belief and it’s also true. You can think of lot of examples for this. Some of these mini-stories you’re 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 need experiences. Remember, you need references, you need that prove the belief. So I’m going to give you some and you can find more. Go find people who speak English well. Or maybe even that have learned another language well. I’ll give you one of my favorite examples, Steve of The Linguist speaks, I believe, twelve languages now. want you to find these people and look at their beliefs. I’ll tell you of his beliefs because he’s a friend, I’ve talked to a number of times, and Steve believes, for example, that language learning is and effortless. That’s his belief. He’s a native English speaker, he Cantonese, he speaks Mandarin, he speaks Japanese, he speaks Russian. These all, supposedly, difficult languages. For him they’re not difficult. They’re easy effortless. That’s a very strong belief he has.

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

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

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