Beliefs

BELIEFS

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

Beliefs are another important of managing your psychology, of strengthening your psychology so that you will English, or anything in fact, much faster. And there are two kinds of beliefs general categories of beliefs. Limiting and empowering.
Let’s talk about limiting beliefs first. Now means, limit is something that stops you. It’s like a boundary. It you from going ahead. So a limiting belief is a belief that stops you from improving, a belief stops you from getting better. And I’d say most students have limiting beliefs and many English students have very strong limiting beliefs. I these beliefs English trauma and I got that name from a few of Japanese students. They would tell me “AJ, I can’t speak English well because I have trauma.”
What is English trauma? What is that, what are they talking about? Well, means some kind of injury, some kind of hurt. Emotional hurt, deep emotional hurt. So what mean is that they had some very negative, painful experiences with English the past. In other words, when they were in school in classes, even as adults going to other English schools, they had negative experiences. And all these negative experiences have created some negative beliefs, some very limiting beliefs. For example, they say “I am not good at English.” Well, that’s belief. It may 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 is difficult. Or, is complicated. Well, that’s just a belief. For me English easy, because I’m a native speaker, just like your native language for is very easy. Tomoe can speak Japanese fluently because she’s Japanese, so I say “Japanese is difficult,” and she would say “No, Japanese super easy.” These are just beliefs that come from our experiences. problem is these limiting beliefs limit us. They in fact do limit us. They stop us from
better. They cause a lot of problems for us as students, as learners. I them, too. As I try to learn Japanese, for example, I have a lot of these beliefs I 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 fact they’re wrong.
They’re not true. Japanese does not have to be difficult, it does not have be compli- cated. A small child, even a small child, could learn Japanese very effortlessly, very easily. And reason is, the number one reason is, they don’t have the limiting beliefs. They sing songs and play games and enjoy the language, they’ll learn it so quickly, so easily, they’ll say “Japanese easy.” Well, it’s the same with English with you. You in a very painful, difficult way in the past. And so you developed, you created beliefs in your head. English 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 you these beliefs? Okay, you have these beliefs. You know they’re negative, know they’re not helping you. But we have to out, how can we get rid of the limiting beliefs? That’s the first step, you have to them. You have to make them weaker and weaker and weaker. You have to cut them down. beliefs get stronger from 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, specific moment, that makes the belief stronger or weaker. So, for example, you have this idea “English is painful boring.” And when you think of this belief, where does come from?

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

You have to question the experiences. Take the power away from experiences. And an easy way to do that is to ask questions about them. For example, let me this question. Your past English schools, were they excellent? Were they just fantastic English 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 schools were not excellent, maybe the school the problem. Maybe it’s not you. Maybe your English is not great because you did 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 about English learning, English teaching? Did they only use the methods? Or did they just use the textbook that everybody else uses?
Well, I know from experience as a teacher, most schools just use the textbooks. They don’t know why. Maybe the boss tells them “We must this book.” But they’re not choosing the very, very methods. They’re not choosing the very, very best books. And so maybe reason you believe English is difficult is because you used methods in the past, or your teachers did. Maybe you English is boring because in the past you used boring methods. You went to schools. You had boring teachers. Maybe English isn’t the problem. Maybe it these past experiences. Maybe it was the way you did it where you did it. Ask yourself these questions. Think about them in detail. Weaken your limiting beliefs. your limiting beliefs. Another question, in school did you deeply? For example, did you take one chapter in your book and learn it for a long time that you totally mastered it, so that you knew it completely, 100% and forgot it? Probably not, most schools I have seen and the ones have taught in, it’s quite the opposite. The teachers go very, very, quickly. You learn one chapter in your book, boom, after week on to the next one, and the next one. Each chapter so 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 two years of Spanish, but I forgot it all. Because never learned deeply. They just tried to make us as many words as possible, a lot of words, a lot of words, a lot grammar, very, very fast. And then, of course, I everything. How about you? Did you learn deeply in your schools? If not, maybe that was of the problems. Maybe English feels difficult because you never learned deeply. Maybe English is the problem.
Finally, did you learn with a grammar translation method? you study a lot of grammar rules? Did you take a of tests? Did you 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 listen Lesson Number 4. I want you to think about these 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. is not painful. English is not boring. It’s only a belief. It’s only past experience. You can change that now and in future. So let’s do that.

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

English can be fun and effortless. That’s an belief 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. But they’re not serious. English can be fun effortless. That’s an empowering belief you want to choose and you want to remember it every day.

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

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

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

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