Beliefs

BELIEFS

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

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

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

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

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

And to these beliefs stronger, you need experiences. Remember, you need references, you need that prove the belief. So I’m going to give some 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, Kaufman of The Linguist speaks, I believe, twelve languages now. I you to find these people and look at their beliefs. I’ll tell some of his beliefs because he’s a friend, I’ve to him a number of times, and Steve believes, for example, that learning is easy and effortless. That’s his belief. He’s a native speaker, he speaks Cantonese, he speaks Mandarin, he speaks Japanese, he Russian. These are all, supposedly, difficult languages. For him they’re not difficult. They’re easy and effortless. That’s very strong belief he has.

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

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

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