Beliefs

BELIEFS

Hello, welcome to the lesson. This one is 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 fact, much faster. And there are two kinds of beliefs general categories of beliefs. Limiting and empowering.
Let’s talk about beliefs first. Now limiting means, limit is something that stops you. It’s like boundary. It stops you from going ahead. So a limiting belief is belief that 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 limiting beliefs. I call these beliefs English trauma and got that 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, are they talking about? Well, trauma means some kind of injury, some kind hurt. Emotional hurt, deep emotional hurt. So what they mean is they had some very negative, painful experiences with English in past. In other words, when they were in school in English classes, even as adults going other English schools, they had very negative experiences. And all these 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. But it’s opinion, it’s a belief that they have.
Another belief, a very belief, English is difficult. Or, English is complicated. Well, that’s just a belief. me English very easy, because I’m a native speaker, like your native language for you is very easy. can speak Japanese fluently because she’s Japanese, so I might say “Japanese is difficult,” and she say “No, Japanese is super easy.” These are just beliefs that come from our experiences. The problem is 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, learners. I have them, too. As I try to learn Japanese, for example, have a lot of these limiting beliefs I realize. I think “Oh, Japanese so difficult.” Japanese is complicated, just look at the system. It’s so different from English. And these beliefs my motivation. They lower my energy, and in fact they’re wrong.
They’re not true. Japanese does have to be difficult, it does not have to be compli- cated. small child, even a small American child, could learn Japanese very effortlessly, very easily. the reason is, the number one reason is, they don’t have the limiting beliefs. can sing songs and play games and enjoy the language, and they’ll learn so quickly, so easily, they’ll say “Japanese is easy.” Well, it’s the same with English with you. You learned a very painful, difficult way in the past. And so you developed, you created these beliefs in 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 you eliminate these beliefs? Okay, you have these beliefs. You they’re negative, you know they’re not helping you. But we have to figure out, how can get rid of the limiting beliefs? That’s the first step, you to weaken them. You have to make them weaker and weaker weaker. You have to cut them down. Well beliefs get 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, example, you have this idea “English is painful and boring.” And when think of this belief, where does it come from?

Well, you think of these past experiences. You think of the time in middle school where your teacher corrected your 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 and more and more memories, of these negative experiences, these negative references. And if get enough, you will develop a very, strong, deep, powerful belief “English is difficult. is painful. I’m not good at English.” So to weaken these, you just to question the references.

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

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

English can be fun effortless. That’s an empowering belief and it’s also true. You think of a lot of examples for this. Some 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 be fun and effortless. That’s an empowering belief you want to choose and you to remember it every day.

And to make these beliefs stronger, you experiences. Remember, you need references, you need examples that prove the belief. So I’m going give you some examples and you can find more. Go find people who speak English very well. maybe even that have learned another language very well. I’ll give you one of favorite examples, Steve Kaufman of The 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 to him a number of times, and Steve believes, for example, language 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 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 to interesting that he enjoys. So, for him, language learning is interesting. What’s really interesting for me is that these are the beliefs that all of my best students have. They all have same ideas. The best students, the ones who learn the fastest, ones who have the best test scores, the ones with best speaking, they all believe these things. They all believe English is fun, interesting and effortless. They all believe that language is natural. They all believe that they should focus the 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 have same beliefs as them.
So here’s what I want you do. Here’s your homework. This is the last thing, the last part of lesson. What I want you to do is write two, three, four empowering beliefs, beliefs that give you about English. Maybe “My brain is a natural language learning machine.” Maybe “English can be fun effortless.” Maybe “I love 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 word, that’s a new word, incantation.
An incantation is a phrase or sentence that say 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 something happen. That’s where it comes from. But for us an incantation just a belief you are going to repeat again again and again every day.So here’s what you’re going to do. example “English can be fun and effortless.” You’re going to say that out loud every while you’re walking along and you’re doing your posture. 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 going to “English can be fun and effortless.” You’re going to say with some emotion. Say it with feeling so you’re smiling, you’re 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 fun and effortless.

You can do this in your and its fine. You can do it outside and make everyone look at you and you’re crazy. Why not? It’s better than feeling powerless, right? It’s better than being bored. I promise you will so much faster if you do this. So do these incantations day just before you do a lesson. Get your body strong, peak emotional state, and say these incantations. English 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 ready learn.

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