Beliefs

BELIEFS

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

Beliefs another important part of managing your psychology, of strengthening psychology so that you will learn English, or anything fact, much faster. And there are two kinds of beliefs to general categories of beliefs. Limiting empowering.
Let’s talk about limiting beliefs first. Now limiting means, limit is that stops you. It’s like a boundary. It stops you going ahead. So a limiting belief is a belief that stops you from improving, a belief that stops from getting better. And I’d say most English students have limiting beliefs many English students have very strong limiting beliefs. I call beliefs English trauma and I got that name from a of my Japanese students. They would tell me “AJ, I can’t speak well because I have English trauma.”
What is English trauma? What that, what are they talking about? Well, trauma means some of injury, some kind of hurt. Emotional hurt, deep emotional hurt. So what they mean that they had some very negative, painful experiences with English in the past. In words, when they were in school in English classes, even as adults going other English schools, they had very negative experiences. And all these negative experiences have created very negative beliefs, some very limiting beliefs. For example, they “I am 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 is difficult. Or, English complicated. Well, that’s just a belief. For me English very easy, I’m a native speaker, just like your native language you is very easy. Tomoe can speak Japanese fluently she’s Japanese, so I might say “Japanese is difficult,” and she would say “No, Japanese is easy.” These are just beliefs that come from our experiences. The 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.” is complicated, just look at the writing system. It’s so different English. And these beliefs hurt my motivation. They lower energy, and in fact they’re wrong.
They’re not true. does not have to be difficult, it does not have be compli- cated. A small child, even a small American child, could Japanese very effortlessly, very easily. And the reason is, number one reason is, they don’t have the limiting beliefs. They can sing and play games and enjoy the language, and they’ll it so quickly, so easily, they’ll say “Japanese is easy.” Well, it’s the same with with you. You learned in a very painful, difficult in the past. And so you developed, you created beliefs in your head. English is difficult. English is boring. is painful. I’m not good at English. I’ll never speak excellent English. These are beliefs.
So how do 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 we rid of the limiting beliefs? That’s the first step, you have to weaken them. You have to make weaker and weaker and weaker. You have to cut down. Well beliefs get stronger from references. And reference just an experience or a memory. Sometimes it’s just you imagine, actually. But it’s a specific experience or specific imagination, a specific moment, that makes the belief stronger 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 your mistake and you felt terrible. And you think maybe the bad grades you got on the test or all the red marks on your papers. And you start adding more and more and more memories, more of these negative experiences, these references. And if you get enough, you will develop a very, strong, deep, powerful “English is difficult. English is painful. I’m not good at English.” to weaken these, you just have to question the references.

You have to question the experiences. Take power away from the experiences. And an easy way to that is just to ask questions about them. For example, let me this question. Your past English schools, were they excellent? Were they just fantastic English schools fantastic, amazing, fun, positive English teachers? Did you have a great time every day? Well, I know most of you the answer is no. So that’s interesting, so if your schools not excellent, maybe the school was the problem. Maybe it’s not you. your English is not great because you did not to great schools. And did those schools that you to, or the books you used, did they use proven methods? they use research-based methods? Did they know a lot about the research about English learning, English teaching? they only use the best methods? Or did they just use the 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 use book.” But they’re not choosing the very, very best methods. They’re choosing the very, very best books. And so maybe the reason you English is difficult is because you used difficult methods in the past, your teachers did. Maybe you think English is boring because in past you used boring methods. You went to boring schools. You had boring teachers. Maybe English isn’t the problem. it was these past experiences. Maybe it was the way you did it or where you did it. yourself these questions. Think about them in detail. Weaken your limiting beliefs. Challenge limiting beliefs. Another question, in school did you learn deeply? For example, you take one chapter in your book and learn it for a long time that you totally mastered it, so that you knew completely, 100% and never forgot it? Probably not, most schools have 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, one week on to the next one, and the next one. Each has so many new words, so much new grammar.
example, my experience with Spanish in high school and university, took Spanish, I’ve had a total of maybe two of Spanish, but I forgot it all. Because we never learned deeply. They just to make us learn as many words as possible, a lot of words, lot of words, a lot of grammar, very, very fast. then, of course, I forgot everything. How about you? Did learn deeply in your schools? If not, maybe that one of the problems. Maybe English feels difficult because you learned deeply. Maybe English is not the problem.
Finally, did you learn with grammar translation method? Did you study a lot of grammar rules? you take a lot 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 them every day. Think them a lot, especially this week as you listen Lesson Number 4. I want you to think about these questions again again and again. And really be honest about it. And start to destroy limiting beliefs. Get rid of them. They’re wrong. English not difficult. English is not painful. English is not boring. It’s 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 empowering beliefs, the positive side. So to empower, the verb, to empower means to make stronger. It means give power to another person. Or in this case, it means beliefs give you power. An empowering belief is a belief makes you feel powerful, that gives you power. That’s the kind of you want and you need to choose them. You must which beliefs will make you stronger. For example, here’s an empowering belief. can replace your 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. It is designed learn language. It should be easy. It should be effortless. It should feel good. You learned native language that way. It wasn’t difficult was it? was easy for me to learn, because I did it in a natural way. And the more naturally I tried to Japanese, for example, or Spanish, the easier it feels. So this is a new and you should write it down, think about it. Write down this idea, this “My brain is a natural language learning machine.” Think it every day. Decide to choose that belief. Here’s another belief you might to choose “English can be fun and effortless.”

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

And to make these beliefs stronger, you need experiences. Remember, need references, you need examples that 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, Kaufman of The Linguist speaks, I believe, twelve languages now. I want you find these people and look at their beliefs. I’ll tell you some of beliefs because he’s a friend, I’ve talked to him a number of times, Steve believes, for example, that language learning is easy effortless. That’s his belief. He’s a native English speaker, he speaks Cantonese, 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 he has is that you must learn naturally and you must focus on meaning. So in other words, he doesn’t focus on the grammar. He’s focusing on boring textbooks. He’s reading interesting things that he enjoys. He’s listening to things that he enjoys. So, for him, language learning is interesting. What’s really interesting for me is these are the same beliefs that all of my best students have. They all have these same ideas. 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 is fun, interesting and effortless. They all believe that language learning natural. They all believe that they should focus on the meaning, not on the grammar the little pieces of the language. So if you want to be like these successful people, you need think like them. You need 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 part of this lesson. What I want you to is write down two, three, four empowering beliefs, beliefs that give power about English. Maybe “My brain is a natural language machine.” Maybe “English can be fun and effortless.” Maybe “I love English.” don’t know, write down, two, three, four empowering beliefs about English. And every day you’re going to do incantation. That’s a good word, that’s a new word, incantation.
incantation is a phrase or sentence that you say again and again. 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 and again 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 day 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 ready for the lesson, you’re going to repeat this loud. You’re going to say “English can be fun and effortless.” You’re going to say it with 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 saying these strong beliefs. English 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 can do 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 do this. So do these incantations day just before you do a lesson. Get your strong, peak emotional state, and then say these incantations. English be fun and effortless. English can be fun and effortless. your body, your mind, your beliefs, they’re all together, strong. Then you’re ready to learn.

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