Beliefs

BELIEFS

Hello, welcome to the 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 learn English, or anything in fact, much faster. And there are two kinds beliefs to general categories of beliefs. Limiting and empowering.
Let’s talk about limiting first. Now limiting means, limit is something that stops you. It’s a boundary. It stops you from going ahead. So a limiting 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 a few of my Japanese students. They would tell “AJ, I can’t speak English well because I have English trauma.”
What is English trauma? is that, what are they talking about? Well, trauma means some kind of injury, some kind hurt. Emotional hurt, deep emotional hurt. So what they mean that they had some very negative, painful experiences with in the past. In other words, when they were in in English classes, even as adults going to other English schools, they very negative experiences. And all these negative experiences have created some very negative beliefs, some very beliefs. For example, they say “I am not good English.” Well, that’s a belief. It may be true, it may not true. But it’s an opinion, it’s a belief that they have.
belief, a very common belief, English is difficult. Or, English is complicated. Well, that’s just a belief. For English 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 are just that come from our experiences. The problem is these limiting beliefs limit us. in fact do limit us. They stop us from
getting better. They a lot of problems for us as students, as learners. I have them, too. I try to learn Japanese, for example, I have lot of these limiting beliefs I realize. I think “Oh, Japanese is so difficult.” Japanese is complicated, look at the writing system. It’s so different from English. these beliefs hurt my motivation. They lower my energy, and fact they’re wrong.
They’re not true. Japanese does not have to be difficult, does not have to be 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 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 these beliefs in your head. English difficult. English is boring. English is painful. I’m not good at English. I’ll 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 we get rid of the limiting beliefs? That’s the first step, you have weaken them. You have to make them weaker and weaker and weaker. You have to them down. Well beliefs get stronger from references. And reference is an experience or a memory. Sometimes it’s just something imagine, actually. But it’s a specific experience or a imagination, a specific moment, that makes the belief stronger weaker. So, for example, you have this idea “English is painful and boring.” And when you think this belief, where does it come from?

Well, you think of all past experiences. You think of the time in middle where your teacher corrected your mistake and you felt terrible. you think of maybe the bad grades you got the test or all the red marks on your 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. English 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 easy way to do that is just ask questions about them. For example, let me ask this question. Your English schools, were they excellent? Were they just fantastic English schools with fantastic, amazing, fun, positive English teachers? 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 not excellent, maybe the school was the problem. Maybe it’s not you. Maybe your English is not because you did not go to great schools. And did schools that you went to, or the books you used, they use proven methods? Did they use research-based methods? Did they know a about the research about English learning, English teaching? Did they use the best methods? Or did they just use textbook that everybody else uses?
Well, I know from my experience as a teacher, most 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 choosing the very, very best books. And so maybe the reason believe English is difficult is because you used difficult methods in the past, or teachers did. Maybe you think English is boring because in the past you used 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 you did it or where you did it. Ask yourself these questions. about them in detail. Weaken your limiting beliefs. Challenge your beliefs. Another question, in school did you learn deeply? example, did you take one chapter in your book and it for a long time so that you totally it, so that you knew it completely, 100% and forgot it? Probably not, most schools I have seen and the I have taught in, it’s quite the opposite. The teachers go very, very, very quickly. You learn chapter in your book, boom, after one week on to next one, and the next one. Each chapter has so new words, so much new grammar.
For example, my experience with Spanish in high and university, I took Spanish, I’ve had a total maybe two years of Spanish, but I forgot it all. we never learned deeply. They just tried to make us learn as many words possible, a lot of words, a lot of words, lot of grammar, very, very fast. And then, of course, I forgot everything. How you? Did you learn deeply in your schools? If not, maybe that was one of problems. Maybe English feels difficult because you never learned deeply. Maybe English is the problem.
Finally, did you learn with a grammar translation method? Did you study a of grammar rules? Did you take a lot of tests? Did feel good about that? Again, maybe the method was the problem. Maybe the school is problem, not English. So think about these questions and think about every day. Think about them a lot, especially this week as you listen to Lesson Number 4. I you to think about these questions again and again and again. really be honest about it. And start to destroy these 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 a past experience. You can that 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 empower to make stronger. It means to give power to person. Or in this case, it means the beliefs give you power. An belief is a belief 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 empowering belief. You can replace your old limiting belief, add this one instead. You say “My brain is a natural language learning machine.” Because that’s what all of the research shows, our brain naturally learns languages. It is to learn language. It should be easy. It should effortless. It should feel good. You learned your native language way. It wasn’t difficult was it? English was easy for me to learn, because I it in a totally natural way. And the more I tried to learn Japanese, for example, or Spanish, easier it feels. So this is a new belief and should write it down, think about it. Write down this idea, belief “My brain is a natural language learning machine.” about it every day. Decide to choose that belief. Here’s belief you might decide to choose “English can be and effortless.”

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

And to make these beliefs stronger, need experiences. Remember, you need references, you need examples prove the belief. So I’m going to give you some examples and can find more. Go find people who 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 The speaks, I believe, twelve languages now. I want you to find these people and look their beliefs. I’ll tell you some of his beliefs because he’s a friend, I’ve to him a number of times, and Steve believes, example, that 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 speaks Russian. These all, supposedly, difficult languages. For him they’re not difficult. They’re and 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 words, he doesn’t focus on the grammar. He’s not focusing on boring textbooks. He’s reading interesting things that enjoys. He’s listening 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 all of my best students have. They all have these same ideas. The best students, the who learn the fastest, the ones who have the test scores, the ones with the best speaking, they believe these things. They all believe that English is fun, interesting and effortless. They all believe that language learning natural. They all believe that they should focus on meaning, not on the grammar and the little pieces of the language. if you want to be 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 to do. Here’s your homework. is the last thing, the last part of this lesson. What I want you to is write down two, three, four empowering beliefs, beliefs give you power about English. Maybe “My brain is a language learning machine.” Maybe “English can be fun and effortless.” “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 or sentence that you say again and again. It has a magic idea, it comes from magic. An incantation is a magical sentence. It’s sentence, you say the sentence something will happen. That’s where it comes from. But for us an is just a belief you are going to repeat again and and again every day.So here’s what you’re going to do. For “English can be fun and effortless.” You’re going to say that out 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 one more 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 be fun and effortless.” You’re going to say it with some emotion. 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. repeat it again. English can be fun and effortless. And you say it again. English can be fun and effortless.

You can do in your room and its fine. You can do it outside and make everyone at you and think you’re crazy. Why not? It’s than feeling powerless, right? It’s better than being bored. I promise you will learn much faster 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. your body, your mind, your beliefs, they’re all together, very strong. you’re ready to learn.

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