Beliefs

BELIEFS

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

Beliefs another important part of managing your psychology, of strengthening your so that you will learn English, or anything in fact, much faster. there are two kinds of beliefs to general categories of beliefs. and empowering.
Let’s talk about limiting beliefs first. limiting means, limit is something that stops you. It’s a boundary. It stops you from going ahead. So a belief is a belief that stops you from improving, belief that stops you from getting better. And I’d say English students have limiting beliefs and many English students very strong limiting beliefs. I call these beliefs English trauma and I got name from a few of my Japanese students. They would tell me “AJ, I can’t speak well because I have English trauma.”
What is trauma? What is that, what are they talking about? Well, means some kind of injury, some kind of hurt. Emotional hurt, emotional hurt. So what they mean is that they some very negative, painful experiences with English in the past. In other words, when were in school in English classes, even as adults going to English schools, they had very negative experiences. And all these negative have created some very negative beliefs, some very limiting beliefs. For example, they say “I not good at English.” Well, that’s a belief. It be true, it may not be true. But it’s opinion, it’s a belief that they have.
Another belief, 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 language for you is very easy. Tomoe can speak fluently because she’s Japanese, so I might say “Japanese is difficult,” and would say “No, Japanese is super easy.” These are just beliefs that come from our experiences. The is these limiting beliefs limit us. They in fact do us. They stop us from
getting better. They cause a lot of problems for us students, as learners. I have them, too. As I to learn Japanese, for example, I have a lot these limiting beliefs I realize. I think “Oh, Japanese is so difficult.” is complicated, just look at the writing system. It’s different from English. And these beliefs hurt my motivation. They lower my energy, and 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 reason is, they don’t the limiting beliefs. They can sing songs 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 with English with you. You learned in a very painful, difficult way 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 at English. I’ll speak excellent English. These are just beliefs.
So how do you these beliefs? Okay, you have these beliefs. You know they’re negative, you know they’re not you. But we have to figure out, how can we get rid of limiting beliefs? That’s the first step, you have to weaken them. You have to make them and weaker and weaker. You have to cut them down. Well beliefs get stronger references. And reference is just an experience or a memory. it’s just something you imagine, actually. But it’s a specific experience a specific imagination, a specific moment, that makes the stronger or weaker. So, for example, you have this “English is painful and boring.” And when you think of this belief, where does it from?

Well, you think of all these past experiences. You think the time in middle school where your teacher corrected mistake and you felt terrible. And you think of the bad grades you got on the test or the red 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 “English is difficult. English is painful. I’m not good at English.” So weaken these, you just have to question the references.

You have question the experiences. Take the power away from the experiences. And easy way to do that is just to ask questions about them. For example, let ask this question. Your past English schools, were they excellent? Were just fantastic English schools with fantastic, amazing, fun, positive teachers? Did you have a great time every day? Well, I know most of you the answer is no. So that’s interesting, so your schools were not excellent, maybe the school was problem. Maybe it’s not you. Maybe your English is not great because you did not go to schools. And did those schools that you went to, 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 textbook that everybody else uses?
Well, I know from my experience a teacher, most schools just use the same textbooks. 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 the very, very best books. And so maybe the reason you believe English is difficult is because you difficult methods in the past, or your teachers did. Maybe you think English is because in the past you used boring methods. You went boring schools. You had boring teachers. Maybe English isn’t problem. Maybe it was these past experiences. Maybe it was the way you did it or where did it. Ask 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, did you take chapter in your book and learn it for a long so 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, very quickly. You one chapter in your book, boom, after one week on to next one, and the next one. Each chapter has so many new words, so new grammar.
For example, my experience with Spanish in school and 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 us learn as many words as possible, a lot of words, lot of words, a lot of grammar, very, very fast. And then, course, I forgot everything. How about you? Did you learn deeply in your schools? 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 method? Did you study a lot of grammar rules? Did take a lot of tests? Did you feel good about that? Again, the method was the problem. Maybe the school is the problem, not English. think about these questions and think about them every day. Think about them a lot, especially week as you listen to Lesson Number 4. I want you think about these questions again and again and again. And really be about it. And start to destroy these limiting beliefs. Get rid them. They’re wrong. English is not difficult. English is not painful. 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 beliefs, the positive side. So to empower, the verb, to means to make stronger. It means to give power another person. Or in this case, it means the beliefs give you power. An empowering belief a 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 replace your old limiting belief, add this one instead. You can say “My brain is a language learning machine.” Because that’s what all of the scientific research shows, our brain naturally languages. It is designed to learn language. It should be easy. should be effortless. It should feel good. You learned your language 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 naturally I tried to learn Japanese, for example, or Spanish, the it feels. So this is a new belief and you should write it down, about it. Write down this idea, this belief “My brain is a natural learning machine.” Think about it every day. Decide to that belief. Here’s another belief you might decide to choose “English be fun and effortless.”

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

And to make beliefs stronger, you need experiences. Remember, you need references, you need examples prove the belief. So I’m going to give you some examples and you can find more. find people who speak English very well. Or maybe that have learned another language very well. I’ll give you one of my favorite examples, Steve of The Linguist speaks, I believe, twelve languages now. I want you to find these people and at their beliefs. I’ll tell you some of his beliefs because he’s a friend, I’ve talked to him number of times, and Steve believes, for example, that language learning easy and effortless. That’s his belief. He’s a native English speaker, he speaks Cantonese, he Mandarin, he speaks Japanese, he speaks 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 belief has is that you must learn language naturally and you must focus meaning. So in other words, he doesn’t focus on grammar. He’s not focusing on boring textbooks. He’s reading things that he enjoys. He’s listening to interesting things that he enjoys. So, 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 these same ideas. The best students, the ones who learn the fastest, the who have the best test scores, the ones with the best speaking, all believe these things. They all believe that English is fun, interesting and effortless. all believe that language learning is natural. They all that they should focus on the meaning, not on the and the little pieces of the language. So if you to be like these successful people, you need to think 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 thing, the last part of this lesson. What I you to do is write down two, three, four beliefs, beliefs that give you power about English. Maybe “My brain is a natural language machine.” Maybe “English can be fun and effortless.” Maybe “I English.” I don’t know, write down, two, three, four empowering about 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 that you say again and again. It has almost a magic idea, comes from magic. An incantation is a magical sentence. It’s a sentence, you say sentence something will happen. That’s where it comes from. But for an incantation is just a belief you are going to again and again and again every day.So here’s what you’re going do. For example “English can be fun and effortless.” You’re to say that out loud every day while you’re walking along you’re doing your posture. And 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 say “English be fun and effortless.” You’re going to say it with some emotion. Say it with 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 and effortless. You repeat it again. English can be and effortless. And then you say it again. English can be fun and effortless.

You do this in your room and its fine. You do it outside and make everyone look 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 so much faster if you do this. So do these incantations every day before you do a lesson. Get your body strong, peak emotional state, and then say incantations. English can be fun and effortless. English can be and effortless. Now your body, your mind, your beliefs, they’re together, very strong. Then you’re ready to learn.

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