Beliefs

BELIEFS

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

Beliefs are another important part of managing your psychology, of your psychology so that you will learn English, or anything in fact, much faster. And there are kinds of beliefs to general categories of beliefs. Limiting empowering.
Let’s talk about limiting beliefs first. Now limiting means, limit something 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 stops you from getting better. And I’d say most English have limiting beliefs and many English students have very limiting beliefs. I call these beliefs English trauma and I got that name from a few of my students. They would tell me “AJ, I can’t speak well because I have English trauma.”
What is English trauma? What is that, what they talking about? Well, trauma means some kind of injury, some kind of hurt. hurt, deep emotional hurt. So what they mean is that had 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 other English schools, had very negative experiences. And all these negative experiences 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 an opinion, it’s a belief they have.
Another belief, a very common belief, is difficult. Or, English is complicated. Well, that’s just a belief. For me English very easy, because I’m native speaker, just like your native language for you is very easy. can speak Japanese fluently because she’s Japanese, so I say “Japanese is difficult,” and she would say “No, Japanese super easy.” These are just beliefs that come from experiences. The problem is these limiting beliefs limit us. They fact do limit us. They stop us from
getting better. cause a lot of problems for us as students, as learners. I have them, too. As try to learn Japanese, for example, I have a lot of these limiting beliefs I realize. I “Oh, Japanese is so difficult.” Japanese is complicated, just at the writing system. It’s so different from English. these beliefs hurt my motivation. They lower my energy, and in fact they’re wrong.
They’re not true. does not have to be difficult, it does not to be compli- cated. A small child, even a small American child, could learn very effortlessly, very easily. And the reason is, the one reason 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, easily, they’ll say “Japanese is easy.” Well, it’s the same with English 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 English. I’ll never 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 helping you. But have to figure out, how can we get rid the limiting beliefs? That’s the first step, you have to weaken them. have to make them weaker and weaker and weaker. You have to cut them down. beliefs get stronger from references. And reference is just experience or a memory. Sometimes it’s just something you imagine, actually. But it’s specific experience or a specific imagination, a specific moment, makes the belief stronger or weaker. So, for example, have this idea “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 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 test or all the red marks on your English papers. And you start adding more and more and memories, more of these negative experiences, these negative references. And if you 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, just have to question the references.

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

Let’s talk now about empowering beliefs, the positive side. So empower, the verb, to empower means to make stronger. It means to give power to person. Or in this case, it means the beliefs give you power. An empowering belief is belief that makes you feel powerful, that gives you power. That’s the kind of beliefs you want and you to choose them. You must decide which beliefs will make you stronger. example, here’s an empowering belief. You can replace your limiting belief, add this one instead. You can say “My brain a natural language learning machine.” Because that’s what all of scientific research shows, our brain naturally learns languages. It is designed to learn language. should be easy. It should be effortless. It should good. You learned your native language that way. It wasn’t difficult was it? was easy for 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 easier feels. So this is a new belief and you should it down, think about it. Write down this idea, this “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 and effortless.”

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

And to make beliefs stronger, you need experiences. Remember, you need references, need examples that prove the belief. So I’m going to give you some examples you can find more. Go find people who speak English very well. Or maybe 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 find these and look at their beliefs. I’ll tell you some of his beliefs he’s a friend, I’ve talked to him a number times, and Steve believes, for example, that language learning easy and effortless. That’s his belief. He’s a native English speaker, he Cantonese, he speaks Mandarin, he speaks Japanese, he speaks Russian. These are all, supposedly, 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 must learn language 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 things that he enjoys. He’s listening to interesting things that enjoys. So, for him, language learning is interesting. What’s really interesting me is that these are the same beliefs that all of my best students have. They all have same ideas. The best students, the ones who learn the fastest, the ones who have best test scores, the ones with the best speaking, they all believe things. They all believe that English is fun, interesting and effortless. 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 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 you to do. Here’s your homework. This is the last thing, last part of this lesson. What I want you do is write down two, three, four empowering beliefs, that give you power about English. Maybe “My brain a natural language learning machine.” Maybe “English can be fun and effortless.” “I love English.” I don’t know, write down, two, three, four empowering beliefs about English. And every day you’re to do an incantation. That’s a good word, that’s new word, incantation.
An incantation is a phrase sentence that you say again and again. It has a magic idea, it comes from magic. An incantation a 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 say that out loud every day while you’re walking along and you’re doing your posture. And you’re breathing you’re smiling. Well, you’re going to add one more thing. As walk, as you’re getting ready for the lesson, you’re to repeat this out loud. You’re going to say “English can be 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 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 again. English can be fun and effortless.

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

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