Beliefs

BELIEFS

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

Beliefs another important part of managing your psychology, of strengthening your psychology so that you will 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 beliefs first. Now means, limit is something that stops you. It’s like a boundary. It stops you going ahead. So a limiting belief is a belief that stops from improving, a belief that 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 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, kind of hurt. Emotional hurt, deep emotional hurt. So what they mean is that had some very negative, painful experiences with English in the past. In other words, 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 some 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 they 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 for you is very easy. Tomoe speak Japanese fluently because she’s Japanese, so I might say “Japanese difficult,” and she would say “No, Japanese is super easy.” These are just beliefs that from our experiences. The problem is these limiting beliefs limit us. They in do limit us. They stop us from
getting better. cause a lot of problems for us as students, learners. I have them, too. As I try to learn Japanese, for example, I have a lot these limiting beliefs I realize. I think “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, in fact they’re wrong.
They’re not true. Japanese does not to be difficult, it does not have to be compli- cated. A small child, even a American child, could learn Japanese very effortlessly, very easily. And 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 with English with you. You learned in a very painful, difficult way the past. And so you developed, you created these beliefs in your head. is difficult. English is boring. English is painful. I’m not at 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 of the limiting beliefs? That’s first step, you have to weaken them. You have to make them weaker and weaker and weaker. You to cut them down. Well beliefs get stronger from references. reference is just an experience or a memory. Sometimes it’s just something you imagine, actually. it’s a specific experience or a specific imagination, a specific moment, that makes belief stronger or weaker. So, for example, you have this idea “English is and boring.” And when you think of this belief, where does come from?

Well, you think of all these past experiences. You think of the time in middle school where teacher corrected your mistake and you felt terrible. And you think of maybe the bad grades got on the test or all the red marks on your English papers. And you start more and more and more memories, more of these negative experiences, these negative references. And if get enough, you will develop a very, strong, deep, powerful “English is difficult. English is painful. I’m not good at English.” So to weaken these, you just to question the references.

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

Let’s talk about empowering beliefs, the positive side. So to empower, the verb, to empower means to make stronger. means to give power to another person. Or in this case, it the beliefs give you power. An empowering belief is a that makes you feel powerful, that gives you power. That’s the kind beliefs you want and you need to choose them. You must decide beliefs will make you stronger. For example, here’s an belief. You can replace your old limiting belief, add one instead. You can say “My brain is a natural learning machine.” Because that’s what all of the scientific research shows, our brain naturally learns languages. is designed to learn language. It should be easy. It should be effortless. It feel 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. the more naturally I tried to learn Japanese, for example, or Spanish, the easier feels. So this is a new belief and you should write it down, think it. Write down this idea, this belief “My brain is natural language learning machine.” Think about it every day. Decide choose that belief. Here’s another belief you might decide to “English can be fun and effortless.”

English can be and effortless. That’s an empowering belief and it’s also true. You can of a lot of examples for this. Some of mini-stories you’re listening to, right? They’re fun. They’re stupid, sometimes. They’re crazy, sometimes. But they’re not serious. English can be fun effortless. That’s an empowering belief you want to choose and want to remember it every 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 some examples and you can find more. Go find people who speak English well. Or maybe even that have learned another language well. I’ll give you one of my favorite examples, Steve Kaufman of 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 because he’s a friend, I’ve talked 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 English speaker, he Cantonese, he speaks Mandarin, he speaks Japanese, he speaks Russian. are 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 language and you must focus on meaning. So in other words, he doesn’t on the grammar. He’s not focusing on boring textbooks. He’s interesting things that he enjoys. He’s listening to interesting things that enjoys. So, for him, language learning is interesting. What’s interesting for me is that these are the same beliefs that all my best students have. They all have these same ideas. The best students, the ones learn the fastest, the ones who have the best scores, the ones with the best speaking, they all believe these things. They all that English is fun, interesting and effortless. They all believe that learning is natural. They all believe that they should focus on the meaning, not on grammar and the little pieces of the language. So if you to be like these successful people, you need to think like them. need to have the same beliefs as them.
So here’s what want 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 empowering beliefs, beliefs give you power about English. Maybe “My brain is a natural learning machine.” Maybe “English can be fun and effortless.” Maybe “I love English.” don’t know, write down, two, three, four empowering beliefs about English. every day you’re going to do an incantation. That’s a good word, that’s a new word, incantation.
incantation is a phrase or sentence that you say again and again. It has almost a idea, it comes from magic. An incantation is a magical sentence. It’s a sentence, say the sentence something will happen. That’s where it comes from. But us an incantation is just a belief you are going to repeat and again and again every day.So here’s what you’re going do. For example “English can be fun and effortless.” You’re going to say that out loud every day 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 you walk, you’re getting ready 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 it with some emotion. Say it feeling so you’re smiling, you’re breathing deep, you’re moving your body, have good posture and now 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 fun and effortless.

You can do this in your room and 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. promise you will learn so much faster if you do this. So do these incantations every just before you do a lesson. Get your body strong, emotional state, and then say these incantations. English can be fun and effortless. English can fun and effortless. Now your body, your mind, your beliefs, they’re all together, very strong. Then you’re ready learn.

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