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 learn English, or anything in fact, much faster. And there are two kinds of beliefs to categories of beliefs. Limiting and empowering.
Let’s talk limiting beliefs first. Now limiting means, limit is something stops you. It’s like a boundary. It stops you from 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 and many students have very strong limiting beliefs. I call these beliefs English trauma 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 are talking about? Well, trauma means some kind of injury, kind of hurt. Emotional hurt, deep emotional hurt. So what they mean is that they had very negative, painful experiences with English in the past. In other words, when were in school in English classes, even as adults to other English schools, they had very negative experiences. all these negative experiences have created some very negative beliefs, some very limiting beliefs. For example, say “I am not good at English.” Well, that’s a belief. It may be true, 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, is complicated. Well, that’s just a belief. For me English easy, because I’m a native speaker, just like your native language for you is easy. Tomoe can speak Japanese fluently because she’s Japanese, so might say “Japanese is difficult,” and she would say “No, Japanese is super easy.” are just beliefs that come from our experiences. The problem is these limiting beliefs limit us. They in do limit us. They stop us from
getting better. They cause a of problems for us as students, as learners. I have them, too. As I try to Japanese, for example, I have a lot of these limiting beliefs I realize. I think “Oh, Japanese is difficult.” Japanese is complicated, just look at the writing system. It’s different from English. And these beliefs hurt my motivation. They my energy, and in fact they’re wrong.
They’re true. Japanese does not have to be difficult, it does have to be compli- cated. A small child, even a small child, could learn Japanese very effortlessly, very easily. And the reason is, number one reason is, they don’t have the limiting beliefs. They can sing songs and play games and enjoy language, and they’ll learn it so quickly, so easily, they’ll say “Japanese easy.” Well, it’s the same with English with you. You learned a very painful, difficult way in the past. And so you developed, you created these in your head. English 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 eliminate these beliefs? Okay, you have these beliefs. You they’re negative, you know they’re not helping you. But we have figure out, how can we get rid of the limiting beliefs? That’s the first step, have to weaken them. You have to make them weaker and weaker and weaker. You have cut them down. Well beliefs get stronger from references. And reference is just an experience or memory. Sometimes it’s just something you imagine, actually. But it’s a specific experience or a specific imagination, specific moment, that makes the belief stronger or weaker. So, for example, you have idea “English is painful and boring.” And when you of this belief, where does it come from?

Well, think of all these past experiences. You think of the time in school where your teacher corrected your mistake and you terrible. And you think of maybe the bad grades you on the test or all the red marks on your English papers. And 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.” So to these, you just have to question the references.

You to question the experiences. Take the power away from experiences. And an easy way to do that is just to ask 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 English teachers? Did you have a great time day? Well, I know for most of you the answer 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 because you did 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 a lot about the research about English learning, English teaching? Did they only the best methods? Or did they just use the textbook that else uses?
Well, I know from my experience as a teacher, most schools use the same textbooks. They don’t know why. Maybe the boss tells them “We must use this book.” they’re not choosing the very, very best methods. They’re not the very, very best books. And so maybe the reason believe English is difficult is because you used difficult methods in the past, or your teachers did. Maybe think English is boring because in the past you used boring methods. You went to boring schools. had boring teachers. Maybe English isn’t the problem. Maybe was these past experiences. Maybe it was the way you did it or you did it. Ask yourself these questions. Think about them in detail. Weaken your limiting beliefs. Challenge your beliefs. Another question, in school did you learn deeply? For example, you take one chapter in your book and learn for a long time so that you totally mastered it, that you knew it completely, 100% and never forgot it? Probably not, most schools I seen and the ones 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 has so many new words, so much new grammar.
example, my experience with Spanish in high school and university, I took Spanish, I’ve had a total of two years of Spanish, but I forgot it all. Because never learned deeply. They just tried to make us as many words as possible, a lot of words, a of words, a 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. English is not the problem.
Finally, did you with a grammar translation method? Did you study a lot of grammar rules? you take a lot of tests? Did you feel good about that? Again, maybe the method the problem. Maybe the school is the problem, not English. So think these questions and think about them every day. Think about them a lot, especially this week as listen to Lesson Number 4. I want you to think about these questions again and and again. And really be honest about it. And start to destroy these beliefs. Get rid of them. They’re wrong. English is difficult. English is not painful. English is not boring. It’s only a belief. It’s only past experience. You can change 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 means make stronger. It means to give power to another person. Or this case, it means the beliefs give you power. empowering belief is a belief that makes you feel powerful, gives you power. That’s the kind of beliefs you want and need to choose them. You must decide which beliefs make you stronger. For example, here’s an empowering belief. You can replace your old limiting belief, add one instead. You can say “My brain is a natural language learning machine.” Because that’s all of the scientific research shows, our brain naturally learns languages. It is designed 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 in a totally natural way. And the more naturally I tried to Japanese, for example, or Spanish, the easier it feels. So this is new belief and you should write it down, think about it. down this idea, this belief “My brain is a language learning machine.” Think about it every day. Decide to choose belief. Here’s another 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 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 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, you need experiences. Remember, you references, you need examples that prove the belief. So I’m to give you some examples and you can find more. Go find people who speak very well. Or maybe even that have learned another language very well. I’ll give one of my favorite examples, Steve Kaufman of The Linguist speaks, I believe, twelve languages now. want you to find these people and look at their beliefs. I’ll tell you some of his beliefs he’s a friend, I’ve talked to him a number of times, Steve believes, for example, that language learning is easy and effortless. That’s his belief. He’s a English speaker, he speaks Cantonese, he speaks Mandarin, he Japanese, he speaks Russian. These are all, supposedly, difficult languages. him they’re not difficult. They’re easy and effortless. That’s a strong belief he has.

Another belief he has is you must learn language naturally and you must focus on meaning. in other words, he doesn’t focus on the grammar. He’s not focusing on textbooks. He’s reading interesting things that he enjoys. He’s listening to interesting that he enjoys. So, for him, language learning is interesting. What’s really for me is that these are the same beliefs that all of best students have. They all have these same ideas. The best students, the ones who learn the fastest, ones who have the best test scores, the ones with the best speaking, they all these things. They all believe that English is fun, interesting effortless. They all believe that language learning is natural. They all believe that they should focus on meaning, not on the grammar and the little pieces of language. So if you want to be like these people, you need to think like them. You need to have the same beliefs as them.
here’s what I want you to do. Here’s your homework. This is last 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 a natural language 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. And every you’re going to do an incantation. That’s a good word, that’s a new word, incantation.
An is a phrase or sentence that you say again and again. has almost a magic idea, it comes from magic. An is 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 and and again every day.So here’s what you’re going to do. For example “English can be fun effortless.” You’re going 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 add one more thing. As walk, as you’re getting ready for the lesson, you’re going to this out loud. You’re going to say “English can be and effortless.” You’re going to say it with some emotion. Say 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. English can be fun effortless. You repeat it again. English can be fun and effortless. then you say it again. English can be fun and effortless.

You do this in your room and its fine. You can it outside and make everyone look at you and think you’re crazy. not? It’s better 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 day just 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 fun and effortless. Now your body, mind, your beliefs, they’re all together, very strong. Then you’re ready to learn.

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