Beliefs

BELIEFS

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

Beliefs are another important part of managing your psychology, of strengthening your psychology so that will learn English, or anything in fact, much faster. there are two kinds of beliefs to general categories 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 belief a belief that stops you from improving, a belief that stops from getting better. And I’d say most English students have beliefs and many English students have very strong limiting beliefs. I these beliefs English trauma and I got that name from few of my Japanese students. They would tell me “AJ, I can’t speak well because I have English trauma.”
What is English trauma? What is that, are they talking about? Well, trauma means some kind injury, some 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. other words, when they were in school in English classes, even as adults to other English schools, they had very negative experiences. And all these experiences have created some very negative beliefs, some very limiting beliefs. example, they say “I am 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, a very belief, English is difficult. Or, English is complicated. Well, that’s a belief. For me English very easy, because I’m a speaker, just like your native language for you is easy. Tomoe can speak Japanese fluently because she’s Japanese, so I might say “Japanese is difficult,” and would say “No, Japanese is super easy.” These are just beliefs come from our experiences. The problem is these limiting beliefs limit us. in fact do limit us. They stop us from
getting better. They cause a lot of problems for as students, as learners. I have them, too. As I try to learn Japanese, for example, I 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 so different from English. And 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 learn very effortlessly, very easily. And the reason is, the number reason is, they don’t have the limiting beliefs. They can sing and play games and enjoy the 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 in a very painful, difficult way in the past. And so developed, you created these beliefs in your head. English difficult. English is boring. English is painful. I’m not at English. I’ll never speak excellent English. These are beliefs.
So how do you eliminate these beliefs? Okay, you have these beliefs. You they’re negative, you know they’re not helping you. But we have to figure out, how can we rid of 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. Well get stronger from references. And reference is just an experience or a memory. it’s just something you imagine, actually. But it’s a experience or a specific imagination, a specific moment, that makes the belief stronger or weaker. So, for example, have this idea “English is painful and boring.” And you think of this belief, where does it come from?

Well, think of all these past experiences. You think of the in middle school where your teacher corrected your mistake and you felt terrible. And you think of the bad grades you got on the test or all the red marks on your English papers. you start adding more and more and more memories, of these negative experiences, these negative references. And if you 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 just have to question references.

You have to question the experiences. Take the power from the experiences. And an easy way to do that just to 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, English teachers? Did you have a great time every day? Well, I for most of you the answer is no. So that’s interesting, so if schools were not excellent, maybe the school was the problem. Maybe it’s you. Maybe your English is not great because you not go to great schools. And did those schools you went to, or the books you used, did they use proven methods? they use research-based methods? Did they know a lot about the research English learning, English teaching? Did they only use the methods? Or did they just use the textbook that everybody uses?
Well, I know from my experience as a teacher, most schools just 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 not the very, very best books. And so maybe the reason you believe is difficult is because you used difficult methods in past, or your teachers did. Maybe you think English is 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 did it or where you it. Ask yourself these questions. Think about them in detail. Weaken your limiting beliefs. Challenge your limiting beliefs. question, in school did you learn deeply? For example, did take one chapter in your book and learn it for a time so that you totally mastered it, so that you knew completely, 100% and never forgot it? Probably not, most I have seen and the ones I have taught in, it’s the opposite. The teachers go very, very, very quickly. learn one chapter in your book, boom, after one week to the next one, and the next one. Each chapter has so many new words, so much 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 we never learned deeply. They just tried make us learn as many words as possible, a lot of words, a lot of words, a of grammar, very, very fast. And then, of course, I forgot everything. How about you? Did you learn in your schools? If not, maybe that was one of the problems. Maybe English feels difficult because never learned deeply. Maybe English is not the problem.
Finally, did you with a grammar translation method? Did you study a lot grammar rules? Did you take a lot of tests? Did you feel good about that? Again, maybe the was the problem. Maybe the school is the problem, not English. So think about these 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 questions again and again and again. And really be about it. And start to destroy these limiting beliefs. rid of 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 can that now and in the future. So let’s do that.

Let’s talk now about empowering beliefs, the side. So to empower, the verb, to empower means to stronger. It means to give power to another person. in this case, it means the beliefs give you power. An belief is a belief that makes you feel powerful, that 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 old limiting belief, this one instead. You can say “My brain is a 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 be effortless. It should feel good. You learned your language that way. It wasn’t difficult was it? English was for me to learn, because I did it in a totally natural way. And more naturally I tried to learn Japanese, for example, or Spanish, the it feels. So this is a new belief and should write it down, think about it. Write down this idea, this belief “My is a natural language learning machine.” Think about it every day. Decide to choose that belief. Here’s belief you might decide to choose “English can be fun 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. 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 can be and effortless. That’s an empowering belief you want to and you want to remember it every day.

And to make these stronger, you need experiences. Remember, you need references, you need that prove the belief. So I’m going to give you some examples and can find more. Go find people who speak English well. Or maybe even that have learned another language very well. I’ll give you one of my examples, Steve Kaufman of The Linguist speaks, I believe, twelve now. I want you to find these people and look at beliefs. I’ll tell you some of his beliefs because he’s a friend, I’ve talked to him a of times, and Steve believes, for example, that language 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. are all, supposedly, difficult languages. For him they’re not difficult. They’re easy and effortless. That’s a strong belief he has.

Another belief he has is that must learn language naturally and you must focus on meaning. So other words, he doesn’t focus on the grammar. He’s not focusing on boring textbooks. He’s reading interesting that he enjoys. He’s listening to interesting things that enjoys. So, for him, language learning is interesting. What’s really interesting for me is that are the same beliefs that all of my best students have. They have these same ideas. The best students, the ones learn the fastest, the ones who have the best test scores, the ones with the best speaking, all believe these things. They all believe that English fun, interesting and effortless. They all believe that language learning is natural. They all believe that should focus on the meaning, not on the grammar and the little pieces of the language. So if want to be like these successful people, you need to think like them. need to have the same beliefs as them.
So here’s what I want you to do. Here’s homework. This is the last thing, the last part this lesson. What I want you to do is write two, three, four empowering beliefs, beliefs that give you about English. Maybe “My brain is a natural language learning machine.” “English can be fun and effortless.” Maybe “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 phrase or sentence that you again and again. It has almost a magic idea, it comes magic. An incantation is a magical sentence. It’s a sentence, say the sentence something will happen. That’s where it comes from. But for us incantation is just a belief you are going to again and again and again every day.So here’s what you’re to do. For example “English can be fun and effortless.” You’re to say that out loud every day while you’re walking and you’re doing your posture. And you’re breathing and you’re smiling. Well, you’re going to add one more thing. you walk, as you’re getting ready for the lesson, you’re going to repeat out loud. You’re going to say “English can be fun and effortless.” You’re to say it with some emotion. Say it with so you’re smiling, you’re breathing deep, you’re moving your body, have good posture and now you’re also saying these beliefs. English can be fun and effortless. You repeat it again. English can be fun and effortless. And you say it again. English can be fun and effortless.

You can this in your room and its fine. You can do it outside and 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 learn so much faster if you do this. So do these incantations every day before you do a lesson. Get your body strong, peak state, and then say these incantations. English can be fun and effortless. English can be fun and effortless. 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.”