Beliefs

BELIEFS

Hello, welcome to the 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 learn English, anything in fact, much faster. And there are two kinds of beliefs general categories of beliefs. Limiting and empowering.
Let’s about limiting beliefs first. Now limiting means, limit is that stops you. It’s like a boundary. It stops from going ahead. So a limiting belief is a belief stops you from improving, a belief that stops you from getting better. And I’d say most students have limiting beliefs and many English students have very strong limiting beliefs. I these beliefs English trauma and I got that name from a few my Japanese students. They would tell me “AJ, I can’t speak English well because I have trauma.”
What is English trauma? What is that, what are they 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 past. In other words, when they were in school English classes, even as adults going to other English schools, they had very negative experiences. all these negative experiences have created some very negative beliefs, some very beliefs. For example, they say “I am not good at English.” Well, that’s a belief. It may true, it may not be true. But it’s an opinion, it’s a belief that have.
Another belief, a very common belief, English is difficult. Or, is 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 can speak fluently because she’s Japanese, so I might say “Japanese is difficult,” and would say “No, Japanese is super easy.” These are beliefs that come from our experiences. The problem is these beliefs limit us. They in 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 I to learn Japanese, for example, I have a lot of these beliefs I realize. I think “Oh, Japanese is so difficult.” is complicated, just look at the writing system. It’s so 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 not have to 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. 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 same English with you. You learned in a very painful, way in the past. And so you developed, you created these beliefs in your head. is difficult. English is boring. English is painful. I’m good at English. I’ll never speak excellent English. These just 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 out, how can we get rid of the limiting beliefs? That’s the first step, you have weaken them. You have to make them weaker and weaker and weaker. You have to them down. Well beliefs get stronger from references. And reference is just an experience a memory. Sometimes it’s just something you imagine, actually. But it’s a specific experience a specific imagination, a specific moment, that makes the belief stronger or weaker. So, example, you have this idea “English is painful and boring.” And when you think of this belief, does it come from?

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

You have to question the experiences. Take power away from the experiences. And an easy way to do that is just to ask questions them. For example, let me ask this question. Your past English schools, were they excellent? they just fantastic English schools with fantastic, amazing, fun, English teachers? Did you have a great time every day? Well, I know for most of 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 did go to great schools. And did those schools that you went to, or the books you used, did use proven methods? Did they use research-based methods? Did they know a lot the research about English learning, English teaching? Did they only the best 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 them “We must use this book.” they’re not choosing the very, very best methods. They’re not choosing the very, very best books. And maybe the reason you believe English is difficult is because you used difficult in the past, or your teachers did. Maybe you think English is because in the past you used boring methods. You went to boring schools. You had boring teachers. English isn’t the problem. Maybe it was these past experiences. Maybe it was the way you it or where you did it. Ask yourself these questions. Think about them in detail. Weaken your beliefs. Challenge your limiting beliefs. Another question, in school did you learn deeply? For example, did take one chapter in your book and learn it for a long time so you totally mastered it, so that you knew it completely, 100% and never forgot it? not, most schools I have seen and the ones I have in, it’s quite the opposite. The teachers go very, very, very quickly. learn one chapter in your book, boom, after one on to the next one, and the next one. Each has so many new words, so much new grammar.
For example, my experience with Spanish in high and university, I took Spanish, I’ve had a total of two years of Spanish, but I forgot it all. we never learned deeply. They just tried to make learn as many words as possible, a lot of words, a of words, a lot of grammar, very, very fast. then, of course, I forgot everything. How about you? Did you learn deeply your schools? If not, maybe that was one of the problems. English feels difficult because you never learned deeply. Maybe is not the problem.
Finally, did you learn with a grammar translation method? Did you study lot of grammar rules? Did you take a lot of tests? Did you good about that? Again, maybe the method was the problem. Maybe the is the problem, not English. So think about these questions and think them every day. Think about them a lot, especially week as you listen to Lesson Number 4. I want you to think about these questions again again and again. And really be honest about it. And start to these limiting beliefs. Get rid of them. They’re wrong. English is not difficult. English not painful. English is not boring. It’s only a belief. It’s only a experience. You can change that now and in the future. let’s do that.

Let’s talk now about empowering beliefs, the positive side. So to empower, the verb, to means to make stronger. It means to give power to person. Or in this case, it means the beliefs you power. An empowering belief is a belief that makes you feel powerful, gives you power. That’s the kind of beliefs you want and you need choose them. You must decide which beliefs will make you stronger. For example, here’s an empowering belief. can replace your old limiting belief, add this one instead. can say “My brain is a natural language learning machine.” Because that’s what all of the scientific research shows, brain naturally learns languages. It is designed to learn language. It should be easy. It should be effortless. should feel good. You learned your native language that way. It wasn’t was it? English was easy for me to learn, because I it in a totally natural way. And the more naturally I tried to Japanese, for example, or Spanish, the easier it feels. So this is a new and you should write it down, think about 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 fun 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. But they’re not serious. can be fun and effortless. That’s an empowering belief you want to and you want to remember it every day.

And to make these beliefs stronger, you experiences. Remember, you need references, you need examples that prove belief. So I’m going to give you some examples and can find more. Go find people who speak English very well. Or even that have learned another language very well. I’ll give you of my favorite examples, Steve Kaufman of The Linguist speaks, I believe, languages now. I want you to find these people and look 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 speaks Cantonese, speaks Mandarin, he speaks Japanese, he speaks Russian. These are all, supposedly, difficult languages. For him they’re difficult. They’re easy and effortless. That’s a very strong he has.

Another belief he has is that you learn language naturally and you must focus on meaning. in other words, he doesn’t focus on the grammar. He’s not on boring textbooks. He’s reading interesting things that he enjoys. He’s listening interesting things that he enjoys. So, for him, language learning interesting. What’s really interesting for me is that these are the same beliefs that of my best students have. They all have these same ideas. The best students, the ones learn the fastest, the ones who have the best test scores, the with the best speaking, they all believe these things. all believe that English is fun, interesting and effortless. They all believe that language learning is natural. They believe that they should focus on the meaning, not the grammar and the little pieces of the language. if you want to be like these successful people, you need think like them. You need to have the same as them.
So here’s what I want you do. Here’s your homework. This is the last thing, the part of this lesson. What I want you to do write down two, three, four empowering beliefs, beliefs that give you power about English. “My brain is a natural language learning machine.” Maybe “English can be and effortless.” Maybe “I love English.” I don’t know, write down, two, three, four empowering about English. And every day you’re going to do incantation. That’s a good word, that’s a new word, incantation.
An incantation is a or sentence that you say again and again. It has a magic idea, it comes from magic. An incantation is magical sentence. It’s a sentence, you say the sentence 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 going to do. example “English can be fun and effortless.” You’re going to say that out every day while you’re walking along and you’re doing posture. And you’re breathing and you’re smiling. Well, you’re going add one more thing. As you walk, as you’re getting ready for the lesson, you’re to repeat this out loud. You’re going to say “English can be fun 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 good posture and now you’re also saying these strong beliefs. English can be and effortless. You repeat it again. English can be fun and effortless. And then 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 better 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 just you do a lesson. Get your body strong, peak state, and then say these incantations. English can be 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 the end of the main story for “Beliefs.”