Beliefs

BELIEFS

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

Beliefs another important part of managing your psychology, of strengthening psychology so that you will learn English, or anything fact, much faster. And there are two kinds of to general categories of 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 belief is a belief that stops you from improving, a belief that you from getting better. And I’d say most English students have beliefs and many English students have very strong limiting beliefs. I call these English trauma and I got that name from a few of my students. They would tell me “AJ, I can’t speak English because I have English trauma.”
What is English trauma? What that, what are they talking about? Well, trauma means some kind of injury, some kind hurt. Emotional hurt, deep emotional hurt. So what they mean that they had some very negative, painful experiences with English in the past. other words, when they were in school in English classes, even as adults going to other schools, they had very negative experiences. And all these negative experiences have created very negative beliefs, some very limiting beliefs. For example, 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 they have.
belief, a very common belief, English is difficult. Or, is complicated. Well, that’s just a belief. For me English very easy, because I’m a native speaker, just your native language for you is very easy. Tomoe can speak Japanese because she’s Japanese, so I might say “Japanese is difficult,” and would say “No, Japanese is super easy.” These are just beliefs that come from our experiences. problem is these limiting beliefs limit us. They in fact do limit us. They stop us from
better. They cause a lot of problems for us as students, as learners. I them, too. As I try to learn Japanese, for example, I have a lot of 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. And beliefs hurt my motivation. They lower 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, learn Japanese very effortlessly, very easily. And the reason is, the number 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 “Japanese is easy.” Well, it’s the same with English with you. You in a very painful, difficult way in the past. And you developed, you created these beliefs in your head. English is difficult. is boring. English is painful. I’m not good at English. I’ll never speak excellent English. are just beliefs.
So how do you eliminate these beliefs? Okay, you these beliefs. You know they’re negative, you know they’re not you. But we have to figure out, how can we get rid of limiting beliefs? That’s the first step, you have to weaken them. You have to make them weaker 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. it’s a 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 think of this belief, where does it come from?

Well, you think of all these past experiences. You think the time in middle school where your teacher corrected your mistake and you felt terrible. And you of maybe the bad grades you got on the test or all the red on your English papers. And you start adding more and more and more memories, 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 just to ask about them. For example, let me ask this question. Your past English schools, were they excellent? Were they fantastic English schools with fantastic, amazing, fun, positive English teachers? Did you have a time every day? Well, I know for most of you the answer is no. that’s interesting, so if your schools were not excellent, maybe the school was the problem. Maybe it’s you. Maybe your English is not great because you did not go to great schools. And did those that you 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 use the best methods? Or did they just use the textbook everybody else uses?
Well, I know from my experience as a teacher, schools just use the same textbooks. They don’t know why. Maybe boss tells them “We must use this book.” But they’re choosing the very, very best methods. They’re not choosing 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 boring because in the past used boring methods. You went to boring schools. You had boring teachers. Maybe English isn’t the problem. it was these past experiences. Maybe it was the way you did or where you did it. Ask yourself these questions. Think about in detail. Weaken your limiting beliefs. Challenge your limiting beliefs. Another question, school did you learn deeply? For example, did you take 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 taught in, it’s quite the opposite. The teachers go very, very, quickly. You learn one chapter in your book, boom, after one on to the next one, and the next one. Each chapter has many new words, so much new grammar.
For example, my experience with Spanish in high school and university, took Spanish, I’ve had a total of maybe 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. And then, of course, I forgot everything. about you? Did you learn deeply in your schools? not, maybe that was one of the problems. Maybe English feels difficult because you learned deeply. Maybe English is not the problem.
Finally, did you learn a grammar translation method? Did you study a lot of rules? Did you take a lot of tests? Did you feel good that? Again, maybe the method was the problem. Maybe the school the problem, not English. So think about these questions and think about them day. Think about them a lot, especially this week as you to Lesson Number 4. I want you to think these 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. is not painful. English is not boring. It’s only belief. It’s only a past experience. You can change 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 make stronger. means to give power to another person. Or in this case, it the beliefs give you power. An empowering belief is a belief makes you feel powerful, that gives you power. That’s kind of beliefs you want and you need to choose them. must decide which beliefs will make you stronger. For example, here’s an empowering belief. You can replace your limiting belief, add this one instead. You can say “My brain is a language learning machine.” Because that’s what all of the scientific research shows, our brain naturally learns languages. It designed to learn language. It should be easy. It be effortless. It should feel good. You learned your native that way. It wasn’t difficult was it? English 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 is a new belief and you should write it down, think about it. down this idea, this belief “My brain is a natural learning machine.” Think about it every day. Decide to choose that belief. Here’s another you might decide to choose “English can be fun and effortless.”

English can be and effortless. That’s an empowering belief and it’s also true. You think of a lot of examples for this. Some 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 choose and you want to remember it day.

And to make these beliefs stronger, you need experiences. Remember, you need references, you need examples that the belief. So I’m going to give you some examples you can find more. Go find people who speak very well. Or maybe even that have learned another language very well. I’ll give you one my favorite examples, Steve Kaufman of The Linguist speaks, I believe, languages now. I want you to find these people and at their beliefs. I’ll tell you some of his because 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. are all, supposedly, difficult 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. in 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 he enjoys. So, him, language learning is interesting. What’s really interesting for 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 believe that they should focus on the meaning, not on grammar and the little pieces of the language. So if you want to like these successful people, you need to think like them. need to have the same beliefs as them.
So here’s I want you to do. Here’s your homework. This is last thing, the last part of this lesson. What I want to do is write down two, three, four empowering beliefs, beliefs that give you power about English. Maybe “My is a natural language learning machine.” Maybe “English can be fun and effortless.” “I love English.” I don’t know, write down, two, three, four beliefs 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 almost a magic idea, it comes from magic. An is a magical sentence. It’s a sentence, you say the sentence something will happen. That’s where it from. But for us an incantation is just a belief you are going repeat 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 going to say that loud every day while you’re walking along and you’re doing posture. And you’re breathing and you’re smiling. Well, you’re going to one more thing. As you walk, as you’re getting ready for the lesson, you’re going to repeat this loud. You’re going to say “English can be fun and effortless.” You’re going to say it with emotion. Say it with feeling so you’re smiling, you’re breathing deep, you’re your body, you have good posture and now you’re also saying strong beliefs. English can be fun and effortless. You it again. English can be fun and effortless. And then you say again. English can be fun and effortless.

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

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