Beliefs

BELIEFS

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

Beliefs are another important part of managing your psychology, strengthening your 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 beliefs first. Now limiting means, limit something that stops you. It’s like a boundary. It stops you from going ahead. So limiting belief is a belief that stops you from improving, belief that stops you from getting better. And I’d most English students have limiting beliefs and many English students very strong limiting beliefs. I call these beliefs English trauma and I got that name from few of my Japanese students. They would tell me “AJ, I can’t English well because I have English trauma.”
What is English trauma? What that, what are they talking about? Well, trauma means kind of injury, some kind of hurt. Emotional hurt, deep hurt. So what they mean is that they had some very negative, experiences with English in the past. In other words, when they were in in English classes, even as adults going to other schools, they had very negative experiences. And all these negative experiences created some very negative beliefs, some very limiting beliefs. 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, English is complicated. Well, that’s a belief. For me English very easy, because I’m a native speaker, just like your native language for is very easy. Tomoe can speak Japanese fluently because she’s Japanese, I might say “Japanese is difficult,” and she would “No, Japanese is super easy.” These are just beliefs that come our experiences. The problem is these limiting beliefs limit us. They fact do limit us. They stop us from
better. They cause a lot of problems for us as students, 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 so difficult.” is complicated, just look at the writing system. It’s so different from English. And these hurt my motivation. They lower my energy, and in they’re wrong.
They’re not true. Japanese does not have to be difficult, it does have to be compli- cated. A small child, even a American child, could learn Japanese very effortlessly, very easily. And the reason is, the number one reason is, don’t have the limiting beliefs. They can sing songs and play games enjoy the language, and they’ll learn it so quickly, easily, they’ll say “Japanese is easy.” Well, it’s the same English with you. You learned in a very painful, difficult 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 good English. I’ll never speak excellent English. These are just beliefs.
how do you eliminate these beliefs? Okay, you have these beliefs. You know they’re negative, know they’re not helping you. But we have to 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 weaker. You have to cut them down. Well beliefs get stronger references. And reference is just an experience or a memory. it’s just something you imagine, actually. But it’s a specific or 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 this belief, where does it come from?

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

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

Let’s talk about empowering beliefs, the positive side. So to empower, the verb, to means to make stronger. It means to give power to another person. Or in this case, it the beliefs give you power. An empowering belief is a belief that you feel powerful, that 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 empowering belief. You can replace your old limiting belief, add this 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 should feel good. You learned your native that way. It wasn’t difficult was it? English was easy for me learn, because I did it in a totally natural way. And the naturally I tried to learn Japanese, for example, or Spanish, the easier it feels. So this is a new and you should write it down, think about it. Write this idea, this belief “My brain is a 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 and effortless. That’s an empowering and it’s also true. You can think of a of examples for this. Some of these mini-stories you’re to, right? They’re fun. They’re stupid, sometimes. They’re crazy, sometimes. they’re not serious. English can be fun and effortless. That’s empowering belief you want to choose and you want to remember it every day.

And to make beliefs stronger, you need experiences. Remember, you need references, need examples that prove the belief. So I’m going to give you some and you can find more. Go find people who English very well. Or maybe even that have learned language very well. I’ll give you one of my favorite examples, Steve of The Linguist speaks, I believe, twelve languages now. I want you to these people and look at their beliefs. I’ll tell some of his beliefs because he’s a friend, I’ve talked him a number of times, and Steve believes, for example, that 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 must learn language naturally and you must focus on meaning. in other words, he doesn’t focus on the grammar. He’s not focusing 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 beliefs that all of my best students have. They all these same ideas. The best students, the ones who learn the fastest, the who have the best test scores, the ones with the speaking, they all believe these things. They all believe that is fun, interesting and effortless. They all believe that language learning is natural. They all that they should focus on the meaning, not on the grammar and the pieces of the language. So if you want to be these successful people, you need to think like them. You need to the same beliefs as them.
So here’s what I want you to do. Here’s your homework. This the last thing, the last part of this lesson. What want you to do is write down two, three, empowering beliefs, beliefs that give you power about English. Maybe “My brain is a natural learning machine.” Maybe “English can be fun and effortless.” “I love English.” I don’t know, write down, two, three, empowering 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 or sentence that you say again and again. It has almost a magic idea, it from magic. An incantation is a magical sentence. It’s a sentence, you say the sentence something 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. For example “English can be fun effortless.” You’re going to say that out loud every day while you’re along and you’re doing your 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 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, you have 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 you say it again. English can be fun and effortless.

You do 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 better than feeling powerless, right? It’s than being bored. I promise you will learn so 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, your mind, beliefs, they’re all together, very strong. Then you’re ready learn.

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