Beliefs

BELIEFS

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

Beliefs are another important part of your psychology, of strengthening your psychology so that you will learn English, or 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 you from going ahead. So a belief is a belief that stops you from improving, a 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 call these beliefs English 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 is that, what are they about? Well, trauma means some kind of injury, some kind of hurt. Emotional hurt, emotional hurt. So what they mean is that they had very negative, painful experiences with English in the past. In other words, when they were in in English classes, even as adults going to other English schools, they had very experiences. And all these negative experiences have created some very beliefs, some very limiting beliefs. For example, they say “I not good at English.” Well, that’s a belief. It may be true, it may not true. But it’s an opinion, it’s a belief that they have.
Another belief, a common belief, English is difficult. Or, English is complicated. Well, that’s just 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 us. They in fact do limit us. They stop from
getting better. They cause a lot of problems for as students, as learners. I have them, too. As I to learn Japanese, for example, I have a lot these limiting beliefs I realize. I think “Oh, Japanese is so difficult.” Japanese is complicated, just look the writing system. It’s so different from English. And these 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 to be compli- cated. A small child, even a small American child, could learn very effortlessly, very easily. And the reason is, the number one reason is, they don’t the limiting beliefs. They can sing songs and play and enjoy the language, and they’ll learn it so quickly, so easily, they’ll “Japanese is easy.” Well, it’s the same with English with you. learned 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 just beliefs.
So 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 figure out, how we get rid of the limiting beliefs? That’s the first step, you to weaken them. You have to make them weaker weaker and weaker. You have to cut them down. Well beliefs stronger from references. And reference is just an experience a memory. Sometimes it’s just something you imagine, actually. it’s a specific experience or a specific imagination, a specific moment, that makes belief stronger or weaker. So, for example, you have this “English is painful and boring.” And when you think of belief, where does it come from?

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

You have to question the experiences. Take the power away the experiences. And an easy way to do that is just to questions about them. For example, let me ask this question. Your past 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 know for most of you the answer no. So that’s interesting, so if your schools were excellent, maybe the school 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 you went to, or books you used, did they use proven methods? Did they use research-based methods? they know a lot about the research about English learning, teaching? Did they only use the best methods? Or did they just use the textbook that everybody uses?
Well, I know from my experience as a teacher, most just use the same textbooks. They don’t know why. Maybe the boss tells them “We must this book.” But they’re not choosing the very, very best methods. They’re choosing the very, very best books. And so maybe the reason believe English is difficult is because you used difficult methods in the past, or teachers did. Maybe you think English is boring because in past you used boring methods. You went to boring schools. You had boring teachers. Maybe isn’t the problem. Maybe it was these past experiences. Maybe was the way you did it or where you did it. yourself these questions. Think about them in detail. Weaken your limiting beliefs. your limiting beliefs. Another question, in school did you learn deeply? For example, did you take one chapter your book and learn it for a long time so that you totally mastered it, that you knew it completely, 100% and never forgot it? not, most schools I have seen and the ones I have taught in, it’s quite opposite. The teachers 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 chapter has so new words, so much new grammar.
For example, my with Spanish in high school and university, I took Spanish, I’ve had a total of maybe years of Spanish, but I forgot it all. Because we never learned deeply. just tried to make us learn as many words as possible, a lot of words, lot of words, a lot of grammar, very, very fast. And then, course, I forgot everything. How about you? Did you learn deeply in your schools? not, maybe that was one of the problems. Maybe feels difficult because you never learned deeply. Maybe English is not the problem.
Finally, you learn with a grammar translation method? Did you study a lot of grammar rules? you take a lot of tests? Did you feel about that? Again, maybe the method was the problem. the school is the problem, not English. So think these questions and think about them every day. Think them a lot, especially this week as you listen to Lesson 4. I want you to think about these questions and again and again. And really be honest about it. And to destroy these limiting beliefs. Get rid of them. They’re wrong. English is not difficult. English is painful. English is not 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 about empowering beliefs, the positive side. So to empower, the verb, to means to make stronger. It means to give power to another person. in this case, it means the beliefs give you power. An empowering belief is a belief that makes you powerful, that gives you power. That’s the kind of beliefs you and you need to choose them. You must decide beliefs will make you stronger. For example, here’s an belief. You can replace your old limiting belief, add this one instead. You can say “My is a natural language learning machine.” Because that’s what all of the scientific shows, our brain naturally learns languages. It is designed to language. It should be easy. It should be effortless. It should feel good. You your native language that way. It wasn’t difficult was it? English easy for me to learn, because I did it a totally natural way. And the more naturally I tried 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 down idea, this belief “My brain is a natural language learning machine.” Think about it day. Decide to choose that belief. Here’s another belief you decide to choose “English can be fun and effortless.”

English can be fun and effortless. That’s an belief 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 can be fun effortless. That’s an empowering belief you want to choose you want to remember it every day.

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

Another belief he has is that you must learn language naturally you must focus on meaning. So 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 to interesting things that he enjoys. So, him, language learning is interesting. What’s really interesting for me that these are the same beliefs that all of best students have. They all have these same ideas. best students, the ones who learn the fastest, the who have the best test scores, the ones with the best speaking, they all believe things. They all believe that English is fun, interesting and effortless. They all believe language learning is natural. They all believe that they should focus on the meaning, not on grammar and the little pieces of the language. So if you to be like these successful people, you need to like them. You need to have the same beliefs them.
So here’s what I want you to do. Here’s homework. This is the last thing, the last part of lesson. What I want you to do is write down two, three, empowering beliefs, beliefs that give you power about English. Maybe “My is a natural language learning machine.” Maybe “English can be fun effortless.” Maybe “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 phrase or sentence that say again and again. It has almost 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 an incantation is just a belief you are to repeat again and again and again every day.So here’s 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 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 lesson, you’re going to repeat this out loud. You’re 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, you good posture and now you’re also saying these strong beliefs. English be fun and effortless. You repeat it again. English can be and effortless. And then you say it again. English can be and effortless.

You can 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 feeling powerless, right? It’s better than being bored. I you will learn so much faster if you do this. So do these incantations every day before you do a lesson. Get your body strong, peak emotional state, and then say these incantations. can be fun and effortless. English can be fun and effortless. your body, your mind, your beliefs, they’re all together, strong. Then you’re ready to learn.

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