Beliefs

BELIEFS

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

Beliefs are another important part of managing psychology, of strengthening your psychology so that you will learn English, or anything in fact, much faster. there are two kinds of beliefs to general categories of beliefs. and empowering.
Let’s talk about limiting beliefs first. Now limiting means, limit is that stops you. It’s like a boundary. It stops you from going ahead. a limiting belief is a belief that stops you improving, a belief that stops you from getting better. I’d say most English students have limiting beliefs and English students have very strong limiting beliefs. I call beliefs English trauma and I got that name from a few of my Japanese students. They would me “AJ, I can’t speak English well because I have English trauma.”
What is English trauma? is that, what are they talking about? Well, trauma means some kind of injury, some of hurt. Emotional hurt, deep emotional 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 school 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 am not 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 very 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 your native language for you is very easy. Tomoe can speak Japanese fluently because she’s Japanese, so might say “Japanese is difficult,” and she would say “No, Japanese is super easy.” These are just that come from our experiences. The problem is these limiting beliefs limit us. They in fact limit us. They stop us from
getting better. cause a lot of problems for us as students, learners. I have them, too. As I try to learn Japanese, for example, I have a lot these limiting beliefs I realize. I think “Oh, Japanese is so difficult.” Japanese 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 not true. Japanese does not have be difficult, it does not have to be compli- cated. A small child, even a small child, could learn Japanese very effortlessly, very easily. And reason is, the number one reason is, they don’t have limiting beliefs. They can sing songs and play games 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. learned in a very painful, difficult way in the past. And so you developed, created these beliefs in your head. English is difficult. English 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 have beliefs. You know they’re negative, you 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, have to weaken them. You have to make them weaker and weaker weaker. You have to cut them down. Well beliefs stronger from 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 stronger or weaker. So, for example, you have this “English is painful and boring.” And when you think this belief, where does it come from?

Well, you think of all past experiences. You think of the time in middle school where your corrected your mistake and you felt terrible. And you of maybe the bad grades you got on the test or the red marks on your English papers. And you adding more and more and more memories, more of negative experiences, these 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 the experiences. Take the power away from the experiences. And an easy to do that is just to ask questions about them. For example, let me ask 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 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 not go great schools. And did those schools that you went to, or the books you used, did they proven methods? Did 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 else uses?
Well, I know from experience as a teacher, most schools just use the textbooks. They don’t know why. Maybe the boss tells them “We use this book.” But they’re not choosing the very, best methods. They’re not choosing the very, very best books. And so maybe the reason believe English is difficult is because you used difficult in the past, or your teachers did. Maybe you English is boring because in the past you used methods. You went to boring schools. You had boring teachers. English 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 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 that you totally mastered it, so that you knew completely, 100% and never forgot it? Probably not, most schools I have seen and ones I have taught in, it’s quite the opposite. teachers go very, very, very quickly. You learn one in your book, boom, after one week on to the next one, the next one. Each chapter has so many new words, much new grammar.
For example, my experience with in high school and university, I took Spanish, I’ve had total of maybe two years of Spanish, but I it all. Because we never learned deeply. They just tried make us learn as many words as possible, a lot of words, a lot words, a lot of grammar, very, very fast. And then, of course, I everything. How about you? Did you learn deeply in schools? If not, maybe that was one of the problems. Maybe English feels difficult you never learned deeply. Maybe English is not the problem.
Finally, did you with a grammar translation method? Did you study a lot of grammar rules? Did take a lot of tests? Did you feel good about that? Again, maybe the method the problem. Maybe the school is the problem, not English. think about these questions and think about them every day. Think about 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 start destroy these limiting beliefs. Get rid of them. They’re wrong. is not difficult. English is not painful. English is not boring. It’s only belief. It’s only a past experience. You can change that now and in the future. So let’s that.

Let’s talk now about empowering beliefs, the positive side. So to empower, the verb, to empower 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 makes feel powerful, that gives you power. That’s the kind of beliefs want and you need to choose them. You must decide beliefs will make you stronger. For example, here’s an empowering belief. You can your old limiting belief, add this one instead. You say “My brain is a natural language learning machine.” that’s what all of the scientific research shows, our brain naturally languages. It is designed to learn language. It should be easy. should be effortless. It should feel good. You learned your native language that way. It wasn’t difficult it? English was easy for me to learn, because I did it in a natural way. And the more naturally I tried to learn Japanese, example, or Spanish, the easier it feels. So this is 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 belief might decide to choose “English can be fun and effortless.”

English can be fun effortless. That’s an empowering belief and it’s also true. You can think of 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. they’re not serious. English can be fun and effortless. That’s an empowering belief want to choose and you want to remember it every day.

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

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

You can do in your room and its fine. You can do it outside and make everyone look at you think you’re crazy. Why not? It’s better than feeling powerless, right? It’s better than being bored. promise you will learn so much faster if you do this. So these incantations every day just before 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 body, your mind, your beliefs, they’re all together, very strong. Then you’re to learn.

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