Beliefs

BELIEFS

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

Beliefs are another important of managing your psychology, of strengthening your psychology so you will learn English, or anything in fact, much faster. And 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. So a limiting belief a belief that stops you from improving, a belief that stops from getting better. And I’d say most English students have beliefs and many English students have very strong limiting beliefs. I call these beliefs English trauma and I that name from a few of my Japanese students. They would tell me “AJ, I can’t English well because I have English trauma.”
What is English trauma? is that, what are they talking about? Well, trauma 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 words, when they were in school in English classes, even as going to other English schools, they had very negative experiences. And all 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 that they have.
Another belief, a very common belief, English is difficult. Or, is complicated. Well, that’s just a belief. For me English easy, because I’m a native speaker, just like your native language for you is easy. Tomoe can speak Japanese fluently because she’s Japanese, so I say “Japanese is difficult,” and she would say “No, is super easy.” These are just beliefs that come our experiences. The problem is these limiting beliefs limit us. They in do limit us. They stop us from
getting better. They cause a lot of problems for as students, as 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 beliefs hurt my motivation. They lower my energy, and in they’re wrong.
They’re not true. Japanese does not have be difficult, it does not have to be compli- cated. A small child, a small American 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, easily, they’ll say “Japanese is easy.” Well, it’s the same with English you. You learned in a very painful, difficult way in the past. And so you developed, you created beliefs in your head. English is difficult. English is boring. English is painful. I’m good at English. I’ll never speak excellent English. These are just beliefs.
So how do eliminate these beliefs? Okay, you have these beliefs. You they’re negative, you know they’re not helping you. But have to figure out, how can we get rid the limiting beliefs? That’s the first step, you have to weaken them. You have to make them and weaker and weaker. You have to cut them down. beliefs get stronger from references. And reference is just an experience or a memory. Sometimes it’s something you imagine, actually. But it’s a specific experience a specific imagination, a specific moment, that makes the stronger or weaker. So, for example, you have this idea “English is and boring.” And when you think of this belief, where does it come from?

Well, think of all these past experiences. You think of time in middle school where your teacher corrected your mistake and you felt terrible. you think of maybe the bad grades you got on the test all the red marks on your English papers. And start adding more and more and more memories, more these negative experiences, these negative references. And if you get enough, you will 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 question references.

You have to question the experiences. Take the away from the experiences. And an easy way to that is just to ask questions about them. For example, let 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 you the is no. So that’s interesting, so if your schools were not excellent, maybe the school the problem. Maybe it’s not you. Maybe your English is great because you did not go to great schools. And did those schools that you went to, the books you used, did they use proven methods? Did they use research-based methods? they know a lot about the research about English learning, English teaching? they only use the best methods? Or did they just the textbook that everybody else uses?
Well, I know from my experience a teacher, most schools just use the same textbooks. They don’t know why. 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. so maybe the reason you believe English is difficult is because you used difficult methods in past, or your teachers did. Maybe you think English is because in the past you used boring methods. You went to boring schools. had boring teachers. Maybe English isn’t the problem. Maybe it was these past experiences. Maybe it was the you did it or where you did it. Ask yourself these questions. about them in detail. Weaken your limiting beliefs. Challenge your limiting beliefs. Another question, in school 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, so that knew it completely, 100% and never forgot it? Probably not, most schools I have seen and ones I have taught in, it’s quite the opposite. The go very, very, very quickly. You learn one chapter your book, boom, after one week on to the next one, and the one. Each chapter has so many new words, so new grammar.
For example, my experience with Spanish in high school and university, I Spanish, I’ve had a total of maybe two years of Spanish, but forgot it all. Because we never learned deeply. They just tried to make learn as many words as possible, a lot of words, lot of words, a lot of grammar, very, very fast. 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 deeply. Maybe English is not the problem.
Finally, did you with a grammar translation method? Did you study a lot of grammar rules? Did you take a of tests? Did you feel good about that? Again, maybe the method was problem. Maybe the school is the problem, not English. think about these questions and think about them every day. Think about them a lot, especially this as you listen to Lesson Number 4. I want you to think about questions again and again and again. And really be honest it. And start to destroy these limiting beliefs. Get of them. They’re wrong. English is not difficult. English is not painful. is 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 now about empowering beliefs, the side. So to empower, the verb, to empower means to stronger. It means to give power to another person. Or in this case, means the beliefs give you power. An empowering belief a belief that makes you feel powerful, that gives you power. That’s the of beliefs you want 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 brain is natural language learning machine.” Because that’s what all of 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 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 to learn Japanese, for example, or Spanish, easier it feels. So this is a new belief and you should write it down, think it. Write down this idea, this belief “My brain is natural language learning machine.” Think about it every day. to choose that belief. Here’s another belief you might decide to choose “English be fun and effortless.”

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

And to make these beliefs stronger, you 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 English very well. Or maybe even that learned another language very well. I’ll give you one of my favorite examples, Steve Kaufman The Linguist speaks, I believe, twelve languages now. I want you to find these people and look at beliefs. I’ll tell you some of his beliefs because he’s friend, I’ve talked to him a number of times, and believes, for example, that language learning is easy and effortless. That’s belief. He’s a native English speaker, he speaks 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 a very strong belief has.

Another belief he has is that you must learn language and you must focus on meaning. So in other words, doesn’t focus on the grammar. He’s not focusing on textbooks. He’s reading interesting things that he enjoys. He’s to interesting things that he enjoys. So, for him, language learning interesting. What’s really interesting for me is that these are the same that all of my best students have. They all have same ideas. The best students, the ones who learn the fastest, the ones who the best test scores, the ones with the best speaking, all believe these things. They all believe that English fun, interesting and effortless. They all believe that language learning natural. They all believe that they should focus on the meaning, on the grammar and the little pieces of the language. So if you want to be these successful people, you need to think like them. need to have the same beliefs as them.
here’s what I want you to do. Here’s your homework. is the last thing, the last part of this lesson. What I you to do is write down two, three, four beliefs, beliefs that give you power about English. Maybe “My is a natural language learning machine.” Maybe “English can be fun and effortless.” Maybe “I love English.” don’t know, write down, two, three, four empowering beliefs about English. every day you’re going to do an incantation. That’s a good word, that’s new word, incantation.
An incantation is a phrase or that you say again and again. It has almost 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 repeat again again and again every day.So here’s what you’re going to do. For example “English can fun and effortless.” You’re going to say that out loud every while you’re walking along and you’re doing your posture. 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 to say “English 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 good posture and you’re also saying these strong beliefs. English can be fun 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 think you’re crazy. Why not? It’s better than feeling powerless, right? It’s than being bored. I promise you will learn so much faster if you do this. do these incantations every day just before you do lesson. Get your body strong, peak emotional state, and then say these incantations. English can be fun effortless. English can be fun and effortless. Now your body, your mind, beliefs, they’re all together, very strong. Then you’re ready to learn.

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