Beliefs

BELIEFS

Hello, welcome to the fourth lesson. This one 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 in fact, faster. And there are two kinds of beliefs to general of beliefs. Limiting and empowering.
Let’s talk about limiting beliefs first. limiting means, limit is something that stops you. It’s like a boundary. stops you from going ahead. So a limiting belief is a that stops you from improving, a belief that stops you from better. And I’d say most English students have limiting and many English students have very strong limiting beliefs. I call these beliefs trauma and I got that name from a few of my Japanese students. They would tell “AJ, I can’t speak English well because I have trauma.”
What is English trauma? What is that, what they talking about? Well, trauma means some kind of injury, kind of hurt. Emotional hurt, deep emotional hurt. So they mean is that they had some very negative, painful experiences with in the past. In other words, when they were in school English classes, even as adults going to other English schools, had very negative experiences. And all these negative experiences have created very negative beliefs, some very limiting beliefs. For example, they say “I am not good 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, very common belief, English is difficult. Or, English is complicated. Well, that’s just a belief. 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 I 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 beliefs limit us. They in fact do limit us. They stop from
getting better. They cause a lot of problems for us students, as learners. I have them, too. As I try learn Japanese, for example, I have a lot of these limiting beliefs realize. I think “Oh, Japanese is so difficult.” Japanese is complicated, look at the writing system. It’s so different from English. these beliefs hurt my motivation. They lower my energy, 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 American child, learn Japanese very effortlessly, very easily. And the reason is, number one reason is, they don’t have the limiting beliefs. They can songs and play games and enjoy the language, and they’ll learn it quickly, so easily, they’ll say “Japanese is easy.” Well, it’s same with English with you. You learned in a very painful, difficult in the past. And so you developed, you created these beliefs your head. English is difficult. English is boring. English painful. I’m not good at English. I’ll never speak English. These are just beliefs.
So how do you eliminate these beliefs? Okay, you these beliefs. You know they’re negative, you know they’re not helping you. But we to figure out, how can we get rid of the limiting beliefs? That’s the first step, you have weaken them. You have to make them weaker and and weaker. You have to cut them down. Well get stronger from references. And reference is just an experience a memory. Sometimes it’s just something you imagine, actually. But it’s specific experience 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 think of this belief, where does it come from?

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

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

Let’s talk now empowering beliefs, the positive side. So to empower, the verb, empower means to make stronger. It means to give power another person. Or in this case, it means the give you power. An empowering belief is a belief makes you feel powerful, that gives you power. That’s the kind of beliefs you want and need to choose them. You must decide which beliefs make you stronger. For example, here’s an empowering belief. You can replace your old limiting belief, add this instead. You can say “My brain is a natural language machine.” Because that’s what all of the scientific research shows, our brain learns languages. It is designed to learn language. It should be easy. It should be effortless. 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 in a totally natural way. And the more naturally I tried to Japanese, for example, or Spanish, the easier it feels. So this is a new belief you should write it down, think about it. Write this idea, this belief “My brain is a natural language machine.” Think about it every day. Decide to choose belief. Here’s another belief 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 can think of a lot examples for this. Some of these 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 empowering belief you want to choose and you want remember it every day.

And to make 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 who speak English very well. Or maybe even that have another language very well. I’ll give you one of my favorite examples, Steve Kaufman of The speaks, I believe, twelve languages now. I want you to find these and look at their beliefs. I’ll tell you some of beliefs 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, speaks Cantonese, he speaks Mandarin, he speaks Japanese, he speaks Russian. These 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 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 things that enjoys. So, for 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. The students, the ones who learn the fastest, the ones have the best test scores, the ones with the speaking, they all believe these things. They all believe that English is fun, interesting effortless. They all believe that language learning is natural. all believe that they should focus on the meaning, not on the grammar and the 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 the last thing, the last part of lesson. What I want you to do is write down two, three, four empowering beliefs, beliefs that give 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 do an incantation. That’s a good word, that’s a word, incantation.
An incantation is a phrase or that you say again and again. It has almost a magic idea, comes from magic. An incantation is a magical sentence. It’s sentence, you say the sentence something will happen. That’s where it comes from. But us an incantation is just a belief you are going to repeat again and again and every day.So here’s what you’re going to do. For example “English be fun and effortless.” You’re going to say that out loud every day you’re walking along and you’re doing your posture. And you’re breathing and you’re smiling. Well, you’re to add one more thing. As you walk, as you’re getting ready for the lesson, you’re going to this out loud. You’re going to say “English can be and effortless.” You’re going to say it with some emotion. it with feeling so you’re smiling, you’re breathing deep, you’re moving your body, you have good and now you’re also saying these strong beliefs. English be fun and effortless. You repeat it again. English be fun and effortless. And then you say it again. can be fun and effortless.

You can do this in your room and its fine. can do it outside and make everyone look at you and think you’re crazy. Why not? It’s than feeling powerless, right? It’s better than being bored. I promise you will so much faster if you do this. So do these incantations day just before you do a lesson. Get your body strong, emotional state, and then say these incantations. English can be fun and effortless. English can be and effortless. Now your body, your mind, your beliefs, they’re all together, strong. Then you’re ready to learn.

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