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, anything in fact, much faster. And there are two kinds of beliefs to general categories of beliefs. Limiting empowering.
Let’s talk about limiting beliefs first. Now limiting means, limit something that stops you. It’s like a boundary. It stops from going ahead. So 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 many students have very strong limiting beliefs. I call these beliefs English and I got that name from a few of my Japanese students. would tell me “AJ, I can’t speak English well because I have English trauma.”
is English trauma? What is that, what are they about? Well, trauma means some kind of injury, some kind hurt. Emotional hurt, deep emotional hurt. So what they mean is that they some very negative, painful experiences with English in the past. In other words, they were in school in English classes, even as adults going to other English schools, had very negative experiences. And all these negative experiences have created some very negative beliefs, very limiting beliefs. For example, they say “I am not good at English.” Well, that’s belief. It may be true, it may not be true. But it’s an opinion, it’s a belief they have.
Another belief, a very common belief, English is difficult. Or, English complicated. Well, that’s just a 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 might say “Japanese is difficult,” and she would say “No, is super easy.” These are just beliefs that come from our experiences. The problem is limiting beliefs limit us. They in fact do limit us. They stop us from
getting better. cause a lot of problems for us as students, as learners. I have them, too. I try to learn Japanese, for example, I have a lot of 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 beliefs hurt motivation. They lower my energy, and in fact they’re wrong.
They’re not true. Japanese not have to be difficult, it does not have to be compli- cated. A small child, a small American child, could learn Japanese very effortlessly, easily. And the reason is, the number one reason is, they don’t have the limiting beliefs. can sing 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 the same with English with you. You learned in very painful, difficult way in the past. And so you developed, created these 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 just beliefs.
So how do you eliminate these beliefs? Okay, have 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 to weaken them. You have to make them weaker and weaker and weaker. You have to them down. Well beliefs get stronger from references. And reference is just an experience a memory. Sometimes it’s just something you imagine, actually. But it’s a specific experience or a imagination, a specific moment, that makes the belief stronger weaker. So, for example, you have this idea “English is painful and boring.” And you think of this belief, where does it come from?

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

You have to question the experiences. Take the power away from experiences. And an easy way to do that is just to ask questions them. For example, let me ask this question. Your past English schools, were they excellent? Were they fantastic English schools with fantastic, amazing, fun, positive English teachers? you have a great time every day? Well, I know for most of you answer 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 is not great because you did not go to great schools. And 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 the research about English learning, English teaching? Did they use the best methods? Or did they just use the textbook everybody else uses?
Well, I know from my experience as a teacher, most schools just use the textbooks. They don’t know why. Maybe the boss tells them “We must use book.” But they’re not choosing the very, very best methods. They’re not choosing very, very best books. And so maybe the reason you believe English is difficult is because you used methods in the past, or your teachers did. Maybe you think English is boring because the past you used boring methods. You went to boring schools. You boring teachers. Maybe English isn’t the problem. Maybe it was these past experiences. it was the way you did it or where did it. Ask yourself these questions. Think about them in detail. Weaken your beliefs. Challenge your limiting beliefs. Another question, in school did you deeply? For example, did you take one chapter in book and learn it for a long time so you totally mastered it, so that you knew it completely, 100% and never forgot it? Probably not, most schools I seen and the ones I have taught in, it’s the opposite. The teachers go very, very, very quickly. You learn one chapter in book, boom, after one week on to the next one, and the one. Each chapter has so many new words, so much new grammar.
example, my experience with Spanish in high school and university, I took Spanish, I’ve a total of maybe two years of Spanish, but forgot it all. Because we never learned deeply. They just to make us learn as many words as possible, a of words, a lot of words, a lot of grammar, very, very fast. And then, of course, forgot everything. How about you? Did you learn deeply in your schools? If not, that was one of the problems. Maybe English feels difficult because never learned deeply. Maybe English is not the problem.
Finally, you learn with a grammar translation method? Did you study a lot grammar rules? Did you take a lot of tests? Did feel good about that? Again, maybe the method was the problem. Maybe the school 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 you to think about these questions again again and again. And really be honest about it. And start to destroy these 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 change that and in the future. So let’s do that.

Let’s talk now about empowering beliefs, the positive side. to empower, the verb, to empower means to make stronger. It means to give to another person. Or in this case, it means the beliefs give you power. empowering belief is a belief that makes you feel powerful, that gives you power. That’s the kind beliefs you want and you need to choose them. must decide which beliefs will make you stronger. For example, here’s empowering belief. You can replace your old limiting belief, add this one instead. You can say “My brain a natural language learning machine.” Because that’s what all of the scientific shows, our brain naturally learns languages. It is designed to learn language. It should be easy. It be effortless. It should feel good. You learned your native language way. It wasn’t difficult was it? English was easy me to learn, because I did it in a natural way. And the more naturally I tried to Japanese, for example, or Spanish, the easier it feels. So this is a new belief and you should it down, think about it. Write down this idea, belief “My brain is a natural language learning machine.” Think it every day. Decide 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 it’s also true. You can think of a lot of examples for this. Some 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 an empowering you want to choose and you want to remember every day.

And to make these beliefs stronger, you need experiences. Remember, you references, you need examples that prove the belief. So I’m going give you some examples and you can find more. Go find people who speak English very well. Or even that have learned another language very well. I’ll give you one my favorite examples, Steve Kaufman of The Linguist speaks, I believe, twelve languages now. I you to find these people and look at their beliefs. I’ll you some of his beliefs because he’s a friend, I’ve talked to him a of times, and Steve believes, for 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 they’re not difficult. They’re easy and effortless. That’s a very strong belief he has.

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

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

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