Beliefs

BELIEFS

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

Beliefs are another important part of your psychology, of strengthening your psychology so that you will learn English, or anything fact, much faster. And there are two kinds of beliefs to general categories beliefs. Limiting and 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 that stops you from improving, a belief that stops from getting better. And I’d say most English students have limiting beliefs many English students have very strong limiting beliefs. I call these beliefs English trauma and got that name from a few of my Japanese students. They tell me “AJ, I can’t speak English well because have English trauma.”
What 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 had some very negative, painful experiences with English in the past. In other words, when were in school in English classes, even as adults going to other English schools, they had very experiences. And all these negative experiences have created some negative 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 be true. 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 a belief. For me very easy, because I’m a native speaker, just like your language for you is very easy. Tomoe can speak Japanese fluently because she’s Japanese, so I might “Japanese is difficult,” and she would say “No, Japanese is super easy.” are just beliefs that come from our experiences. The problem is these beliefs limit us. They in fact do limit us. 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 have 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 these beliefs my motivation. They lower my energy, and in fact they’re wrong.
They’re not true. does not have to be difficult, it does not have to compli- cated. A small child, even a small American child, could learn Japanese effortlessly, very easily. And the reason is, the number one reason is, don’t have the limiting beliefs. They can sing songs and play games and enjoy language, and they’ll learn it so quickly, so easily, they’ll “Japanese is easy.” Well, it’s the same with English you. You learned in a very painful, difficult way the past. And so you developed, you created these beliefs in your head. is difficult. English is boring. English is 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 have beliefs. You know they’re negative, you know they’re not you. But we have to figure out, how can we get rid of limiting beliefs? That’s the first step, you have to weaken them. You have make them weaker and 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. But it’s specific experience or a specific imagination, a specific moment, that makes the stronger or 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, you think of these past experiences. You think of the time in middle school where your corrected your mistake and you felt terrible. And you think of maybe the grades you got on the test or all the red on your English papers. And you start adding more more and more memories, more of these negative experiences, these negative references. And if get enough, you will develop a very, strong, deep, powerful “English is difficult. English is painful. I’m not good English.” So to weaken these, you just have to question the references.

You have question the experiences. Take the power away from the experiences. And an easy way to do that just to ask questions about them. For example, let ask this question. Your past English schools, were they excellent? Were they just English schools with fantastic, amazing, fun, positive English teachers? Did 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 excellent, maybe the school was the problem. Maybe it’s you. Maybe your English is not great because you did not to great schools. And did those schools that you to, or the books you used, did 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 the best methods? Or did they just use the textbook that else uses?
Well, I know from my experience a teacher, most schools just use the same textbooks. They don’t why. Maybe the boss tells them “We must 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 you English is difficult is because you used difficult methods in past, or your teachers did. Maybe you think English is boring because the past you used boring methods. You went to schools. You had boring teachers. Maybe English isn’t the problem. it was these past experiences. Maybe it was the way you did it or where did it. Ask yourself these questions. Think about them in detail. your limiting beliefs. Challenge your limiting beliefs. Another question, in 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 that knew it completely, 100% and never forgot it? Probably not, most schools I seen and the ones I have taught in, it’s quite opposite. The teachers go very, very, very quickly. You one chapter in your book, boom, after one week on to the next one, and the next one. chapter has so many new words, so much new grammar.
example, my experience with Spanish in high school and university, took Spanish, I’ve had a total of maybe two of Spanish, but I forgot it all. Because we never deeply. They just tried to make us learn as many words as possible, lot of words, a lot of words, a lot of grammar, very, very fast. then, of course, I forgot everything. How about you? Did you deeply in your schools? If not, maybe that was one 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 grammar rules? Did you take a lot of tests? Did feel good about that? Again, maybe the method was the problem. the school is the problem, not English. So think about questions and think about them every day. Think about them a lot, especially week as you listen to Lesson Number 4. I you to think about these questions again and again 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 boring. It’s only a belief. It’s only a past experience. can change that now and in the future. So let’s do that.

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

English can fun and effortless. That’s an empowering belief and it’s also true. can think of a 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 you want to choose and you want to remember it every day.

And make these beliefs stronger, you need experiences. Remember, you references, you need examples that prove the belief. So I’m to give you some examples and you can find more. Go find people who speak very well. Or maybe even that have learned another language well. I’ll give you one of my favorite examples, Steve Kaufman of The Linguist speaks, believe, twelve languages now. I want you to find these people look at their beliefs. I’ll tell you some of his because he’s a friend, I’ve talked to him a of times, and Steve believes, for example, that language is easy and effortless. That’s his belief. He’s a native English speaker, he speaks Cantonese, he speaks Mandarin, speaks Japanese, he speaks Russian. These are all, supposedly, 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 language naturally and you must focus on meaning. So other words, he doesn’t focus on the grammar. He’s focusing on boring textbooks. He’s reading interesting things that 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 my students have. They all have these same ideas. The best students, the ones learn the fastest, the ones who have the best test scores, the ones with best speaking, they all believe these things. They all believe English is fun, interesting and effortless. They all believe that learning is natural. They all believe that they should focus on meaning, not on the grammar and the little pieces of language. So if you want to be like these people, you need to think like them. You need to the same beliefs as them.
So here’s what I 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 is a natural learning machine.” Maybe “English can be fun and effortless.” “I love English.” I don’t know, write down, two, three, four empowering beliefs 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, comes from magic. An incantation is a magical sentence. It’s sentence, you say the sentence something will happen. That’s where comes from. But for us an incantation is just a belief you are going to repeat again again and again every day.So here’s what you’re going do. For example “English can be fun and effortless.” You’re going to say that out 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 add one more thing. As walk, as you’re getting ready for the lesson, you’re to repeat this out loud. You’re going to say “English be fun and effortless.” You’re going to say it with emotion. Say it with feeling so you’re smiling, you’re breathing deep, you’re moving body, you have good posture and now you’re also saying strong beliefs. English can be fun and effortless. You repeat it again. English can be fun effortless. And then you say it again. English can be fun and effortless.

You can do this your room and its fine. You can do it outside make everyone look at you and think you’re crazy. Why not? It’s better than powerless, right? It’s better than being bored. I promise you learn so much faster if you do this. So do these incantations day just before you do a lesson. Get your body strong, peak state, and then say these incantations. English can be fun and effortless. English 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 of the main story for “Beliefs.”