Beliefs

BELIEFS

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

Beliefs are important part of managing your psychology, of strengthening your so that you will learn English, or anything in fact, much faster. And are two kinds of beliefs to general categories of beliefs. Limiting and empowering.
Let’s talk about limiting first. Now limiting means, limit is something that stops you. It’s like a boundary. It you from going ahead. So a limiting belief is a that stops you from improving, a belief that stops you getting better. And I’d say most English students have beliefs and many English students have very strong limiting beliefs. I call these 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 English trauma.”
What is English trauma? What is that, what are they talking about? Well, means some kind of injury, some kind of hurt. hurt, deep emotional hurt. So what they mean is that had some very negative, painful experiences with English in the past. In words, when they were in school in English classes, even as adults going other English schools, they had very negative 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 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 like native language for you is very easy. Tomoe can Japanese fluently because she’s Japanese, so I might say “Japanese 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. in fact do limit us. They stop us from
getting better. They cause lot of problems for us as students, as learners. I have them, too. I try to learn Japanese, for example, I have a of these limiting beliefs I realize. I think “Oh, Japanese is so difficult.” is complicated, just look at the writing system. It’s different from English. And these beliefs hurt my motivation. They lower my energy, and in they’re wrong.
They’re not true. Japanese does not have to be difficult, it does have to be compli- cated. A small child, even a small child, could learn Japanese very effortlessly, very easily. And the reason is, the number one is, they don’t have the limiting beliefs. They can sing and play games and enjoy the language, and they’ll it so quickly, so easily, they’ll say “Japanese is easy.” Well, it’s the same with English with you. You learned a very painful, difficult way in the past. And you developed, you created these beliefs in your head. is difficult. English is boring. English is painful. I’m not at English. I’ll never speak excellent English. These are just beliefs.
So how you eliminate these beliefs? Okay, you have these beliefs. You know they’re negative, know they’re not helping you. But we have to figure out, how can get rid of the limiting beliefs? That’s the first step, you have to weaken them. You have to them weaker and weaker and weaker. You have to them down. Well beliefs get stronger from references. And reference just an experience or a memory. Sometimes it’s just something you imagine, actually. it’s a specific experience or a specific imagination, a specific moment, that makes the belief stronger weaker. So, for example, you have this idea “English is painful boring.” And when you think of this belief, where it come from?

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

You have to question the experiences. Take the power away from experiences. And an easy way to do that is to ask questions about them. For example, let me ask this question. Your past schools, were they excellent? Were they just fantastic English with fantastic, amazing, fun, positive English teachers? Did you have great time every day? Well, I know for most of you the answer is no. 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 those schools that you went to, or books you used, did they use proven methods? Did use research-based methods? Did they know a lot about research about English learning, English teaching? Did they only use the best methods? did 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 the very, 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 methods in the past, or teachers did. Maybe you think English is boring because in the past used boring methods. You went to boring schools. You boring teachers. Maybe English isn’t the problem. Maybe it these past experiences. Maybe it was the way you did it or where did it. Ask yourself these questions. Think about them in detail. Weaken limiting beliefs. Challenge your limiting beliefs. Another question, in school you learn deeply? For example, did you take one in your book and learn it for a long time that you totally mastered it, so that you knew it completely, 100% and never 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 chapter your book, boom, after one week on to the one, and the next one. Each chapter has so new words, so much new grammar.
For example, my experience with Spanish in high school and university, took Spanish, I’ve had a total of maybe two years Spanish, but I forgot it all. Because we never learned deeply. just tried to make us learn as many words possible, a lot of words, a lot of words, a of grammar, very, very fast. And then, of course, I forgot everything. about you? Did you learn deeply in your schools? not, maybe that was one of the problems. Maybe English feels difficult because you learned deeply. Maybe English is not the problem.
Finally, did you learn with grammar translation method? Did you study a lot of rules? Did you take a lot of tests? Did you feel good that? Again, maybe the method was the problem. Maybe the is the problem, not English. So think about these questions and think about them every day. Think about a lot, especially this week as you listen to Lesson Number 4. I want you to think about questions again and again and again. And really be honest about it. And start to these limiting beliefs. Get rid of them. They’re wrong. English is not difficult. English not painful. English is not boring. It’s only a belief. It’s only a past experience. You change that now and in the future. So let’s that.

Let’s talk now about empowering beliefs, the positive side. to empower, the verb, to empower means to make stronger. It means to power to another person. Or in this case, it means the beliefs give you power. An empowering is 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 which beliefs will make you stronger. For example, here’s an empowering belief. You can replace your limiting belief, add this one instead. You can say “My 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. should be easy. It should be effortless. It should feel good. You learned your native that way. It wasn’t difficult was it? English was easy for to learn, because I did it in a totally natural way. And more naturally I tried to learn Japanese, for example, or Spanish, the easier feels. So this is a new belief and you should write it down, think about it. Write this idea, this belief “My brain is a natural language learning machine.” Think about every day. Decide to choose that belief. Here’s another you might decide to choose “English can be fun and effortless.”

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

And to make these beliefs stronger, need experiences. Remember, you need references, you need examples prove the belief. So I’m going to give you some examples and you can more. Go find people who speak English very well. Or even that have learned another language very well. I’ll you one of my favorite examples, Steve Kaufman of The Linguist speaks, I believe, twelve now. I want you to find these people and look their beliefs. I’ll tell you some of his beliefs because he’s friend, I’ve talked to him a number of times, Steve believes, for example, that language learning is easy and effortless. That’s belief. He’s a native English speaker, he speaks Cantonese, he Mandarin, he 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 he has.

Another belief he has is that you must language naturally and you must focus on meaning. So in other words, he doesn’t on the grammar. He’s not 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 is that these are the same beliefs all of my 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 fun, interesting and effortless. They all believe that language learning natural. They all believe that they should focus on the meaning, not on the grammar the little pieces of the language. So if you to be like these successful people, you need to think like them. You need to have same beliefs as them.
So here’s what I want you to do. Here’s homework. This 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.” “I love English.” I don’t know, write down, two, three, four 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 a phrase or sentence you say again and again. It has almost a idea, it 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 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 going to say out loud 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 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 say it with some emotion. Say it with feeling you’re smiling, you’re breathing deep, you’re moving your body, have good posture and now you’re also saying these beliefs. English can be fun and effortless. You repeat it again. can be fun and effortless. And then you say again. English can be fun and effortless.

You can do this in your and its fine. You can do it outside and make everyone look at and think you’re crazy. Why not? It’s better than powerless, right? It’s better than being bored. I promise will learn so much faster if you do this. So do these incantations every day just before you a lesson. Get your body strong, peak emotional 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 ready to learn.

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