Beliefs

BELIEFS

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

Beliefs are another important part managing your psychology, of strengthening your psychology so that you will English, or anything in fact, much faster. And there are two kinds beliefs to general categories of beliefs. Limiting and empowering.
Let’s talk limiting beliefs first. Now limiting means, limit is something that stops you. It’s like boundary. It stops you from going ahead. So a belief is a belief that stops you from improving, a belief that you from getting better. And I’d say most English students have limiting beliefs many English students have very strong limiting beliefs. I call beliefs English trauma and I got that name from a few of my Japanese students. They tell me “AJ, I can’t speak English well because I English trauma.”
What is English trauma? What is that, what are they about? Well, trauma means some kind of injury, some of 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 they were school in English classes, even as adults going to English schools, they had very negative experiences. And all these 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 be true, it may not be true. But it’s 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. For me English easy, because I’m a native speaker, just like your native language for you is very easy. can speak Japanese fluently because she’s Japanese, so I might say “Japanese difficult,” and she would say “No, Japanese is super easy.” These just beliefs that come from our experiences. The problem is these limiting beliefs limit us. They in do limit us. They stop us from
getting better. They a lot of problems for us as students, as learners. have them, too. As I try to learn Japanese, example, I have a lot of these limiting beliefs I realize. I think “Oh, Japanese so difficult.” Japanese is complicated, just look at the 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 compli- cated. A small child, even a small American child, learn Japanese very effortlessly, very easily. And the reason is, the one reason is, they don’t have the limiting beliefs. can sing songs and play games and enjoy the language, they’ll learn it so quickly, so easily, they’ll say “Japanese is easy.” Well, it’s same with English with you. You learned in a painful, difficult way in the past. And so you developed, created these beliefs in your head. English is difficult. English boring. English is painful. I’m not good at English. I’ll never excellent English. These are just beliefs.
So how do you these beliefs? Okay, you have these beliefs. You know they’re negative, you know they’re not helping you. But we have 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 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 the belief stronger or weaker. So, for example, you have idea “English is painful and boring.” And when you of this belief, where does it come from?

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

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

Let’s now about empowering beliefs, the positive side. So to empower, the verb, to means to make stronger. It means to give power to another person. Or 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 of beliefs you want and you need to choose them. You must decide which beliefs make you stronger. For example, here’s an empowering belief. You can replace your old belief, add this one instead. You can say “My brain is a natural language learning machine.” Because that’s all of the scientific research shows, our brain naturally learns languages. It is designed to learn language. should be easy. It should be effortless. It should feel good. You your native language that way. It wasn’t difficult was it? English easy for me 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 it feels. So this is new belief and you should write it down, think about it. down this idea, this belief “My brain is a natural language learning machine.” Think it every day. Decide to choose that belief. Here’s another belief you decide to choose “English can be fun and effortless.”

English can be fun and effortless. That’s empowering belief and it’s also true. You can think of a lot of examples for this. 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 fun and effortless. That’s an empowering belief you want to and you want to remember it every day.

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

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

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