Beliefs

BELIEFS

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

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

You have to question experiences. Take the power away from the experiences. And easy way to do that is just to ask about them. For example, let me ask this question. past English schools, were they excellent? Were they just fantastic English with fantastic, amazing, fun, positive English teachers? Did you a 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 great 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 know lot about the research about English learning, English teaching? they only use the best methods? Or did they use the textbook that everybody else uses?
Well, I from my experience as 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, very methods. They’re not choosing the very, very best books. And so maybe the reason you believe is difficult is because you used difficult methods in the past, or your teachers did. Maybe you think is boring because in the past you used boring methods. You went to schools. You had boring teachers. Maybe English isn’t the problem. Maybe was these past experiences. Maybe it was the way you did it or where you it. Ask yourself these questions. Think about them in detail. Weaken your limiting beliefs. Challenge limiting beliefs. Another question, in school did you learn deeply? For example, did you take one chapter your book and learn it for a long time so that you totally mastered it, so that you it completely, 100% and never forgot it? Probably not, most schools I have seen and the ones have taught in, it’s quite the opposite. The teachers go very, very, very quickly. You learn one in your book, boom, after one week on to the next one, the next one. Each chapter has so many new words, much new grammar.
For example, my experience with Spanish in high and university, I took Spanish, I’ve had a total maybe two years of Spanish, but I forgot it all. Because we never learned deeply. They tried to make us learn as many words as possible, a lot of words, lot 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 one of the problems. Maybe English feels difficult because you never deeply. Maybe English is not the problem.
Finally, did you with 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, the method was the problem. Maybe the school is problem, not English. So think about these questions and think them every day. Think about them a lot, especially week as you listen to Lesson Number 4. I want you think about these questions again and again and again. And really be about it. And start to destroy these limiting beliefs. Get of them. They’re wrong. English is not difficult. English is not painful. English not 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 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 give you power. An empowering belief is a belief that makes you feel powerful, that you power. That’s the kind of beliefs you want and you need to choose them. You decide which beliefs will make you stronger. For example, here’s an belief. You can replace your old limiting belief, add one instead. You can say “My brain is a natural language learning machine.” Because that’s what all the scientific research shows, our brain naturally learns languages. It is designed to language. It should be easy. It should be effortless. should feel good. You learned your native language that way. It wasn’t was it? English was easy for me to learn, because I did in a totally natural way. And the more naturally I tried to learn Japanese, example, or Spanish, the easier it feels. So this is a new and you should write it down, think about it. down this idea, this belief “My brain is a language learning machine.” Think about it every day. Decide to that belief. Here’s another belief you might decide to choose “English can be and effortless.”

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

And to make these beliefs stronger, you need experiences. Remember, need references, you need examples that prove the belief. So I’m going to give some examples and you can find more. Go find people speak English very well. Or maybe even that have another language very well. I’ll give you one of my favorite examples, Steve of The Linguist speaks, I believe, twelve languages now. I you to find these people and look at their beliefs. I’ll tell you some of his beliefs because he’s friend, I’ve talked to him a number of times, and believes, for example, that language learning is easy and effortless. That’s belief. He’s a native English speaker, he speaks Cantonese, speaks Mandarin, he speaks Japanese, he speaks Russian. These are all, supposedly, difficult languages. him they’re not difficult. They’re easy and effortless. That’s a very strong belief he has.

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

You can do this in 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 feeling powerless, right? It’s than being bored. I promise you will learn so much faster if you do this. do these incantations every day just before you do a lesson. Get your body strong, peak emotional state, then say these incantations. English can be fun and effortless. can be fun and effortless. Now your body, your mind, your beliefs, they’re all together, very strong. you’re ready to learn.

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