Beliefs

BELIEFS

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

Beliefs are another important part of managing your psychology, of strengthening psychology so that you will learn English, or anything in fact, faster. And there are two kinds of beliefs to categories of beliefs. Limiting and empowering.
Let’s talk about beliefs first. Now limiting means, limit is something that you. It’s like a boundary. It stops you from going ahead. So a limiting belief a belief that stops you from improving, a belief 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 these beliefs English trauma and I got that name from a few of Japanese students. They would tell me “AJ, I can’t speak English well because have English trauma.”
What is English trauma? What is that, what they talking about? Well, trauma means some kind of injury, kind of hurt. Emotional hurt, deep emotional hurt. So what they mean that they had some very negative, painful experiences with English the past. In other words, when they were in in English classes, even as adults going to other schools, they had very negative experiences. And all these negative experiences have some very negative beliefs, some very limiting beliefs. For example, they say “I am not 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, very 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 native language 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 super easy.” These are just beliefs that come from our experiences. The is these limiting beliefs limit us. They in fact limit us. They stop us from
getting better. They a lot of problems for us as students, as learners. I them, too. As I try to learn Japanese, for example, I have a lot these limiting beliefs I realize. I think “Oh, Japanese so difficult.” Japanese is complicated, just look at the writing system. It’s different from English. And these beliefs hurt my motivation. lower my energy, and in fact they’re wrong.
They’re true. Japanese does not have to be difficult, it does not have to compli- cated. A small child, even a small American child, could Japanese very effortlessly, very easily. And the reason is, the number one reason is, don’t have the limiting beliefs. They can sing songs and 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 you. You learned in a very painful, difficult way the past. And so you developed, you created these in your head. English 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, you they’re not helping you. But we have to figure out, 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 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. it’s a specific experience or a specific imagination, a moment, that makes the belief stronger or weaker. So, for example, you have idea “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 of the in middle school where your teacher corrected your mistake you felt terrible. And you think of maybe the bad you got on the test or all the red marks your English papers. And you start adding more and and more memories, more of these negative experiences, these references. And if you get enough, you will develop very, strong, deep, powerful belief “English is difficult. English is painful. I’m good at English.” So to weaken these, you just have question the references.

You have to question the experiences. Take the power from the experiences. And an easy way to do that just 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 a time every day? Well, I know for most of you the is no. So that’s interesting, so if your schools were not excellent, maybe school was the problem. Maybe it’s not you. Maybe English is not 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 a lot about research about English learning, English teaching? Did they only the best methods? Or did they just use the textbook that everybody else uses?
Well, know 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 very, very best methods. They’re not choosing the very, very best books. And so the reason you believe English is difficult is because used difficult methods in the past, or your teachers did. Maybe you think English boring because in the past you used boring methods. You went boring schools. You had boring teachers. Maybe English isn’t the problem. Maybe it was these past experiences. Maybe was the way you did it or where you 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 chapter your book and learn it for a long time that you totally mastered it, so that you knew completely, 100% and never forgot it? Probably not, most schools I have seen and the ones I taught in, it’s quite the opposite. The teachers go very, very, very quickly. You learn chapter in your book, boom, after one week on to the one, and the next one. Each chapter has so many words, so much new grammar.
For example, my experience with Spanish in school and university, I took Spanish, I’ve had a total of maybe two of Spanish, but I forgot it all. Because we never learned deeply. They just tried to make us as many words as possible, a lot of words, a lot of words, a lot of grammar, very, fast. And then, of course, I forgot everything. How about you? Did you learn in your schools? If not, maybe that was one the problems. Maybe English feels difficult because you never learned deeply. Maybe English 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 feel good about that? Again, maybe the method was problem. Maybe the school is the problem, not English. So think about questions and think about them every day. Think about them lot, especially this week as you listen to Lesson Number 4. I you to think about these questions again and again and again. And really be honest it. And start to destroy these limiting beliefs. Get rid of them. They’re wrong. English is not difficult. is not painful. English is not boring. It’s only belief. It’s only a past experience. You can change now and in the future. So let’s do that.

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

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

And to make these beliefs stronger, you need experiences. Remember, you need references, you examples that prove the belief. So I’m going to you some examples and you can find more. Go find people speak English very well. Or maybe even that have learned language very well. I’ll give you one of my examples, Steve Kaufman of The Linguist speaks, I believe, languages now. I want you to find these people and look at beliefs. I’ll tell you some 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 speaker, he speaks Cantonese, he speaks Mandarin, he speaks Japanese, speaks Russian. These are all, supposedly, difficult languages. For they’re not difficult. They’re easy and effortless. That’s a very belief he has.

Another belief he has is that you must language naturally and you must focus on meaning. So in words, he doesn’t focus on the grammar. He’s not focusing boring textbooks. He’s reading interesting things that he enjoys. He’s listening to interesting things he enjoys. So, for him, language learning is interesting. What’s interesting for me is that these are the same beliefs all of my best students have. They all have these same ideas. The best students, ones who learn the fastest, the ones who have the test scores, the ones with the best speaking, they believe these things. They all believe that English is fun, interesting and effortless. They all that language learning is natural. They all believe that they should focus on meaning, not on the grammar and the little pieces of the language. So you want 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 you to do. Here’s your homework. This is the last thing, the last part of this lesson. What want you to do is write down two, three, four empowering beliefs, beliefs that give 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 about English. And every day you’re going to do an incantation. That’s 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 incantation is magical sentence. It’s a sentence, you say the sentence will happen. That’s where it 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 to 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 your posture. And you’re and you’re smiling. Well, you’re going to add one more thing. As you walk, as you’re ready for the lesson, you’re going to repeat this out loud. You’re going to say “English can be and effortless.” You’re going to 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 and now you’re also these strong beliefs. English can be fun and effortless. You it again. English can be fun and effortless. And you say it again. English can be fun and effortless.

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