Beliefs

BELIEFS

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

Beliefs are another part of managing your psychology, of strengthening your psychology so that you will learn English, or in fact, much faster. And there are two kinds of to general categories of 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 you going ahead. So a limiting belief is a belief that stops from improving, a belief that stops you from getting better. And I’d say most English students limiting beliefs and many English students have very strong beliefs. I call these beliefs English trauma and I got that name from a few of my students. They would tell me “AJ, I can’t speak English because I have English trauma.”
What is English trauma? is that, what are they talking about? Well, trauma means some of injury, some kind of hurt. Emotional hurt, deep emotional hurt. So what they is that they had some very negative, painful experiences with in the past. In other words, when they were in in English classes, even as adults going to other English schools, had very negative experiences. And all these negative experiences have created some negative beliefs, some very limiting beliefs. For example, they say “I am not good English.” Well, that’s a belief. It may be true, it may not true. But it’s an opinion, it’s a belief that have.
Another belief, a very common belief, English is difficult. Or, English complicated. Well, that’s just a belief. For me English very easy, because I’m native speaker, just like your native language for you is easy. Tomoe can speak Japanese fluently because she’s Japanese, so I might say “Japanese is difficult,” and would say “No, Japanese is super easy.” These are just beliefs that come from experiences. The problem is these limiting beliefs limit us. They in fact limit us. They stop us from
getting better. cause a lot of problems for us as students, learners. I have them, too. As I try to learn Japanese, for example, I have a lot these limiting beliefs I realize. I think “Oh, Japanese is difficult.” Japanese is complicated, just look at the writing system. It’s so different from English. And beliefs hurt my motivation. They lower my energy, and fact they’re wrong.
They’re not true. Japanese does not have be difficult, it does not have to be compli- cated. A child, even a small American child, could learn Japanese very effortlessly, very easily. And the reason is, number one reason is, they don’t have the limiting beliefs. can sing songs 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 English with you. You learned in a very painful, difficult way in the past. And you developed, you created these beliefs in your head. English is difficult. is boring. English is painful. I’m not good at English. I’ll speak excellent English. These are just beliefs.
So how do eliminate these beliefs? Okay, you have these beliefs. You they’re negative, you know 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 have to them. You have to make them weaker and weaker and weaker. You to cut them down. Well beliefs get stronger from references. And is just an experience or a memory. Sometimes it’s something you imagine, actually. But it’s a specific experience or a 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 does it come from?

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

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

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

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

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

Another he has is that you must learn language naturally and you must focus on meaning. So other 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 things that he enjoys. So, for him, language learning interesting. What’s really interesting for me is that these are the same beliefs that all my best students have. They all have these same ideas. best students, the ones who learn the fastest, the who have the best test scores, the ones with the speaking, they all 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 the meaning, not on the grammar and the little pieces of the language. So if you to be like these successful people, you need to think like them. You to have the 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 down two, three, four empowering beliefs, beliefs that give power about English. Maybe “My brain is a natural language learning machine.” Maybe “English 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 that you say again and again. It has almost a magic idea, it comes magic. An incantation is a magical sentence. It’s a sentence, you say the sentence something 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 going to do. For example “English be fun and effortless.” You’re going to say that out loud every day while you’re walking along you’re doing your posture. And you’re breathing and you’re smiling. Well, you’re going to add one more thing. As you walk, you’re getting ready for 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 feeling so you’re smiling, you’re deep, you’re moving your body, you have good posture and now you’re also saying these strong beliefs. can be fun and effortless. You repeat it again. English can be fun and effortless. And then you it again. English can be fun and effortless.

You do this in your room and its fine. You can 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. I promise you will so much faster if you do this. So do these incantations every day just before you do lesson. Get your body strong, peak emotional state, and then these incantations. English can be fun and effortless. English can be fun effortless. Now your body, your mind, your beliefs, they’re together, very strong. Then you’re ready to learn.

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