Beliefs

BELIEFS

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

Beliefs are another important of managing your psychology, of strengthening your psychology so that will learn English, or anything in fact, much faster. And there are kinds of beliefs to general categories of beliefs. Limiting and empowering.
Let’s talk limiting beliefs first. Now limiting means, limit is something stops you. It’s like a boundary. It stops you from going ahead. a limiting belief is a belief that stops you from improving, a that stops you from getting better. And I’d say most English students have limiting and many English students have very strong limiting beliefs. I call these English trauma and I got that name from a few my Japanese students. They would tell me “AJ, I can’t speak English well I have English trauma.”
What is English trauma? is that, what are they talking about? Well, trauma some kind of injury, some kind of hurt. Emotional hurt, deep emotional hurt. what they mean is that they had some very negative, painful experiences with English the past. In other words, when they were in school in classes, even as adults going to other English schools, they had negative experiences. And all these negative experiences have created some 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 not be true. But it’s an opinion, it’s a belief that have.
Another belief, a very common belief, English difficult. Or, English is complicated. Well, that’s just a belief. me English very easy, because I’m a native speaker, like your native language for you is very easy. can speak Japanese fluently because she’s Japanese, so I say “Japanese is difficult,” and she would say “No, Japanese is super easy.” These are just that come from our experiences. The problem is these beliefs limit us. They in fact do limit us. stop us from
getting better. They cause a lot problems for us as students, as learners. I have them, too. As I to learn Japanese, for example, I have a lot these limiting beliefs I realize. I think “Oh, Japanese is so difficult.” Japanese 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 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, they don’t have the beliefs. They can sing songs and play games and enjoy language, and 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 very painful, way in the past. And so you developed, you created these in your head. English is difficult. English is boring. English is painful. I’m not good English. I’ll never speak excellent English. These are just beliefs.
So do you eliminate these beliefs? Okay, you have these beliefs. know they’re negative, you know they’re not helping you. we have to figure out, how can we get rid of limiting beliefs? That’s the first step, you have to them. You have to make them weaker and weaker weaker. You have to cut them down. Well beliefs get stronger from references. And reference is an experience or a memory. Sometimes it’s just something you imagine, actually. But it’s a experience or a specific imagination, a specific moment, that makes the belief stronger or weaker. So, example, you have this idea “English is painful and boring.” And when you of this belief, where does it come from?

Well, you think of all these experiences. You think of the time in middle school where your teacher your mistake and you felt terrible. And you think of maybe bad grades you got on the test or all the marks on your English papers. And you start adding more and and more memories, more of these negative experiences, these negative references. And if you get enough, you will a very, strong, deep, powerful belief “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 power away from the experiences. And an easy way to do that is just to ask questions them. For example, let me ask this question. Your past English schools, were they excellent? they just fantastic English schools with fantastic, amazing, fun, positive English teachers? Did you a great time every day? Well, I know for most of you the answer no. So that’s interesting, so if your schools were excellent, maybe the school was the problem. Maybe it’s 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 methods? Did they use research-based methods? Did they know a about the research about English learning, English teaching? Did they only use the methods? Or did they just use the textbook that everybody else uses?
Well, I know from experience as a teacher, most schools just use the same textbooks. don’t know why. Maybe the boss tells them “We must use this book.” they’re not choosing the 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. you think English is boring because in the past used boring methods. You went to boring schools. You had teachers. Maybe English isn’t the problem. Maybe it was these past experiences. it was the way you did it or where you did it. Ask yourself these questions. about them in detail. Weaken your limiting beliefs. Challenge your limiting beliefs. Another question, in school did learn deeply? For example, did you take one chapter in your book 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 have taught in, it’s quite opposite. The teachers go very, very, very quickly. You learn chapter in your book, boom, after one week on the next one, and the next one. Each chapter has so many new words, so new grammar.
For example, my experience with Spanish in high school and university, I Spanish, I’ve had a total of maybe two years of Spanish, but I forgot all. Because we never learned deeply. They just tried to make us as many words as possible, a lot of words, lot of words, a lot of grammar, very, very fast. And then, course, I forgot everything. How about you? Did you learn deeply in schools? If not, maybe that was one of the problems. Maybe English feels difficult because you never deeply. Maybe English is not the problem.
Finally, you learn with a grammar translation method? Did you a lot of grammar 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 these questions and think about them day. Think about them a lot, especially this week as you listen Lesson Number 4. I want you to think about these again and again and again. And really be honest it. And start to destroy these limiting beliefs. Get rid 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. can 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 give power another person. Or in this case, it means the give you power. An empowering belief is a belief that makes you feel powerful, gives you power. That’s the kind of beliefs you want and you to choose them. You must decide which beliefs will make you stronger. For example, here’s an belief. You can replace your old limiting belief, add this one instead. You can say “My brain a natural language learning machine.” Because that’s what all the scientific research shows, our brain naturally learns languages. It designed to learn language. It should be easy. It should effortless. It should feel good. You learned 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 the more I tried to learn Japanese, for example, or Spanish, the easier it feels. this is a new belief and you should write it down, think about it. down this idea, this belief “My brain is a natural language machine.” Think about it every day. Decide to choose belief. Here’s another belief you might decide to choose “English can fun and effortless.”

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

And to make these stronger, you need experiences. Remember, you need references, you need examples prove 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 of The Linguist speaks, I believe, twelve languages now. 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 to him a number of times, and Steve believes, for example, language learning is easy and effortless. That’s his 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 belief he has.

Another belief he has is that must learn language naturally and you must focus on meaning. So in other words, he doesn’t focus on grammar. He’s not focusing on boring textbooks. He’s reading interesting things that he enjoys. He’s listening to things that he enjoys. So, for him, language learning is interesting. What’s interesting for me is that these are the same that all of my best students have. They all have these ideas. The best students, the ones who learn the fastest, the ones who the best test scores, the ones with the best speaking, they all these things. They all believe that English is fun, interesting effortless. They all believe 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 if you want 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 part this lesson. What I want you to do is write down two, three, four empowering beliefs, beliefs give you power about English. Maybe “My brain is a natural language learning machine.” Maybe “English can be and effortless.” Maybe “I love English.” I don’t know, write down, two, three, four empowering beliefs English. And every day you’re going to do an incantation. That’s a word, that’s a new word, incantation.
An incantation is phrase or sentence 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 will happen. That’s where comes from. But for us an incantation is just a belief you are going to again and again and again every day.So here’s what you’re going to do. For example “English can be and effortless.” You’re going to say that out 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 one more thing. As you walk, as you’re getting for the lesson, you’re going to repeat this out loud. You’re going to say “English can fun and effortless.” You’re going to say it with 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 beliefs. English can be fun and effortless. You repeat 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 you and think you’re crazy. Why not? It’s better feeling powerless, right? It’s better than being bored. I promise you will so much faster if you do this. So do these 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. English can be and effortless. Now your body, your mind, your beliefs, they’re all together, very strong. Then you’re to learn.

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