Beliefs

BELIEFS

Hello, welcome to the fourth lesson. This one 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 of beliefs 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. So a belief is a belief that stops you from improving, a belief that stops 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 that name from a few of my Japanese students. would tell me “AJ, I can’t speak English well because I have trauma.”
What is English trauma? What is that, what are they about? Well, trauma means some kind of injury, some kind hurt. Emotional hurt, deep emotional hurt. So what they mean that they had some very negative, painful experiences with English in the past. In words, when they were in school in English classes, even as adults going to English schools, they had very negative experiences. And all these negative have created some very negative beliefs, some very limiting beliefs. For example, say “I am not good at English.” Well, that’s a belief. may be true, it may not be true. But it’s opinion, it’s a belief that they have.
Another belief, a very belief, English is difficult. Or, English is complicated. Well, that’s a belief. For me English very easy, because I’m native speaker, just like your native language for you is very easy. Tomoe can Japanese fluently because she’s Japanese, so I might say “Japanese difficult,” and she would say “No, Japanese is super easy.” These are just beliefs that come from our experiences. problem is these limiting beliefs limit us. They in fact limit us. They stop us from
getting better. They cause a lot of problems for as students, as learners. I have them, too. As I try to learn Japanese, for example, have a lot of these limiting beliefs I realize. I think “Oh, is so difficult.” Japanese is complicated, just look at writing system. It’s so different from English. And these beliefs hurt motivation. They lower my energy, and in fact they’re wrong.
They’re true. Japanese does not have to be difficult, it does not have to be compli- cated. A child, even a small American child, could learn Japanese very effortlessly, easily. And the reason is, the number one reason is, they don’t the limiting beliefs. They can sing songs and play games enjoy the language, and they’ll learn it so quickly, easily, they’ll say “Japanese is easy.” Well, it’s the same English with 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. is painful. I’m not good at English. I’ll never speak excellent English. These are just beliefs.
how do you eliminate these beliefs? Okay, you have these beliefs. know they’re negative, you know they’re not helping you. But have to figure out, how can we get rid of the beliefs? That’s the first step, you have to weaken them. have to make them weaker and weaker and weaker. You have to cut them down. Well beliefs stronger from references. And reference is just an experience or a memory. it’s just something you imagine, actually. But it’s a experience or a specific imagination, a specific moment, that makes belief stronger or weaker. So, for example, you have this idea “English is and boring.” And when you think of this belief, where does it from?

Well, you think of all these past experiences. think of the time in middle school where your corrected your mistake and you felt terrible. And you think maybe the bad grades you got on the test or the red marks on your English papers. And you start more 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 “English is difficult. English is painful. I’m not good at English.” So weaken these, you just have to question the references.

You have question the experiences. Take the power away from the experiences. And an easy way to that is just to ask questions about them. For example, me ask this question. Your past English schools, were they excellent? Were they just English schools with fantastic, amazing, fun, positive English teachers? Did you have a great time day? Well, I know for most of you the 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 you did not go to great schools. And did those schools that you went to, the books you used, did they use proven methods? they use research-based methods? Did they know a lot about the about English learning, English teaching? Did they only use the best methods? Or did they use the textbook that everybody else uses?
Well, know from my experience as a teacher, most schools just use same textbooks. They don’t know why. Maybe the boss tells “We must use this book.” But they’re not choosing very, very best methods. They’re not choosing the very, best books. And so maybe the reason you believe is difficult is because you used difficult methods in past, or your teachers did. Maybe you think English is because in the past you used boring methods. You went to boring schools. had boring teachers. Maybe English isn’t the problem. Maybe it was past experiences. Maybe it was the way you did it or where you did it. Ask these questions. Think about them in detail. Weaken your beliefs. Challenge your limiting beliefs. Another question, in school you learn deeply? For example, did you take one chapter in book and learn it for a long time so that totally mastered it, so that you knew it completely, 100% never forgot it? Probably not, most schools I have seen and the I have taught in, it’s quite the opposite. The teachers go very, very, very quickly. You one chapter in your book, boom, after one 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 of maybe two years of Spanish, but I forgot it all. Because we learned deeply. They just tried to make us learn as many words possible, a lot of words, a lot of words, a lot grammar, very, very fast. And then, of course, I everything. How about you? Did you learn deeply in your schools? If not, that was one of the problems. Maybe English feels difficult you never learned deeply. Maybe English is not the problem.
Finally, you learn with a grammar translation method? Did you study a of grammar rules? Did you take a lot of tests? Did you feel good about that? Again, maybe the was the problem. Maybe the school is the problem, not English. So think about these questions and think them every day. Think about them a lot, especially this week you listen to Lesson Number 4. I want you to about these questions again and again and again. And really honest about it. And start to destroy these limiting beliefs. Get rid of them. They’re wrong. English is difficult. English is not painful. English is not boring. It’s a belief. It’s only a past experience. You can that now and in the future. So let’s do that.

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

English be fun and effortless. That’s an empowering belief and it’s also true. You think of a lot of examples for this. Some of these mini-stories you’re to, right? They’re fun. They’re stupid, sometimes. They’re crazy, sometimes. they’re not serious. English can be fun and effortless. That’s empowering belief you want to choose and you want to remember it every day.

And to make beliefs stronger, you need experiences. Remember, you need references, you examples that prove the belief. So I’m going to give you some examples and you can more. Go 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. I want you to find people and look at their beliefs. I’ll tell you some his beliefs because he’s a friend, I’ve talked to him a of times, and Steve believes, for example, that language is 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 easy and effortless. That’s very strong belief he has.

Another belief he has that you must learn language naturally and you must on meaning. So in other words, he doesn’t focus on the grammar. He’s not focusing on textbooks. He’s reading interesting things that he enjoys. He’s listening interesting things that he enjoys. So, for him, language learning interesting. What’s really interesting for me is that these are the beliefs that all of my best students have. They have these same ideas. The best students, the ones learn the fastest, the ones who have the best scores, the ones with the best speaking, they all believe these things. They believe that English is fun, interesting and effortless. They all believe that language learning 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 them. You need to have the same beliefs as them.
So here’s what want you to do. Here’s your homework. This is the last thing, the last of this lesson. What I want you to do write down two, three, four empowering beliefs, beliefs that you 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, empowering beliefs about English. And every day you’re going to do incantation. That’s a good word, that’s a new word, incantation.
An incantation is a phrase or sentence you say again and again. It has almost a idea, it comes from magic. An incantation is a magical sentence. It’s a sentence, you say the sentence will happen. That’s where it comes from. But for an 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. example “English can be fun and effortless.” You’re going to say that out loud day while you’re walking along and you’re doing your posture. you’re breathing and you’re smiling. Well, you’re going to one more thing. As you walk, as you’re getting ready for the lesson, you’re going repeat this out loud. You’re going to say “English can be fun and effortless.” You’re going to say with some emotion. Say it with feeling 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. can be fun and effortless. You repeat it again. English can be and effortless. And then you say it again. English can be fun and effortless.

You can do in your room and its fine. You can do outside and make everyone look at you and think you’re crazy. Why not? It’s better feeling powerless, right? It’s better than 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 your body strong, emotional state, and then say these incantations. English can be 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 the main story for “Beliefs.”