Beliefs

BELIEFS

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

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

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

You have to question the experiences. Take the power away from the experiences. an easy way to do that is just to ask about them. For example, let me ask this question. Your past schools, were they excellent? Were they just fantastic English schools fantastic, amazing, fun, positive English teachers? Did you have a great every day? Well, I know for most of you the answer no. So that’s interesting, so if your schools were not excellent, maybe the school was 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 went to, or the you used, did they use proven methods? Did they research-based methods? Did they know a lot about the research English learning, English teaching? Did they only use the best methods? Or did they just use the textbook everybody else uses?
Well, I know from my as a teacher, most schools just use the same textbooks. don’t know why. Maybe the boss tells them “We 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 English is is because you 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 was these past experiences. Maybe it was the way you did it or where did it. Ask yourself these questions. Think about them in detail. Weaken your limiting beliefs. your limiting beliefs. Another question, in school did you learn deeply? For example, did take one chapter in your book and learn it for a long time so that you mastered it, so that you knew it completely, 100% never forgot it? Probably not, most schools I have 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 many new words, so much new grammar.
For example, my experience with Spanish in high school university, I took Spanish, I’ve had a total of 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, lot of grammar, very, very fast. And then, of course, I forgot everything. about you? Did you learn deeply in your schools? 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 grammar rules? Did you take a lot of tests? Did you good about that? Again, maybe the method was the problem. the school is the problem, not English. So think these questions and think about them every day. Think them a lot, especially this week as you listen Lesson Number 4. I want you to think about these questions again and again and again. And be honest 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 change 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, empower means to make stronger. It means to give power to person. Or in this case, it means the beliefs you power. An empowering belief is a belief that you feel powerful, that gives you power. That’s the of beliefs you want and you need to choose them. You must decide which beliefs make you stronger. For example, here’s an empowering belief. You can replace old limiting belief, add this one instead. You can “My brain is a natural language learning machine.” Because that’s what all of the scientific research shows, our naturally learns languages. It is designed to learn language. It should be easy. It be effortless. It should feel good. You learned your language that way. It wasn’t difficult was it? English was easy for me 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 language learning 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 belief and it’s also true. You can think 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. can be fun and effortless. That’s an empowering belief you want to choose and you want remember it every day.

And to make these beliefs stronger, you need experiences. Remember, need references, you need examples that prove the belief. I’m going to give you some examples and you find more. Go find people who speak English very well. Or even that have learned another language very well. I’ll give one of my favorite examples, Steve Kaufman of The speaks, I believe, twelve languages now. I want you to find people and 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, and Steve believes, for example, that language is easy and effortless. That’s his belief. He’s a native English speaker, he speaks Cantonese, he speaks Mandarin, speaks Japanese, he speaks Russian. These are all, supposedly, difficult languages. For him they’re 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 meaning. So 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 things that enjoys. So, for him, language learning is interesting. What’s really for me is that these are the same beliefs all of my best students have. They all have same ideas. The best students, the ones who learn fastest, the ones who have the best test scores, ones with the best speaking, they all believe these things. 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 the language. So if you want to be like these people, you need to think like them. You need have the same beliefs as them.
So here’s what I want you 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 beliefs, beliefs that give you power about English. Maybe “My brain is natural language learning machine.” Maybe “English can be fun and effortless.” Maybe “I 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 good word, that’s a word, incantation.
An incantation is a phrase or sentence that you again and again. It has almost a magic idea, comes from magic. An incantation is a magical sentence. It’s a sentence, say the sentence something will happen. That’s where it comes from. But for us an incantation just a belief you are going to repeat again and 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 loud every day while you’re walking along and you’re your posture. And you’re breathing and you’re smiling. Well, you’re to add one more thing. As you walk, as you’re getting ready for the lesson, you’re to repeat this out loud. You’re going to say “English can be fun 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 good posture and now you’re also saying these strong beliefs. English can be fun and effortless. You repeat again. English can be fun and effortless. And then you say it again. English can be fun effortless.

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

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