Beliefs

BELIEFS

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

Beliefs are important part of managing your psychology, of strengthening your 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 limiting beliefs first. Now limiting means, is something that stops you. It’s like a boundary. It stops you from going ahead. So a limiting is a belief that stops you from improving, a belief that stops you getting 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 my Japanese students. They would tell me “AJ, I can’t English well because I have English trauma.”
What is trauma? What is that, what are they talking about? Well, trauma means some kind injury, some kind of hurt. Emotional hurt, deep emotional hurt. what they mean is that they had some very negative, experiences with English in the past. In other words, when they were in in English classes, even as adults going to other English schools, they very negative experiences. And all these negative experiences have created some very negative beliefs, some limiting beliefs. For example, they say “I am not at English.” Well, that’s a belief. It may be true, it may not true. But it’s an opinion, it’s a belief that they have.
belief, a very common belief, English is difficult. Or, is complicated. Well, that’s just a belief. For me English easy, because I’m a native speaker, just like your language for you is very easy. Tomoe can speak Japanese because she’s Japanese, so I might say “Japanese is difficult,” and she 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. They stop us from
getting better. They a lot of problems for us as students, as learners. I have them, too. As I to learn Japanese, for example, I have a lot of these 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 these beliefs hurt my motivation. lower my energy, and in fact they’re wrong.
They’re not true. Japanese does not have be difficult, it does not have to be 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 the limiting beliefs. They can sing songs and play games and enjoy language, and they’ll learn it so quickly, so easily, they’ll say “Japanese easy.” Well, it’s the same with English with you. You learned a very painful, difficult way in the past. And so you developed, you created these beliefs your head. English is difficult. English is boring. English painful. I’m not good at English. I’ll never speak English. These are just beliefs.
So how do you these beliefs? Okay, you have these beliefs. You know they’re negative, you know they’re helping you. But we have to figure out, how can get rid of the limiting beliefs? That’s the first step, you to weaken them. You have to make them weaker weaker and weaker. You have to cut them down. beliefs get 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 painful and boring.” And you think 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 corrected your mistake and you 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 these, you just have to question the references.

You to question the experiences. Take the power away from the experiences. And an easy way to do is just to ask questions about them. For example, let me ask this question. Your past schools, were they excellent? Were they just fantastic English with fantastic, amazing, fun, positive English teachers? Did you have a great time day? Well, I know for most of you the answer is no. So that’s interesting, so if schools were not excellent, maybe the school was the problem. Maybe it’s not you. your English is not great because you did not go to great schools. did those schools that you went to, or the books used, did they use proven methods? Did they use research-based methods? Did they a lot about the research about English learning, English teaching? Did only use the best methods? Or did they just use the textbook that else 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 book.” But they’re not choosing the very, very best methods. They’re not choosing the very, best books. And so maybe the reason you believe English is difficult is because you used difficult methods the past, or your teachers did. Maybe you think English boring because in the past you used boring methods. You to 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 where you did it. Ask yourself these questions. Think about them detail. Weaken your limiting 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% and 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, quickly. You learn one chapter in your book, boom, after one week on to 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, took 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 us learn as many words as 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 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, did learn with 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. Maybe the school is problem, not English. So think about these questions and think them every day. Think about them a lot, especially this as you listen to Lesson Number 4. I want you to 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 a belief. It’s only past experience. You can change that now and in the future. let’s do that.

Let’s talk now about empowering beliefs, the positive side. So empower, the verb, to empower means to make stronger. means to give power to another person. Or in case, it means the beliefs give you power. An empowering is a belief that makes you feel powerful, that gives you power. That’s the of beliefs you want and you need to choose them. You must which beliefs 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 brain a natural language learning machine.” Because that’s what all the scientific research shows, our brain naturally learns languages. is designed to learn language. It should be easy. should be effortless. It should feel good. You learned 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 naturally tried to learn Japanese, for example, or Spanish, the easier feels. So this is a new belief and you should write it down, 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 can fun and effortless. That’s an empowering belief and it’s also true. can think of a lot of examples for this. 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, need examples that prove the belief. So I’m going to you some examples and you can find more. Go people who speak English very well. Or maybe even that have learned another language very well. I’ll you one of my favorite examples, Steve Kaufman of The Linguist speaks, I believe, twelve now. I want you to find these people and look at their beliefs. I’ll tell you some of beliefs because he’s a friend, I’ve talked to him a number of times, Steve believes, for example, that language learning is easy effortless. That’s his belief. He’s a native English speaker, he speaks Cantonese, he speaks Mandarin, he Japanese, he speaks Russian. These are all, supposedly, difficult languages. him they’re not difficult. They’re easy and effortless. That’s a strong belief he has.

Another belief he has is you must learn language naturally and you must focus on meaning. 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 to interesting things that enjoys. So, for him, language learning is interesting. What’s really interesting me is that these are the same beliefs that all of my best students have. all have these same ideas. The best students, the ones who learn the fastest, the ones have the best test scores, the ones with the best speaking, all believe these things. They all believe that English is fun, and effortless. They all believe that language learning is natural. They all that they should focus on the meaning, not on the grammar and the little pieces of language. So if you want to be like these people, you need to think like them. You need to have the same as them.
So here’s what I want you to do. Here’s your homework. is the last thing, the last part of this lesson. I want you to do is write down two, three, four empowering beliefs, that give you power about English. Maybe “My brain is a natural language machine.” Maybe “English can be fun and effortless.” Maybe “I English.” I don’t know, write down, two, three, four empowering about English. And every day you’re going to do incantation. That’s a good word, that’s a new word, incantation.
incantation is a phrase or sentence that you say again and again. has almost a magic idea, it comes from magic. An incantation 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 you are going to repeat again and again and again 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 you’re walking along and you’re doing your posture. And you’re breathing you’re smiling. Well, you’re going to add one more thing. you walk, as you’re getting ready for the lesson, you’re going to repeat this out loud. You’re going say “English can be fun and effortless.” You’re going to it with some emotion. Say it with feeling so you’re smiling, you’re breathing deep, you’re moving body, you have good posture and now you’re also saying strong beliefs. English can be fun and effortless. You repeat it again. English can fun and effortless. And then you say it again. English can be fun and effortless.

You do this in your room and its fine. You do it outside and make everyone look at you think you’re crazy. Why not? It’s better than feeling powerless, right? It’s better than being bored. I promise you learn so much faster if you do this. So these incantations every day just before you do a lesson. Get your body strong, peak 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. Then you’re ready learn.

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