Hey, there! How is it going?

I’d like to talk to you a bit today about beliefs. Like me, you must have been brought up with the phrase “seeing is believing”, right? It always sounded very skeptical to me but now I believe that “believing is seeing”. Yes, “believing is seeing”. Some people call it faith and today our topic is how what you believe in can help you (or not) learn a foreign language.

When we set out to do something there are two kinds of beliefs: limiting beliefs and empowering beliefs. Limiting beliefs are those that haunt you when you’re trying to learn Spanish (or any other language) and refrain you from giving it your best. Such beliefs can be called “the traumas” that we have when we learn Spanish. There was this student of mine, a woman in her 30s, who had a very rough time in my Spanish class because, when she was in fifth grade, her teacher had called her “stupid”. That is devastating for an 11-year-old. So she had this belief that she would never learn a foreign language and we all know that isn’t true.

The belief that “I will never be able to speak Spanish fluently” is part of lots of people’s everyday lives and when we believe we won’t be able to do it, then we surely won’t. I remember reading the following sentence in a Joe Vitale’s book:

If someone has done it, I can do it too!

That is so true. We grow up hearing stereotyped things like “the French are snobbish”, “Americans are cold”, and “so-and-so people are lazy”, etc. That creates a kind of prejudiced idea in our head and we think, “Well, if they’re snobbish, why am I going to learn their language?” Think about it, I’m sure we all have had thoughts like those. There are certainly snobbish Americans and Brazilians and very nice and kind French people.

Believing that yes, you can speak Spanish fluently, is the first step. It takes a lot of dedication, it sure does, because nothing comes for free and you certainly won’t learn in your sleep. Nowadays we have this culture of everything happening very fast but learning something requires a lot of dedication, study and dedication.

Do the daily exercise of trying to have positive and empowering beliefs that you can learn Spanish, however hard it may seem. You’re bound to have been frustrated in your class when you didn’t understand that listening exercise but let me ask you. What did you do about it? Got home and didn’t open your book till the next class? Did you listen to the dialog again? Did you try transcribing it? Did you listen to it over and over again until you mastered it?

Be responsible for your learning. Make very good use of the method you study with, be it software, a book, or a private tutor. Take control! And remember, if anyone has done it, you can do it too!

This is it for today! See you next time!