The Expectation Effect: 3 Mental Methods to Learn English Faster

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The Expection...

"Expectation Effect".

James from engVid.

We're doing a new segment.

It's a book review.

These are books that I want to give you that

are going to help you learn better, so you

become effective and efficient at learning.

The first book I would like to show you is this one, "The Expectation Effect" by a guy

named David Robertson.

So, this book is going to teach us a...

Change our mindset so we can learn well, because

after all, we all don't have a lot of time,

and if you're going to spend it learning English,

you want to make sure you get the most out

So, I'm going to go over the three main ideas

that I thought were important that will help

you speed up your learning, but also make it an enjoyable process, because after all,

I know you're here to work hard, but you don't want to feel like it's hard work.

And once you use these techniques, we'll use

them to help us learn English, so by learning

English you'll know they work, but you'll also be able to use them for other things

that you want to study.

Anyway, enough talk.

Let's go to the board.

I have three words, but before I go there, I

want to show you this thing, "The Expectation

That's the book.

And I said it's by David Robertson...

And you'll notice that Mr. E seems to be eating his tail.

This is an old, old symbol.

I like it because I like to think of it as

eternal renewal, and what that means is you're

forever making yourself better.

So, it's a cycle that goes up and up, and

that's what we really want when we learn skills,

that each skill we learn makes us better and

better people; in this case, better and better

In my opinion, from what I took from the book, there are three main ideas that they

try and start with, and the first one I want to talk about is Serena Williams.

Now, if you watch tennis, you'll know she's

been a champion for a long time, and I can't

remember exactly, but I believe before she starts a match, she bounces the ball once,

two, three, four, and then she hits.

Well, she does that for almost every single

match, and there's a guy named Rafael Nadal,

he takes a cold shower before he does his matches.

Now, when you do something...

I want to say the word "precursor", I know

it's a long word, but you do something before

you do something else.

So in doing it, like when you go in the shower, you take off your clothes.

When you do that, you know, okay, now I'm going to go in the shower.

And you do that every time before you start it, we can say it's a ritual.

Some people have a ritual of they get up in the morning, they go to the washroom, and

Some people get out of bed and go right downstairs

and get a special coffee and make coffee.

Some people say a prayer.

I don't know what your ritual is to start your day, but you know that when you're not

able to do it, it makes the day harder.

Why am I telling you this?

Well, a lot of times when you start studying

English, you actually just sit down, open

the books, and then you go, "Oh god, I've got to study, it's so hard."

If you think about the rituals I talked about,

you do them to wake you up and get you ready.

Now, in the book, The Expectation Effect, he talks about people who have rituals and

they know that these rituals are specifically

to help them do something, play sports, study,

which is what we're doing, you know, or prepare for our hard speech.

The ritual helps to get them energized and ready to go.

It actually activates their brain to get your

brain, what we call "primed", being ready

to do its best work.

I would like you to think about what ritual you can do.

When I do this, I'm going to say "rinse" and "repeat".

When we rinse something, we clean it out.

So what I'm saying to you is, like, you want

to get ready for English, maybe what you want

to do-and the author does this in his book-he counts out, like, 60 coffee beans.

He counts them, smells them, then he gets them ready to make his coffee.

He takes his coffee, and he says, "Now I'm ready to work."

Something simple.

It could be you get up in the morning and you say...

Or, sorry, you sit down before you start your

English work and you say, "Actually, I have

a student that says a prayer."

You may not be religious, and that's fine.

You don't have to.

I liked what they were doing because their prayer was to their parents for supporting

them so that they had the opportunity to learn English.

I mean, I almost...

I almost cried.

I mean, that's, like, wow.

I just have a donut and a coffee and go, "Time to work."

And this guy stops before his desk, stops, stands there and goes, "Thank you, parents,

for bringing me..."

And then he says...

He sits down and realizes how important the work he's doing and the, I don't know, the

love he gets from his parents, and it makes him work harder.

That's his ritual.

Yours could be counting coffee beans, or yours

could be quite simply before you do it, you

say, "Five, four, three, two, one.

"Rinse and repeat" means you rinse that brain

out, repeat it every time, it becomes a ritual.

And you will find, like, I have...

I play the "Eye of the Tiger" before I work out.

Yeah, that song.

"Eye of the tiger", I'm like, "Yeah, yeah, work out."

And the other one, "Mortal Kombat", I have

to fight, do-do, do-do, do-do, do-do, do-do.

Yeah, I know, I don't look like I work out now, but when I did those two songs, I put

them on, I start sweating right away, I'm like, "Time to work."

So create a ritual.

This is one of the things that this book says

will help you get your mental state or your

mind ready to do the work that you want to do, but to do it as your best self.

That's incredible.

Costs you nothing.

So, think about ritual, rinse and repeat, meaning do it again and again.

And this is what I was talking about, this cycle right here, in the eternal return is

what I call it, Mr. E is eating his tail, which means he eats it, and as he eats it,

he becomes new again, and becomes new again.

Rinse and repeat.

But in this case, he becomes bigger and stronger, and so will you.

So, let's get to the next one.

I'm going to go here.

I'll do this one first.

Sorry, I changed my mind.

Rehearsal is what you do, it's called a practice,

but usually it's done for bands, like you

practice and you want to get good at it before

you go and do a show, or actors, they have

And what do they do?

They do the entire show that they're going to show you, but they do it and they don't

And you go, "Why would they do that?"

Well, in rehearsal, imagine if you lived...

Think about your life.

We say there's no rehearsal.

You get up and what happens, happens.

And sometimes it's good and sometimes it's bad.

But what if you took the time before you did

it, whatever, going to work or what have you,

and you thought about it, and some of you are

going, "Yeah, James, it's called an agenda.

I write it down and I do it."

Have you ever noticed when you don't follow the agenda, things don't go as planned?

You don't get the results?

Well, in the expectation effect, what he talked

about is a mental rehearsal, almost like a

meditation where you sit down and you go through, okay, not just the work.

This is the cool part.

What am I going to be able to do when I can do my English?

Six months later from now, you've watched this video, maybe you've bought the book,

which would be great.

What would I be able to do?

Well, I would be able to talk to a native speaker for five minutes.

I would travel to different countries because

I know English is accepted in many countries.

I could go to the school, Harvard, or I could

go to Cambridge because I speak English and

I wouldn't need help.

Heck, I could go to Germany where they take

students and they have some classes in English.

I could go anywhere.

I could get a job, I could...

But not just think, but go through a rehearsal.

What would I be in six months?

What would I be doing?

What would I be doing in 12 months, a year?

And then work back from there, what...

How would I be able to talk for five minutes?

Well, maybe I'd start at four minutes.

What would I have to do?

Maybe I have to watch programs, maybe I have to

talk to people, maybe I have to study grammar,

maybe I have to...

Through that mental rehearsal, I'm making it

longer, but just taking a couple of minutes

to see where you would be if you had these skills helps to get your brain-remember the

word "primed"-primed and thinking like that type of person.

And in case you think, "Well, that's just crazy", can you walk?

You know, walk.

Well, when you were a baby, you would watch your parents walking, and before you tried

it-and trust me, you tried it and fell down a lot-you would practice going, they seemed

to go leg, arm, leg, arm, leg, arm, leg, and you did that.

You tried and fell down.

Then you would hold on to a wall and try

again, but eventually you learned how to walk.

But before you could walk, you did mental rehearsal.

So, in this case, mental rehearsal we want to say is mental practice, and you want to

make a picture in your mind of where you will

be, what you will do, or as I like to say,

When you are there, how would it feel?

How would you feel?

What would you be able to do, and who is the first person you would tell?

If you could use these three things, you would

be able to get a mental picture and an idea

of what skills and what you will have to be able to do.

Of course you can't speak English perfectly,

then, but you're preparing your mind, priming

So, ritual for study, and to get to your goal, it's a mental practice.

What is "reinforce"?

Well, okay, we at engVid have done a study,

and we noticed that 90% of you have not signed

Please, sign up for engVid.

But outside of that, what we've noticed in two to three months, you stop coming to the

But we know that it takes six months to learn

English at least, so you are not reinforcing

the belief you need to, to continue to get the results you want.

So, to make this mental practice a reality,

and to make use of the ritual to give it some

power, you will need...

So, willpower is the ability to stay with something

over time, even if there are difficulties.

That's willpower.

My favourite guy for willpower is Batman.

I actually have this one image in my head

burned in, and I know people are smiling when

It's from this giant magazine that they did,

and he's holding himself on a pull-up bar,

and he's just staring, sweat coming down, he's staring.

It's like two hours he's been holding himself.

The very definition of willpower, "A thousand

times I fall, a thousand and one times I get

Or, as he said, "Fail, fail, fail again.

A thousand times, I will still succeed."

Willpower, we need this.

Now, with the expectation effect, we actually have limitless willpower.

But before I go that, focus is the other thing we need.

It's nice to have willpower, but if you're not focused on a particular objective, in

this case when we do our rehearsal, our mental practice, what is it I want?

I want to be able to speak for five minutes with a native speaker.

Okay, I need that focus to help make that mental practice come true.

You put willpower and focus together, we reinforce.

It means it gives you the energy to follow

through to get to your goal of becoming like

a native speaker.

You will be so surprised what you can accomplish

when you work on your willpower and focus.

And why am I saying this is important?

Because many people believe, "Okay, teacher,

I can only stay for 20 minutes and that's

it."

This is not true, my friend.

In the expectation effect, what they tell us

is we can reinforce our willpower and focus.

I will actually give you an exercise.

I helped you here, I helped you here, I will give you an exercise.

When you are studying, for instance, and you're

watching one of my videos, one of my many

Please keep watching.

When you're watching it and you're like, "This

guy talks too fast, I've had enough", stop

for a second, go, "I strengthen my willpower",

and say, "I will watch for another five minutes.

I don't know how, but I will do it."

You will come to another wall where you go, "Okay, I'm done, I'm so full, I cannot go

I will say to you, because you were brave and

strong, "Stay, we are working on willpower,

and go for at least one more minute", and then stop.

"Today, your head will hurt, but tomorrow you will notice you can go another couple

You go, "What happened?"

Well, willpower, my friend, is like a muscle.

The more you use it, the stronger it gets.

And with the expectation effect, if you understand

and believe it will get stronger, it will

Because this book is about expectation, what

you think will happen will happen if you believe

Now, there's a book called The Secret, and some

of you go, "Ah, teacher, I like The Secret."

No, no, no, no, not The Secret.

This book has 40 pages of documents with other scientists doing peer review.

"Peer review" means other scientists looked at it and saw the results and said, "Yeah,

we think this is true."

"Would I waste your time?"

"We're doing this efficiently and effectively,

so I'm giving you a tool"-I'm giving you

Ease, book, review.

I'm just a messenger-to help you.

Now, that thing I told you about study, and

then when you think I'm tired, you go, "Okay,

I can do one more minute", study maybe two, three minutes, and then after that, stop.

You're finished.

But it's like lifting a little extra weight, you get a little stronger.

And that three months will become six months,

and that dream of speaking for five minutes

will become not a mental practice or rehearsal,

but a reality, and I know you can do it.

And when you think about focus, it's the same thing.

When you're losing focus, you say, "I can't

focus on this anymore", go, "I will give myself

another minute and try", and then another minute and try, then stop.

We don't want to go so far, we keep doing

it until we break down and can't do anything

That's not what I'm saying.

I'm going to sound like an alpha bro here, but the Navy SEALs say 40% in the tank.

Navy SEALs, if you don't know, are elite Ameri...

If you're not American, you've had them come

to your house and you didn't want them, sorry.

I'm just mentioning them because they say

it's always, like, more in the tank, meaning

you always have more.

So, a lot of times you think, "I'm done, I

can't do anymore", they say, "Just do it one

Not five, not ten, one more time.

You do it one more time."

They say, "You did it?"

"Can you do it one more time?"

You go, "Okay, I did it."

They go, "I thought you were done."

They go, "Oh, I could do it two more times."

"You have more in the tank as well."

Now, quick review of this, as I said, effective

and efficient, I want you to actually do something

Rinse and repeat.

What's your ritual going to be?

Will it be you always have a cup of coffee before you start your English studying?

Count the beans?

Will it be you say a prayer just before you sit down, like, "Please help me learn, it's

Something more positive.

Or maybe you could do, like, a green lantern thing.

"In blackest day and brightest night, no English shall escape my sight."

It's your ritual.

Figure out what you want to do to tell yourself

now - you can get the eye of the tiger - now

Create a ritual.

Just make sure you do it every time it makes

you feel something, makes your heart beat

a little faster, which means you're getting

more oxygen through your body and your brain,

so when you sit down, you're like, "I'm ready to do this."

When we're doing this, think about reinforcing our willpower and focus.

When you think you've had enough, don't do an extra 30 minutes.

Just say to yourself, "I can do one more minute", and do it.

And when you finish, you're like, "Okay, I'm

done", you go, "I can do one more minute",

and then do it, and then stop.

Because each time you push on the wall, the wall moves a little bit more for you.

And you will find this willpower and focus will not be just to learn English.

It could be to study in school to become a

doctor, or if you want to become a mechanic,

or if you want to play music and get really good at that.

You will notice that that power that you're building will grow stronger and make your

life bigger and more full...

And the final one, mental rehearsal.

Have you ever just got in a car?

Well, this is...

It can be fun, but you just go in your car and you just drive, drive and drive, drive

Most of the time you have a purpose, you want

to go somewhere, and when you want to go there,

you have a picture of where you're going to go, what you're going to do, who you will

Do this with English.

What are you going to use it for?

Imagine yourself in England on the beach.

California, England on the beach.

They don't have sun.

California or something like that, or Australia, okay?

On the beach, they're real beaches.

Sorry, England.

Imagine yourself talking to people.

People talking to you, having a great time,

having real conversations, and realizing that

it's because you've built that willpower, you did your ritual, and now you're here.

But before you're there, imagine you're being

there now, and it'll happen before you know

Anyway, my time is up, but before I go, E, book review.

What did we say?

Dun, da-da-dun, da-da-dun, da-da-dun, dun, dun, da-da-dun, da-da-dun, da-da-dun, dun.

I want to tell you more about the book, and this is for those of you who've taken the

time to come and stay to the end.

We always appreciate when you do that, so this is a bonus for you.

Why this book is special.

David Robson was suffering from depression when he took some medicine, and he started

finding out that there were bad effects from

the medicine that were supposed to happen

But as he was researching, because he's a

science writer, he found out that he was actually

experiencing some bad effects because that's what he expected.

It didn't have to happen that way.

And in doing that, he started to look around

and say where else do we have expectations,

that is, beliefs that things are going to be a certain way, but they don't have to be

The reason why I chose this book for you guys

is because in here there's a section on learning

and intelligence, how we can make ourselves more intelligent because we don't have to

accept the expectations of other people.

So, it's not just intelligence, but it's also

success in school and other things, and as

you're studying, that's what you want.

And I thought this would be a great book for

you because I read it for myself, I learned

There's stuff on aging in here, memory,

illness, how to make yourself feel a bit better.

And it's not crazy, and I wasn't joking when

I said it's not the secret thing, so if you're

a secret fan, great.

This will actually help you more, in my opinion.

But if you're just somebody who wants to improve

yourself, period, and be able to use this

information to help you learn something that

you're here for, which is English, I think

this is a great book.

That's why we gave this a thumbs up, and I hope you will take the time to read it.

Thank you once again, and thank you for staying to the end.

You're the reason why we do this.

Have a good one.