Using blogs for your essays

Hi, everyone. I’ve been thinking that the next essay that you work on (about homeschooling of children vs. sending them to a regular school) will be a special one that I’d like you to post here on wordpress.

What you’ll do is work on it for homework; then, you’ll post it on your blog. Everyone will have to visit (for homework, of course) and read your essay and leave a comment that provides feedback. I, of course, will do the same.

What do you think?

Accents!

Check out this website to listen to a wide variety of accents…I think you’ll find it really interesting.

Everyday people…extraordinary individuals

Lately, I’ve encountered some fantastic people who claim they’re “just doing their job” when, in reality, they’re going above and beyond. Here are a few examples:

George, the security guard
This man, who guards the faculty parking lot at school, is the only one who believed me when I told him why I no longer had a parking tag (I’ve since gotten one). Others treated me like a common criminal. He let me park. We started chatting and became buddies. Now, when I pull in and see that there are no spots, he pulls his late-model Caddy out of his spot and lets me have it. He parks on the side and then waits for another spot to open up. Thanks to him, I don’t have to drive over the the highly inconvenient garage and be late to class. Last time he did this, I got him some fresh Dunkin’ Donuts coffee and took a few minutes to chat with him. He confessed to me that he’d been chatting on his cellphone with his daughter, who’s a geriatric social worker. He said he talks to her every day and is so proud of her because she went to college and likes the work she’s doing. He simply adores her. “She’s my best friend,” he said. Sweet! I think she’s a lucky daughter, too.

E–the “un” lawyer

This woman is a human angel, I swear. She’s helped me with loser landlords, an automobile manufacturer and now, something incredibly complicated and unpleasant. What makes her so special? She cares….she works hard…and she’s undaunted by the BS that overwhelms most people. She doesn’t behave like a typical lawyer, either. She’s not about money. She’s about what’s right. I keep telling her that I owe her 100s of hours of free writing/editing and she says, “Don’t be silly.” Anyway, right now, she’s helping me out with something so icky that few lawyers would want to take it on (especially since she may not make much on it). She once drove to a county courthouse to hand deliver papers for me–to make sure they were in on time. When we go out for coffee or a meal, she tries to pay. I freak out, of course, grabbing the check from her. She giggles, with her cherubic cheeks turning pink. A real angel…I swear.

Henry, my (new) mechanic
This man (his name escapes me at the moment) is something else, too. He’s a Honda specialist, and he’s not local, but he’s worth it. Why? He likes to run errands…and will run yours with you. You leave the car with his mechanics and go out to the bank, store, etc. He goes in with you or handles his own errands, and then you drive back to the shop. He once dropped me off at my doctor’s office and then picked me up later. Different, right? And he doesn’t mind. What makes him extraordinary? The fact that he alerted me to my malfunctioning SRS light and what it really meant. I thought it had to do with my seatbelt. Wrong! It’s the air bag. He let me know that it wasn’t working–that it would not activate in the event of an accident. Yikes, I thought–I had no idea. He then fixed it and didn’t charge me (since I was paying cash). Nice of him, huh? More importantly, he may have saved my life. Each of these people, in my opinion, is extraordinary even they they don’t necessarily think so. I’m lucky to have crossed paths with them–and I’m grateful.

Amna’s blog…a special guest…and a quick “hi”

Hi, everyone. It’s Sunday night, and we’re back in school tomorrow (our class on Tuesday). I just wanted to say hi and to provide you with a few updates, suggestions and reminders.

First of all, I want everyone to know what Amna’s blog address is. It’s http://bentwahb.wordpress.com/  Please visit her page and add her address to your “blog roll” (list of blog links).

Second, I’d like to introduce a friend of mine who will be commenting on blogs, too. She’s very bright, an excellent writer/teacher and someone who loves to be on the Internet meeting and connecting with others. Her name is Erin. If she leaves a comment for you, her name will appear as:

readerwritererin

Third, I’d like to say–Wow. Nice job on the blogs so far. I’m really impressed. Also, I’ve learned a lot about you, and I really enjoy that. Just a couple of reminders:

Weekly requirements: Blog once a week (at least 3 paragraphs) and comment on someone else’s blog (not just a quick “hi”) once a week. 

Grammar/mechanics: While this is mostly “fluency”-oriented writing (you’re focusing on enjoyment and not perfection), there are some basic things you need to do. 

DO

• Write in your own words (or paraphrase/quote and give credit to the source). 
• Proofread your writing (clean up basic errors such as spelling, verb tenses and capitalization).
• Remember–you can always go back into a blog and “edit” (correct errors). You should be doing this on your own. Sometimes, we’ll do it in class together.

DON’T

• Write like you’re sending a text on your phone or an e-mail. Do not use “U” for “you”. And please remember to capitalize “I”. 

What I’d like you keep in mind is that your classmates and I are reading your blog. This means you should do the best job possible. Take pride in your work!

Thanks.

2: Why Arabic? Why now?

So what’s it like to learn Arabic...a unique world of curly Qs, squiggles and dots that represent an ancient (1500-year-old)/sacred tongue that happens to be a “category 4 language”—ie, one of the 4 most difficult languages? (Chinese, Japanese and Korean, btw, are the other three).

–It’s artistic.
I feel like I’m taking an art class (like a sorta, kinda calligraphy); I often say things like, “I think I can draw that letter.” And my teacher chuckles and asks me why I don’t say “write.” I tell her that it’s because I feel like I’m drawing a picture, not writing a letter. Not yet, anyway.

Check out this calligraphy…

–It’s trippy.
I feel that when I enter another dimension—that of the Arabic language—and that I am in another world. Literally. All of the edges of the word I’m normally in start to blur and curve, and what’s known simply disappears and is replaced by mostly unknowns. It’s a form of travel, a trip I take, without leaving my geographical space.

Trippy things happen in my head space, too. Another part of my brain is activated, which is related to the part that helped me learn Spanish. But it’s not the same part.

–It’s fun/funny.
There are some funny videos on youtube that can help you with the language, especially the alphabet. And they’re entertaining. Many of them are excellent, and quite a few are humorous. Some are just sweet. Check this out:

Then there’s this man, Yusuf, a teacher who totally cracks me up. Here, he teaches the letter “Ha,” which of course, involves a lot of “ha, ha, ha.” He then talks about the “hamsa” and how it’s like a hiccup and calls certain letters the “pot bellies.” I’ve learned a lot from this man, thanks to his great sense of humor. I hope that my students enjoy my humor (and learn from it) as much as I do with this man.

—It’s very ‘in the moment.’
Arabic is tricky. You have to focus. If you’re not paying attention and removing all distractions from your mind, guess what? You’re probably not learning. Simple as that. Recently, I’ve been a bit stressed out. Arabic—by removing me from some not-so-pleasant moments—has put me into some better ones.

–It’s difficult for a variety of reasons.
Imagine this…a letter that looks completely different, depending on where it is in a word. Some of the curly Q thingees that look as if they would go below the line often don’t. The curly (lower) part just vanishes when the top is connected to other letters.

Oh yeah…and some letters also sound different  depending on the placement in a word. Example: “ya.” At the end of a word, it sounds like an “ee” and looks like a sea horse. In the middle of the word, it sounds like “ee,” but looks like a peak. At the beginning, it looks like a peak, but sounds like a “ya.” And that’s just one letter! Another letter, called by some the “wow,” doesn’t like to connect to other letters on the left side, only on the right. Wow, that’s a lot to remember.

Or how about the general absence of vowels (there are usually like training wheels when you first learn and in some cases afterwards).

(If you’re wondering about the letters in blue…I think they’re letters that don’t attach to the left. Not sure what’s up with the red ones, though.)
And how about this fun with pronouns/verbs…and this is just the singular!!

I – anaa, for example: anaa katabtu – I wrote.
thou (masculine) – anta, for example: anta katabta – thou wrotest.
thou (feminine) – anti, for example: anti katabti – thou wrotest.
he (masculine) – huwa, for example: huwa kataba – he wrote.
she (feminine) – hiya, for example: hiya katabat – she wrote.

And then there’s the negative form. I won’t even paste in any of that. It’s just too overwhelming right now. But, some of you might be curious. If so, click here. Just make sure you’ve had your coffee first!

The best part? What you’ve seen above (the grammatical explanations/phonetic spellings of the words) and often see in Arabic lessons is “transliteration”–the practice of transcribing a word or text written in one writing system into another writing system or system of rules for such practice. In other words, “romanizing Arabic.” (More info here.) The problem with this? It’s not enough unless you just want to speak–and even then, it doesn’t work that well because a lot of it is flawed and crucial sounds are missing or incorrectly substituted. The bottom line? You also need to be able to read the script and be able to pronounce each letter and know what happens to them when they combine!

–It’s educational in a religious sense.
Arabic is the universal language of Muslims (even though many don’t know it at all). Many of the websites include religion in the lesson via vocabulary. This means that while I’m learning the language, I’m also learning about the religion. I have found it to be  very interesting.

–It’s a true learning experience.
Did you know that Arabic is a semitic language—a “sister” to Hebrew? Yup. And if you look at both languages together, you find a good number of similar words and grammatical parallels.

Here’s something interesting, too. Only 15% of all Muslims speak Arabic (surprising, right?).  The Arabic alphabet derives from the Aramaic script to which it bears a loose resemblance to Coptic or Cyrillic script to Greek script.

So…(not that anyone’s asked–LOL) what does my name (Lisa) look like?
Good question. I’ve seen it a few ways.

ليزا   and    ليسا

According to one of my students, it’s the first one. My teacher says it’s the second one. I think I might prefer the first one because it has more curly Qs.

Class blogs

Melissa

http://laminina.wordpress.com/

 

Nalmaz

http://nalmaz.wordpress.com/

 

Anyelo

http://anyeloch.wordpress.com

 

Gaby

http://sweetgaby.wordpress.com/

 

Noelia

http://noeliacruz.wordpress.com/

 

Jose

http://pepetheglobetrotter.wordpress.com/

 

Rosy

http://rosy20.wordpress.com/

 

Ronald

http://ronald1236.wordpress.com/

??? Link not working.

 

Desiree

http://desiree09.wordpress.com/

??? Nothing there?

 

Ydiani

http://ydiani13.wordpress.com/

 

Klaudia

http://klaudak.wordpress.com/

 

Max

http://maxime2.wordpress.com/

1: Why Arabic? Why now?

Last semester, I had the opportunity to teach a student  named “M” who happens to be from Iraq.

Yes, Iraq.

He’s a refugee whose life, as one can imagine, has been hell for a few years…

I can’t get into specifics here, but..after some tragic events in his country, he came to this country at the end of last summer. A few weeks later, he ended up in my ESL class.

Few words, huge smile
I remember when I first met this very sweet student, age 19, back in the fall. He couldn’t speak at all. I wanted to communicate with him, but couldn’t. Now, however, I can. Within just a few months, while working at a supermarket and practicing as much as possible, he’s been an absolute sponge, soaking up a lot of English. And now (even though he dropped my class), he’s doing well. He has this incredibly beautiful smile, a deep voice and a very special way of speaking. Each word carries power, and now he’s got a lot of words in his repertoire.

What does this have to do with me and my desire to learn Arabic?
—There was something about Mohammad and his two of friends from Palestine (whom I helped out last semester,) that touched my heart. I wish I’d been able to communicate with them, even just a few words, but I wasn’t able.  And then, when Mohammad and I had that conversation a few weeks ago, I found my urge to know Arabic growing. I began to wonder–could I learn Arabic?

—Then, after visiting some Arabic language learning websites, I felt an awareness of something deeper happening—an opening of a certain part of my brain to a third language…a desire to enter into another language dimension. My Spanish is quite good and I suppose I could work to improve that further, but….being a beginner just feels more exciting. So does entering a world of curly Qs and dots and unique sounds…

—Also, I stumbled on to a beautiful song by the former Cat Stevens (now Yusuf Islam)…he created it to teach his daughter the alphabet in Arabic. It’s incredibly beautiful and moving, so much so that I’d like to learn the song as another way into the alphabet and sound system. I find Cat Stevens really interesting. He had it “all,” by Western standards. Fame, fortune, etc…whatever he wanted. But he gave it up when he devoted his life to Islam. Wow.

Disclaimer: this video is religious in nature. If you’re not comfortable with that, you may not enjoy this. You could, if you want, look past the religion and see and hear and see the beauty….

—Another thing that appeals to me is learning more about a language spoken by people living in cultures so many Americans (and folks from other areas of the world) have strong opinions about. I like doing what others don’t necessarily want to do. Also, I don’t like generalizations about races, cultures, etc, and this includes the Middle East and its people. I’d rather connect with that and other cultures and learn as much of possible; I think it can only help people understand each other.

—And then there’s how difficult Arabic is. I’ve read that it’s one of the 4 most difficult languages for English speakers to learn. And I believe it. But…I suppose I like a challenge and I like to try anyway when I’m told, “That’s really hard….many people give up.” Well, that makes me want to try harder. 

—And there is a possible trip to Jordan that I’m considering (if I can combine it with Turkey and keep it affordable)….how amazing would it be to arrive speaking some Arabic and not just be a tourist? I’d love to truly connect, and being slightly conversational could help make that happen.

So…what’s it like to learn Arabic? What are the challenges? Why is it so damn hard? I’ll tell you….in the next blog. 

Goodbyes and hellos…

Hi, everyone. I’m happy to be here, starting this new blog for our class project, but at the same time, I’m a bit sad. The reason is that I had a great blog set up last semester, at blogspot, and have decided not to use it.

The reason is quite simple: they’ve made things too complicated. If you visited that website, you saw that a google account was required. In my opinion, that’s simply ridiculous. Why is that necessary? It just adds another step.

Because I liked that blog so much–and because I had some very interesting posts that I’d made–I’m including it here for you to check out. Click HERE to visit it. I think you’ll enjoy some of the posts, including one on the actor Ethan Hawke and another on a whacky white supremacist who happens to live in NJ. Anyway, I’m happy that we’re embarking on this blog-writing adventure. I’m sure that, together, we’ll learn a lot about each other!

PS: Here’s a link to the blog I wrote about the possibility of meeting the Actor Ethan Hawke and what I decided to do (go shopping or meet him). Click here to find out what I did…