How I Learned English

    A lot of personal effort was established during the second language learning of English knowing that my first languages spoken were Spanish and Arabic. Watching alot of English language movies was the first thing to contribute in the help of this language acquisition. I used to watch several movies in a row imitating the way the actors speak and trying to understand the words without looking at the translation written on the bottom of the screen. I would sometimes try to bring movies home with no translation and try to comprehend the meaning of the words throughout the sentences. My dad used to call me movie girl knowing all the movies that are up next on foreign channels. The idea of watching English movies helped a lot because it linked the words and the sentences with certain events that would make these words and sentences stick in my mind and know what to say in similar situations. It also helped in memorizing certain slang words making me sound more like a native speaker. For example the phrases “this got under my skin, you are getting on my nerves, hold your horses, wake up and smell the coffee..etc..” phrases that we don’t usually see in books.

    One other effective personal technique I used was self-competition. Forcing myself to speak out even if I made certain mistakes in class or with friends also had a lot to do with the acquisition of English. With the slight knowledge I had in English I was a 100% sure that I am going b making a lot of mistakes but I dared myself to make them and learn from them. For example once when I first tried to speak English, on mother’s day, we were buying things from the school as gifts for our moms. I had a Canadian friend that bought a clock for her mom so I challenged myself to go ask her what she bought using English although I exactly knew what she bought. I went up to her and said “Najla, did you buy the hour?” her face turned blue not understanding what I said and started laughing at me. For any other person that would be discouraging but it actually encouraged me a lot to start working on my language and prove her wrong and talk to her some other day in a better accent and w bigger knowledge of words.

In addition to watching a lot of movies and self competing myself, listening to music also contributed in English language learning. I used to download the lyrics while listening to the song so that I know exactly what is said in the song. That helped me in looking up some new words I never knew they existed. Music is very effective because it links the words with a certain beat and a certain tone that way it would be so much easier to memorize and understand. Like any other person tying to memorize something they try to sing it out and music was one of those. I also used to go on youtube see the interviews that were made with the singers and actors especially those that speak different accents and imitate every single word as if im the singer or the actor. That helped a lot in learning the American and the British accent where I can speak both very fluently. Having American and Canadian friends had the greatest influence because it allowed me to use the language more often.

    On the other hand there were plenty of academic techniques that also helped the acquisition of English language. The first used by our teacher was making us memorize certain phrases from the stories that we took in school. For example, making us memorize the conclusion of the story and auto dictate it the second day. This helped a lot because it introduced us to a variety of new words and how to write them it also linked the ideas to a certain sentence in our mind forcing us to think in English while remembering the story. Moreover, she made us summarize each paragraph in our own way of understanding, limiting our thought within the frame of the story and the English session. She made English really enjoyable because we had our minds active all session long.

     Another thing was specializing reading sessions every week. The teacher brought several stories to the classroom and made us choose one, read it and summarize the ideas to share them with other friends. In addition to grading our reading and how much we concentrate on the meaning of the story plus how we present our ideas, she forced everyone to read their stories and present them, making sure everyone is doing their job. I remember choosing a story called “Julie of the Wolves” and up till today I remember its events.

     Furthermore, other specialized sessions for speaking were very helpful. The teacher gave us the opportunity to write about certain things we love and share these things with our friends. Other times she would make us bring something special to class and talk about it. This helped a lot because it linked the English language with our daily life and our own belongings knowing that its extremely important to relate English to real life. It also helped in activating our ears to listen to English and catch the mistakes they do, and to gain more vocabulary words as well. Moreover, we had to write weekly journals to improve our creativity in using the English language.

Both personal and academic techniques contributed in the acquisition of the English language. Although it’s a second language I consider myself more of a bilingual person now because I find myself very fluent in English thanks to help of these great strategies used.

The Power of Faith

It all starts with a busy day running from bed, to wash your face, then to get ready for school or work. You run from work home to get things done, then to bed where you rest your head. And this is how we keep on running with life until we eternally sleep. But what have we learned? Do we pay attention to those minor details in life that are meant to happen? Or is it just one of those life events that we call “usual”? Have we ever asked ourselves: “why did this happen?” “Why was I chosen?” “What’s the lesson?” And the major question is: “what is the purpose of my existence?” Those are questions that are rarely raised, that are never looked into or probably taken into consideration. Why? Because we are too busy to realize that we are ALIVE!! It only takes some faith, love, hope, and a heart and a mind to think deeply about things.

When I say faith, I always consider this question: “have you ever woke up in the morning and said: ‘Something nice is going to happen today’? Or ‘What will happen today that will change my life’? That is when you truly realize that these things are not in our hands, and all the events going on around us are meant to happen for a reason. I say faith, not only because faith means believing in God or looking at the greatness of His creation, but because Faith always has its aftermath. Like when you give your jacket to an old man sitting at the corner of the street in the cold, or when you go back running to a store to give back the extra money they gave you by mistake, it can even happen by creating a tiny curve on the face of a poor child, enjoying a bar of Albeni, which he thinks of as expensive, believing that life is too harsh to live in. You can feel faith in every nerve, every muscle. It goes deep until it reaches the tiniest corner of your heart. You don’t have to do big things to earn it, but probably just think about everything you did or do in a positive relieving way, always linking it to your creator. You are not doing this because you have to do it, or because God asks us to be nice. It’s not a command, it’s human nature that God has put in every single one of us! It is all part of faith!

Have you ever seen how almost every movie portrays some good in all the wicked characters? How every single one of them pauses for a second and shows some mercy? For example the movie “Winter’s Tale” shows the struggle between good and bad, and how the devil knows his end and knows that there is always something in human nature that brings him back to faith. That is Love! Evil starts with Ego, hatred, and envy! Only love can bring us together. Even poets have written about this. Marianne Moore in her poem “In Distrust of Merits” talks about the internal war that humans should wage against their devilish nature, corrupted by hatred, and ego! Also Hamlet says:

What a piece of work is a man?
How noble in reason! How infinite in faculties!
In form and moving, how express and admirable!
In action how like an angel!
In apprehension how like a god!
The beauty of the world!
The paragon of animals!
And yet, to me, what is this quintessence of dust?”

 Everyone believes in Love. Everybody believes in hope! That’s the only thing keeping us alive! The only thing that the devil has failed to lead us astray with!

Then, think about it! Faith, Love, Hope, how better can it get! Just a reminder for you dear fellow: Nobody, NOBODY will die before doing his miracle, and helping someone rise from the dust. Not through a payment of a million dollars, no! Probably by a simple advice or maybe by a life changing smile you put on any stranger’s face! Only those who have experienced it will know what I mean!

Last but not least, STOP dear friend! Look around you! Life is a miracle itself. Observing a tiny fly sucking some honey could change your entire view of life! THINK by both your heart and mind, because only then you’ll see! Remember that not all those that have eyes can see, because not all can realize the beauty of life, the greatness of every single thing happening in our daily existence! Have faith that everything happens for a reason, and that reason is that a flower is going to grow tomorrow out of today’s pain! Love and Hope for the better! Aint these the only things keeping us alive?!

Nur Kazah