Three Cups of Tea November 2, 2009
Posted by bookncurls in Middle East.Tags: Afghanistan, Arabic, Greg Mortenson, Middle East, Pakistan, Three Cups of Tea
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Just finished Three Cups of Tea: One Man’s Mission to Promote Peace…One School at a Time written by co-authors Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin. Read it in preparation for the forum speech he gave at Brigham Young University last week. Got a chapter short of deadline but finally finished a week later.
To me it’s a very cool story of a guy who was in the right place at the right time and willing to do something remarkable. People must have thought he was crazy in the beginning. He was. For all logical reasons. Yet, it turned out to be exactly what the people of Pakistan, Afghanistan, and America needed.
I work on this side of the ocean trying to help students understand the Middle East. Reading this book makes me feel like I’m part of this big adventure sweeping the country. I just read another article today about a new teacher of Arabic in Memphis, Tennesee of all places.
Before this report becomes all glowing and no guts, I will add a few other things.
1-Something about the writing was jolting me around. Maybe it was because I knew enough of the story, I wanted to get to the meat.
2-I’m a little sad there were so many references to the Nobel Peace Prize. I definitely feel Greg Mortenson is a great candidate for the prize but I thought it was a little tactless to mention it so many times in his own book. Understandably people were quoted referring to it and Mortenson was not the only author of the book. This is why meeting him in person helped me resolve that concern I had. See my post below about his coming to Provo.
3- We all can be dismissive to a certain degree. There were a few times I cringed at some dismissive ways “Europeans” and “Americans” were sometimes sized up in the book, though. Many of the references come from typical stereotypes. American stereotypes of Europeans. World stereotypes of Americans. The thought that kept going through my mind is how many dedicated European humanitarians I’ve met around the world and many Americans are interested in more than the bottom line figure in the bank. (Another concern which was resolved by his presentation.)
Two of my favorite quotes from the book:
“The only way we can defeat terrorism is if people in [Pakistan and Afghanistan] where terrorists exist learn to respect and love Americans,” Mortenson concluded, “and if we can respect and love these people [in Pakistan and Afghanistan]. What’s the difference between them becoming a productive local citizen or a terrorist? I think the key is education.” pg. 268
“…You have to attack the source of your enemy’s strength. In America’s case, that’s not Osama or Saddam or anyone else. The enemy is ignorance. The only way to defeat it is to build relationships with these people, to draw them into the modern world with education and business. Otherwise the fight will go on forever.” –Brigadier General Bashir Baz pg 310
International Baccalaureate October 12, 2009
Posted by bookncurls in A Comment.Tags: Arabic, International Baccalaureate, language study, Provo High School
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I just returned from a weekend training from International Baccalaureate (IB). Provo High School is an International Baccalaureate World School. Some of my Arabic classes are IB hence I am learning their curriculum and strategy.
I’m now ramping up courses, excited about the growing number of students who now have an option to learn on a larger global scale. IB language students are built up, given lots of outlets to show their strengths and not penalized for specific shortcomings in language ability.
As someone who really loves studying and using languages, I always appreciate a chance to build confidence in a new language by focusing on strengths. Long after a couple of my teachers gave up on me, I am still speaking and better than they might have imagined–it’s not always about speed. That’s part of the message I want to convey to language students.
For more information see the International Baccalaureate website. http://www.ibo.org/
Mohamed El Naggar September 7, 2009
Posted by bookncurls in A Comment.Tags: Arabic, high school, Middle East, Mohamed El Naggar
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Mohamed El Naggar is out exchange teacher from Egypt this year. He has been a great asset.
Steven Berbeco September 7, 2009
Posted by bookncurls in A Comment.Tags: Arabic, high school, Marhaba, Steven Berbeco
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Steven Berbeco, the author of Marhaba, a new curriculum for teaching Arabic to high school students flew in from Boston to do a sample lesson for my students here in Provo. After he left I asked the students what they thought about the lesson. One of them said, “He was animated.”
Genius September 1, 2009
Posted by bookncurls in A Comment, Middle East.Tags: Arabic, language study, Sign Language
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Self Talk as part of language study
I have been priveledged to meet and interact with some great minds. I am guessing that Arabic is a draw for those minds. It is a language deep and wide enough to suit minds who need the challenge. My question this morning is: Is there room at the table for everyone else? There are students who won’t learn from anyone they believe is not as intelligent as themselves. I am sure that must be a ligitimate challenge to an extent.
I like students who are genius, especially when they use it to enlighten my mind and are respectful and patient with those who are not as intelligent. I also like the struggling student who takes a little longer to get something but then finally does. They usually have coping techniques to make it through: a smile, a joke, self talk–”good game”. Their skills may be street smarts, getting along with people, etc. I believe we need everyone.
And in the book, “Outliers”, by Malcolm Gladwell, he points out that there is a certain threshold where intelligence and success level off. After that, it doesn’t matter the genius of someone, only their ability to use what they have to succeed. Creativity and resourcefulness contributed as well. Al Hamdulilah.
So because of this belief, I regularly add self-talk discussions (in English) to my language students. To me, the ability to learn a language is because of a mind set not an IQ score per se.
We Pray August 21, 2009
Posted by bookncurls in A Comment, Middle East.Tags: Arabic, muslim, Prayer
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I have a great team teacher here from Egypt to work with. He is fantastic and my Arabic is improving every day. But, first, a story.
We went over the class policies and homework today. I asked them at the end to see if they knew when their quizzes and homework are due.
“So class, what do we do on Fridays?”
A student in the front row and center said, “We pray.”
It was a humble and simple answer from a muslim student who is still learning English and it touched the whole class. All I could answer was, “Yes, we do pray on Fridays.”
Incidently, today is a friday.
Airport Pickup and Name Plates at Dinner August 16, 2009
Posted by bookncurls in A Comment, Middle East.Tags: Arabic, Egypt, Exchange Teacher
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It’s been a while since I’ve had my name printed on a card locating my dinner plate. I was to sit next to our new faculty member on an exchange from Egypt. We, Provo High’s assistant principal and I, picked him up from the airport in Salt Lake, took a few pictures, and headed down south to Provo.
As we passed the Point of the Mountain separating Salt Lake County from Utah County, the whole experience became a little more real and honestly, my mind began churning the enormity of the year with some trepidation. I’m excited because I have a few ideas up my sleave about things we could do in the community with our exchange teacher. I shared a couple in the car. But as always, you’ll have to wait to find out what those things are until they take off. I’ve always got a few ideas, some of them work, some of them don’t. I’ve learned not to say what they are because there is a tendency for people to focus on what doesn’t work instead of what does.
We arrived at the home of the family our exchange teacher will stay with for the next couple of weeks or so. Their dining room windows overlook the valley and the sun setting. China dressed the table and name plates located their guests. Goblets for water. The father at one head of the table, our distinguished guest at the other. Dessert, some Middle Eastern food. It looks like we’re starting off well.
But we begin. Tomorrow, actually. Maybe not the students but their teachers will be there. This our chance to set the tone with my co-teacher for the year. The goal in my mind? We both need space and a chance to exert some creativity while working together. I have some fears, he probably has some. We gotta make tomorrow work so that the whole year can work. Deep breath. Let’s go.
In Sha Allah August 4, 2009
Posted by bookncurls in A Comment, Middle East.Tags: Arabic, Egypt, In Sha Allah, Luxor
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Knowing Arabic in Egypt makes the whole experience completely different. When the salesmen pester you about coming for a horse back ride, etc, you just say “In Sha Allah” which throws their whole culture back in their lap. They say to me, “No. Not ‘In Sha Allah’….’Akiid’.” (meaning Not ‘If God Wills’….’Be Sure.”)
Or, we just got back from Luxor. I remember going to Luxor and the men there keeping watch over the sites and listening to their broken English descriptions of Pharoanic times. This time we speak Arabic and they begin into a well informed, nuanced description of the relics they watch over revealing to me that they actually know more than I originally thought.
Speaking Arabic brings out the sophistication and the kindness in the culture I had not noticed as much before.
Taraq Ibn Ziyad July 13, 2009
Posted by bookncurls in A Comment, Middle East.Tags: Andulusia, Arabic, Middle East, Straights of Gibralter, Taraq Ibn Ziyad
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Classes are very interesting. We had a literature and a media class today. The part I love is seeing the world from the eyes of the Middle East. For example: Taraq Ibn Ziyad opened Andulusia (Spain) and the Straights of Gibralter are named after him. In Arabic it’s called, “Gebel Taraq” or mountain of Taraq. We learned about the educational system and which news papers are the party line and which are more free. Sometimes I honestly feel like I’m in an opposite world. I’m not sure if that makes sense but it makes sense to me. (But then again I only speak English online these days so my English probably sounds a little funny.)
World Travel in Your Head October 21, 2009
Posted by bookncurls in A Comment.Tags: Arabic, Chinese, English, Mandarin, Sign Language
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Someone just asked me what it was like to switch from speaking Mandarin to Arabic in a short space of time. It got me thinking.
A story: When I lived in England, my best friend was Chinese, Song Ran. We spoke only Mandarin together. One day we were in a group of people who only spoke English so I spoke English. As we walked away she said to me, “Don’t speak English again. You turn into an American.”
And that’s the exciting part of languages. Trully when you get to a certain level of fluency, you have to take on part of the culture to sound normal. Think about it in the opposite direction. The more fluent someone becomes in speaking English, the more they seem American, or British if you live there. It happens as you become fluent in other languages as well.
Chinese: When I speak Chinese, honor and saving face become more important. Chinese combines characters in unique ways to make new words so things are grouped together differently in my head than in English. There is no word for ‘yes’ or ‘no’ for example.
Arabic: When I speak Arabic, time slows way down and I must add more religious terminology. There aren’t a lot of specific vocabulary words meaning ’soon’ for example.
Sign Language: When I am signing, sound is drown out and visual cues take on a whole new dimension. I can tell a whole story using linguistic spatial cues and barely even hear the person next to me calling my name.
Juxtaposing those languages close together is trippy because literally my brain jumps from continent to continent and culture to culture. Making language usage like world traveling in your head.