This blog will continue, but I am making a web page that will be easier to navigate. Click on the title of this post to go to my web page.

Jeremy

Click on the title of this post to go to Hashemite University's website about their Summer Intensive Arabic program.

My Alma Mater and Damascus University sign an accord for more student exchanges. Sounds like a great opportunity for both establishments. Click on the title of this post if you are interested in reading about it.

Click on the title to go to the Defense Language Institute's free online basics of Iraqi Arabic course complete with mp3s and more.

Click on the title of this post to go to an interesting article from connectionnewspapers.com about Arabic for middle and high schoolers. This is one of the keys to freeing the US from its monolingualism: get the kids to start learning foreign languages when they are younger so that when they grow up - the foreign languages aren't quite so foreign and seemingly unlearnable.

So I have piles of language notebooks.

Click on the title of this post to go to the article "Learning Arabic, and much more" by Justin Martin a fulbrighter in Amman, Jordan.

It seems that there is a good deal of interest in expanding and creating Arabic programs for foreigners in Amman.

Click on the title to go to the article at DesMoinesRegister.com. The author is David Maxwell.

Here is an article that is right up my alley of interest.

This semester's beginning has hit me like a train. I will try and post soon. Let me know if there are any particular questions or issues that would be of in

I purchased "Using Arabic: A Guide to Contemporary Usage" by Mahdi Alosh a week or so ago (See my previous post for more information aobut the book). I have spent a few hours going through the book since and have found it to be worth the 25$ I paid.

MarHaban,

I bought this book today and look forward to going through it. Mahdi Alosh is perhaps the premier Arabic grammarian and linguist. Click on the title of this post to go to the publisher's site.

This website is super cool.

As if you didn't know, the US Gov is looking for Arabic translators.

One of the few articles that presents quantifiable data in support of teaching spoken Arabic (There are none that I know of that support the teaching of only Modern Standard Arabic (MSA)).

It looks like CASA Damascus is becoming a reality! It looks like the program might start up in 2007. This is excellent for Syria and America. Stay tuned for more info.

The classic American cartoon The Simpsons is being Arabicised into The Shamsoons.

It looks like the Arabic Center at Damascus University has changed to the following:

MarHaba,

The debate is on. What do you think about the teaching and learning of colloquial Arabic vs. Modern Standard Arabic? When should a student learn colloquial? There are some universities in the US that teach both concurrently - though they are the exception.

A Ceiling Effect in Traditional Classroom Foreign Language Instruction: Data from Russian

Benjamin Rifkin
The Modern Language Journal
Vol. 89 Issue 1 Page 3 March 2005


This is an interesting article that provides data about the necessity of immersion and/or study abroad programs.

كلمات في الأخبار

You really have to get creative to learn Arabic well. Here is one of many ways to learn more vocabulary. The BBC regularly provides an English learning service for Arabic speakers at their online site. This service is called كلمات في الأخبار which means Words in the News. Clicking on this will take you to a page that contains a short description in Arabic of a current news article from the BBC. After this short description, there are selections of the original English text followed by a vocabulary list of Arabic that explains the meaning of certain selected words from the article.

For example, an article about forest fires contained the following English text followed by Arabic Vocabulary:

"Most of those who died are thought to have been incinerated in their cars as they tried to escape the flames. They've been fuelled by a cocktail of high summer temperatures, gusting winds and tinder dry conditions."

incinerated
احترق بالكامل

Check it out:

Syria and Freedom of Speech Through the Internet from Reuters.

DAMASCUS, 4 September (IRIN) - Writing individual websites –

Check this gem out from the LA Times about the Iraqi version of American Idol:

Link

Click on the option to watch the video clips and enjoy.

Internet

As far as I know, there are two options for dial-up in Syria: SCS (Syrian Computer Society) and dial-up from your local phone company. I recommend SCS because you can use a POP account and IP address, so you can use chat programs.

Check it out! Damascus University's site is working. Well, only in English so far. Here is the link:

BEING BILINGUAL PROTECTS AGAINST SOME AGE-RELATED COGNITIVE CHANGES, SAYS NEW RESEARCH

WASHINGTON — Most will agree that two heads are better than one in solving problems. The same logic may be true for language and retaining cognitive processes as we age. Being fluent in two languages seems to prevent some of the cognitive decline seen in same-age monolingual speaking persons, according to the findings of a study appearing in this month’s journal of Psychology and Aging.

Go to full article here

If you get a "oops how did I get here from the APA site" you should simply type the words "Being Bilingual" into the search box at the top left side of the screen. The first article to come up should be this one.

Jeremy



More info:

Article: “Bilingualism, Aging, and Cognitive Control: Evidence From the Simon Task,” Ellen Bialystok, Ph.D., and Mythili Viswanathan, M.A., York University; Fergus I. M. Craik, Ph.D., Rotman Research Institute; Raymond Klein, Ph.D., Dalhousie University; Psychology and Aging, Vol. 19, No. 2.

Hello All,

I am about to begin my PhD program. I have interesting articles and study helps coming soon. AlSabr jamiil.

Jeremy

Busy traveling - more soon.