by Hanifa K. Cook | Apr 4, 2009 | Arabic, Language
When I was taught that every Muslim must pray 5 times a day and recite the Holy Quran in their prayers in Arabic, I thought, “Wow! Muslims must be very intelligent!” For generations, many non-Arab natives have been able to read the Holy Quran, which is...
by Hanifa K. Cook | Mar 30, 2009 | Language, Spanish
The time has come for my monthly Spanish language update. So what have I learned this month? I dared myself to write my first sentence in Spanish but I am not ready. Writing has to come later, after speech. I have spent time reading tweets in Spanish and occassionally...
by Hanifa K. Cook | Mar 15, 2009 | Environment
10 weeks ago, I was still in Australia enjoying summer vacation. When I arrived back home, I received a phone call from my daughter’s Mandarin tutor. She spoke to me in English with a very heavy Mandarin accent, “Hello! Is your daughter coming to register...
by Hanifa K. Cook | Feb 6, 2009 | Childhood, Environment, Internet, Language, Learning Skills, Music, News
Learning out loud is a great way to bounce back knowledge that comes into your head. Kids figure out quickly that being loud does not necessary have to mean about sounds. Bright and gaudy colours are loud. If used as a figure of speech, ‘loud’ takes a...