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World Voice Day 2009

Hanifa K. Cook — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 08:49:10 +0000

I want to talk about our special gift, the voice because today, April 16 is World Voice Day.

Celine Dion has a voice doctor; David Beckham’s legs have his legs insured. Other people who do not own their bodies have vested interests in protecting and maintaining THEIR physical health conditions for professional reasons. Professional singers, stockbrokers, financial advisors, sales entrepreneurs or teachers alike depend on their voices to make money. Indeed, our voice is an integral part of the human anatomy.

We use our voices everyday. They are important in communicating daily activities with members of the family, friends and colleagues at work. Without voices, it is impossible to imagine how civilisation will evolve on earth: how does one speak to another about directions, health, shopping, trading, business, cooking, education and music? People born with a voice must therefore be aware of the importance of this special gift.

The World Voice Day was established on April 16th with the main goals of increasing public awareness of the importance of the voice and alertness to voice problems. The event started in Brazil in 1999 as the Brazilian National Voice Day. It was the result of a mixed initiative of physicians, speech-language pathologists and singing teachers that belonged to the former association ‘Sociedade Brasileira de Laringologia e Voz – SBLV’ (Brazilian Society of Laryngology and Voice). This initiative was followed by other countries, such as Argentina and Portugal, and the Brazilian National Voice Day became the International Voice Day.

Download the full .pdf report (2 pages) here: April 16th: The World Voice Day

Here are some useful tips to keep your voice in good health:

Learn to control your breath: If you take a real deep breath, you will feel that your lungs will slowly expand forcing your chest out. If you direct your breathing towards your diaphragm and away from your lungs, your stomach will be bloated instead. Learning to control does not mean to keep that air in the stomach or exhale in one go after holding it in for a few seconds. As soon as you breathe in, your lungs are full (the chest is forced out completely), exhale gradually and start to count to 10, say the days of the week or just practise your times table! The most important thing is not to use your throat muscles to manage the volume of your voice. You have to use your abdominal muscles instead. Keep your back straight at all times and shoulders square.

Speak to a child. One of the reasons for doing this is that children, being visually smaller in built, will naturally cause us to tone down our voices to a lower, softer pitch and also slow down the pace of our speech. Before I conduct a class for kids, I would have to practise my lessons in front of my co-teachers or on my own to make sure that I do not overemphasise certain new phrases I want to introduce to the kids for the day.

Extra tip for mums: I started reading to my own child when she was just 40 days old. And I am not the only mother in the world who is happy to do this. I wanted my daughter to pick up the quality in the voice so when she is ready to speak, sing or talk, she is able to emulate the pitch, intonation and modulation. For a baby, you can do this for as long as 24 months because the baby’s first intended spoken words are said to start at around 1 year old. When you are speaking to older children, maintain a low pitch (and soft tone). It is very hard as a parent to do this especially when emotions of anger and frustrations do happen and will be heard in the voices. In this case, tell yourself it is not worth the energy to raise your voice to display anger and frustrations; kids are will not respond to an angry parent. More often than not, they do react by sulking or throwing tantrums on future occassions.

Practise articulation of your speech with tongue twisters, learn foreign languages or sing. In all cases, you are making use of your brain to give feedback to the muscles used for speech and voices to speak clearly. People with good command of spoken language do mumble or mince their words as they speak. Good language skills do not necessarily lead to better speech.

Do not speak when you are upset. Try not to speak when you are angry lest “the devil will speak out before you do”. Emotions like anger and frustration can cause unnecessary strain to the vocal chords during speech because the voice is forced.

Rest your voice by resting, silent reading, drinking with cool drinks and lots of sleep. Maintain healthy oral hygiene by gargling and frequent brushing of teeth. Take care of your breath and look after your teeth; tests have shown that a fruit-flavored sugary syrup – made from a natural sweetener called Xylitol – can protect teeth against corrosion.

Recommended Resources:

Montessori, The Absorbent Mind.

The Quick & Easy Cure For Bad Breath!

Get “How I Banished My Bad Breath and Gum Disease For Life!”

Exercise regularly. (for instance swim and brisk walking). Consume lots of greens, herbs and soups. Practise using your lips: make the “brrr” sounds, move from low to high volume.

Learn With The Rhythm Of Childhood

Hanifa K. Cook — Sat, 11 Apr 2009 07:51:59 +0000

All the characteristics modulations of languages are best acquired at a young age, preferably under the age of 7 years. It becomes clear to most adults who are learning a foreign language that they are carrying the imperfections characteristics of his native language or mother tongue. So how are you able to help yourself succeed in learning something new when all theories and argument of languages seem to point a fact, it is better to start learning when we are young?

We can revisit our inner voice, the inner child and use the same natural powers endowed upon us since our birth for our continued growth.

We have taught ourselves to walk, talk, sit, crawl, turn, jump and skip for more than 6 years without proper training. If you revisit those moments, you would probably not even remember the steps of how it had happened. What happened was that the child’s growth was intuitive. If there is some sort handicap, the child knew how to ignore it and use only the limbs, organs or senses that were usable.

Just as we had corrected ourselves when we tried to take our first few steps as a toddler or grip a pencil at 2 years old, we have power to authorize this highly intuitive child to help us learn again. We are capable of correcting our imperfections which we carry into our adulthood by using this intuitive learning process.

All kinds of movement we have ever learnt was performed first by the child, before the adult comes along and decides to speed up the learning process by all sorts of theories and new practices: accelerated learning, mindchamp or quantum learning. Call it what you like, but there is always such a thing called “Go back to basics”, especially when the spiraling effect of speed learning or leap learning is beyond reach or becomes confusing.

You may be interested to know that many religious converts who embrace a new religion as an adult has got to learn the scriptures in whatever language they are given. How is it that a Westerner like Cat Steven could suddenly say a few prayers in Arabic when all his life, he only sings and speaks in English? How is it possible that millions of people who do not speak Hindi love to watch Hindi movie and then sing in the same Hindi language? Or a Malay person speaking Japanese and singing in Tagalog?

School cannot teach you how talent come into being, because the power to perform such as speaking and singing in a foreign language, do not come from books, but from the inner teacher inside us. This inner teacher is the child who was once the master of your body. He has learned to walk, jump, sit, talk and swim. Be free, usher out the child, your inner teacher, and let yourself dance to the rhythm of your childhood. It is not a crazy idea. It is the best yet.

Learning Arabic Versus Reading Holy Quran In Arabic

Hanifa K. Cook — Sat, 04 Apr 2009 16:19:31 +0000

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 written in the Arabic language, without ever learning the language itself. Isn’t that remarkable? Many Muslims in non-native Arab countries are also Hafiz, a term to describe a person who has memorised the Holy Quran.

Millions of ordinary Muslims can only read and recite the Holy Quran without knowing the meaning of the surahs. If you open up this Holy book, you will not be able to read any greeting phrases that are commonly introduced in a language school. “Welcome!” That’s not how God speaks.

The Holy Quran is the only book that has the power to attract people to learn to read Arabic without force. It empowers the reader to want to memorise some of It’s verses for his prayers, discuss topics on Islam using his native tongue, sing nursery rhymes in Arabic and listen to Arabic music. If a Muslim parent wants his child to speak Arabic, the quickest way is to get the child to read, “Introduction To Reading Of The Holy Quran.” instead of “Learn To Speak Arabic For Kids”.

Learning begins with the alphabets (consonants and vowels). Then the intonation sounds of each alphabet when it is modified by using the phonetical symbols. Letters are later joined together to form short phrases that have no meaning in itself. The purpose is to practise producing pitch and intonation. Then the reader gets to progress further into longer phrases with more complex linking or running alphabets. When one has mastered reading running alphabets, he will begin the process of learning to read the Holy Quran beginning with the opening chapter called, “The Al-fatihah” or “The Opening”.

The book is called the “Muqaddam”, which contains mainly the short verses of the last chapter of the Holy Quran. Within a short period of time of reading the Muqaddam, it is possible to become familiar with the Arabic language. If one does not know how to read the short surahs independently, it means he does not have the skill the read the Holy Quran. Nonetheless, he would have mastered the basic components of reading, enough to perform his prayers but not to sustain him beyond rote memory. (Some readers prefer to use the ‘Iqra’ method which ensures faster sound recognition before learning to read Muqaddam. The latter is regarded as the traditional form of learning to read the Holy Quran, which has proven more effective in helping the reader to develop independence.)

It is apparent that reading the Holy Quran introduces Islam but not the Arabic language to readers. Readers may or may not develop an interest in learning Arabic. There are a few reasons:

1. the Holy Quran are the words of Allah, the God of Islam so it is not intended for communication between man and man, rather God and man.

2. there are rules to speaking proper Arabic, English or any language. The Holy Quran does not teach these rules; and

3. even though the Holy Quran has been translated in as many languages as there are believers, scholars are still discussing and learning the hidden meaning behind some of the Arabic phrases.

So, learning Arabic and learning the Holy Quran in Arabic are two separate matters. The former can be taught by any language teacher who may or may not be a Muslim. The latter, however, ought to be taught by a Muslim teacher.

An example of learning Arabic language can be found on this document:

Download Document here: Learn Arabic Sample Course

View the full course here:Arabic

An example of understanding Arabic in the Holy Quran can be found on this site, 80percentwords

Learn Modulation Of Language

Hanifa K. Cook — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 07:07:35 +0000

There are a few techniques used by teachers, salespersons, actors, actresses, news presenters and singers to make their performance interesting to their listeners, viewers or audience. It is the way they give pitch to their voice and intonate their speeches that makes us listen with interest. This technique is called modulating the voice so our spoken language will become fluent. Prior to learning about modulation, please read this post regarding pitching and intonation. Basics To Good Spoken Language:Pitch and Intonate

I had dinner at a Seafood Restaurant last night with 3 foreigners: a Singaporean Chinese, an Australian and a Hawaiian. The Singaporean was making our order from the menu. He spoke in Mandarin. He asked for a dish called ‘Drunken Prawns’. When I heard this word ‘Drunken’, my immediately reaction to that was the dish would contain alcohol. I uttered in Mandarin, “有没有酒的？我不喝酒。” He looked at me inquiringly before turning to the waitress, “我们点蒸虾。” After ordering, he turned to me, complimenting me on my Mandarin, adding that he had only learnt Malay language at school.

From my day to day experience using foreign languages, I discover that it is never how long my sentences or bombastic my vocabulary is, that impressed people. Greetings, asking for directions and saying thank you, are all basic short phrases that should be practised to perfection to improve the cognitive process of language learning. A simple ‘thank you’ with the blending ‘th’ pronounced wrongly might end up sounding like ‘tank you’.

Being able to carry a conversation in a foreign langauge is a totally different learning curve altogether. When one tries too hard to speak the foreign language too quickly without mastering simple modulation processes, what happens is the native accent becomes more obvious.

Here are the techniques you can use to jump start your spoken skills in a foreign language. Remember to keep it simple and interactive.

1. Watch the movement of the mouth, head and eyes as the speaker uses his voice to convey meaning to his spoken words;

2. Listen for upward and downward pitches at different parts of speech: beginning, middle, end or in between syllables.

3. Make use of your motor skills: hands, foot and other parts of the body like your eyes, by involving them when you speak. For example, as you say ‘How are you?’, extend your hand to demonstrate meaning. Or if you say, ‘sleep’, close your eyes. This was how our teachers and parents taught us the meaning of task related words when we were kids.:)

How Does A Bilingual Individual Think?

Studies have shown that bilingual individuals are able to “maintain control over the two languages that they know”. By this it means that they can separate the two languages that they know and in the presence of others who are bilingual in the same languages, they also tend to mix two languages together. If you are in the company of a bilingual person, as how things are said in a foreign language they know. You will notice, as I have always been in that position myself, that there is absolute control over when and how to switch from one language to another.

Some people say this is adaptability; researchers have shown that whilst the first language is already stored in the memory, the new word in a foreign language will be stored in memory as a semantic feature of the concept. One particular research was published on this Education Research Resource Centre. ED192611 – Semantic Facilitation on a Bilingual Lexical Decision Task.

When we teach a foreigner to say ‘cup’ in in Bahasa Indonesia, we can use a picture of a cup or a concrete object ‘cup’ and say ‘cangkir’. The memory stored will then be ‘cup’-'picture of cup’-'cangkir’. The next time he has to say cup in Bahasa Indonesia, he will refer back to the picture in his memory bank and extract the word from that memory.

Cup - Picture - Cangkir

Another technique is to practise using pairs of words with related concepts and meanings, one word is native and the other foreign. Pairing “cup and botol (bottle)” and “cup and cangkir” helps the individual to practise translating between the two and eventually embedding and committing the correct one to memory.

There was a study which demonstrated that verb categories are best learned by involving the motor system: hand and foot movement. For further reading, you can refer to one of these posts.:

Language: Sensorial And Motor Centers Of Brain

Child’s Spoken Language Is Formed Through Silent Reading

Prepared learning environment filled with love and dedication

Hanifa K. Cook — Sun, 15 Mar 2009 12:25:51 +0000

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 for this term’s new programme?” Instantly, I replied, “I am sorry, I won’t be.” She sounded very surprised but did not ask for any reasons.

It was the right decision I made for my daughter’s education. She passed her Mandarin tests with no extra tuition, extra hours of learning in a prepared environment. We studied together, went through her homework and had regular conversation sessions to keep pace with her school programme. She also has a caring Mandarin teacher at school. She does have the best of both worlds.

I found that the center did not get the best out of my daughter as a student while she was learning there. So to help others like me who have to send their kids to learning centres, here are two basic guidelines:

1. Atmosphere –

Do you feel welcome by tutors and students alike when you arrive for the first time?
Is there proper orientation of the programmes before you start classses?
Can you find people to discuss your issues with learning as parent or student?

2. Quality -

Are there learning materials that help you with the learning programme?
Can the tutors pay equal attention if learning is conducted as a group?
Can you ask questions related to previous sessions?
Does your child keep asking the same questions after attending the class?

Most importantly, know what type of learning pattern your child has. Keep observing not checking or monitoring for progress. A child learns best when there is love and happiness in the environment.

I had written a post on How To Provide A Learning Environment on November 4th 2008. It is now March 2009. She did it! I hope you have a chance to read the post. If you have any concerns or questions, please leave your questions here by clicking on the comments.

I am now teaching online Mandarin, Bahasa Indonesia, Bahasa Melayu and English. Do feel free to enquire for options to run a class for kids online.

And do not forget to get your Free 6 Day Mandarin Course. It is so worth it.