Cairo Forum 2010 Education Site

Archive for July, 2011

The Arabic language is an ancient tongue that dates back to earlier than the 6th century. It is a language steeped in history, and shrouded in mystery. Today, the Arabic language is the 5th most spoken language on the planet, and it is the official language in many Middle Eastern countries, such as Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Israel, Morocco, and Saudi Arabia. If you are interested in the study of ancient Near Eastern history, modern Middle Eastern history, religion, or foreign language, learning the Arabic language will help you in your academic pursuits. There are several ways you can go about learning how to read, write, and speak Arabic.

If you feel that you should learn the Arabic language for academic reasons, you have options. You can attend a college or University, and earn your degree in Arabic. You could also choose to minor in the language, which will supplement your education if you earn a degree in religion, history, archaeology, or even art history. A degree or a minor in Arabic will help you to translate ancient documents and literature, which will give you wonderful research capabilities. If you do receive your degree in Arabic, you will be highly knowledgeable in a very formal dialect of the language, both written and conversationally. Also, if you have military aspirations, knowing how to communicate in Arabic would be useful, given today’s military climate.

If you have plans to travel extensively to an Arabic speaking country such as Egypt or Morocco, consider taking accelerated foreign language courses online before you go. By learning the basics of a foreign language, you show that you are culturally sensitive and genuinely interested in the country by learning to communicate with locals in their native tongue. You won’t look “touristy” by carrying a book or stumbling through questions to local residents, and you will have a greater appreciation for the culture you are experiencing on your travels. Your travels will be more enjoyable, exciting, and educational.

There are several advantages to learning how to read and speak the Arabic language through an online accelerated course. You will find that doing so via the Internet is very convenient. And your studies won’t interfere with your work and personal commitments. Often, courses are completed at your own pace, with no set class times. You can study Arabic from the comforts of home. All of your work is submitted online, and you will find many opportunities to interact with qualified instructors if you have questions. You will find that the fees for enrolling in an online Arabic language course are reasonable as well.
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There are three basic groups of Spanish verbs, in these articles we will look at the regular AR, ER and IR verbs.. In this part we will concentrate on regular ER and IR verbs in the present tense.

In Part 1,we learned that a verb is a “doing” word that covers everything from an action to an opinion, so sing, drink, eat,, like, dislike, love, kick, fall, smile, hear, write turn, are all examples of verbs. In the English language the verb is not changed by who is doing the action. An example would be;
“I like cheese”, “we like cheese” and “you like cheese”, the verb “like” stays the same. In Spanish the form of the verb is changed by who is doing the action.

In the first part we concentrated on regular verbs ending in the letters a and r. The other two groups of regular verbs are the verbs that end in er and ir.

Verbs Ending In ER

One of the words meaning to repair in Spanish is rehacer, if we want to say “ I repair cars” in Spanish, we drop the e and r from the end of rehacer and add an o, to give “rehaco los coches”(los coches, is literally the cars). There is no need for the Spanish word for I (Yo) at the beginning of the sentence because by adding the er, we have changed the verb to referrer it to me.
If we wanted to say “you repair cars” to one person, we would remove the er and add es. giving us “rehaces los coches”, there is no need to use tù (the Spanish for you) as the change to rehacer has already specified the subject of the sentence.
When we are learning basic Spanish verbs and wanting to say that he or she repairs cars, we can use “rehace los coches”, just add an e to the shortened rehacer. This is also the proper way to use the verb when talking to someone you’ve never met before or in a formal situation. Read the rest of this entry »

Some 26% of parents in each of the American states consider home schooling for their children over normal school classes. This is because of the benefits both the parents and the children get as a social being. Home schooling gives them the chance to be free of old school days with pressure and daily assignments. Due the old set up, many members of the family have become isolated from each other allowing them just a few precious times with their loved ones.

There are four important reasons why parents opt for home studying for their children, a) social reasons, b) academic reasons, c) family reasons, and d) religious reasons.

Social Reasons

By joining the community cycle, parents fee that their children are more comfortable in dealing with different kinds of people. They feel that their kids have a lesser tendency of becoming dependent with peers. By introducing the kids more to church and community programs, these home-schooled kids do not feel self conscious and recognized, as kids are easier to talk to.

The catalogue, Growing Without Schooling publisher Pat Farenga wrote: “Group experiences are a big part of education, and home schoolers have plenty of them. They write to us about how they form or join writing clubs, book discussion groups and local home-schooling groups. Home schoolers also take part in school sports teams and music groups (in nearby public schools), as well as in the many public and private group activities our communities provide. These young people can and do experience other people and cultures without going to school.”

The home-school setting deviates the child’s attention from alcohol, premarital sex, drugs, violence and gangsters that could destroy his future. And since home-schooled children are free from peer pressure, they are more likely to have more friends from the church and community activities. Some communities created a special group for home-schooled children where field trips, social recreations and team building games are organized. This builds respect and opens channels for communication.

Academic Reasons

Parents believe that the less students handled by the teacher, the more focus is provided each of the learners. They thought that the personal tutoring of teachers is the most fruitful way of helping the kids learn successfully. The most famous home-schooled personalities of all time are: Thomas Edison, Charles Dickens, Winston Churchill, Agatha Christie, Florence Nightingale, Woodrow Wilson, Woodrow Brothers, and Benjamin Franklin. One parent got more of his children’s academic training in home schooling through the process of exchanging skills with other home schooled children. Being an English degree holder, he teaches three of his colleague’s sons, while his colleague teaches his kids math.

Although home schooling is, as derived from its own name “home”, this special education also developed into a more organized and planned instrument of teaching. One example is the High Plains Christian Home Educators that was established in Colorado Springs who has its own administrator who sees to it that all 200 of their home-schooled children are given enough classes. Unlike a normal school setting, home based studying allows each of the subject areas to be taught separately making the approach cross disciplined.
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Copyright 2006 Emma Snow

We are all familiar with dolphins, whales and sharks; we know what tuna and snapper look like, but what about some less familiar fish such as lizardfish, giant squid, or blind eels? There are so many lesser known animals in the depths of the ocean that we hear little or nothing about most times, it is interesting to investigate a few of these creatures and understand them a little more.

The first on our list of deep sea creatures is the fangtooth fish. This fish is one of the most evil looking ocean predators. It lives in the deep ocean and catches its prey by luring them in with glowing light organs called photophores. In such a dark abyss, fish are attracted to the light put off by the organ and once they are close enough the fangtooth fish catches them in his numerous large teeth. He looks like an underwater vampire.

Another carnivorous sea animal is the deep-sea lizardfish. These interesting fish look almost like a short snake in water. Their mouths are covered with harpoon-tipped teeth that grasp their prey and don’t let go, similar to a fish hook. These teeth are hinged so that they can flattened down when prey is going in and stand up when resisting. They don’t even need to actively swallow; the struggling prey just ratchets itself inside. With their glowing yellow eyes, the lizardfish is a wonder to behold.

Often called the nastiest fish in the ocean, the blind eel is next on our list. These fish are called blind eels because they have such small, ineffective eyes. Who needs eyes when you are living in almost complete darkness? They prey on live or dead fish which they locate through smell. They have circular mouths that they use to suck on their prey. They have tooth-studded tongues that allow them to cut through their victims flesh and literally eat them from the inside out. They are also sometimes called slime eels because their skin emits a sticky slime, up to a gallon at a time. It is used to suffocate predators by clogging their gills when they attempt to eat the eel.
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