L&LL

Book Review

Book Review

Tunisia

Tunisia - circa 1980

 

Book Review

Review

 

L&LL

Review

 

Review

L&LL

Mishwiyya

One of the dishes I mention in Languages & Life Lessons is mishwiyya. It's a kind of salad Tunisians make in the summer. 

They grill tomatoes, both bell and chili peppers, and onions until they have all blackened -- the peppers and onions take longer than the tomatoes and bell peppers. Next, they peel the grilled vegetables and chop them into very small pieces either by hand or in a food processor. Then they add grounded cumin seeds, garlic, and salt, and mix everything before putting it on a platter. They add a small amount of lemon juice and a not-so-small amount of olive oil. Finally, they garnish it with tuna, cut boiled eggs, and olives. 

Et voilà! It's ready to eat... with or without bread.

Anne Lamott

"If you have a body, you are entitled to the full range of feelings. It comes with the package."
Anne Lamott

France

France - circa 1986

L&LL

Gratitude Girl

Those who have read Languages & Life Lessons will find some parts of this letter, written by Gratitude Girl, familiar:
https://gratigi.blogspot.com/2021/07/shohreh-javanbakht.html

Review

 

L&LL

Book Review

Anaïs Nin

"We write to taste life twice, in the moment and in retrospect.”
Anaïs Nin

L&LL

 

Greece

Greece - 1981

 

Review

L&LL: Birth

I started writing when I learned to write, but I started writing every day in 2016. It was meant to be therapeutic. I wrote what I couldn't say. Over 5,000 pages later, in 2019, after I got settled in my cabin in the woods, I started organizing my notes to turn my writing into a book. This process alone took over a year, and by the end of 2020, I finally had about 200 pages. The editing didn't seem to get anywhere for a while...

One day, working on the manuscript, I realized this was going to be three books, not one. When I divided my work into three sections, I began to make progress with the editing. Languages & Life Lessons is one of those three books -- the first to be published.

My pen name is the last part of my first name and the first part of my last name:

noosh(afarin rava)ghi

Book Review

Two Tails & One Head

I meant what I said in my #BookDedication.
I'm so glued to my chair...

 

L&LL

Deleted Sections

I initially had a few sections about funny misunderstandings that happened in my classes. I took them out because they were not all directly related to language and decided to keep the notes for later -- they would make a few blog posts or perhaps even a new book. 

One of these incidents was related to language -- and it took place in an intermediate level writing class. I wrote two prompts on the board and told my students they had ten minutes to write and edit a paragraph on one of these topics.

Write a paragraph about a person who has been important to your language learning.

Write a paragraph about a challenge in a past or present relationship.

One of my students raised her hand, and when I approached her, she said she had just broken up with her boyfriend. She wanted to know if she could write a paragraph about a challenge in her breakupship. 

I smiled -- because I loved her creativity -- and said, "Sure! Just don't use the word breakupship because it's not in the dictionary... yet." 

When I went back to my seat, I thought about the word my student had cleverly created and decided it should be in the dictionary. Breakups have a whole set of rules and challenges, and entire books have been written about them and movies have been made about them, so why doesn't this word exist?

David P Perlmutter

Iran

Iran - 1972

 

Book Review

Languages & Life Lessons

A memoir written with humor and heart, Languages & Life Lessons recounts the story of Afarin Rava, the only child of a travel-loving professor of literature with a passion for words and languages — a passion that borders on obsession. Afarin tells anecdotes of the challenges she faces and the lessons she learns as she cruises through languages and explores her journey of linguistic discovery and identity.  

Kindle

Paperback