L&LL

 

A Precious Gift

made by Olive Jane

Instagram: olivejane.embroidery

 

Winner

In March, we have one winner only, and that is...

(drum roll)

Claire Sheehy

Congratulations, Claire!

Go: Quiz

Dear Readers:

You've read the "Ready" and "Set" posts, and you are now "Go" with the quiz below.

Copy all the questions into an email message and answer them. 

Send the email to me by 2pm CST, Monday, March 28, 2022: 
afarinrava@gmail.com

If all your answers are correct, you will receive a prize.

Please write the word QUIZ on the email subject line.

I look forward to your email.

Look for the post Winners on Tuesday, March 29, 2022, on this blog.


QUIZ

1. What kind of poems did Noosha recite as a toddler?

2. In which country did Afarin first go to school?

3. In which language did Afarin correspond with her father?

4. How did Afarin "fix" the word grapefruit?

5. Why did Afarin meet President Jimmy Carter in person?

6. In which country did Afarin meet Malous?

7. For which language did Afarin's dad hire a tutor?

8. Who helped Afarin with her compositions in high school?

9. Which language did Noosha learn during her first year of university?

10. Why didn't Noosha become a translator?

11. Which part of learning Chinese did Afarin find the most challenging?

12. Why did Noosha focus on editing books and tutoring children?

13. How did Noosha start a chain of ESL classes in Orange County, California?

Bonus Question (if you answer this question honestly, it can make up for one wrong answer):
Which was your favorite chapter in Languages & Life Lessons?

March Prizes

Do you want one of these paperbacks?

Read Languages & Life Lessons... and check this out: 
https://afarinrava.blogspot.com/2022/03/set.html

Everyone who can get deliveries from Amazon is welcome to participate.

 

Day 6

The Nowruz celebration lasts at least two weeks.
It starts on the last Tuesday before the equinox and continues for thirteen days after the equinox.
And on the 13th day of the new year, people take their sabzeh...
(Sabzeh is one of the seens - https://afarinrava.blogspot.com/2022/03/haftseen.html) 
...and go out for a picnic, where they spend a few hours and leave their sabzeh behind.

USA

USA - 2016

 

Anne Sweeney

“Define success on your own terms, achieve it by your own rules, and build a life you’re proud to live.”  Anne Sweeney

L&LL

 

Set

The quiz will be posted on Monday, March 28, 2022, at 11am Central Standard Time...
(GMT-6)

Copy all the questions into an email message and answer them. 

Send the email to me by 2pm CST, Monday, March 28, 2022: 
afarinrava@gmail.com

If all your answers are correct, you will receive a prize.

Ready

Dear Readers:

Are you ready for the quiz?
If you haven't yet finished Languages & Life Lessons, do it in the next 48 hours.
It's a small book... and the reward is a BIG prize.

The quiz will be posted soon,
and
ONLY people
who answer ALL the questions
CORRECTLY
in the FIRST TWO HOURS 
will WIN the PRIZE

Look for the blog post titled Set in the next few days.

Happy Nowruz!

 

My Haftseen... 2021

In 2021, I had just moved into my new unfinished cabin, but I still set the haftseen table. (https://afarinrava.blogspot.com/2022/03/haftseen.html)

Living in the woods, in Arkansas, I didn't -- and still don't -- have access to some of the items people normally include in their haftseen, so I got creative with other words starting with s in Farsi.

I had the vinegar, apple, coins, garlic, and sabzeh. I grew the sabzeh myself... as I have done every year.

Two items were missing, the senjed and the samanoo, not available in any stores around me. I had a picture of senjed in the postcard I included. The little girl -- cartoonized Noosha -- is holding a bowl full of senjed. I used sumaq, a spice, which many Iranians use in their haftseen, instead of samanoo.  
(https://afarinrava.blogspot.com/2022/03/samanoo.html)
I couldn't make the samanoo because I didn't have a stove yet... and I still don't. 

I added a watch, which starts with s in Farsi, and which I've never seen anyone use as a haftseen item, just for good measure, in case anyone argued that a picture of senjed didn't count.

I set everything on top of a termeh, a beautiful handwoven cloth, and took pictures to remember this year, when the only thing in the cabin that was done was my haftseen.

Samanoo

Samanoo is the most delicious of the haftseen items... (https://afarinrava.blogspot.com/2022/03/haftseen.html)
... and the most difficult to make.

Most people just buy it in a jar from the store...
like I did as long as I had access to an Iranian store. 

If you can find an Iranian store near you, get it and try it.
If you can't, here's the best recipe I've found online:
https://youtu.be/_DnyRStVb7Q

Enjoy!

Haftseen

Only three days left until Nowruz...

There is much to do as the first day of spring approaches. Haftseen (haft means seven; seen is the sound of the letter s in Persian) is a major tradition of Nowruz, the Iranian new year, and preparing the haftseen takes a while. 

The haftseen table includes seven specific items, all starting with the letter s, or seen. The items symbolically correspond to seven creations:

sabzeh - wheat, barley or lentil sprouts growing in a dish - symbolizing rebirth

samanoo - a sweet pudding made from wheat germ - symbolizing wealth

senjed - the dried fruit of the oleaster tree - symbolizing love

sîr - garlic - symbolizing medicine

sîb - apples - symbolizing beauty and health

serkeh - vinegar - symbolizing age and patience

sekkeh - coins - symbolizing prosperity and wealth

The sabzeh and the samanoo need to be prepared several days in advance...

Reflections... Spring 2022

 

Mahatma Gandhi

“Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever.”
Mahatma Gandhi

L&LL

 

Languages & Life Lessons

Languages & Life Lessons is now available in hardcover.

A Few More Tips...

I'm not tech savvy. Many of you may know I've even been called Miss/Ms. Technology. There's a very good reason for it. Despite my lack of expertise in the field, I am getting several messages a day from readers asking how to vote on the TCK Publishing website. 

Because I appreciate my readers' time and effort to support me, I've gone through all the steps, just to learn how to do it. 

In yesterday's post, I shared that opening the TCK website in Firefox works better than in other browsers.

Today, I will add a few more tips, based on what I've learned in the past twenty-four hours:

> Once you get to my book, Languages & Life Lessons, or any book you want to vote for, in its proper category, you click on it. The categories are numbered; for instance, my book is a memoir, and the category of memoirs is six (6), so you go to page six, using the arrows at the top, and scroll down until you find the book.

> You will be asked to sign in... and will be offered three choices:
       Google
       Twitter
       Facebook

> You choose one and enter your user name and password.

> If your vote goes through, you will get a confirmation.
   If you don't get a confirmation, it means your vote has not gone through.

I hope this helps my readers and supporters.

Many thanks!

Solving Problems...

A few friends have sent me messages in the last couple days, saying they want to vote for my memoir on TCK Publishing Reader's Choice Awards but they are having problems with the site. First, I want to thank them for taking the time to support me... 

I completely understand that voting can be difficult as I myself got frustrated when I tried to but couldn't see my book, Languages & Life Lessons, on their website.

They have listed a few helpful tips on how to vote, and these tips do provide lots of information, but unfortunately they didn't solve my problem, which was that I couldn't see any of the books listed in any category... even after I disabled the Pop-Up Blockers on my Chrome.

This was the screen I got every time I tried:

See? No books! All the categories of books were supposed to appear right between those two rows of stars but didn't... 

Eventually, I thought of trying again using Firefox instead of Chrome, and I was in within seconds. All the books were listed right where they should be... and I found my book among other memoirs in category six. If you are having difficulty and you are using a browser other than Firefox, I suggest trying Firefox.

Once you find the book you want to vote for (using the arrows at the top of the dark screen with all the books), you can do so by using Twitter, Google, or Facebook to sign in. Apparently, sometimes, when you vote, nothing happens... or your screen may turn black. In this case, your vote has not gone through. TCK states: "If you are clicking on a book to vote but nothing is happening, scroll down the page and click “Change Vote” (it’s right above the “Share on Facebook” button)."

I hope my friends find these tips useful.

Readers' Choice

I'm thrilled to announce my memoir, Languages & Life Lessons, was just nominated for the 2021 Reader's Choice Awards contest by TCK Publishing!

Please vote for it:
https://www.tckpublishing.com/2022-tck-publishing-readers-choice-contest-voting-page/

Nowruz Is Coming...

The countdown to Nowruz officially begins:
10 days to Nowruz Eve

What's Nowruz?
"now," pronounced "no," means "new," and "ruz," pronounced "rooz" is "day."
Some people spell it Norooz. 
It's a secular holiday celebrated in many countries.
It's the vernal or spring equinox...
meaning the sun crosses the equator line, going north, in the northern hemisphere.
It's the first day of spring. 

France

France - circa 1989

 

Theodore Roosevelt

"Believe you can and you're halfway there."
Theodore Roosevelt

Book Review

 

Learning a New Language - 3

Step Two - MAKING SHORT SENTENCES

As I mentioned before, the first step in learning a new language is pronunciation. While you are doing that or right after you are done with the sounds of letters and letter combinations in words, use the words you have learned in very short basic sentences. 

In order to do that, you need a verb or two. (I always start with I am and I have. I like to learn there is, too.) Then all the nouns and adjectives you have learned during the pronunciation phase can be used.

Imagine that you are learning English for the first time and that you are practicing the sound of "y" in different words, such as yellow, young, silly, joy, ...

You can start making short sentences:

I am yellow.

I am young.

I am silly.

I have joy.

There is joy.

And if you have already learned other sounds/words, like book, cat, dog, and pen, you can make many more sentences. Maybe you can investigate how to write a noun with an adjective and then use the adjectives young, silly, and yellow with these nouns as well.

Learning a language becomes more fascinating once sentences are created.

Coming Soon...

There will be another quiz by the end of March. 

Get Languages & Life Lessons and read it now. 

The prizes are all paperbacks.

L&LL

 

Horace Walpole

"The whole secret of life is to be interested in one thing profoundly and in a thousand things well."
Horace Walpole

Book Review