Only One Week Left!

In case you missed it or need a reminder...

An anthology of advice to your twelve-year-old self is in the works: https://afarinrava.blogspot.com/2023/04/an-opportunity.html

DEADLINE: MAY 7, 2023

Contronyms

Many words sound similar in French and English but have very different meanings. I've mentioned this in my books — in Languages & Life Lessons and in Indiana Joes. One such word that confused me was the adjective terrific. I noticed that people in the United States used the word as another way to say great or tremendous, whereas a similar word in French, the verb terrifier, meant to terrify or cause terror. It took me a while to get used to what it meant in the US. I looked up the English word to make sure I understood it correctly and found it had an archaic definition: causing terror. 

The meanings of the word terrific — great and causing terror — are not opposites, but the English language does have words with two opposing meanings. These words are called contronyms. A contronym is a word with two opposite meanings. The English language has about seventy-five contronyms.

This site offers a list of contronyms: 
https://ielts.com.au/australia/prepare/article-grammar-101-what-is-a-contronym#full-list-of-contronyms-in-english

Reflections

 

Maya Angelou

"Do the best you can until you know better. Then when you know better, do better."
Maya Angelou

Deadline: May 7, 2023

Do you remember your life (and the issues in your life) when you were twelve?

In case you missed it or need a reminder...

An anthology of advice to your twelve-year-old self is in the works: https://afarinrava.blogspot.com/2023/04/an-opportunity.html

DEADLINE: MAY 7, 2023

A Language Learner's Vocabulary

If you're learning a new language, you're probably trying hard to expand your vocabulary in that language. Here are a few tips to make this experience a little easier and more effective:

- Learn words that you need to use in ideas you want/need to express, not just random words. 

- Look up a new word and learn how to spell it (orthography) as well as how to pronounce it (pronunciation) because if you don't feel confident using that word in writing and speaking, you will avoid it and won't get to use it or practice it in real life.

- Search for the origin of the word. Learning about the etymology of a word gives us a story, and our brains retain stories better than just words.

- Begin using the word immediately and repeatedly until it becomes a part of your regular vocabulary. Repeat the word in spoken and written language over a period of several days to weeks.

- If the word is used with a preposition, learn the whole thing together. If the preposition changes with the meaning or grammatical use of the word, learn one combination first and use it until it becomes comfortable before learning/ using the other.

- Don't try to learn too many words at the same time. If you don't get to practice a word, you won't really learn it, and it won't go in your word bank.

Muhammad Ali

“Don't count the days, make the days count.”
Muhammad Ali

Three Memoirs

 

An Opportunity

A new anthology is in the works.

The theme? advice to your twelve-year-old self

Submissions are now open.

Anthologies provide excellent opportunities for readers and writers to connect. 

If you would like to contribute and get published or know anyone who would be interested in being a part of this wonderful project, please know that:

- the deadline for submission is May 7, 2023;

- you can use a pen name;

- every submission must be between 100 words and 1,000 words;

- your submission must be original and unpublished;

- you can submit as many times as you want;

- it's free: you don't pay, and you won't be paid if/when your submission gets published;

- you will be notified whether or not your submission was selected by May 20, 2023; 

- if your submission is selected, you can then email a short bio, not exceeding 75 words.

- each piece must be copied and pasted into an email message following its title and the author's name, and the subject line must read For 12;

- if you are submitting more than one piece, please use a separate email message for each;

- all submissions must be sent to afarinrava@gmail.com by May 7, 2023.

Thank you. 

Anonymous

"If you could eat your words, would your soul get nourished or poisoned?"
(I couldn't find the original author of this good question.)

Magical Class

This morning I learned that one of my kids, aka a former student, has been in a devastating kite accident. Thankfully, he's alive and recovering, but "it's too early to say what his recovery will look but its looks like its going to be a journey of 1-2 years." 

Daniele was my student over two decades ago, specifically in the summer of 2000. How do I remember this? He was one of my "Magical Class" students. If you've read Languages & Life Lessons, you know what I'm talking about. 

Get well soon, Daniele. 

Indiana Joes

Reflections

Reflections
May 29, 2018
11:52 p.m.

Every time I read Bird by Bird, Anne Lamott’s “wire hood” reminds me of the center hub in a DVD case. I didn’t know what the thing in the middle of the case that holds the disc in place was called, just as she didn’t know the name of “that wire thing that covers all champagne corks.”

It makes me think about all the things I see but can’t name, and that’s just concrete nouns, words referring to things that can be identified through one of the five senses. Abstract nouns are more challenging in every way. Every person has their own idea of them, depending on their culture, their background, their ideology, and their experience. People communicate with each other using abstract nouns, but the speaker or writer uses a word meaning it one way and the listener or reader possibly perceives it an entirely different way. How do we humans communicate with all these discrepancies in our mental dictionaries?

(taken from Reflections: A Journey of Transformation, available on Amazon:
https://www.amazon.com/reflections-journey-transformation-Afarin-Rava-ebook/dp/B0B33RN2Z4)

Martin Luther King, Jr.

When justice is done, it brings joy to the righteous but terror to evildoers. The moral arc of the universe is long, but it bends toward justice.
Martin Luther King, Jr.

Sunday

What's better than spending Sunday in bed, reading?

Ava Safran

 

Jessica Fletcher

Sometimes an admired fictional character's words just stay with you. Jessica Fletcher, whom I wrote to in my gratitude blog, https://gratigi.blogspot.com/2023/04/fc-3-jessica-fletcher.html, once said:
"The only treasure I'll be looking for are the right words."

The Unlucky Thirteen

Why is 13 considered unlucky?
This article by Barry Markovsky explains the "power of its bad reputation":
https://www.sc.edu/uofsc/posts/2022/10/conversation_thirteen.php#.ZDfolnbMK3A

Languages & Life Lessons

 

Coming Soon...

 A new book is in the works.

Germany Kent

“Your Monday morning thoughts set the tone for your whole week. See yourself getting stronger, and living a fulfilling, happier and healthier life.”
Germany Kent

Indiana Joes

 

George Washington

“Liberty, when it begins to take root, is a plant of rapid growth.”
George Washington

Book Review

 

Reflections

 

The Perfect Cup

Today, I found this during my search for "coffee":

The Chemistry and Physics Behind the Perfect Cup of Joe
(published by Smithsonian Magazine on September 28, 2017)
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/science-behind-brewing-great-cup-coffee-180965049/

Winston Churchill

“You make a living by what you get. You make a life by what you give.”
Winston Churchill

USA

USA - October 2017

 

Sizdah Bedar

Today is sizdah-bedar, a kind of traditional festival in Iran, celebrated on the thirteenth day of the new year. The Iranian new year, called Nowruz, begins on the first day of spring. The first month of the year is called Farvardin. 

On the thirteenth of Farvardin, Iranians often spend the day outdoors in a ceremony called sizdah-bedar (sizdah meaning 13 and bedar meaning rid of). This day, the thirteenth, marks the end of Nowruz celebrations and the return to ordinary life. It is customary for families to go to a park or to the countryside for a picnic on this day and throw out the sabzeh from the Nowruz haftseen: https://afarinrava.blogspot.com/2022/03/haftseen.html

Symbolically, the sabzeh, which is wheat, barley, or lentil sprouts, has supposedly collected all the hardship, sickness, and bad fate, and on this thirteenth day, families get rid of it on the thirteenth day of the year in a happy event.

April Fools' Day

I found this interesting:
https://www.history.com/topics/holidays/april-fools-day

Happy April Fools' Day!