Blogs

http://prezi.com/fyts9xovb_a0/?utm_campaign=share&utm_medium=copy

Most people are very collectivist in Pakistani culture. The families very dependent on each other and spend lots of time together. The male attitudes toward female are very different than the West. For instance, the female should obey the male most of the time. They had different rules in the family as well. They need to spend most of the time together while they are in the house. I have found the amazing article and share the link :)

This article is about attitudes and families. It was very interesting and thought to share it.

http://http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/BF00289568

We worked on grammatical points and pronunciation. My pronunciation is improving by practicing it with my language partner. I have learned a lit bit how to almost correctly pronounce the  new sentences and phrases. In addition, we worked on my reading skills and how to correctly apply the comma, dots, question mark and other things. I also watch and Cartoon video on Youtube. The pronunciation and speaking was very beautiful. I helped me alot with my understanding and concentration to fully pay attention to the speaking parts. I really liked the video and would definitely recommend to anyone who is learning a new language to watch short Cartoon Videos because it helps them alot to speak up and improve their speaking skills in a very fast way. :)

Introducing%20Yourself%20And%20Your%20Family.m4a

For this first post I read a recent article and looked on two different websites:  

http://www.jpost.com/National-News/Israel-approved-just-4-refugee-requests-out-of-2593-in-2013-328783

http://ardc-israel.org/en/content/refugees-israel

http://www.unhcr.org/pages/49e4864b6.html

     I found these articles very interesting.   Israel and Yemen are the only two states in the Middle East to have signed the 1951 Refugee Convention.  This document defines a refugee, gives the refugee rights and gives the state certain obligations towards the refugee.   Other countries in the Middle East take in refugees because of similar religious affiliations and hospitality towards other Arab nations; however not all of the time do these refugee camps meet the 1951 Refugee Convention guidelines or standards.

    Although Israel has signed the 1951 document, Israel still has many difficulties handling the refugee population.  One of the solution was called "Hot Returns", which in June 2011 was challenged to be against basic human rights.  For one of these "Hot Returns", refugees seeking asylum would be rounded up and deported back to their country of origin.   In 2012 hundreds of people originating from South Sudan and the Ivory Coast were deported back to their country once the country was deemed safe by the State of Israel.  

    Many refugees seeking asylum come to Israel by walking across the Sinai desert through Egypt and arrive in Israel dehydrated and starving.   They come to Israel seeking jobs and place to live.  Already facing difficulties with water and self sustaining food, Israel is caught in a catch 22.   In January of 2013 a fence was built on the Sinai border greatly reducing the number of refugees coming across the border seeking shelter in Israel.  If a refugee makes it across to Israel then they are thrown into a legal limbo that can span the course of over five years.  The anti-infiltration law in 2012, which was revoked in September of 2013 by the Supreme Court as a violation of human rights, allowed the government to jail refugees for three years until they decide to do something with the refugees.  

      Out of the 2,593 refugees requests for 2013 only 4 people were granted refugee status.   Out of the 1,133 humanitarian refugee requests since 2009 only 540 people have been given refugee status.   Evidently the dilemna of what to do with the numerous refugees from Africa and Syria is a growing problem that Israel is trying to figure out right now. 

Muslims attitudes towards time in Pakistan is very different than the West. Their attitudes towards times differs in different occasion. For instance, in a family gathering, it does not matter to be late. People are usually late for half hour to two hours because it is expected from the host sometimes. If you need to attend an official meeting, interview, class, then you need to be on time and if you be late for half or one hour, you will definitely miss out alot and it will be inappropriate. In this case, mostly they are not counting time or taking time so serious unless it something very official and important. Whereas, in the West, you have to be very careful about timing and schedules. 

This week Emily and I worked through my workbook some more and talked about some TV shows that we watched.  We watched Arthur.    We are still trying to find some website where we can watch Hebrew children's cartoons.  It isn't working right now.   We have only found Arthur.  I have watched two episodes this week.   I am still having trouble catching everything but I seem to be getting a bit better.  :)

This week Emily and I worked on the parts of the body :) :)   Head - ראש      Shoulders -  כתפיים     Knees - ברך   Toes - אצבעות רגלים  

New words:    

Identity.m4a

Emily and I met this week and talk about the food in Dhall and went through five more pages of my booklet.   

Words I learned:  

Greetings%20And%20Introduction.m4a

Emily and I have talked about two cultural learning goals for Israel.  

   #1  Learn about the Refugee epidemic in Israel.   While I was in Israel this summer I did a walk through of Tel Aviv and learned that there are a lot of difficulties in Israel in regards to refugees.  I want to explore this issue in more depth.  To do this I will be reading news reports and doing online research.   

    #2   Children's Cartoons.   Watching cartoons as a child gives children a basis for what is acceptable and what is wrong.  I will be watching and analyzing children's cartoons in order to learn more about the basic concepts that all Israelis have at heart.  

By learning more about these two subjects I hope to learn more about the political nature of Israel through the learning of the refugee situation and the children's cartoons.  

Week 1

Learn the alphabet

Learn common greetings (hello, good morning, good night, good afternoon…)

Week 2

Learn common short phrases (yes, no, maybe, a lot, a little, you are welcome…)

Learn common greetings

Week 3

Learn how to ask common questions about people (name,school, height, age, ..)

Learn how to answer common questions about myself (name, height, age,...)

Week 4

Learn self and family introduction

Learn how to describe object attributes (color, shape, size,)

Prepositions and their usage

Week 5

Learn basic food names (tomato, beef, watermelon, cake)

Learn how to conduct a basic conversation

Week 6

Learn how to ask and tell the time

Learn how to ask for directions

Week 7

be able to make sentences

Work on grammar

Week 8

Work on pronunciation

Work on reading

Work on speaking

Learn how to talk about my background in moderate depth

Week 9

Watching videos on Youtube

enrich vocabulary

Week 10

Conversation and practice speaking

Work on writing/ Spelling  

 Week 11

Learn more phrases

Practice speaking

Week 12

Reading a short story