This is a follow up blog to my old one titled "How I learnt English", I wrote this as an email to a friend who approached me the other day, seeking some tips and tricks on how to improve her English and also if I can share with her some free resources.
I divided my email into four sections to guide her through it, so without further ado here is what I've sent to my friend.

Last week I had the pleasure of reading the splendid book 'Tuesdays with Morrie' , it took me up and down into a spiritual trip.
The book talks about Morrie Schwartz a professor who died 20 years ago with Lou Gehrig's disease, he shared with Mitch Albom his theories on various subjects such as culture, family, forgiveness, death, and marriage. Albom wrote this novel to help pay the immense medical bills for Morrie.

The little wave

One of the most powerful messages I read this year, it's very simple yet it has great meaning; is the story about the little wave:

" a little wave was bobbing along in the ocean, having a grand old time. He’s enjoying the wind and the fresh air – until he notices the other waves in front of him, crashing against the shore. “My God, this terrible”, the wave says. “Look what’s going to happen to me!”
Then along comes another wave. It sees the first wave, looking grim, and it says to him: “Why do you look so sad?”
The first wave says: “You don’t understand! We’re all going to crash! All of us waves are going to be nothing! Isn’t it terrible?”
The second wave says: “No, you don’t understand. You’re not a wave, you’re part of the ocean."

Albom had the chance to visit his old professor at frequent times throughout the remaining months of his life. He wrote down all the things he learned during this time, and gathered them into his novel.

This book is a page turner, I expressed many powerful emotions while reading the topics that Morrie discussed with Mitch.

He has done something I wish I could do, he exposed himself to the society around him, his fears, tears, and his illness! He was truly a brave man.

However, his proverb "Death ends a life, not a relationship.” demonstrate it's value as he lies dead in his grave when people still cherish his memory.

I want to share with you four lessons I learnt from Morrie:

The 1st lesson on love:

Morrie said: "The most important thing in life is to learn how to give out love, and to let it come in.”... “Let it come in. We think we don’t deserve love, we think if we let it in we’ll become too soft. But a wise man named Levine said it right. He said, ‘Love is the only rational act.'”

In truth, I strongly believe that love is the main message Morrie wanted to convey. Love in its pure form, being alive worth nothing if you don't have the ability to spread love around you, so "love one another or die".

The 2nd lesson on wealth:

Money is the devil of all times, yet it's pretty precious, valuable, worthy of respect, but Morrie taught me that:

“You can’t substitute material things for love or for gentleness or for tenderness or for a sense of comradeship."

another lesson about love! Not surprising at all, because buying new expensive things in hope to substitute the longing for love in our hearts is not the solution.
All in all, wealth can't buy happiness and health. It's a life fact, but many chose to give it a mess!

The 3rd lesson on living:

What makes a perfect life? Is it great achievements, cheerful moments, or huge income. Maybe all of these together, and perhaps none of them, but Morrie has an adorable idea, he said:

"Be compassionate, and take responsibility for each other. If we only learned those lessons, this world would be so much better a place."

Here is a clever hint of how to be part of the ocean.

The 4th lesson on teachers:

Teachers like the ocean of life, they appear massive and risky, but they have great treasures within them. They have an endless impact of their beliefs on generations of young lives, "they to be honoured than parents because they teach the art of living well".

"Teacher to the last"

that what Morrie wanted to be written on his grave stone. Indeed, it was true, his principles reached thousands of people in the rolling seas of life.

Finally, Tuesdays With Morrie is a tiny book with immense moral reflections, every time I read it, I find something new that startles me, and sharing these lessons with you made me feel like I'm part of the ocean too.

Far Beyond by Bassima

Morning breeze entering swiftly from the window made Gabe curl more with his coverlet, "It's Sunday, I'm not doing anything today" he thought, then he covered his head to prevent sunlight from hurting his eyes.

"Daddy, daddy, wake up granny is expecting us today" little Matty jumped on his father's bed while shouting and sitting on his father's belly. Gabe peeking from under his cover "oh, not today Matt, why don't you go with your mother and I'll follow you later on?" He said. "But daddy you said last week you'll help me catch a birdy so we can put it in the cage granny made for me" Matty said.

He added "also mummy cooked a special breakfast this morning, it's packed and ready for us to have it together at granny's". Gabe rolls his eyes "all right, let me wash my face and we'll go together".

Sipping her chamomile tea, and looking toward the path waiting for her son and his family to join her, Claire's thoughts drifted far away, she murmured the name Einar and to her surprise, she felt such a longing, nostalgia for Lame Einar, she wondered if he's still strong and tough to look after the herd, how he looks like now after all these years? Does he think about her at all? Like she does, sometimes.

She would never have met her son, if Einar refused to help her that night after he recounted his gritty story with his father and the reason why he wanted to climb out, in his shed, they were sitting together on heap of skins and discussing the possibility of her success to climb, he pointed to her " It be better, I think, to climb out in search of something, instead of hating what you’re leaving."

If it wasn't to her affable friend she would still nursing people's injuries, and deeply crying and sympathising her own loss.

Later that day, an old man walked pass Claire's cottage he heard the laughter of merriment and joy spreading from the Cott, he was satisfied to see a rainbow going over the house and fading in the horizon.

The giver, novel, writing challenge, English, Lois Lowry

#100HappyDays Challenge - Day 5

Marhaba/ Hello to your beautiful faces :)

The world is never the same after I gained English, I used to speak, read, and think in one language, I was a typical monolingual person.

English has widened my sight toward life, it is a window that allowed me to view the world like never before.

Five years ago, I had oddly divergent theories about the OTHERS!

First of all, I thought there were 2 languages, Arabic, and English, I did not know it is almost 6,500 or even more spoken tongues on earth.

Secondly, westerns meant only the US for me, I had no clue that almost each country has its own local dialect, I was convinced that everything belong to the US.

Thirdly, I was absolutely sure all Muslims and Arabs are the best of mankind, and other people are wrong, bad, and they are slaves to their sexual habits, therefore I ought to hate them regardless any human actions they do or show, because they are the wood of Gehenna!.

Fourthly, non-Muslim women were all prostitutes, and no one respects them, they are dolls for media, and they spend their lives in immorality fen without honour or dignity.

Lastly, I truly apologies if I offended anyone by mentioning these thoughts, but this is what I grew up believing and learning, obviously I was misled by my society, they thought by implanting the wrong ideas and false facts, they would prevent followers from expanding their vision and realise that they lack a massive amount of their rights.

Nowadays, I believe not everyone has to be good or bad, and moral principles are different from one culture to the other. Being affiliated to a specific religion doesn't give me the right to hate on others, and be rude to them.

The universe was here before us and it'll remain after we vanish, there is space for everyone to practise what they consider truth without insisting to convert the planet into their own dogma.

I am happy I speak two languages and the second one helped me reach to this belief before it is overly late.

#100HappyDays Challenge - Day 4

Hello there gorgeous people

Today, I spent two hours organising my room, the painstaking part was at the dresser, I had to arrange my makeup kit, sort everything nicely, and get rid of the unwanted items.

While doing that I thought of writing about beauty aspect in my life, so I took this picture to insert it in my post later on, meanwhile I was thinking whether I'm a beauty freak or just a normal young woman. I do care about my appearance a lot, I rarely go out without slapping a little bit of foundation, mascara, and blush on my face.

I believe women should get into makeup, owing to the fact that ever since we were young girls we gravitate toward lipsticks, blushes, and nail polishes. Being pretty is just something runs in our blood, it won't make us shallow or less intelligent if we buy a lip gloss now and then.

In Ramadan this year I used to watch a TV show, in one episode they showed how in some countries, people get obsessed with being beautiful and perfect which led them to come up with peculiar beauty standards that no one thinks it's ever existed.

In the show, they stated that society usually looks at an individual better than they imagine and feel about their appearance, therefore we usually focus on our flaws and how we appear more than others do.

However, I do not like it when some people exaggerate their react about makeup and say it is only for superficial girls just because they don't like wearing it, or perhaps don't know how, I believe in balance.

I am thrilled because I am not obsessed with my body-image, though I am glad I can afford buying make-up, it makes me happy and confident.

#100HappyDays, Day4, Beauty, makeup, body-image,Bassima

#100HappyDays Challenge - Day 3

Hello Happy reader,

I hope you are well, and doing great :)

Yesterday, my mother in law went for walk with her daughter, they walked for about an hour and came back, today at breakfast she was very tired her knees and bones are aching she was in such anguish.

Realising how weak and fragile she'd become brought back such dreadful memories, and made me thankful and appreciating the wellness I am blessed with.

Being quite sound and young are the most valuable gifts in my life, every day passes I grow older and there is no way of living that day again at all. Before my mother's death I've never thought of cancer as a real killing illness, it was something I often learn about in some awareness reports, or hear someone mention it now and then, I've never encountered with a person struggling with cancer.

However, my mom was ill, she kept getting weaker and pale and no one told me she was fighting with this life sucking disease, until one day I read some of the hospital reports that were in her closet.

I read the most disturbing, terrifying, and shocking tow words in my life "Throat cancer", when I asked her is that true? why didn't you ever tell me? there must be something to do, she looked affectionately at me "there is no time, I am dying, you must not tell your siblings" she declared, I saw horror, sorrow in her eyes, and it was palpable she is departing this life, she tolerated this fact because "there is nothing we can do".

A few months later, my mother passed away and left us, the scar of her leaving will never heal, and she will forever be alive in my heart.

Lastly, if you and your family are healthy and in a good shape be thankful and happy for that.

I am happy because I am aware of how important being well and healthy.

#100HappyDays, health, wealth, cancer, shape, death, bassima

#100HappyDays Challenge - Day 2

Good evening happy friends.

I truly feel happy and lucky when I say "I can read", it might be an absurdity to state that nowadays, because in this modern world - almost - everyone can read, an illiteracy is not a widespread problem anymore.

Nevertheless, I was very close to be uneducated person, and that was for some silly conflicts I talked about before in my Prom Queen post.

However, with my father help I started to learn at about 9 years old, first it was really hard and I didn't feel excited because well I was studying at home.!

Years passed, today I am 26 years, and my life revolves about reading, books, authors, and booksfair, I never studied a school book in my childhood nor carried a heavy satchel. My family, friends, and fellows always come to me when they need an urgent literary essay for school, or anything related to writing.

It makes me happy when I tell someone "I've never been to school", and see how they react, the "how?, why? really?" astonished questions often make my day, but inside me it emphasized my sensation that I'm an abnormal individual.

Anyway, I'd prefer to be abnormal, and unusual rather than living life in darkness and never catch the sunshine of knowledge.

I am a happy I can read, and they say:

"a person is never old to learn."

#100HappyDays, reading, writing, illiteracy, #amreading,Bassima

#100HappyDays Challenge - Day 1

Hello Lovely friends..

I finally got the courage and gathered my strength to do the 100 happy days challenge, it is normally done on Instagram, but I've decided to do an extended version on Blogger because I desire to liven up my dead blog, I usually post reviews about books I've read and some important events in my ordinary life.

The first post is always tricky to start with, but just today I was going through some family photos and I saw this ravishing picture of my sister and little niece.

It made me recall all the delight and happiness, these two brought to our lives just by being girls.

In my childhood, my family were not as open minded as now, thus photography was one of the many forbidden things, I don't have photos of my earlier years when I was an infant, toddler, or even a six year old little girl, the only photo I have is a black and white one in my passport's when I was about 8 or 9.

Nowadays, I try to snap as many pictures as I can for my little sister, I don't want her to grow up with memories only printed in her mind , I also see myself in her photos, she resembles my missing childhood.

Despite all the regulations and principles that control my life as a girl here, I am always happy and positive because with all this restriction I know my family relies on me and they are proud of what I've become as a grown up woman.

I am happy because I am the eldest baby girl in my family.

100Happydays, Diary, memories, little girls, Saudi Arabia, Bassima

The Giver's cover

Hello Blog Friends :), I hope you are doing well and working hard on your new year resolutions list.

Recently, Shizusan, Shishimesan, and I started reading Lois Lowry's books, and we have begun with the well-known novel 'The Giver'.

I got this book last year at a bookfair, I found the description on the cover intriguing, so I bought it. Later on when I told my teacher about it, she pointed out that it is the first novel of an exhilarating series followed by "Gathering Blue, Messenger, and Son" and she highly recommends us to read the whole set.

Anyway, three weeks ago we finished The Giver, and we really enjoyed going through its chapters despite how some paragraphs sounded funny and ridiculous, such as the telling of feelings ritual every night, and when someone makes a mistake or causes trouble they must apologise by using an customary formula.

Like in my case: "I apologise for making you read this useless post" and everyone must reply in unison "We accept your apology, Bassima!".

On the other hand, the most shockingly gloomy part of the story was when Jonas (plus us for sure) found out what it really means to "release" someone out of the community, I remember when Jonas watched a recorded tape of his father doing a release of one of a pair of identical twins, Shizusan and I couldn't read that section, so Shishimesan read that dreadful painful part, while we were sobbing and rubbing our eyes. (Women!)

However, if you are willing to improve your English vocabulary, and your level is between intermediate and advanced, I think this is a very useful novel to practise, it is well written and the language is straightforward.

It is not a heavy going book that forces you to check up almost every single word, it is interesting, catchy, fictional, and we went through the book swiftly without any difficulties.

I made notes for the new vocabulary I've learnt while reading, they're in a PDF document , organized chapter by chapter, with some examples, I will insert the link to download the file at the bottom of this post.

Of course the novel is not out of copyright, so I cannot provide any links to download the book.

If you wish to read more information about the setting, plot, and awards check out the giver article on Wikipedia HERE

I would like to send a special thank you to my reading mates from Japan, Shizusan, and Shishimesan -who joined us recently-, for lifting up the burden of boredom and making my Mondays the best ever in my life. Love you guys xoxo

View and download The Giver Notes (on Google drive)

Tags: Learn English, Reading, The giver, Lois Lowry, Vocabulary, Notes, Bassima

Hi there Blog friends =)

It has been a while since I have posted here; I know I am a terrible blogger but my excuse that writing after a long period is better than giving up the whole blog thingy, right?

Today blog is sort of a diary; I want to share with you what I've seen in my last visit to Jeddah city, I often go there because Jeddah is an open minded city! Yes I feel more freedom there, and it is always busy and noisy at night, and I adore city life and busy streets.

My husband took me there about 3 weeks ago, we spent three days, and on the last day we went to Fakieh Aquarium, it is the first one in Jeddah and Saudi Arabia. I was anxious to go there because I've seen some videos and photographs of it on Instgram.

And for you out there who don't know what does "Aquarium" mean, here is a brief definition:

Place: a building where fish and other water animals are kept for people to visit.

Container : a glass container filled with water that fish are kept in.

see my post is not pointless after all, you have learnt a new word!

Well, for me it was the first time that I ever visit such a place, it was amazing, and I felt like I am diving underwater especially when we walked through the shark tunnel.

I filmed most of the fish containers there, because we arrived in the afternoon the building was almost empty and we took our time there with no rush at all.

The only negative things about Fakieh Aquarium that it is not long, it took us about twenty minutes to walk in the whole building.

And the tickets are a bit too much 50SAR per a person, even for toddlers, and it doesn't give you access to the dolphins shows you have to pay another 50 SAR if you want to attend it.

However we were not too excited to see the show, so we skipped it, and when they started we were out sipping green tea in the cafe, and the show lasted only for like 20 minutes.

Well, I made a seven-minute video of what I have seen there, it is my first try to edit videos on Windows Movie maker, I think I did pretty well and I am happy about my little clip.

I will insert it here for you to watch what Bassima had seen at Fakieh Aquarium in Jeddah city, Saudi Arabia.

Thanks for reading and watching, and hope to see you very soon. xxx

P.s: I write these blogs to improve my writing skills, please don't hesitate to correct my mistakes, thanks in advance.

Tags: Fakieh Aquarium, fish, Jeddah city, movie maker, diary.

Greetings Blog friends, today I am taking a part in the writing challenge by Tara Benwell on the Englishclub website.

I used to have a very bad English accent, my R sound was very heavy, and it was hard for me to pronounce words like "train, rain, Spain", also I never knew the difference between "B and P".

All that is from the past now, and how I did it? It was simply by listening to the Radio as much as I can.

I used to listen every day while I am surfing the internet, and when I go to bed, or when I am in the kitchen, it was hard at the beginning but after a few months I really loved listening to the radio and it helps my pronunciation a lot.

I wrote about my listening experience last year and you can find the post here.

Thanks a lot. and bye for now :)

Hello there, so it is summer time which means the end of the school season, Whooo! some of you are graduating from primary school, middle school, and others from high school, well congratulations to all of you out there, you really don't know how lucky you are. I frankly envy you.

As for me it was the dream of my life to see myself going through school stages and invite my friends to my graduation party, but my life has taken another path though I am not complaining because I don't yet know what the future holds for me .

When I was a little girl my family could not get me into school due to immigration problems and the lack of important official documents like my birth certificate etc...

I spent my childhood watching my neighbours's girls go to school every day, I remember that I used to stand at our door and watch them going, some go by car, others go walking, I tell you it was hard for little Bassima seeing this every morning.

But the hardest thing for me has happened only once. One day my aunt was going out to buy some grocery stuff, she asked if I wished to accompany her. I agreed promptly, it was around 11am, so off we went to the supermarket.

We finished shopping and I was helping her by carrying some bags for her. As we neared the house I saw a bunch of girls toddling towards us.

I recognised them immediately; they are my friends, they live around my house, at that moment I really wished that God would open a hole in the ground so I could jump into it and hide my face.

I didn't want them to see me carrying shopping bags instead of a school satchel.

So I handed my aunt her dreadful shopping bags and tried to hide my clothes under my cloak. however, as they passed us I knew they saw my lack of school uniform and they looked at me and I saw pity in their faces :(.

So, from that day until now I've never forgotten the girls' look, and how I felt such embarrassment, I hated myself, and I wept oceans of tears at that night, it was an awful sensation.

I believe that this scar has sculpted my personality and the way I act now, it really hurts me that I am 25 years old now and only two weeks ago I got my first certificate from "Adult education" which equals primary school.

WOOT!

It is three years since I entered this program which is only the first step toward my big dream.

I am glad that it is over now, and I will spend the next three years studying at home to get the Middle school certificate, then another three years to gain High school.

fingers crossed and I hope I won't die before this time.

on the left is my brother he is 12 years old, he has graduated from 6th grade this year, so I feel like 12 again :)

Bottom line, perhaps in a few years I'll post here telling you about my prom night and how wonderful it was.

until then wish me good luck because I really need it. Xoxo

Tags: Prom, queen, school, certificate, adult, education, diary, Graduation.

Title: The Woman in White.

Author: Wilkie Collins .

Re-told by: Richard G. Lewis.

Publisher: Oxford - Bookworms series - Level 6.
Quotes:
“My hour for tea is half-past five, and my buttered toast waits for nobody.”

“The fool's crime is the crime that is found out and the wise man's crime is the crime that is not found out.”

Hello Blog friends ♥

I've recently finished reading this book with my friend Shizusan, I wanted to read this book because I've seen its film few years ago and it was a catchy one. I've read it was one of the most successful novels written by Collins, so I was excited to start reading this book for better understanding of the story.

I read it every Monday chapter by chapter, Shizusan and I did not find any difficulty going through the book. I was expecting it to be a heavy going book because it is on level six, but the writing was simple and we understood most of the vocabulary.

The Woman in White is a crime fiction kind of novels with the hero Walter Hartright, and it was told by different narratives, I liked this style because it makes me see the story from multiple aspects of view.

The events of the story takes place in the 19th century, it starts by Walter Hartright (the hero) who recently has accepted to be a drawing teacher for two ladies at Limmeridge House. walking late on the street to London when he met with a strange lady she was dressed in white, she looked frightened and tired, he helped her on her way to London but afterwards he knew that she has escaped from an asylum.
The next day Walter arrived at Limmeridge House and met with his employer Mr. Fairlie, and his students: Laura Fairlie, Mr Fairlie's niece, and her half-sister Marian Halcombe. To his shock he realised the obvious likeness between Laura and the Woman in White who knew later that her name is Anne Catherick.

Soon Walter fell in love with Laura, but Walter didn't know that Laura has promised her father to marry Sir Percival Glyde, Marian knowing that Laura loves her teacher advisees Walter to leave Limmeridge House before any harm could be done to both of them, so he quits his job and went back home.
After that Laura got married to Sir Percival and became Lady Glyde, but she was still in love with her teacher, after their honeymoon Laura and her husband returned to Blackwater park in Hampshire, Marian came to live with her sister, Count Fosco and his wife who's Laura's aunt came to live at Blackwater, too.

Marian knew that Sir Percival has financial problems, he tried to force Laura to sign a document that's allows him to use her £20,000, but Marian stood up for her and prevent him with the help from Fosco.

After that the story gets more excited, Marian discovers Mr. Glyde and count Fosco's plot to obtain her sister's money, but unfortunately she got typhus fever and was unconscious for about a month.
During this time Sir Percival fooled Laura to go to London and stay at Count Fosco's house, and a few days after her arrival she passed away.

When Marian has got better she was shocked by the news of her sister death, she didn't know what to do, so she asked Hartright to help her, then a trip of inquiries and investigations led by Walter Hartright and Marian against Sir Percival and Count Fosco has started.

The story is really good and breath taking, if you are looking for a crime plus romance story I advise you to read this book, you'll learn a very useful new vocabulary.

Thanks to my friend Shizusan for reading the book with me, I enjoyed every minute.

Today at 7am KSA time, Shizu and I finished reading the simplified version of A tale of two cities by Charles Dickens, published by Penguin Readers level five (classics/ British English).

It is the second book we finished reading this year, we are so happy and eager to start reading the new book "Woman in White by William Wilkie Collins". it is a simplified book from Oxford Bookworms library (level 6).

Here are the vocabulary I learnt from the book:

Download Word file of the vocabulary:

Click here!

a pic form http://education-portal.com

Whenever you ask someone about the most important aspects of learning English they will probably tell you to read, write, listen and speak. No one can deny the importance of these abilities; however, most of students concentrate on building their vocabulary and improving grammar skills by reading and writing.

On the other hand some might find it too difficult to communicate with others by speaking, a bunch of students wonder why their friends who are very poor at English Grammar and writing are much better than them in speaking and communicating with people.

Therefore, they ask the common question for English learner how I can improve my speaking skills. What is the best way to get a beautiful clear accent?

Obviously, there is no magic solution or an instant remedy to voice your thoughts fluently and without hesitation.

To improve your speaking skills you must start from the very beginning by listening to English Radio Stations.

Some students might lower the importance of listening to these radio stations. However, they should know that native speakers have unusual accents that can be very hard to understand. With the radio stations, they will get the chance to listen to daily conversations so they can add a great listening experience to their English practice.

On the radio, you will listen to variety of topics and different people every day therefore you will be getting more vocabulary and better understanding of the language.

When you decide to start listening to the radio stations it won't be as smooth as you were expecting, this means you ought to take some steps aimed to make the listening progress simpler and more convenient, this way you can learn the language more quickly without missing the fun part.

Following my suggestions should make the listening process much easier. First pick up a program that its subject interests you, it could be about politics, gardening, cooking, athletics, or humour; make a vow that you will listen to the program everyday.

During the listening pay attention to the host expressions and the way he discusses the subject issues every day. Also, try to repeat some words and idioms that you heard on the radio and look them up in a dictionary, if you are not sure how to write them, speak them in Google translator using your mic.

Note that it is highly recommended to record the programs and listen to them over and over to improve your English level, it is better than listening to something new every time.

Apart from focusing on chosen programs, listening to the music that played on the radio stations can be very useful, try to understand the lyrics and sing the song along with the singer. In addition, Drama series on radio stations are a nice way to enjoy listening to the radio and to get better accent by trying lip-sync the actors' dialogues.

Learn English as babies learn the language the more time you spend on listening the more speaking skills you will achieve, do not get frustrated if you cannot understand every single word you listen on the radio.

Listening to radio gives you the best chance to learn English from native speakers without travelling to their countries. Getting access to radio stations is very easy nowadays you can listen from your mobile, laptop, car, or your tablet.

Listening to English radio stations is a fantastic idea to improve your English and to have a lovely clear accent, so without any further ado check out the links below the article and start your journey to the best English learner zone. :)

Useful Links:

BBC podcasts

BBC Radio Four

English Pronunciation Podcast

My favourite programs on the BBC radio four:

The Archers

The news quiz

Great lives

15 minute drama.

pick of the week (every Sunday).

Update:
Thank you Jola for correcting my mistakes.

Tags: Learn English, Listen to English Podcasts, Radio Stations, perfect accent, BBC, Drama, English Article, Bassima equals smile blog

Hello good fellows... welcome to another post in my blog Bassima equals smile =).

In today's blog I am going to tell you about the trip to Jeddah city I went with the nicest guy ever my husband <3. First of all we had very stressful times in the last two months, it started with me on January feeling a tremendous pain in my left side and after going to the hospital the doctors' diagnosis was that I have a ureteral stone, then I had a surgery, it cost loads of money all this happened alongside my husband's half term exams, we were extremely busy dealing with these abrupt calamities, and my husband got bad marks in the exams so we seemed to be stuck in a rut. Long story short; after we repair our money situation, I decided it is time to stop getting stale and go for a chill out.

We planned to go down to Jeddah city to stay two days there, on Monday nineteenth of March I bookmarked at a nice hotel near by the beach, I've done the research about the best restaurants around the beach, and phoned my friend who lives there to ask her about where I should go shopping for a cheap good clothes.

We set off our trip early in the morning at about eight o'clock, on that day the weather was so strange it was dusty the sun was looking like a moon because of the dust. On the highway my husband had to drive carefully because of the visibility wasn't clear but it was fine, I taped a short video for the road here see how the it was dusty, I felt like we were driving in the middle of the mist.

At 9am we arrived in Jeddah, first we headed to the pain clinic because my husband had an appointment there, after that I called the hotel to let them know we are coming, we didn't know where the hotel exactly is so we used Nokia maps for the first time against my husband willing because he doesn't trust technology. Around 11 am we got at the hotel hungry and sleepy, we ordered breakfast it was good and fill our empty stomachs. After having brunch we watched the news on the television, and then in the afternoon we took a nap.

At four in the afternoon we left the hotel and went to the beach, as I said before the weather was dusty, there weren't too many people at the beach, the sea waves were calm and there is no sound of the currents at all. We stayed there sipping hot coffee and cracking nuts, and of course we had a long wife and husband gossip!

When the darkness fell on the beach we decided to go walking, we walked slowly until we reached our car, then we went to the restaurant at about 8 pm. The place was highly recommended by one of my husband's friends, its name is Yeldizlar Restaurant (The stars restaurant), it is Lebanese place, and they serve tasty Arabian dishes. The overview of the restaurant was lovely and the light spots were soft and their lighting fell on the tables in a delicate way. The smells were nice also.

After I had the yummiest dinner ever, we had ice cream for pudding, then we took a taxi and headed to the shopping mall, we got back to the hotel after midnight around 2 am I reckon. We stayed awake till the daylight, and then we slept.

In the afternoon we finally woke up, I had to back up our stuff, and my new clothes, then we dashed towards the beach, the vision was getting clearer that day so we spent the time wandering around and looking to people fishing there, we took many photos there, then we bought shrimp sandwiches for lunch and they were freaking moist and delicious!

2nd day in the afternoon

At 4 pm it was time to say goodbye to Jeddah and its dusty beach, and go back to Mecca, we drove home happy and delightful. The purpose of the trip was successfully accomplished and we still call the memories of those two days till this very day, I am so lucky to have a man like my husband who desire to do anything just to see me happy and satisfied, so to you my dear husband: Whatever life may bring to us I will always love you.

Note: I write these blog posts to improve my English writing, so please do not hesitate to correct my mistakes.

Tags: romantic trip, jeddah beach, travel, shopping, restaurant, yildizlar, stars, Alhmmra palace, English writing skills, improve your english writing, diary

Hello World :)

I am so glad to tell you that Shizu and I have finish reading the delightful book English Fairy Tales by Joseph Jacobs, We had fun reading this book and laughed too much about some silly tales, the book was very useful for our English because it is written in old fashioned English style, at first it was hard and difficult but after few tales we had less difficulty with the book. We used to read the book every Monday, I usually make notes for the difficult vocabulary in the tales we are going to read and send them to Shizu, so when we've finished I realised that I've got useful information and I shall share them with the next readers of the book.
I sorted all the notes in one PDF file, and put the contents on the first page. The file contains notes for these following tales:

Tom Tit Tot Tale

The three sillies Tale

Rose tree Tale

The old woman and her Tale

How jack went to seek his fortune Tale

Mr. Vinegar Tale

Nix Nought Nothing Tale

jack Hannaford

Binnorie Tale

Cap o’ rushes Tale

Teeny-tiny Tale

Jack and the beanstalk Tale

The story of the three pigs

The master and his pupil Tale

Titty mouse and tatty mouse tale

Jack and his golden snuff-box Tale

The story of the three bears tale

Jack the giant killer Tale

Childe Rowland Tale

Molly Whuppie Tale

The history of tom thumb

Mr.fox Tale

Lazy Jack Tale

The strange visitor Tale

Laidly worm of spindleston heugh

Basically I put the words definition, its type, an example, and a photo for some words. Here is a snapshot for one of the pages:

Click on the picture to see its full size

Now without any further delay here are the links:

Download The English Fairy Tales Book from HERE.

Download the Notes from HERE.

Alternative link for the notes is HERE.

I hope you will find these notes helpful while you are reading the book.

Bye for now :)

Tags: English fairy tales,notes,on PDF file, read,and,enjoy,the book,with better,understanding, for its,vocabulary,we love English,links,are on,google docs,BassimaAlansar

I ran into learning English to save my brain and soul from getting lost and going down, first it was like a saving rope to occupy myself to forget about my mother death and all the problems I had in 2009, now I am really glad that I climbed that rope because learning English became everything in my life.

Is it possible to learn English on your own?

Yes, of course. I learnt English at home through the Internet depending on myself and the help I got from my online friends. If you really desire to learn the English language you have to follow these three steps first: 1- true intention to learn, 2- continuity, 3- be patient.

How I started learning English?

I started learning English in the end of 2009; I had no idea at all about the language so I had to start with the Alphabet, numbers, common conversations, and the names of the things around me. Then I started to search online for the best way to learn English at home, it took me a long time but I found many useful tips about the best way to learn English, I also got lots of good free resources, groups and websites. After about three months I fell in love with ENGLISH though I was at the very beginning steps, but don't you agree that love what you are doing is the best way to go through it.

In 2010, I knew exactly what shall I do to start developing my learning processes, I focused on listening to English dialogues and programs on radio, TV, and my phone as much as I can, this step is very important I can't even tell how much it helps me listening to English almost all the day every day, I got to use to the "tune" of English sounds, and gradually I begun to catch some words though I don't understand them. Besides listening I was reading daily simple conversations and short stories, here are the first websites I used for listening and reading:

1- For listening I choose BBC radios because I decided to follow the British accent, I used to listen to BBC world news radio but later on I found that BBC radio four is best because it has variety of good multiple programs. My advice to you is to turn on the radio on the live stream and listen to it but don't bother yourself to understand only LISTEN:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/

2- For reading simple dialogues I signed up in Livemocha website, it is a very good and useful place to start learning from, they have four courses for free, each course has 5 lessons, in a lesson you will listen to forty sentences, and review them, then you will have to do some exercises in writing and speaking, if you finish these steps you can move on to the next lesson, and the good thing in this website that its members are able to see your submissions and correct them for you, they also can rate your work.

http://www.livemocha.com

Free ESL stories is very good for beginners, I read most of the short stories there.

http://www.rong-chang.com/qa2/

Foreign language vocabulary is very good to learn new vocabularies

http://www.languageguide.org/?lang=eng

BBC learning English website helped me very much, especially The Flatmates section.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/

What to do next?

As I read on the internet the best way to remember what you have learnt is to review and practice, for me it was very hard to start practicing with other people and students, I was afraid and terrified of the idea of typing to others in English, what if they laugh at me? What if they make fun of my writing, what if they hate on me? And all these crazy questions, I remember first times I typed to someone in English my fingers were quivering which made it hard to type the right letters, but I forced myself to type and chat with my friends on MSN, and after a while I moved to Skype, then on a good website called Sharedtalk, it is a language exchange network I used it for chatting, and later on talking when I got the courage to speak to people.

Here is its link: www.sharedtalk.com/

Nowadays I always practice writing by chatting on Skype with my friends, or in English learning groups, I learn everyday from correcting my mistakes.

How I look up the new words?

For the new vocabulary I first look them up in the dictionary, and listen to the pronunciation, then see their translation in my language, finally I try to write them down and remember how to spell them, here is the websites I use for looking up the new words:

Cambridge Dictionary

English online translator

How I say, very good for pronunciation

Answers.com, it is a treasure never loses it.

Google translator

These days I only use Cambridge and Google translator.

What is my daily routine?

I Read books with friends on regular pieces every Saturday, Monday and Wednesday in my own reading club on Skype. I listen to my favourite programs on BBC radio four, the news quiz, and the Archers. I write blog posts to improve my writing skills. I chat on Skype and correct my mistakes. I watch interesting videos on YouTube, and here are the links of my favourite channels there:

Misterduncan's Channel, for learning English, he has very funny and useful video lessons

Charlie McDonnell's Channel (entertainment)

Dope2111's Channel (beauty)

FleurDeForce's Channel (beauty)

JoeyGraceffa's channel (vlogs)

Shaytards's channel (daily vlogs)

The fine bros's channel (films & entertainment)

BrittaniLouiseTaylor's Channel (entertainment)

There are many more, but these are my top channels. This is almost what I do to practice and improve my English every day, if you would like to know about the books I read please view my previous post "Books are delicious".

Keep improving, never stop!

It is been nearly three years since I started learning English and to be honest with you guys I never ever thought I'd write about my learning experience one day, I took Mr.duncan advice to think of English as a part of my body that I can't leave without it like my eyes or my tongue I would be miserable without them. Also my teacher Margaret one day said "any use of English is good", therefore I try to surround myself with English everyday by reading books, listening to the radio, POP songs, and writing blogs, watching videos on YouTube, and recently I begun to use virtual worlds like Second Life, my point here is if you do different activities in learning English you will not get bored after a while because you do more than one thing, humans get bored easily so if you felt like that stop learning for a few weeks and rest your brain, then come back with new plans and more energy but remember never quit learning and destroy what you have been building for many years.

English is a powerful language it is not only a way to communicate with others or to get a better job, it is an enormous gate to knowledge and better understanding for the planet, it helped me to be an open minded girl and made my voice and thoughts reached to people in the other side of the world, it is really a fun and a great way to increase your vision about the mysterious world. When I think of myself now and before I realise and see how English changed me, I started learning on my own accord to run from my sorrows and sad notion but now I am very glad I took this path because the result of it is so wonderful and I am very eager to continue learning English because it is like the sea the more you drink from it the more you get thirsty. I am thirsty for more English; I intend to never stop learning English, and I hope you too will do the same my dear reader.

Please write to me and share with me your story of learning English, did it change your life? I hope so.Thank you all for reading, and here is Mona's post about her own experience in learning English, please read her post and don't forget to leave encouraging comments after you read.

Happy with English by Mona

tags:how I learnt English, on my own, through the internet, World of English, English is easy, I love English, I want to learn English, how did you learn English?, free resources