My Visit To Fakieh Aquarium

     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.

Writing Challenge: A Mistake I Used To Make


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 :)  

Prom Queen!


     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.

Review The Woman In White


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.

A tale of two cities vocabulary

     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:

The Power Of Listening

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:
English Pronunciation Podcast

My favourite programs on the BBC radio four:
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

Romantic Trip


     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

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

English Fairy Tales notes on PDF

     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

How I learnt English.


 
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

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