May 2021 – Transpositions

2021-05-282021-11-10

To My Beloved Father – by Dan Hu

I know my father is still here.
Always here, like the wind.
I can not see him, but I can feel him.
He is feeling what I feel, seeing what I see.
He knows I am missing him on this special day.
You see, the wind brings his message to me.

From my wise father, I learned that the most important thing in life is to cherish the time you can spend with the one you love. Someone once asked my father, “Why did you spoil your daughter, whose destiny is to marry and leave your family?” I clearly remember my father’s answer: “Because I cherish the days that I can spend with her, not the days she would go to college, not the days she would leave home to go to other places to chase her dream, not the days she would marry someone she loves. I just cherish the present day when she is beside me.

My father was my best friend. I could tell my father anything, unlike other teenage girls. I once told my father that someone expressed his love to me. His answer was “I am so sure there will be someone who likes you, loves you, because my daughter is so beautiful, so sweet, so wonderful. Remember you are always worthy to be loved.”

My father always tried his best to get what I wanted, what was good for me. My father always cooked the best food for us. The best food I ever had was on a dark, cold, and windy winter night. I was a teenager and I could eat a horse. Just because I wanted to eat more vegetables, he, like a superhero, ran to the garden at night to get some. Vegetables are still my favorite.

There were a few words he wrote before he left this world:
“My daughter, I had never wished for you to become someone who is defined by wealth. What I can only give you is your life. My wish for you is to be someone who’s simply happy.
You don’t need to try to become someone who is special, because you are already special.
You don’t need to try to do everything perfectly, because you are perfect the way you are.
You don’t need to try to impress anyone. Just be yourself, love yourself, respect yourself, be confident, be strong, and be happy.“

Yes, father. That’s who I am.

My beloved father left the world 18 years ago. I still remember his words, his smiles, his love. He has never left me.
There are a lot of things I want to do with my father, but maybe in another world.

Can I make some suggestions? On this father’s day:

Please:
-visit your father if he is reachable;
-draw him a card if he is able to see;
-read him a book if he is able to hear;
-hold his hand to go for a walk if he can make it;
-take some fancy pictures with him if he’d like;
-take him to dinner, or make one with him if he enjoys it;
-watch a movie with him, or take him to get a massage;
-buy him a pair of good shoes or some nice clothes;
-sing a song, do a dance together, and make him laugh like a kid;
-tell him you love him, not just in written messages, but in words;
-give him a kiss on his hand, forehead, or silver hair;
-give him a bear hug, and tell him “You are the best!”
-make today special to him, and make today the best memory for him, just like he did when you were little.

Let him have these memories, and then the days won’t be so hard when you are not around – when he misses you.

2021-05-172021-11-10

Persistence by Javid Entezar

“A bundle of belongings is not the only thing a refugee brings to his new country”

Albert Einstein-

I am one of the million refugees in the United States. I was born and raised in Afghanistan, attended high school in Kabul, and after passing the university entrance exam successfully, got a scholarship from the government of Pakistan to study at one of its prestigious and privileged universities. My bachelor’s is in computer science from the University of Engineering and Technology in Lahore, Pakistan (https://uet.edu.pk). As a new international student in Pakistan, I struggled with languages, subjects, and the new culture, but I eventually overcame my speech impediment by watching, reading, writing, and speaking in both languages.

In Pakistan, life had ups and downs. During my four years of university, I could not go back to Afghanistan to see my family because of the security situation. Thus, I had no choice other than to apply as an asylum seeker. I completed 12 interviews, and for every interview I had to travel from Lahore to Islamabad, sleep on the bus, and walk miles in cold weather. Sometimes I argued with police officers as they wanted money because I did not have a valid visa while I was a student, and I was busy with my immigration case. I waited five years, one month, and three days to get the U.S visa. It was a GREAT day for me; it was like a great dream come true.

Long before reaching one of the great nations (the U.S.A), I lived in a small town where terrorism, crime, drugs, gang violence, and bomb explosions were on every corner. I am Hazara, and we have a long story of systematic persecution, facing violence at the hands of the Taliban, the Islamic State group (ISIS), and some other groups. For the last 15 years, I have lost my teachers and classmates right in front of my eyes, but I never gave up; I pursued my education with even more passion.

I have been living, studying, and working away from my family, taking care of myself. I also have been self-financed in my education since high school until now, not troubling my family as they are not able to pay my education expenses, and it is what I intend to continue to do. Besides that, I contribute marginally to provide financial support to my family and a few other students whose parents are unable to provide their school and course expenses in Afghanistan. Additionally, even though there were always possibilities of attacks from the Taliban and ISIS, I voluntarily used to go from Kabul to my village during my summer vacation and winter break to teach English, math, and other subjects to students.

I plan to complete my higher education in one of the best universities in the United States, and I am working for it every waking hour. Let me say this: living in another country reminds you of how incredible life is. Besides all the ups and downs, you get used to a new routine and enjoy new comfort. It gives you an appreciation for everything, things that you would not usually pay attention to or notice.

2021-05-172021-11-18

Learning English Faster.

Learning English Faster

By Jazmin Echavarria

Would you like to learn English faster? I know that like me; you would like to wake up one morning, speaking, reading and writing English. I wish it was that easy, but it is not impossible, either . Definitely, this is a process that can take years, but surely it becomes more fun, motivational and accelerated if you learn to know its logic. I have been studying English for one year, and I really did not bring good foundations of English from my country. However, at some point, I realized that learning English was a matter of strategy. For this reason, in this article, I have decided to share with you three main tips that have helped me to advance significantly during my process to learn English which are strategy, dedication and practice.

First of all, being strategic when it comes to learning English can help you quickly to develop skills for learning English. I do not know if you have heard of color theory, but when you color your ideas, texts, etc., your brain captures with greater speed what you are seeing, reading or learning. For example, when I learn verbs, gerunds, paraphrases and vocabulary in general, I used index cards of colors; then, I wrote the regular verbs on the green index cards, and the irregular verbs on the yellow ones. Moreover, I generally use highlighters of different colors to underline the words in books as I read them, so I like to use green for verbs, orange for nouns, yellow for unknown words, and blue for important ideas to highlight. All of the above helps me to have a better understanding of grammar, allows me to better understand texts and learn vocabulary faster.

Equally important, dedication before and after class allows your brain to open in a more assertive way to learning a new code. For this reason, I recommend that you investigate a little about the topic that you will see before attending your class. When you do this, you get your brain more ready for the teacher’s explanation. Therefore, you will not be lost in class; on the contrary, you will be relearning and recording in your memory important details that you did not know before. In the same way, it is important to study after your class. Reviewing what you have learned allows your brain to save the information more accurately. Furthermore, making mind maps or organizing your class notes are excellent techniques to pay attention to what you have learned after your class session.

The most important of all is practice as a means of putting your learning in real context. For this, I recommend you immersing yourself in English. Watching TV, listening to music, reading books or magazines, making your market list and trying to take your class notes in English are the best ways to put English into practice in your daily life. Every time that you do this, your brain adapts to the sound, the grammatical structure of the words and the correct use of them. On the other hand, it is very important to start thinking about your day to day activities in English. If you do not have someone to practice with at home, I recommend that you have internal conversations in English with yourself; then,start building those self-thoughts that we have on a daily basis in English. For example, if you are planning to go to the gym this morning, ask yourself how you might say and plan it in English.

In conclusion, learning English depends on the methodology that you use to learn it, the time you spend on it, and the way you adapt it to your reality. Although it seems impossible to us, learning English is not an impossible mission. It is a mission of challenge and discipline. Now, what are you waiting for? Try these tips in your learning process!