Principles Of Success

Is there a science to Success?

Wow! I just discovered the seventeen principles for success for achieving anything in life.

After having a look at the list I can certainly vouch that in order to learn Arabic fluently you must implement a good number of these.

Definiteness of purpose

Having a high goal to aim for is the pillar upon which all our lives achievements are built upon. For goals check out my language plan. If you ever meet a person who laments about their lack of achievement in their life it’s very likely they did not set themselves goals. Try and spend one day without having set any goals for that day and watch how aimless the day will feel.

Applied faith

It’s having belief in yourself your ability to believe and keep on believing whenever you face hardships and set backs that’ll help you reach your goal.

Going the extra mile

I’ve mentioned in Get Fluent In Arabic that your progress in Arabic is made by what you do outside the class NOT inside.

Going the extra mile means doing more than the required reading, listening, speaking writing that homework requires. The principle states that you will never go beyond ordinary achievements unless you go the extra mile. I’ve seen average students of Arabic just do the bare minimum which is turn up to lessons and do the homework. Thinking that’s enough. Trust me it’s not.

Pleasing personality

Seriously ask yourself this. If you have a negative attitude how many people will wana sit down and socialize with you in Arabic or any language? Very few. Happy people are attractive and if you wana give yourself plenty of opportunities whereby people wana sit and chill with you in Arabic then you’ve gotta have a smiley positive personality.

Personal initiative

Your teacher says that your lessons are cancelled for the day what do you do?

Relax? Nope use the free time to do the lesson yourself. Find out the meaning to the vocab, read up on the grammar, use this extra time to develop your language skills.

Positive mental attitude

As explained in my last post positivity leads to productivity. If you’re negative all you’ll do is look for things to complain about and you will find them waste time and achieve nothing. I strongly urge you listen to positive mental attitude audio books on u tube whilst cleaning they are brilliant and will help you develop and attract good things into your life.

Self discipline

If you’re not disciplined to being consistent completing homework, preparing for exams, consistently listening speaking reading Arabic you won’t go far. You know how disciplined you are by seeing what you’ve achieved daily in terms of your Arabic.

Controlled Attention

Focused attention leads to mastery in any type field. Because it allows the mind to focus its power to attain a definite goal and keep it directed soley on that goal.

Focusing on one course one institute allows you to properly study  and master

Team work

Cooperating with other students to help each other out in any endeavour is a strong means to success. Cooperating with other students to help each other develop one another’s Arabic is a massive asset and time saver.

Habits

Establishing good study habits can dramatically help you become more efficient in your learning of Arabic.

Check out the full list of principles here they are an excellent guide to moving forward with our lives.

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Thank you 🙂

Moniur Shajahan Rohman

Author of Get Fluent In Arabic

The Dangers Of Negativity

أنا متفاعل

Ana mutafaail

I’m optimistic

Why would I start a post with this sentence?

Coz that’s what I’d try telling myself when I had a new negative room mate move into my flat whilst abroad in Egypt

Within two months he started poisoning my mind.

“I hate this country.”
”Oh these people are so dirty These people are cheats The food is not palatable

”A common complaint. OMG Arabic is so hard to learn even in Egypt because nobody speaks standard Arabic.”

The more negative he became the more I got affected

I was always a positive person until I started living with this flatmate the more I lived with more the more bad things I started noticing about the country.

After the sixth month I slowly started noticing day by day my stay was becoming unpleasant.

I found cab drivers polite and even gave me free rides  before the arrival of Mr negative. i started being driven by grumpy moody drivers.

Shop keepers would short change me, my teachers would not turn up to lessons, lessons would get cancelled, my landlord was not prepared to return my deposit, my flight back home for a short break was cancelled, I kept on getting fevers, I suffered from sleepiness nights

It’s amazing how one negative thought followed by another at the beginning of each day spirals into a horrible day.

My new negative attitude made me say things such as what’s the point of learning when I’m just gonna forget Arabic when I go back to the UK.

There were some days that I’d feel like giving up listening to Arabic as my attitude made me think this is pointless.

My word of advice is beware of negative thinking it only leads to more negative experiences in your life.

The root cause of stress is negative thinking.

Nowadays we are surrounded by negativity. From newspapers to complaints by fellow work colleagues, sitting with negative passengers on public transport and hearing them get annoyed at the smallest of things.

Smile often. This dissipates negativity. Watch happy programs comedies on tv. Run a mile from negative people. They’re poison.

I developed a negative attitude and suffered a lot as a result.

Positivity leads to productivity. Negativity just creates stress, makes a problem look more bigger than it really is.

Thank you

Moniur Shajahan Rohman

Author of Get Fluent In Arabic

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What’s the path to success?

What’s the path of success look like to learn Arabic fluently?

The diagram on the left is what I thought successfully learning Arabic would be like.

Many students also believe that learning Arabic will be one straight line up of progress.

The second diagram shows the true reality for the path of success.
When many students realize learning Arabic is not like the first diagram many start to become disheartened and eventually quit.

On your path there are many challenges you will face

Such as

Sickness which means missing lessons
Bad teachers
Failing your exam and having to redo the level
Days you doubt your ability to learn Arabic
Days you feel like you’re not progressing at all
Days you feel you’re going backwards in your progress.
Days you’ll read a page in Arabic and realize you have not understood a word.
Not understanding grammar
Struggling to adjust to the foreign country you are learning Arabic
You’ll wake up some days not motivated

One of the biggest challenges you may face will be self doubt.

The setbacks you will face may very likely cause you to doubt your ability to learn Arabic.

So how do you keep the faith?

By staying active daily in your pursuit of your goal for fluency in Arabic. Everyday you should spend time in activities that will help you get closer to your goal. Such as listening to things in Arabic, talking online to other Arabic speakers etc.
For a list of what activities you can do daily please refer to my language plan.

The reason for staying active daily makes you feel that you are progressing gradually.

You become by what you think, say and do daily.

.

So as long as you are taking action daily then well done and rest assured you will reach your target.

Each challenge is a test of your mental strength and the strength of your desire to learn Arabic

So keep active daily and you can do it!

Thank you 🙂

Shajahan

author of Get Fluent In Arabic

Read the review live here

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كيف تكون أكثر انتاجا؟ (How To be more productive)

أما أن تستخدم وقتك ألفارغ والا سيمربك

Either you use your free time or it will pass you by

Use your free time before you become busy – Prophet Mohammed

One of the key ways to get ahead in your Arabic and life is really looking at how we spend your free time.

1.Keep your curtains open

Worse feeling in the world for me is to wake up 11:30 in the morning knowing the whole day has passed me by.

I hated when this happened on my weekends off from Arabic college.

So keep your curtains open and not closed. The sun will wake you up. Position your bed so the sun light is directly in your face.  Richard Branson did this to get up earlier so it must work. My tip make sure your bed ain’t too comfy coz then you are more likely to laze about and wana stay lying in.

2.Plan your day and tasks/goals the night before

I felt horrible when my weekend finished knowing I had not accomplished anything ما أنجزت شىء ma anjastu shayun

Set at least two goals for the day that will affect your Arabic get a diary and write them down in Arabic.

Also list the daily tasks you need to do for the day.

Notice I used the words tasks and goals separately. I think goals are things that you wana achieve such as, getting the job you wanted, writing a book, learning Arabic etc setting up your business.

Tasks are the mundane things you gotta do as necessities

like paying the bills, emptying the bin getting groceries. They are not achievements.

In your daily diary make sure you have at least two goals daily.

Goals are related to your spiritual, social (marriage relationships,) financial, health development

3.Travel the country using Arabic

I had a friend of mine who went travelling around Egypt with his English speaking friends. The problem with this is they all spoke English. Everyday he’d go out and chill with them. He traveled around various cities in Egypt with his friends.

In ten months he got up to level 5 of the Fajr center. He should have gone up to level nine or ten but he sadly made this mistake.By all means travel. Best is to travel by yourself so you can speak Arabic all the time with locals, or take an Arabic speaking friend. Please don’t take an English speaking friend with you.

Here’s an amazing tip to develop your speaking in Arabic

You know how people when they travel around countries and they shoot videos of themselves whilst they walk the streets. They commentate on what they see, their experiences, they make comments like this place is dirty, or things are noisy here. Like a video vlog. Why not do this in Arabic? If you’re camera shy just show the place and record your voice. You could turn the videos into travel diaries. You’ll be speaking Arabic all the time and be training yourself to think and speak Arabic. I just thought of this whilst writing this blog post LOL. You know what? Ditch the Arabic speaking friend idea. All you need is your phone camera your voice and live your adventures and record them in Arabic. Wow technology is so amazing!

4.Interview others for your vlog I wish smartphones were more widespread in 2008 when I went. Why not interview other locals in Arabic. If it’s local business just say هذا تسويق تجارتك hasa tasweeku tijaaratik this is marketing your business

5.Listen to Arabic on your way to and from places or waiting for bus, doctor etc download u tube vids onto your phone if you won’t have any internet when you leave home

6.Move time 7 minutes forward if you are like me سيد دقيقة الاخيرة syed dakikatul akhira (mr Last minute) who tries to make it to Arabic lessons at the last minute you need this.

Move the time on your phone wrist watch all clocks in your house forward by seven minutes. You’ll hurry hurry like you normally do but forget that you have a spare seven minutes. You should be able to make it to your classes with five to six minutes to spare.

For More productivity tips check out How To Be Productive & Achieve Your Dreams

Thank you for reading this blog post 🙂 liked it? share it with your friends

Shajahan

Author of Get Fluent In Arabic

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Four Ways To Learn Arabic Online

Sometimes doing the simplest of things leads to achieving greater results. Below are four simple ways all beginner can up their Arabic.

Thank you

اراك لاحقا araka laahiqkan

see you later

Shajahan

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Eating Healthy Whilst Learning Arabic Abroad

Ever been to a foreign country and found your healthy diet goes out the window?

I learned to speak basic Arabic before moving abroad to Egypt but I realize I should have learned the names of such essential foods. Especially if you live in an area where little to no English is spoken

For the first two weeks of my stay my diet consisted of snickers for breakfast mcdonalds for lunch and dinner simply because this was so  easily accessible.

Knowing the names of foods becomes really convenient when you order your food over the phone for home delivery.

May I suggest you read one of the great books by Ibnul Quyyum Medicine of the prophet

In this book it’s mentioned some essential foods that if taken on a weekly basis at least ten of them then your health should remain with you whilst you living abroad studying Arabic.

Whilst abroad teaching Arabic in China I learned to snack on fruit instead of junk food. I wish all countries had fruit and fruit vending machines readily available at their airports instead of junk.

Some  students return back to their home countries due to constant and extreme sickness. One factor is their unhealthy eating. One of the students I was living with consumed to cans of Pepsi daily along with Mcdonalds and KFC daily. It’s not surprise why he returned home after a few months complaining of sickness.

You’ll get full faster. Be able to concentrate more and of course feel healthy.  Eating Sugary things will affect your level of concentration when preparing for an exam.

Here’s a great health tip. If you like stocking up food stock up healthy food ONLY!

If you’re like me who every know and again likes to get up and snack on food, imagine if you’re freezer and cupboards are dominated by and full of fruit and vegetables.

Drinking Pepsi and seven up was a serious disaster for me. How do you stop?

Replace it with blender juice

Get a blender and dump some fruit and Voila! Delicious healthy drink.

خلاط khalaat is the Arabic word for blender

Below are some basic necessary healthy foods we all must consume.

تمر tamr dates ‘‘ a house without dates is a hungry house’’

موز mowz bananas

تفاح tuhaaf apples

فراولة farawilah excellent to put on a plate and snack whilst watching tv instead of crisps

برتقال bortugaal oranges

طماطم thamatam tomatoes (almost sounds similar to the English equivalent right?)

عسلasl honey (excellent to use with black lemon tea instead of sugar)

عنبenub grapes

the above are not meals but they are non the less essential

Learn the essential  foods then move onto the more complicated foods

Lastly the key to eating healthy is NOT cutting down on bad food you like eating but replacing it with other healthier food you enjoy. If you enjoy the junk food you’ll keep eating it. But if you find healthy food you enjoy you’ll start eating that instead. Finally Eating healthily is not just important it your bodies right. A wise man once said ”your body has a right over you.”

Thank you for reading this blog please share it if you found it useful 🙂

Shajahan

Author of Get Fluent In Arabic

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Expressing emotions in Arabic

One of the main reasons why people don’t feel comfortable speaking Arabic is because they feel like they cannot express themselves. They really wana express their emotions and as a beginner they cannot do that in Arabic. So what do they do? They resort to using their mother tongue. Which is a big mistake.

So I below are a few emotions you can express in Arabic.

لا أصد ق la usadiq I don’t believe it

لا أعتقد ذلك la aatiqidu zaaliq I don’t think so

يقودنى الى ألجنون yaqoodini ilal junoon it/he is driving me mad (You gonna need use this lol)

أنا قلق ana qaliqun I’m worried

هذا مضحك hasa mudhiq this is funny

أنا آسف ana aasif I’m sorry

أنا متضايق ana mutadwayiq I’m annoyed

أنا غضبان  ana gatbaan I’m angry

أشعر بالوحدة ashuro bil wahdah I feel lonely

أشعر بلاحباط  ashuro bil ihbaat I feel frustrated

انا أمزح ana amzah I’m joking

Being able to express your emotions in Arabic is definitely key to speaking it more often.

Try to learn as many words sentences involving  expressing your emotions and the language will feel less alien to you. If you don’t know the Arabic word for the exact emotion you are feeling then just describe it no matter how long it takes. Using your native tongue won’t help you at all.

hope you found this post beneficial

Wasalam and keep practicing 🙂

Shajahan

Author of Get Fluent In Arabic 

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Keep Going!

Some of you maybe able to relate to this.

Some days went by and I felt like I was making no progress in my Arabic.

when I’d listen to or read something in Arabic. Other days I would jump from elation upon learning a new phrase, a new word, understand a book or an article more.

It was like a day of progress and days of no progress and even some days of forgetting things and going backwards.

Doubts started creeping into my mind. Can I really learn this language or is it beyond me?

Don’t give up. If you’re already halfway on your journey you might as well carry on right?

Just Keep Going!

Thank you 🙂

Survival Arabic At A Cafe

You’re at a cafe in an Arabic speaking country. Nobody speaks English. It maybe suprising to some but I have met some Arabic students who after two years living in Egypt just point to pictures on the menu.

I mentioned in my book Get Fluent In Arabic that before heading to Egypt I focused on being able to speak basic everyday fusha Arabic. My friend focused on grammar. His goal was to try and score the highest score on the entry level exam. There were a problem with this approach. One, he was too afraid to go out as he could not speak Arabic to the taxi driver to the guy at the local groceries. There’s a saying ”fear only makes your world become smaller.”  He spent a good  few weeks practically indoors. Only going out when I went out. It’s amazing how small your world can become when you can’t speak the language of the people with whom you are living amongst. Being able to speak the language and eat the food you’re used to is definitely a way to stay sane being away from home. i guess you could turn to Google images and show people the food you want but it is still a crutch. Here are a few survival sentences I learned before heading abroad. I will post other survival sentences in upcoming posts.

أريد التونة شطيرة

Uridu tuna shateera I want a tuna sandwich

أريد ألقهوة

uridu qahwa I want coffee

 أريد كعكة ألشوكولاتة

Uridu caaka chocolata I want chocolate cake

أريد عصير ألبرتقال

uridu asirul bortugaal I want orange juice

أ

t

بكم؟ becum how much?

All you gotta do is go on google translate and type the desired food you wana order and put it after the verb uridu and you’re good to go! Remember knowledge not acted upon is soon forgotten. Use whatever you learn immediately!

Thank you for reading this blog 🙂

Shajahan (Author Of Get Fluent In Arabic)

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Time Saver!

Google Voice Is pretty revolutionary.

It can save you soooooo much time.

I’ve used in writing long emails, SMS, whatps app messages and even blogs. Instead of spending an hour and a half two two hours typing I can get that same amount of work done by using Google voice.

Seriously guys, don’t type it say it. You’ll save yourself hours on end like this. At first it may seem weird but once you get into the habit man it’s amazing!