Who do you want to be? James Clear, author of Atomic Habits, says this question is the key to developing habits that lead to successful outcomes. Rather than focusing on goals or the achievements we want to see in our lives, we should focus on our identity; who we wish to become. Most people don’t consider identity change when they set out to learn something. They fix their eye on the final outcome in order to decide their actions, rather than setting an identity that will shape their habits. However, if you neglect to change your underlying beliefs about yourself, it is difficult to change your habits as your behaviors are usually a reflection of your identity; an indication of ...
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When is the last time you have used the word ubiquitous in your speech? Chances are, you never have. Before I picked up the book, Sapiens by Yuval Noah Harari, I had never noticed anyone use the word ubiquitous; yet it’s meaning is so simple; “present, appearing or found everywhere.” It’s not overly complex, but only after hearing my audiobook narrator say this word multiple times, did I begin to grasp its meaning; a word in my own language, surrounded by other words I fully understood. As the director of a language program designed to help people learn spoken Arabic, I often notice when vocabulary in my own first language remains unfamiliar to me. I asked myself if I could ...
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Many people ask me how many hours they should commit to learning spoken Arabic while in Amman, Jordan. Without exception, I always respond, “As many as possible.” In an aural based program that is focused on learning to understand the language, a rapid approach to acquisition gives the learner many strong advantages. The obvious one being quick vocabulary development. This may seem evident, but carries with it several sub advantages that go along with this strategy. For one, your mind begins to notice which patterns and words are used in high frequency. By pouring language you understand into your ears again and again, the commonly used verbs, expressions and grammar will highlight themselves naturally through repetition. They say, “repetition is ...
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