Learning Arabic: in Oman

In her long path to learn Arabic, she headed towards our lovely country, Oman. She didn't know the real Oman before stepping her first steps on its earth. Samiya AL-Mammari meets Ileana Locker to know more about her perceptions of Omanis and Arabic language.

Ileana Locker, a specialized in comparative languages and linguistics New Yorker student, is spending one semester at SQU to study Arabic. She wanted to study Arabic in an Arabic country and through the study abroad program she came across Oman. About her choosing Oman, she comments, “lots of my friends went to study Arabic in Egypt and Jordan but I wanted something different. I needed a unique experience; I wanted Oman". Moreover; she is desired to discover how adaptable she is on living and studying among Omanis. 

Locker says that she got to hear about Oman for her first time through applying to SIT program. “I really feel embarrassed that I knew nothing about Oman before visiting it. We at the U.S have the idea that Gulf citizens don't work because they have a lot of money. Surely, my perceptions have changed as I get to know how simple, friendly and hospitable Omanis are", Locker adds.

Her first week at SQU was a bit shocking as she didn't expect that students' activities will be mixed-genders.  She states, "I didn’t expect that but I had a good time as I had the chance to meet more people and practice my Arabic.  In fact, it was a bit hard but I get to understand about fifty percent of the conversations."

She finalizes the interview saying "SQU encourages students to achieve their ambitions as it provides them with a verity of majors to choose from; for instance, medicine, Arts and law…" In addition, she is glad that SQU provides professors from various nations as that will be culturally beneficial. Locker wishes that "|there will be more exchange students, not only with Arab students but also with western and Europeans". During the upcoming years Locker hopes that she'll be able to improve her fluency in Arabic and decides between working as a diplomatic or go to social work sector."

Life isn't A Race

FATMA AL-SHAQSI

College of Education, English

To begin with

Dr. Nabeel Al-Rawahi is originally from Wadi AlMaawil, Governorate of AlBatinah South. Once he got his high school degree from Jabir Bin Zaid high school in AlWatayya, he joined the College of Engineering at SQU in 1989. He graduated first of his cohort in 1994 and was appointed as a demonstrator in the Mechanical and Industrial Engineering Department at SQU. A year later, he left to USA to start his Master degree in the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. In 1997, he came back to his previous department for one year. After that, he returned to the University of Michigan to complete his doctorate. He earned it and rejoined his department as a PhD holder in 2002.

Dr. Nabeel specialized in fluid Mechanics and conducted a number of research projects in this area. In summer 2011, he was appointed as the Head of the Mechanical and Industrial Engineering Department. He became the first Omani to earn this position.

Life

Life is short and without a correct balance between all its important parts, we can't succeed. Always remember that family should be your first priority. Work will never end but time spent away from the family will never be recovered. 

Lesson

“Eliminate the rat race”. Many people see this life as a race that never ends. In driving they are in a race with others. At work they are in a race with their colleagues, and so on. This type of mentality increases stress and kills the team spirit. We want a healthy competition that achieves better quality work with less stress possible. Moreover, I urge our students, to value the chance that was given to them to be at university and other institute. They should try to get the best of it and not waste the great gift.

Leisure Time

I like general reading more than reading about my field. I read about different topics including Islam, history, general science, and others. I also enjoy playing football and spending as much time possible with my family.

The Globe

I really feel sorry for such events that are happening around the world; for instance, killing, unjust, disasters. Humanity must put its hands together to come up with solutions, so the world will be a better place for all.

For your eyes only

“Allah loves if someone does work to do it perfectly.” Everyone should keep this in his mind that when he works, studies, drives, or do any sort of activity. We should not think that Islam is only concerned about prayers and other “formal” worshiping actions. Islam should be our guide in doing our best at our studies and our job. Honesty and efficiency should be our wheel to the roads of achieving a superior life. My last words to H!SQU readers is to make sure that they set a plan for their goals because if they don't set one then they are definitely planning to fail.

Know thyself!

Know thyself!

By: Mutassem AL Sharji

Karate Coach

It’s amazing to see how most of us live our lives on a daily basis spending 6 to 12 hours doing all sorts of activities from; school assignments, work tasks, social gatherings, entertainment…etc, without spending ten minutes, at least, trying to know ourselves better and asking questions like;

-          What special potentials do I have?

-          What do I really want to achieve in this life?

Beyond the external influences of family and society, that are not necessarily true all the time, we need to look within ourselves to find out these answers. It's worth mentioning that as a basic law for the game of life, those who have an agenda will always rule the game! As a consequence, if you don’t have an agenda for your life you'll automatically be in someone else’s agenda doing what you're “supposed to do” according to others' desires!

Setting an agenda isn't that easy. In specific, setting an agenda that's true to you and not because of some imposed ideals set by family, society or media is much more difficult. Nevertheless, it is the first step towards self-mastery. As the Chinese proverb states;

"Knowing others is a great. Knowing yourself is mastery"

-Know yourself and Start living.

-Shut out the outside noise and external influences and listen to the inner voice!

-Try spending at least 10-20 minutes in a quiet atmosphere figuring out who you really are and what you want to achieve in life. Make that a daily habit, as really 20 minutes is nothing in comparison to the time we waste daily on Facebook, never ending threads of YouTube videos or Blackberry messaging (although I don't own one!J).

You'd be amazed by your answers, as our minds are so clustered with unquestioned ideals of how we're supposed to be according to outside authorities.

-Never get scared of the answers you get and most importantly; have the courage to follow your true self and keep in mind what Socrates has said;

"The unexamined life is not worth living"

Know yourself first, be genuinely who you really are and then you’d honorably have Love for yourself.

“Know thyself, Be thyself, Love thyself”

ETS Translating "Animals United"

MUNTHIR AL-SIYABI

College of Arts and Social Sciences, Translation

"Translating A movie" was one of the English & Translation Society (ETS) main projects to be conducted this year. The project started in October, 2011 with 11 participants. It went through three main stages. After selecting the movie, "Animals United" the first stage was to translate the movie. The team was divided in which each took part to translate. At the second stage, the participants started editing the translation with the help from  Dr. Abdul Gabbar Al Sharafi and Mr. Abdulrahman Al-Hashmi from the English Department at SQU. after two months of translation and editing, the third stage was to transcribe the translation into the movie using some programs designed for subtitling which took one month.

Dr. Abdul Gabbar Al Sharafi shares his experience in the project saying "the translation of the movie entitled "Animals United" by the ETS at SQU is a great achievement that we should all celebrate. The translation shows a high level of translation performance of our translation students at the English Department. It is one of the first attempts of its kind in Oman and should be encouraged. Subtitling is not an easy translation skill. It has been restricted to a few translation firms in some Arab countries. The fact that Omani translation students are venturing into this culturally crucial enterprise has a number of indications. One of these is that the subtitling industry could be a new emerging business in the Sultanate and these students will surely herald the birth of this cultural industry."

The translator, Khadeeja Al-Shibli believes that she should expose herself to all various types of translation to sharpen her translation skills.  In addition, she explained how helpful the project in terms of enhancing various skills; for instance, reading, listening, observing, identifying and analyzing the text. Khadeeja said that she faced some problems in understanding the accents of some of the characters as they had French and Spanish accents; however, through consulting some experts and using the internet, problems were reduced.

Is interactive learning the solution to better understanding?

ABDURRAHMAN ELHADI   

College of Arts And Social Sciences, Media

It's common knowledge that students drag themselves reluctantly to some lectures and jump at the opportunity to be the first person arriving in other lectures, so what really makes students behave this way?  And what can teachers do about that?

In the recent years, Sultan Qaboos University has shown an increase in the number of lecturers using interactive teaching methods.  SQU students are starting to welcome the concepts of inquiry based learning and interactive learning more than before.  According to Hamed Al Hashmi, a third year student at the SQU said that “it feels that you are really working and actually learning something new,ˮ in comparison to the traditional methods which he plainly described as “very boring and sometimes stressful.”

Isaac Al Jabri one of the students who took this course with Dr. Delatova, “We wrote weekly diary to reflect upon the work we did and we didn’t have a final exam. It was a nice change.  He also explained how quite tough it could be during the time of continuous assessment. 

Nevertheless we see that the classic traditional methods still prevail and are still widely used by lecturers in SQU to date. Recent studies have all pointed towards the growing benefits of interactive teaching methods like inquiry based learning and project based learning according to an education focused webpage.

One of the courses taught at SQU using project based learning is Cultural Communication, a course provided within the Management Department in the College of Commerce and Economics. Dr.Vickytoria Delatova, a communications assistant professor, uses this method.  “After starting to use this method I have found that students start to interact more with me and among themselves. Indeed, they learn by experience and trial etching the information to their memory” she said. Moreover, she stated how students at the beginning stumbled a little and had problems in accepting and adapting to this different style, but later they grasped it and made it their own.

In contrary, Malika al busaidi, an assistant professor in the social department, uses the traditional methods of teaching. “Student are taught to receive information from the instant they are very young, so they are used to it and it works why change?” She also explained how valuable the time students spend with their teacher that it should not be wasted playing games or activities.

Dr.Frank Renard, a French assistant professor in management at SQU states that the secret to getting the students to accept this different teaching method, is by explaining to them why you do you use it. “Once this question is answered they accept it and follow it.’’ “The other main thing is to relate it to them, to their culture, everyday life and current events.” He then adds how important it's for teachers to keep in touch with their student’s generation.

A point which both Dr. Delatova and Dr. Renard mentioned is the vital role the interactions outside the classroom play in gearing up these students for the future. This learning process, also, helps them to be independent and self-educated as all of these concepts are stressed upon meanwhile taking the course.

While Dr.Mohamed Satour a mass media professor who makes use of both interactive and traditional ways of teaching says, “the reoccurring and continuous use of slide shows and recitation or speech in the presence of a variety of new alternatives is plain ignorance. Our end result is to get the student to learn and have fun, what the medium is just a medium to get the message across.”

A Good Teacher

ALI AL-YAAQUBI

College of Education, English

Teaching is no doubt the most profoundly complex job ever devised. It was one of the jobs that our prophet Mohammed PBUH practiced. At that time, teaching was highly appreciated; consequently; teachers were respected. In contrast, in our present days that isn't the case. Many teachers are living a humiliating life because they are not being valued by their students.

A good teacher! How will a student define such a person? Unfortunately, in the eyes of many students, a good teacher is the one who betrays his duty and lets his students cheat in their assignments. As a result, they will get high grades which will make him from some perspectives a good teacher. But is he? What criterion made him a good teacher? No criterion has done so. And even if it had, what power can guarantee for us a valid criterion?

Kent Jackson says that: “A good teacher never stops learning.ˮ Indeed; a good teacher will act as a receiver and a giver of knowledge. Phil Beadle goes beyond Jackson's words as he defined a good teacher as an entertainer and an educator. For sure, humanity won't collapse if a teacher has a sense of humor. In contrast, his light sense of humor will grab the attention of the audience.

On the other hand, a teacher who gives his students much more homework than is needed is creating a very stressful atmosphere for leaning. Education is not a race, so it must move in steady steps. In fact, school is the time where learners should have fun while being educated. In contrast, a good teacher must make his students' interest his first priority and teaching his religious duty. Only then will he know what it feels like to be a good teacher.

Sleep disorders

Halah Al-Hadhrami

4^th year Medical Student

If you are encircled with a lot of work and responsibilities, the only solution you go for is to cut-off your sleep hours. In this case, you may develop some related sleep disorders or simply you may have “sleep debt”.

What is sleep debt?

Some students tend to skip sleeping hours especially during exams' periods as they keep studying the whole night. Later on they find themselves sleeping for a long time as if they are compensating for their skipped sleeping hours. This is called “sleep debt” which may lead to many serious problems.

What are the common sleep disorders?

You may experience a feeling where you are irritable and unable to concentrate. Sometimes this can lead to a serious sleep disorder such as insomnia, narcolepsy, and sleepwalking. Insomnia is the most common sleep disorder defined as the inability to have enough amount of sleeping due to some life styles as the lack of physical exercise.  In contrary, narcolepsy simply means excessive daytime sleepiness. People with narcolepsy have disturbed times of sleeping which may interfere with their daily activities. Sleepwalkers have the ability to do simple activities which can be done in a full state of consciousness. They are also able to react aggressively while they are sleeping. It has been shown that sleepwalking is related to immaturity of some parts in the brain and it is more commonly seen in children with affected parents.

Steps for better sleep

Here are some steps that help to have better and effective sleeping:

·        Set a regular sleeping schedule.

·        Never oversleep.

·        Make sure that you have a good sleeping environment with a proper temperature.

·        Sleep in a dark room.

·        Avoid taking caffeine before sleeping.

·        Avoid taking heavy meals or even snakes before sleeping.

·        Avoid any source of noise.

·        Don’t sleep next to any electrical device.

·        Keep regular exercise.