Dissecting the bilingual brain- Insights of thinking in two languages...

A bilingual can listen to songs in one language whilst reading in the other. 
A bilingual can watch a sitcom in one language and tweet in another whilst laughing hysterically.
Beware of a bilingual! During a conversation in one language with you, s/he may suddenly say things in the other.
A bilingual can talk to people on the phone in one language and talk to people in the same room in another at the same time.
A bilingual can dream in one language and then abruptly start dreaming in another. (My daughter)
A bilingual can visualize numbers in one language and recite them aloud in another.
A bilingual likes watching films in their original language. 
A bilingual has interest for other cultures. (My husband) 
A bilingual may start a sentence in one language and finish in the other. 
A bilingual likes listening to the rhythm of other languages even though s/he may not understand them. 
A bilingual likes the transcendental journey between languages. (Elif Shafak)
A bilingual likes the challenge of translating between languages.  


Let's dissect the bilingual brains.. Write your daily experience or emotions about being bilingual and I will add to my blog..
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My reflections of a documentary called On a Tightrope

http://www.snagfilms.com/films/title/on_a_tightrope/#.TjrEDdQ6KvE.twitter

I must say that not many documentaries touched my heart as much as this one. It could be because of the way orphans tell their stories or the desperation I see in their eyes. Particularly to watch the kids who practise tightroping without a safety net to be able to make a decent living in the future is very heart breaking.

In the beginning of the documentary there are Chinese officials trying to understand the reason of the filming and asking the film makers not to translate or show the part when they interrogated them. Of course the film makers rebel and show us this part as well.

This documentary is about group of orphan kids who live in an orphanage where Uighur Turks settled  in China. Although I am Turkish, I didn't have an extensive information about Uighurs which was a shame really. At school in Turkey, we did not have the chance to explore the other Turks living in other Asian countries in detail.  I did a quick research about the area on the Internet and this is what I found.
Turks originated in Siberia and Mongolia and mobilised long before Uighurs. It is rumoured that even Vikings were Turks originally. There are lots of debates about that!

http://forums.taleworlds.com/index.php?topic=113196.0

The name ‘Turk’ came to stand for unity and a common language: variants of Turkish are still spoken from the Balkans to Yakutia (present-day Siberia).

 Uighurs are leaders of a Turkic tribe which emerged in the eighth century from the scrum of nomads along China's northern border to create an empire rivalling the Tang dynasty of China. 
http://www.turks.org.uk/index.php?pid=35


Vast majority of Uighurs live outside Xinjiang in China is in Taouyan County in South-central Hunan province.

Their religion is Sunni Islam. The language is written in Arabic letters. 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uyghur_people

In this documentary hearing Uighur Turkish was very interesting. It felt like I would understand what they were saying but despite many common words I had to rely on the English subtitles which was very frustrating. The orphans are trying really hard to succeed in a very hostile and strict rules and regulations of Chinese government. One teacher says; "I can't have two masters; Science and Religion. I have to teach these kids Science because I am a member of the Communist Party and I have responsibilities for my country. If they are in school, they can't practise their religion."

The kids are asked what they would like to become in the future. One girl says; "A Chinese language teacher because there is a massive need for Mandarin language teachers in all over the world". 

I particularly recommend for teachers to watch and show this documentary in a lesson and discuss about the different issues mentioned in the film.  

There are many disputes between Chinese government and Uighur Turks at present. You can read about them through the links below:

http://en.baybak.com/chinese-killing-uygur-turks-in-east-turkistan.azr 

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-08-01/china-says-restaurant-attack-was-terror-after-18-die-in-violence.html

http://www.homebodrum.com/how-do-turkish-people-feel-about-the-violence-between-uighur-turks-han-chinese-in-chinas-xinjiang-province/

   
Uighur Mosque in Xinjiang, China

Doppa Cap

Old Kashqar City in China

My musings/tweets about this and that...

#goodmorning to all waking up to a brand new day. If not #Goodday #goodafternoon #goodevening or #goodnight pick one pls..


What gets greater and sweeter by giving&sharing? Love,freedom, aspiration,success,inspiration, appreciation,kindness,food, drink&money,LIFE!


Reading about some connections freaks me out. We're actually managed by dark people so matrix is true.It's very dirty underneath!


@Mruff221: asks; Who is your favorite super hero and why?" My favourite super hero is Bond.James Bond, shaken but not stirred.He's invincible..


12 Turkish soldiers are killed by terorist organization PKK today. The peace process is ruined once more by violence and murder..


#goodmorning This morning we woke up to a world where humans are still dying from hunger. Please help @unicef_uk #Somalia #Africa #drought

It breaks my heart to see children in #EastAfrica die from hunger while lots of food is thrown away in many parts of the world:(


Somalia's starving driven into violent Mogadishu.. I think it's quite embarrasing to watch and not being able to do anything about it. All Somalians I know are lovely and friendly! My students from Somalia describe the pain and destruction. Poverty is the main reason for these horrific scenes..

Reading #TheElement by #SirKenRobinson and loving it. He says 'We don't know who we can be until we know what we can do'. So true..


#goodmorning everyone. I wish you a fab Thursday:) Heavy rain is announced for UK today and tomorrow...I will try to have fun with that:)


First, new year 7 induction morning then year 8 graduation ceremony and now I don't feel my legs. It was all fun. Nice to see smiling faces.


Our 80yr old neighbour never fails to impress us with his knowledge of our local area. He's not only able to tell the yr some of the houses were built, also how many of them were bombed by Germans during WW2. A walking history! He was in the British Air Force during the war. He told us our house was built in 1934.


There's no religion,race,belief, sexual orientation and ethnicity of terrorism.Stop using Islamic, at the beginning of a terrorist activity!


Started primary school visits today, kids look so fragile and worried about moving to secondary. Giant step for them.


#goodmorning ve #Gunaydin today I woke up to the same Monday as last week. #groundhogweek 


All the children should have the right to love, care, attention and decent education they deserve. #worlddayagainstchildlabour

I finished #aysekulin 's great books #life and #sorrow so quickly that now I feel like a child who lost her candy...


I had a very challenging #yoga session and don't feel my abdominals anymore. I still don't understand #yoga language but know that it hurts...


I feel more tired than yesterday, if it's possible. Can't open my mouth to speak, my husband thinks it's wonderful:)


I am extremely worried about the future of #Afghanistan, don't think they're doing enough to improve human rights.


Do these volcanoes have to erupt just before or during the school holidays? Poor families will be stuck at airports once again:(


Sleep deep #TwitterRepublic but not too deep that you wouldn't be able to recognise the thieves, hypocrites and cheaters:) #goodnight

Celebrating my 5000th tweet. I am so lucky to tweet up many beautiful people on Twitter. Thank you for bringing your colours into my life.


Still trying to recover from a very busy week. It's sweet to wake up and see my daughter's smiley face, telling me that breakfast is ready:)


Teacher: What do you want in life dearest? St.: A big house, a big car, a husband, a business, children etc.
Teacher: But your subject levels are really low, how are you going to have all these things without education? St: Don't care!


Teacher: you need to stop being rude to teachers and students. Student: But i'm like this to everybody, you can't blame me!


Today is #CharityTuesday #FF Help in anyway you can. Sometimes, even a nice smile or word would be enough..


I would like to follow and have followers who I can learn from..don't care about the numbers, I'm lucky that I met such fab people on Twitter.


The sun is shining..What a wonderful day to..........do the ironing:(


A wonderful and happy Mother's Day to all the mothers around the world. To my mother: Thank you for loving us unconditionally.


#GM #GD #GE #GN Twitter Republic..Pls pick the suitable part of the day and have the best of it:) Have your lucky charms always with you!


#GN tweeties...Catch all the good tweets in your timeline while they are pouring. All of them are for you cause you're worth it!


If you don't create opportunities for kids to learn first language, you create enemies in your country, who feel they don't belong anywhere! Multilingualism is the key to have feet on ground and strength..


Happy #worldpressfreedomday . I hope in the future, we'll praise the journalists who tell us the truth, not persecute them!


Sometimes I think 365 days of the year aren't enough to address all issues in the world! Come on people, wake up, so we don't keep reminding!


I was sorry that Gaddafi's grandchildren were killed in the attack. This is why war doesn't solve anything apart from deepening the pain!


Installing furniture from IKEA is like putting together a very complex jigsaw puzzle...with several missing pieces! It drives you crazy:)


#iyigeceler tatli ruyalar! #goodnight sweet dreams! #gutenachtschlaf gut! Add other languages and have multilingual sweet dreams:))

People who inspire me...

On Twitter, I follow lots of great people who I learn a lot from. I wanted to write about three of those people and their great links I enjoy reading and learning.


Here they are;


@ShellTerrell is the writer of The 30 Goals Challenge and International Speaker, #Edchat/ #RSCON11 cofounder, VP of Edu Outreach @Parentella, SC Mgr @TheConsultantsE
She is another wonderful humanitarian who I learn a lot from. She worked with troubled teens at alternative schools and in low income neighbourhoods. She also participated in programs that reached out to teens in juvenile detention centres. She worked with homeless children as part of her non-profit organisation, ETHOS. She now teaches English to children, teens and adults in Germany. Her edublog is http://teacherbootcamp.edublogs.org/about/  won 'Most Influential Tweet and Series of Tweets' and the 'Tweet Discussion' award.


@esolcourses  Sue Lyon-Jones is a webmaster, writer/multimedia author, teacher & REFL bod. She runs English lessons website www.esolcourses.com which has free lessons, games, quizzes and teaching resources. She is a great educator and provides excellent resources which I enjoy using for extra curriculum activities and special days and events in my school.     





@Mruff221 is Mark Ruffalo who is a great actor and director. He was recently nominated with Oscar for 'Best Supporting Actor' and he made his directorial debut with 'Sympathy for Delicious'. He is now playing in 'Avengers' as the Incredible Hulk and I believe he really is...He fights for so many causes and really supports all the relevant organisations and charities which are close to his heart. One of these charities is @WaterDefense and has a web site http://www.waterdefense.org/  Fracking, tar sands and coal are the issues that the charity tries to raise awareness against. Another charity he supports, is @crowdrise http://www.crowdrise.com/markruffalo In 2001, he had to have a brain tumour removed which is why he initiated projects for the 'Acoustic Neuroma Association and the Brain Tumour Foundation'. He wants to make sure that through these organisations, tumour victims have access to the much needed support and resources to get them through treatment.


All three of these people are truly inspirational figures who encourage me to become better at what I do. 

UNICEF...

How would I explain to my children and students that it's OK to kill for revenge?

Since childhood, we are taught to respect and obey the law. The law is there to protect and serve us. We are led to believe that the law exists for the people by the people. Is that right?
In some developing countries, it is well known that the legal system protects constitutions rather than individuals. The citizens of these countries are mostly undereducated or undernourished, so they are not able to see or fight with the abusiveness of their governments or corporates. Those countries are recommended to look up to the advanced democracy of Europe or the USA. Certainly when I was growing up, I thought there was nothing European and American governments could do wrong. I thought they treated all their citizens and the citizens of other countries with respect. Sadly, the time and events showed me otherwise. Particularly witnessing USA and UK attack Iraq, left many people in shock and caused more hatred. I could not believe that to catch a terrorist group they would sacrifice so many innocent lives. After so many years of victims, suffering and pain, we heard that USA caught Osama in Pakistan. Yes, but why did they attack Iraq and Afghanistan without being exactly certain? No one can explain that clearly. There are rumours such as their will to control Middle East and the oil..
I honestly wanted to believe the opposite but then when the conflict in Yugoslavia started, America stood back. Women and children were begging for help. They claimed that they were being raped and murdered but none of the European and American governments moved a finger to help them. Some said this was because there was no petrol in Yugoslavia. I still wanted to see this as the governments not wanting to interfere with Yugoslavia's internal business. In the meantime, many innocent lives were lost.
I asked my children what they thought about America killing Osama Bin Laden. Their reply was that it was right and he deserved to die. How about law, justice, fairness, democracy and all of the above? I had to tell them that an unarmed man who did not resist to soldiers would not deserve to die even if this man was the most dangerous terrorist. What he would deserve is to be arrested and to stand trial before being brought to justice. Otherwise, this would be called murder. And what makes us better than a murderer, if we don't follow the law?

Have you ever given up on a student?

As teachers, we talk about students in the staff room. These chats are good for communicating and getting to know about students.

I know that I am able to talk in depth about EAL new arrivals in the school because I interview and meet them on their first day. This gives me a great opportunity to get detailed information about their background and level of education. In addition, I learn about their hobbies, likes and dislikes before anyone else. When I discuss a particular EAL student with teachers, unless it’s confidential, I am able to give more inside information about an EAL student than anybody else.

 'Every child matters’ and ‘every child has a gift waiting to come out’ but there are times when I feel hopeless and say ‘No, s/he will not make it’. This feeling of hopelessness bothers me immensely. I don’t like this negative feeling inside me. So I start asking other teachers about the student to find out if s/he is better in other subjects. My feelings have changed so many times about a student after listening to her/his side of story or other teachers telling me about how great this student in their subject is.

I also think about my teaching style to find out if I need to make adjustments for this student’s preferred way of learning. If s/he is good at music, homework would be to write lyrics for a song from a topic we learn or if the better subject is physical education, homework maybe to find some pictures of sport actions related to the topic etc.

Many years of living but not so many years of teaching (7 years) taught me that no matter what I think about a student in my mind, I never really lose hope for her/him in my heart. If s/he makes the slightest effort, I am prepared to forgive and forget whatever happened in the past and accept that as a bad patch or phase we went through...I feel so lucky to be part of the teaching profession which teaches me patience and inspires me to become a better person, day after day...