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Re: Let's learn together!

Posted: Sat Jul 06, 2013 4:53 am
by Shaghayegh
Hi. I'm Shaghayegh, from Iran,24. And I'm software engineering student at university of Tehran. Honestly, I've wanted to join here because I'm trying to learn English, but very soon i realized here has a most friendly atmosphere and i really like it. So I hope to can be a good friend and member like others here. At first i realized a big number of members are Iranian. am I right?

I want to speak a little about my English abilities (if there are :)) ). So , I'm good in reading and listening. But ,as you see, I'm terrible in writing and speaking! One reason of this is I've been reading books and sources in English and there wasn't any pressure on me or even need to learn speaking and writing. I've learned a lot of words and studies many English texts, but I can't use them when I need them! When I decided to continue my studying in USA, I've realized that my inabilities in English speaking and writing are big shortage to success :( . Now I'm trying to improve my English writing in anyway i can. I study and exercise about 8 hours of day.Listening to musics, watching movies, using English learning programs etc. Very soon I've understood that the best way to learn English is just trying to involve myself in speaking with others.

Finally, excuse me there are errors. Still I can't speak fluently. But I'm trying to improve that.
In next post i will speak more about myself and now I'm reading the rest of posts here to know better you.
Thanks a lot.

What do we do?

Posted: Sat Jul 06, 2013 12:29 pm
by behnam
Hi Elham,

How are you? I hope you are fine and the hot weather of Najafabad doesn't bother you, but I guess it does since you have always complained about Najafabad's hot weather and praised Azerbaijan for its cool weather in summers. I also dislike hot climates.

Elham, sometimes it happens, we make a mistake but we don't try to find a way to correct it. Our selfishness(something inside us; I don't know what it is, maybe stubbornness is a proper word for this purpose) tempts us to give some insensible reasons for our actions or decision. Giving incorrect reasons or making faulty logic results in further mistakes.

Elham, this thread isn't mine. I am a member of this thread. You are also a member of it. This thread belongs to people who write and read the posts. Therefore, it is wrong to let our personal problems influence our decision.

Elham, you know that many times I have decided to leave the thread, even to leave the Internet, but the right of people who are hidden and follow the posts( who are somehow spiritually, mentally, emotionally, etc connected to me and my posts) has stopped me from leaving.


I am sure, if I stop writing, or if I leave the Internet, you will become extremely sad. You are a good example. Other people have the same feeling about you and your posts. Therefore, there are some people who have emotional involvement with you. You should not let your selfishness or stubbornness hurt others' lives.

If you still follow your brother's advice, I advise you to continue writing. As I said above, many people follow your posts regularly. Do not impose emotional sanction on them! It is cruel to humanity to make someone lose hope!

The tree isn't dry! It has produced uneatable fruits, but there is a way to modify the tree! Ask your father for that special action; like tree surgery(in Farsi it is Peyvand zadan). :lol: :lol: :lol:

In my analogy, the tree is green and useful(not dry). Do not change my words! :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:

All the best,
Behnam, 6 July, 2013

Re: Let's learn together!( AND ALWAYS )

Posted: Sun Jul 07, 2013 10:49 am
by Moroo
Dear my beautiful friends Behnam and Elham

I'm not here for a long time but I feel all of us are family, it's sad to see beautiful friends like you both are not going to be friends anymore. :-(

I really don't know what had happened, but I have a story that happened to me maybe it can help.

I had a friend of mine and he was my cousin as well, we were very close friends during 35 years ago, we were two members of four close friends, we used to go out with each other etc…

Eight years ago I had a fight with him, in this fight I was very angry and I said very bad things and I insulted him.

The reason of this fight wasn't because of the ethics or other important things like that.

During those eight years I tried to call him and said to him that I'm really sorry, it's the first time for me to make you angry and we all do mistakes, please forgave me. but till now he refused to accept my apology.

because of him the situation now, we become two separated groups and we won't become one group again.

In my opinion I did a mistake but this mistake is nothing comparing with our situation now because we lose each other and he and I can't find another good friends like us.

What I want to say sense the problem not because of mainly things in the personality it can be fixed, we are human we all do mistakes and we will always do.

Hope I made my idea clear {-:

All the best

Re: Let's learn together!

Posted: Sun Jul 07, 2013 1:20 pm
by behnam
Hi Moroo,

Many thanks for sharing your experience with us. I agree with you about our human-related faults and destructive emotions. We all make mistakes. That's OK. to make mistakes. Nobody should blame someone else for making mistakes, because nobody is perfect. However, some actions cannot be considered as mistakes. Therefore, mistake is a delicate matter, and it has many definitions.

A mirror is expected to reflect our face back. This is the main purpose of building a mirror. Imagine you buy a mirror from the market but it doesn't shows your face, or the picture isn't clear. This mirror doesn't work properly, or it doesn't function well. Therefore, this mirror has got some faults or defects. Faults and defects are different from mistake. The mirror just does not come to your expectations. In this case, the matter isn't forgiveness or forgetfulness. Something is against your expectations!

A tree should either give eatable fruits or make shadow, or give some greenness(some beauty) to the garden. When it is dry, it must be cut down! It doesn't work properly.

Fortunately, in our case(Elham-Behnam friendship), we both work quite well, but not completely well. At least we make some shadows, or we have some green leaves. Therefore, a wise gardener should not cut us down. :lol: :lol: :lol:

I believe, when someone doesn't come to our expectations, we must leave him/her, even though the person is our sister, brother, father or even mother! In other words, a dry fruit must be cut down, no matter it is apple tree or orange one!This is cruel, I know, but I do believe in it, and fortunately or unfortunately, I practically follow this policy in my life. Many people have told me that this way of thinking is wrong, but I haven't cared about other people's view on this matter.

In your case, I don't know what has happened, but I guess not only is your cousin's heart broken, but also it is smashed. The pieces are too small to be glued to each other. To put it another way, in your case, the problem isn't occurring some cracks in his heart, it is maybe smashing his heart into pieces. It won't work, even though you glue the pieces. It is maybe totally damaged. }: }: }:

I am in a hurry. I have to leave quickly. I didn't check the post. I hope my mistakes are not too many!

All the best,
Behnam, 7 July, 2013

Re: Let's learn together!

Posted: Sun Jul 07, 2013 1:28 pm
by Maniya
hi

Re: Let's learn together!

Posted: Sun Jul 07, 2013 2:12 pm
by Mohsen
Dear Friends,

During the last week I had not a regular life. There were three wedding ceremony which I had been invited ,and my life was changed, influenced by these ceremonies. One of them was a friend of mine , and the two other weddings were my relatives, My wife 'brother have a son and his son got married, my sister has a daughter who got married. My niece ceremony was the most important for me , and I was in my sister house for three days ,I was receipt by delicious foods ,different color sweet things and fruits.
Before interring to Holy Ramadan month ,it is a rush hour for wedding ceremony. Many couples try to hold their wedding ceremonies before Ramadan .
It also took time to think, consult for purchasing three good gifts for three couples of brides and grooms. The meeting I had with my wife was not effective for buying a gift and finally we bought gold with different values.
Sometimes living differently is enjoyable and it is worth to pay gold for it.

B.Wishes,
Mohsen

Re: Let's learn together!

Posted: Sun Jul 07, 2013 2:20 pm
by Mohsen
Dear Elham,

My feeling about virtual world is different , the virtual world (forum ,chating,) is like a game ,we should attend it and enjoy it , it is not a place to be ashamed , to be bother , to be angry.
Off course as a Muslim I feel responsibility for what I say, even in a chat room, but I never been ashamed if I write rudely ,or write something insulting. If I make a mistake , I will instantly apologize for my mistake.
Please don't make your decision sensitively , I have a fellow citizen in this forum , you are my only hope who are able to resist against Azarbyjan,please don't leave me alone :cry: .

Waiting for you
Mohsen

Re: Let's learn together!

Posted: Sun Jul 07, 2013 2:51 pm
by Mohsen
Dear Behnam,

Nice to hear that you enjoy you trip to your hometown. A good weather in north and visiting beautiful sceneries increased your morale to enjoy your life.
For the garden and the trees, A tree is getting dry ,because of bad soil , If we change the soil or fertilize the soil ,the try will be save . So it needs time, and we should give a chance to tree .
Your policy against people who doesn't come to your expectation is really a big mistake. Do you want to cut down your oppositions. God bless your wife, if she can't meet your expectation.
Being patience against a person who doesn't meet your expectation is the best policy , particularly people like parents and relatives. If you are a Muslim, you are not allowed to behave your own feeling. You have to obey your Islam instructions.
I don't know what happen between Elham and you. What she had done that she has decided to leave the forum. When Elham says she is ashamed of her wrong behavior , it is enough for a girl like Elham and she should come back.

B.Wishes
Mohsen

A warm and friendly welcome to Shaghayegh!

Posted: Sun Jul 07, 2013 7:03 pm
by behnam
Hi Shaghayegh,

Welcome to this thread and thank you very much for joining us. About the history of 'let's learn together!' and its members, it should be said that the first post was written by me on 7th of December 2007 on a site named http://WWW.English-at-home.com. The thread was really successful, because many people from different parts of the world were posting in it, and interesting topics were discussed by the members. The posts were gathered by Elham in four books(in PDF format) and uploaded on http://WWW.scribd.com. You can go there, search and easily find them.

After four years, we had to leave the site. We moved from English-at-home to another site and continued writing, but the site was isolated. After about one year, we moved to this powerful site. Many people for different purposes were reading and posting, but little by little we lost some of them. Some ladies got married and now they are busy with their families and personal matters. Some men went to university, and some people gave up learning English. {-:

Happily, some of us are still here. We are still practising. I hope you will participate actively in discussion and will make the atmosphere of the thread more friendly and nicer.

Your English is excellent. You write effectively and beautifully. Congratulations! I hope we will help each other with improving our English skills.

I hope to hear more from you.

All the best,
Behnam, 7 July, 2013

P.S. You can find some information about me on the first page. If you need more information about me just let me know. Please do not hesitate to share your ideas, experience, and points with us. I would welcome any advice or suggestions with open arms.

Re: Let's learn together!

Posted: Sun Jul 07, 2013 11:30 pm
by [amal]
Hi Shaghayegh,

How are you?

Welcome to this thread.

Oh it is very nice to meet another Iranian lady here. In fact you are very kind and helpful people.
When I came to the internet my main aim was learning English then I met Behnam and Elham. They helped me a lot with my English and we'd become best friends. So it was like killing two birds with one stone. {-;

I am sure that this forum is a perfect way to improve your English so thanks for joining us and I hope you enjoy your time here.

Wish you the best.
Amal

Re: Let's learn together!

Posted: Mon Jul 08, 2013 6:24 pm
by Elham
Hi Mohsen,

Thanks for your words but presently I've made the right decision.

What? Resistance against Azerbaijan?????? I don't get. I love Azerbaijan and Azerbaijani people. What and why should i resist again?!

By the way, dear Behnam isn't making mistake about friendship. We make friends cause we gain sth from this relation, friends are different from family members. we don't owe them and there's no strong emotional connections between friends as there are among family members. When the relation doesn't meet our expectations why should we continue?
Behnam is right in this case. Please don't blame him.

B.wishes
E.

P.S. Dear Behnam, thanks for your post. But it's not like what you said, my absence doesn't change anything. You kindly exaggerated about it! :-) Wish you success and happiness.

What do you mean?

Posted: Tue Jul 09, 2013 4:45 am
by behnam
Hi Mohsen,

Thanks for your posts. You are one of the great and effective members of this thread.

I didn't get the point in your message to Elham which was as a piece of advice! Could you please explain it?

We are thinking about a dry tree in a garden. What should we do with that? We are not speaking about the reasons which have caused the tree to become dry. Answer me frankly Mohsen, what should we do with a dry tree in a garden?
Mohsen wrote:During the last week I had not a regular life. There were three wedding ceremony which I had been invited ,and my life was changed, influenced by these ceremonies. One of them was a friend of mine , and the two other weddings were my relatives, My wife 'brother have a son and his son got married, my sister has a daughter who got married. My niece ceremony was the most important for me , and I was in my sister house for three days ,I was receipt by delicious foods ,different color sweet things and fruits
Mohsen, regardless of your controversial posts and comments during our 5-year friendship on the Internet, only this paragraph is sufficient for an individual to take a wise guess about your personality. You are a self-loved person! I am a selfish and self-loved person too, but your level of narcissism is higher than that of mine. :lol: {-: :lol:

I wonder how you two Esfahani people are going to beat an Azerbaijani man, since as you know; as everybody knows; as the history says; as it is obvious from the history of Esfahan, Safavi kings who were originally from Azerbaijan made Esfahan famous. If your are proud of Naghshe Jahan square, for instance, it has been built by Safavi kings. :lol: :-D :lol:

Mohsen, forget beating Behanm, you cannot! :lol: :twisted: :lol:

All the best,
Behnam, 9 July, 2013

Patience is a virtue!

Posted: Tue Jul 09, 2013 4:55 am
by behnam
Hi Elham,

How are you? I hope you are very well. You are well aware of my opinion about friends and their importance. I am not exaggerating at all. You are one of the most important, effective and valuable people in this thread. Please keep on writing regularly and don't punish yourself and us. By the way, time is a great healer; emotional pain will grow less as time passes. Be patient my kind sister!

All the best,
Behnam, 9 July, 2013

Re: Let's learn together!

Posted: Tue Jul 09, 2013 8:26 am
by Mohsen
I wonder how you two Esfahani people are going to beat an Azerbaijani man, since as you know; as everybody knows; as the history says; as it is obvious from the history of Esfahan, Safavi kings who were originally from Azerbaijan made Esfahan famous. If your are proud of Naghshe Jahan square, for instance, it has been built by Safavi kings.
Dear Elham,
You see what I mean by saying resistance against Azarbaijani , I believe what dear Bahnam say is not right. What we have in Esfahan is from Safavi kings is wrong idea ,may he got this idea by reading forging documents . He should read the history books , Buildings in this era were built by Shaikh Bahaie and Mirdamad.What I heard about Shah Abbas greatness is that Shah Abbas made his child eyes blind . What Azarbaijanian did in Iran history is giving the half of Iran territory to the enemy in Ghajar era. :lol: :cry:
What do you think Elham ? Please help me to clear this point for Behnam.
waiting for your prompt reply.

Mohsen

Re: Let's learn together!

Posted: Tue Jul 09, 2013 6:52 pm
by romana
Hi everyone,

I'm Romana I wanted to improve my writing through joining this thread. I find this thread so interesting and the members are very helpful. I am from Philippines, although English subject is part of our educational curriculum I still find it difficult to use it in writing and speaking as well. I am wishing to improve my skills in writing and speaking as this is so essential in my daily living. Please help me everyone to reach my goal. I would be very much appreciated if you correct my grammar and spellings. Thank you.

All the best,
Romana

Re: Let's learn together!

Posted: Tue Jul 09, 2013 10:35 pm
by Shaghayegh
Hi Dears Behnam and Amal.
Thank you very much for your hospitable kindness. I think and hope we can be good friends.
Behnam;
I have some dramatic stories about my internet and specially forum activities too. I don't if you know about forum.persiantools.com. I've been an active member there and had many friends. Yesteryear, under pressure of government , administrator decided to close many popular and even scientific ,historic ,art ... threads and ban many users. by this many valuable posts and threads has been deleted:( , and as more important , I've lost some of my best friends:((.
I've shifted my activities to some other forums but after months I couldn't make friendship like persiantools. I despaired and left all forum activities.
After months because I've decided to continue studying abroad, I've been searching for English learning resources and found this site by chance.And I surprised! Now I'm happy for friendly speaking here without censorship.And I promise I will be here ever I can if this site be alive and even I married:))
And dear Behnam I know that my English is terrible :)) Specially about tenses. But I'm really trying to improve my English abilities. I request you to tell me any error in my writings. I'll be so grateful for your helps.
Amal;
I'm happy to see Iranians who interested in English Learning here too. We can understand and help ourselves better than other nations.can't?
Thank you so much and Can I ask about your sex?

Re: Let's learn together!

Posted: Tue Jul 09, 2013 10:56 pm
by [amal]
Hi Shaghayegh,

How are you?

Thanks for your reply, I love to read from you.

I am female from Damascus- Syria.

I understood what you wrote to Behnam because we had have the same feelings. After closing the old Let's learn together, I've lost a lot of friends. However thank god that my best friends are still here with me. -Elham and Behnam- :roll: :-)

Today is Ramadan, I want to wish you happy days. can I ask you about your custom. Do you make special food for the first day? Do you visit your relative?

Wish you the best.
Amal

Re: Let's learn together!

Posted: Tue Jul 09, 2013 11:08 pm
by [amal]
Hi Friends,

How are you?

May This Ramadan be as bright as ever.
May this Ramadan bring joy, health and wealth to you.

May this Ramadan bring in u the most
brightest and choicest happiness and
love you have ever Wished for.

Wish you a very happy Ramadan Mubarak

Re: Let's learn together!

Posted: Wed Jul 10, 2013 6:40 am
by Shaghayegh
Shaghayegh wrote: administrator decided to close many popular and even scientific ,historic ,art ... threads and ban many users.
Correct : and to ban
Shaghayegh wrote: I've shifted my activities to some other forums but after months I couldn't make friendship like persiantools.
Better and correct: I shifted My activities to some other forums but after a while I realized I can't make friendships like PersianTools.
I've been searching for English learning resources
Correct: I was searching
:oops:
Any more error? {-:

Happy Ramadan!

Posted: Wed Jul 10, 2013 7:34 am
by behnam
Hi friends,

First of all, I'd like to take this opportunity to tell all Muslim friends a friendly 'Happy Ramadan!'. I am not in a position to give speech about Ramadan like what religious men(clerics) do, or to write poems about it. I merely say: Please pray for me-remember me-when you are breaking your fasting. In particular, I ask female friends for praying, because God is male and then puts them first. This is what we men do when interacting with ladies. A man is often kinder to women than to other men. Why? I don't know! Do you think God take men and women equal? Give reasons! :lol: :-D :lol:

Dear Mohsen, I am not good at history, but some facts are not deniable. I believe, Safavi kings provided opportunities to genius people to design and manage important projects like 'Aleeghapu', 'Monarjonban', etc. in that era. If you have a different view, I respect it. By the way, I am originally from Azerbaijan, and as everybody, I am proud of my motherland. It is your right to be proud of yourself and your city too. As a matter of fact, every individual MUST feel proud of his/her nation, otherwise s/he cannot justify having a sense of belonging to the culture in a society.

Dear Shaghayegh, so many thanks for replying. Neither am I exaggerating, nor am I paying some nice compliments to make you happy. but your English is excellent. You write beautifully and effectively. As far as I'm concerned, your English is much better than that of mine. It is so nice to know that you like this thread and have intended to stay here until the time the site is active. How long have you been learning English? I hope we will help each other make good progress in our English skills.

About the forums, I am sure every site has its special rules and limits. For example, politics and religion are two heated topics. I speak from a bitter experience. Discussing political and religious issues always creates tension, hostility, and hatred which all result in unnecessary fights. We should avoid them. In addition to that, writing about immoral things is not acceptable. Degrading a nation, a culture, a person, a ceremony, an opinion, a philosophy, etc. is not reasonable. However, giving constructive criticism is appreciated and valuable.

There is a fine line between criticizing and degrading! In many cases, it is quite difficult to mind the line between them. I am personally one of the careless people when it comes to minding that delicate line between constructive criticism and degrading! This is one of my thousand weaknesses!

Dear other friends, please join us in discussing some topics. I hope to hear from you soon.

All the best,
Behnam, 10 July, 2013

Re: Let's learn together!

Posted: Wed Jul 10, 2013 7:46 am
by Shaghayegh
[amal] wrote:Hi Shaghayegh,

How are you?

Thanks for your reply, I love to read from you.

I am female from Damascus- Syria.

I understood what you wrote to Behnam because we had have the same feelings. After closing the old Let's learn together, I've lost a lot of friends. However thank god that my best friends are still here with me. -Elham and Behnam- :roll: :-)

Today is Ramadan, I want to wish you happy days. can I ask you about your custom. Do you make special food for the first day? Do you visit your relative?

Wish you the best.
Amal
Hi Dear Amal;
I'm fine and what about you?

Unfortunately I receive very bad news from your country ,everyday :-( I really hate of war and I think war is the final solution for human problems. Albeit if I can, I would say that it is not a human being solution. When I see mans killed by mans for no reason or foolish reasons and among this foolish war just many many innocent men,women and children are died and again will die, I depress and sad!

However, Dear Amal;
How about you city and neighborhood?Is there safe?

I really wish to see your beautiful and ancient country again in peace. War just leave ravages and full of corpses ceremonies.

It is good to correct ourselves!

Posted: Wed Jul 10, 2013 8:01 am
by behnam
Dear Shaghayegh,

Hi again. I just saw your last post. You have suggested some new structures and corrected some mistakes. That's wonderful! However, they are not some big mistakes. Many of them are matters of taste. You convey a message in a sentence, but someone else may use other words to transfer the same message.It is only a matter of taste! They aren't mistakes.

For example, in your sentence
Shaghayegh wrote:administrator decided to close many popular and even scientific ,historic ,art ... threads and ban many users.


I prefer this one:
The administrator decided to close many popular and even scientific ,historic ,arty,etc. threads and banned many users.

Or even this simple one:
The administrator closed some popular threads and banned many active users!

Meanwhile, more importantly, it should be mentioned that 'popular, scientific, historic' are all adjectives, but 'art' is a noun, so according to a famous grammatical rule-I guess it is named parallelism, or something like that, I am not sure about the name-it is not correct to use 'art'. It must be an adjective like 'arty'!

Dear Shaghayegh, I am not correcting you. I just wanted to say that being too much obsessed with our sentences and words may have negative impacts on our skills. It may discourage us! Keep on writing. The most important purpose of learning a language is making conversation and communication with people. You are doing it perfectly.

All the best,
Behnam, 10 July, 2013

Re: Let's learn together!

Posted: Wed Jul 10, 2013 3:47 pm
by Mohsen
Dear Muslim friends,
Happy Ramadan to you.

The Holy Quran refers to two features of fasting in Ramadan: mental and practical. These are like the wings of a bird on which man flies through the heavenly space of spirituality in the month of Ramadan.

B.W

Re: Let's learn together!

Posted: Wed Jul 10, 2013 3:48 pm
by Mohsen
Dear Behnam,

During the history, Esfahan has been the cradle of civilization, if you look at the history of Jameh mosque which is the largest mosque in Esfahan , it comes back to 1000 year ago . Esfahan never had army to defend against aggressors. It was a city like Switzerland , attractive and land of art and industry. So many people desired to capture this beautiful city and during its long history many kings attack to Esfahan. I agree with you that everybody should have feeling about his city , but I am an exceptional , because I am not interested in a piece of lands , because the lands thoroughly were made by God ,also nobody has option to be born in Esfahan or Azarbiajan or Japan or USA ….

Good Luck
Mohsen

Re: Let's learn together!

Posted: Wed Jul 10, 2013 3:53 pm
by Mohsen
Mohsen wrote:Hi ,

Oh my God , I am always in dilemma, in daily life dilemma happens for us , may be I choose a wrong way, from investing money or help people. Once I had invested my money to buy the shares of a company , the company was bankrupted and I lost my money , Once a beggar asked me for help , I didn't help him because in my view he was not a real beggar but a fraudulent .
When we save a life ,it is possible that we made a mistake , look at the following story

Some of children were playing, They were playing exactly on the two railway tracks, one still in use while the other disused. Only one child played on the disused track, the rest on the operational track.
The train is coming, and you are just beside the track interchange. You can make the train change its course to the disused track and save most of the kids. However, that would also mean the lone child playing by the disused track would be sacrificed. Or would you rather let the train go its way?
Let's take a pause to think what kind of decision we could make...

Most people might choose to divert the course of the train, and sacrifice only one child. You might think the same way, I guess. Exactly, I thought the same way initially because to save most of the children at the expense of only one child was rational decision most people would make, morally and emotionally. But, have you ever thought that the child choosing to play on the disused track had in fact made the right decision to play at a safe place?
Nevertheless, he had to be sacrificed because of his ignorant friends who chose to play where the danger was. This kind of dilemma happens around us everyday. In the office, community, in politics and especially in a democratic society, the minority is often sacrificed for the interest of the majority, no matter how foolish or ignorant the majority are, and how farsighted and knowledgeable the minority are. The child who chose not to play with the rest on the operational track was sidelined. And in the case he was sacrificed, no one would shed a tear for him.

How To Develop Motivation in Your Everyday Life

Posted: Thu Jul 11, 2013 9:21 am
by behnam
How To Develop Motivation in Your Everyday Life

First, let's find out what the importance of motivation exactly is. Simply put, motivation is that driving force which allows you to achieve your goals and go after what you want in life. If you want to change your personality for the better, get a promotion at work, start a new habit, be a better person who is part of the community, become a better parent for your kid – all of these things would be easier accomplished if you are properly motivated.

As long as you have a strong personal motivation, you can achieve almost anything that you want from life. However, remember not to fall into the trap of looking for short-cuts to achieve your goals. It's perfectly fine if you have to take a long and winding road to achieve your goal. It will be an even sweeter victory when you finally achieve your goal, knowing that you have had to go through several hurdles to attain it.


Developing Motivation in Life
So how can you develop motivation in life? If you wish to accomplish a goal – be it short-term or long-term in nature – how can you find it in you to be properly motivated? Here are a few things that you should keep in mind:

1. Focus on one goal at a time.
This should be partnered with the fact that you should make sure that your short-term goals all help in achieving your long-term goals. One of the best ways for you to focus on one goal at a time is to make a diary of your goals – yes, write it down – so that you will have a visual representation of the things that you want to achieve rather than letting it all get lost in your head.

2. Get rid of all the distractions which might prevent you from achieving your goal.
Let's say that you are a writer who wants to finish a book. How can you type away on your keyboard one chapter after another if there are many distractions surrounding you like television, friends chattering away or the lure of aimlessly browsing through the Internet. In order for you to stay properly motivated, make sure to steer clear of any distractions.

3. Completely block out any negative influences.
Finally, make sure that you are completely blocking out any negative influences in your life. If you feel that you are being distracted from your goal by a problem which does not seem to go away, ask yourself what you can do to eliminate such a challenge and distraction in your life. Maybe you are being sidetracked by negative thoughts and feelings because you have no faith in yourself. Addressing the root of the problem, completely blocking out any negative distractions and thinking purely positive thoughts is the best way for you to develop motivation in your everyday life.

Constantly Work At Motivating Yourself
A goal doesn't do you much good unless you are constantly thinking about, and working towards it. Write down your goal and place it somewhere that you will see it at least 1-2 times a day. If you have a weight loss goal, place your written goal beside the refrigerator. If your goal is to get physically stronger, place your written goal near your weight bench so you can see it when you are working out. This provides the extra motivation you need for those tough days.

A great way to motivate yourself with business goals is to put up a motivational quote beside your desk. Do a Google search for motivational quotes, then print off one and put it inside of a picture frame. Keep it there and read it occasionally throughout the day. Whenever you find yourself not looking at the quote anymore, or it no longer provides the inspiration that it once did, it's time to change the quote. It's perfectly OK to change this quote every 1-2 weeks for maximum motivation.

Some people make a habit of reading their goals either when they first wake up or right before they go to bed. When you read your goals upon arising, you may begin to notice that you find yourself doing more each day to help you reach your goals. Similarly, when you read your goals right before bed, you may notice that you wake up with good ideas that you never thought of before.


Final Thoughts

It's important to have motivation in your life. Motivation is the fuel that you need to continue striving for your goals. Soak up motivating things in your life on a daily basis. Read great books that will inspire you. Read great blogs that are both positive and informative.

It's human nature to have days where you aren't very motivated. However, if you continue to surround yourself with positive and motivational things, those days will be few.
**************************************************************************

Extracted from the Internet.

All the best,
Behnam, 11 July, 2013

A suggestion!

Posted: Thu Jul 11, 2013 11:26 am
by behnam
Hi Shaghayegh,

How life is going? I hope all is going well with you.

I rarely correct someone, because I am a learner myself. However, from your posts it seems you are thirsty for English grammar. I don't mean to correct you, not at all, because as I've said before your English is much better than that of mine. In order to motivate you and to give you some excuses to write more, I'd like to write something about one of the sentences that you have corrected it yourself. Let's have a look at:
Shaghayegh wrote: I shifted My activities to some other forums but after a while I realized I can't make friendships like PersianTools.
Firstly, 'shift' is often followed by 'from' and 'to' in formal writing! we shift something from somewhere to somewhere else. Or we move from one place or position to another.

Secondly, all verbs are in the past simple tense, but one of them isn't! Therefore, 'can't' must be used in past simple form; 'couldn't', because you are speaking about something in the past. By the way, being unable to make friends in other forums has been temporary, so it is not a fact. Therefore, using 'can't' does not suit your purpose.

Thirdly, friendship often collocates with 'form', 'develop', cement, establish, spoil, and so on! For example, 'Spending several weeks on holiday together has cemented their friendship.'

Finally 'like persianTools' doesn't make sense. Use 'Like' in comparisons followed by a noun! For instance, 'a car is not like a bicycle'. In your sentence, you are comparing two actions; making friends on different forums, but 'like' doesn't compare those actions. All in all, my suggestion is this:


I shifted My activities from PersianTools to some other forums, but in a little while I realized I couldn't make friends in those places as I used to do in PersianTools.

That is my suggestion, but I am not sure whether it is wrong or right.

Dear Shaghayegh, we seldom correct each other in the thread. However, in order to make you participate in discussing, I wrote something about one of your sentences. I hope this won't make you annoyed. I really hope so!

All the best,
Behnam, 11 July, 2013

Everything you do matters!

Posted: Thu Jul 11, 2013 2:55 pm
by behnam
Everything you do matters!

In a world of six billion people, it's easy to believe that the only way to initiate profound transformation is to take extreme action. Each of us, however, carries within us the capacity to change the world in small ways for better or worse. Everything we do and think affects the people in our lives, and their reactions in turn affect others. As the effect of a seemingly insignificant word passes from person to person, its impact grows and can become a source of great joy, inspiration, anxiety, or pain. Your thoughts and actions are like stones dropped into still waters, causing ripples to spread and expand as they move outward. The impact you have on the world is greater than you could ever imagine, and the choices you make can have far-reaching consequences. You can use the ripple effect to make a positive difference and spread waves of kindness that will wash over the world.

Should the opportunity arise, the recipient of a good deed will likely feel compelled to do a good deed for someone else. Someone feeling the effects of negative energy will be more likely to pass on that negative energy. One act of charity, one thoughtful deed, or even one positive thought can pass from individual to individual, snowballing until it becomes a group movement or the ray of hope that saves someone's life. Every transformation, just like every ripple, has a point of origin. You must believe in your ability to be that point of origin if you want to use the ripples you create to spread goodness. Consider the effect of your thoughts and actions, and try to act graciously as much as possible.

A smile directed at a stranger, a compliment given to a friend, an attitude of laughter, or a thoughtful gesture can send ripples that spread among your loved ones and associates, out into your community, and finally throughout the world. You have the power to touch the lives of everyone you come into contact with and everyone those people come into contact with.The momentum of your influence will grow as your ripples moves onward and outward. One of those ripples could become a tidal wave of positivity.

All the best,
Behnam, 11 July, 2013

The Emotional Bank Account!

Posted: Thu Jul 11, 2013 3:13 pm
by behnam
The Emotional Bank Account

When it comes to improving and maintaining our relationships with others, Stephen Covey's metaphor of the Emotional Bank Account is probably one of the most powerful ideas ever created for the development of interpersonal relationships. If you've never heard of this, it basically means that anyone with whom we have a relationship with, whether it be our coworkers, family or friends, we maintain a personal "emotional" bank account with them. This account begins on a neutral balance. And just as with any bank account, we can make deposits and withdrawals. However, instead of dealing with units of monetary value, we deal with emotional units.

The emotional units that Covey speaks of are centered around trust. When we make emotional deposits into someone's bank account, their fondness, trust, and confidence in us grows. And as a result our relationship develops and grows. If we can keep a positive reserve in our relationships, by making regular deposits, there will be greater tolerance for our mistakes and we'll enjoy open communication with that person. On the contrary, when we make withdrawals and our balance becomes low or even overdrawn, bitterness, mistrust and discord develops. If we are to salvage the relationship, we must make a conscious effort to make regular deposits.

This post will discuss Covey's six major ways of making deposits into these Emotional Bank Accounts and how we can avoid making withdrawals.


1. Understanding the Individual

In Covey's book, seven habits of highly effective people, one of the seven habits is "seek first to understand then to be understood". Truly understanding what others are feeling is not always that easy. We must remove ourselves from our egocentric viewpoint and put ourselves into the minds and shoes of others. I say minds and shoes because we must try to first understand the thought patterns and second walk in their shoes or empathize with them.
One of my major faults when communicating with others is, while they are talking I tend to think what I am going to say next. Truly understanding someone requires us to wholly and completely concentrate on what the other person is trying to say, not reloading, just waiting to fire off your response


2. Keeping Commitments

Certainly when we break our promises to others, we make major withdrawals from their Emotional Bank Accounts. However, keeping commitments is not just relegated to promises. It also includes things such as arriving to work and appointments on time, fulfilling our duties, and living up to every word that comes out of our mouth.

3. Clarifying Expectations

There is nothing more frustrating in a relationship than not understanding what is expected of you. Although many of us wish we could be, we are not mind readers. And because each of us sees life differently and has different backgrounds and life experiences, expecting someone to just "know" is not only unfair but completely unrealistic. It's important that the person with whom you are dealing with, knows exactly what is expected of them. Doing this will keep them out of the dark and allow them to relate you confidently, knowing that what they are doing is in line with your expectations.

4. Attending to the Little Things

Little courtesies, kind words and warm smiles are at the heart of the little things that brighten up a relationship. It shows recognition and an awareness of others. It's interesting, but within our relationships, if you want success, it's the little things that really become the big things.

5. Showing Personal Integrity

Nothing is probably more damaging to a relationship, then a lack of integrity. Being that the Emotional Bank Account is based upon trust, you could essentially be doing all of the previous things, but without trust, it is to no avail. Integrity means wholeness, completeness, or soundness. In this case soundness of moral character. Integrity is the rock-solid foundation upon which all successful relationships are built.

6. Apologizing Sincerely When We Make a Withdrawal

Granted, we are all mortal. We make mistakes. That's part of life and learning. Knowing when you are wrong and admitting your mistakes prevents the wounds that you've caused in others from festering and allows them to heal. When appropriate, sincere apology will keep your relationships accounts in the positive, allowing you to maintain the balance that has been created in your application of all of the previous steps.

Extracted from the Internet.

I hope you have enjoyed reading this post.

All the best,
Behnam, 11 July, 2013

Re: Let's learn together!

Posted: Thu Jul 11, 2013 9:52 pm
by romana
Hello Behnam,
It was nice to to read your post. I really do need more motivation in life as I am a pessimistic type of person. I have my goal in life however I always failed in pursuing the first step of it. Honestly it is really difficult for me to get through on the first step. It really makes me so frustrated and leave me with so many negative thoughts. Sometimes I decided to quit and stop reaching what I want however, people around me continously inspired and persuaded me to keep going. I just remembered a friend told me if plan A didnt work out, no need to worry as the rest of the letters are on standby. I'm hoping that I won't be reaching plan Z cause I dont know what's next if I fail. Anyway, I think I have to be more focus and give more attention to my goal. I will keep on trying no matter what happen.

Best Regards,
Romana

Re: Let's learn together!

Posted: Sat Jul 13, 2013 2:10 am
by Shaghayegh
behnam wrote:Dear Shaghayegh, so many thanks for replying. Neither am I exaggerating, nor am I paying some nice compliments to make you happy. but your English is excellent. You write beautifully and effectively. As far as I'm concerned, your English is much better than that of mine. It is so nice to know that you like this thread and have intended to stay here until the time the site is active. How long have you been learning English? I hope we will help each other make good progress in our English skills.
Hi Dear Behnam;How Are You? Glad to meet you again.
First, forgive me for late response! I wasn't home.
It's very kind of you and thank you dear Behnam. And I think I'm so far from where I have to be.Studying in USA or any other country absolutely require GRE and IELTS and I'm at the beginning of the way!GRE is very difficult :-( . I have just one year to be ready for that.

behnam wrote:About the forums....
You right! Every site or forum has a general purpose. Some of them are created for free talking. Everyone with any thought and religion (including Muslims,Christians,Jews,irreligionists or even Atheists) can be there and talk about her or his interests. People collected there to friendly talking about everyday life, learning and anything that is popular and common. Speaking about challenging topics isn't correct there.Specially critical speaking about religions and nations! There are many sites that made for talking about these topics and if anyone wants to talk about these topics can use them!And You can be sure that I don't want to speak offensively or annoying. I'm here just to talk friendly about our interests, thoughts, notions and feelings!
behnam wrote: I prefer this one:
The administrator decided to close many popular and even scientific ,historic ,arty,etc. threads and banned many users.

Or even this simple one:
The administrator closed some popular threads and banned many active users!

Meanwhile, more importantly, it should be mentioned that 'popular, scientific, historic' are all adjectives, but 'art' is a noun, so according to a famous grammatical rule-I guess it is named parallelism, or something like that, I am not sure about the name-it is not correct to use 'art'. It must be an adjective like 'arty'!
Very nice! Thank you very much!
When I writing that post, I thank about the word 'art' and I couldn't remember the adjective form of 'art'. Finally I decided to use 'art' with this rationalization: art does not has a adjective form :lol: .

behnam wrote:Dear Shaghayegh, I am not correcting you. I just wanted to say that being too much obsessed with our sentences and words may have negative impacts on our skills. It may discourage us! Keep on writing. The most important purpose of learning a language is making conversation and communication with people. You are doing it perfectly........
Dear Behnam;
"Thank You" isn't enough for you and what I want to tell you! Unfortunately I can't find words and sentences as perfect as I want!
Be sure that I don't feel annoying when reading your valuable tips. I know that I must be grateful to one who teach you something(even a little thing). Because I'm a student and sometimes a teacher. So, you can show me my errors any time and I promise you that I will be happy and thankful always! {-:
Now I want to tell you about my trip to Shiraz. Have you ever gone to Shiraz? Shiraz is a very beautiful city and it has very much attractive and interested places such as Hafeziye,Saadiyes,Takht e Jamshid, Afif Abad garden, Darvaze Quran, Arg e Karimkhani, Pasargad and etc. I'm sure that you can not see all of them in a trip.If you haven't gone to Shiraz, I suggest you to make time for trip to shiraz! I'm sure you will enjoy. I really love traveling.

Finally ,Dear Behnam and other friends;
I'm not good in English as you or other users here and I may use incorrect words or sentences that doesn't have right meanings!If you see those be sure that I just made mistake and doesn't mean I want to offend or annoy you! I really care about my words and I'm practicing to improve my abilities to write more correctly and fluently but please notice that I'm a learner now and can use some words that doesn't mean what I really want to!Forgive me if you see I've used an incorrect words or sentences!

Thank you!
Your little sister Shaghayegh.

Re: Let's learn together!

Posted: Sat Jul 13, 2013 2:29 am
by Shaghayegh
I know that I must be grateful to one who teach you something(even a little thing).
Correct:me

Re: Let's learn together!

Posted: Sat Jul 13, 2013 10:35 am
by Shaghayegh
Shaghayegh wrote:it has very much attractive and interested places
}: :oops: :-| :nok:
Correct: It has a lot of attractive,interesting and wonderful places

P.S1:I really apologize for my heterogeneous posts!
P.S2:Why can't I edit my posts?

Re: Let's learn together!

Posted: Sat Jul 13, 2013 11:06 am
by behnam
romana wrote:Honestly it is really difficult for me to get through on the first step. It really makes me so frustrated and leave me with so many negative thoughts. Sometimes I decided to quit and stop reaching what I want...
Hi Romana,

Many thanks for your post. You sound like a native English speaker. Your English is great. I am not in a position to advise you, but you have mentioned to the reason of frustration and the main cause of negative thoughts wisely. The solution for your case is easy. Instead of giving up, you should make the first step as short as you can get through easily. Divide the first step into some short steps. In this case, the process of passing the first gap will become easy. Passing one step towards the goal, regardless of its size, is encouraging, motivating and inspiring. It will bring positive thoughts and build confidence.

It is not necessary to use ordinary English letters for indicating the milestones in the pass of target. You can divide the distance between two letters, for example between A and B, into some points like B1, B2, ..., B! In this case, the distance between A and B1 will be easy to jump! :lol:

I wish you success. Would you mind introducing yourself?

All the best,
Behnam, 13 July, 2013

Re: Let's learn together!

Posted: Sat Jul 13, 2013 1:53 pm
by behnam
Hi Shaghayegh,

How are you? I hope you are doing well. Many thanks for replying. The weather is very hot today. I am fasting. Although I am neither hungry nor thirsty, my head feels hot today, as if something is burning inside of it. A cold shower may help, but I am too lazy to take a shower! Right now, I am thinking like Shirazi people. I expect the shower to come here and pour some cold water on my head! :lol:

I took IELTS exam three years ago. That's a standard exam. I can help you with the link of some useful sites, books, sources, tips, and other related stuff. Ive got some useful files about listening and speaking skills. I can also help you with essay writing. For example, I can correct your essays. Please let me know how I can help you.

I've been to Shiraz many times. I've been to Hafeziye, Baghe Eram, Bazare vakil, Shahcheragh, Arge, etc. I really love Shiraz and its kind people. I personally believe there are two favourable cities in Iran, mainly Tabriz and Shiraz. Both are beautiful and their people are cultured and civilized. To be honest with you, Tabrizian girls are more beautiful than Shiraziyan girls, but Shirazin are much kinder and easy-going than them. I believe for a complete fulfillment a man should have three wives, a Tabrizian wife for starting a successful family and a Shirazian one for pleasure and joy!(khoshgozarani), and A kurd one for work. Unfortunately, something is wrong. The majority of Azerbaijani men are strict, serious, and hardworking. They are not good at buttering up. If we consider a lady as a car, sweet and soft words are its fuel! But, poor Azerbaijani men are terrible at flattering! :lol: :lol: :lol:

I was only kidding. I hope you and other people in the thread won't take these things seriously.

All the best,
Behnam, 13 July, 2013

Re: Let's learn together!

Posted: Sat Jul 13, 2013 7:34 pm
by romana
Hello Behnam,
Thank you for your wonderful advise. My apologize for not introducing myself on my last post. Im Romana, from Philipines, like everyone here I am very determined to improve my english. My english is awful please do correct me whenever , I would be so grateful.

Back to your advise, I really appreciate it. I think you could help me with my problem. I have read in your post to Shayegh( hi Shayegh, hope I typed your name right) that you took an Ielts 3 yrs ago. I believed you got a high score in all categories as your english writings prove it. Actually, my frustration is all related on how I could get the score required for me to get in to the next step of my goal. I took my firsf exam 6 mos ago unfortunately I wasn't able make it. I am planning to take again whenever, but my confidence is too low. I dont know when will I be ready. I think I really need to do more practice especially in writing, as this is my weakest in all categories. Anyway, I like what you've said about on the last bit of your letter. Its brilliant and I will absolutely apply it in my daily living. It sounds like vitamins(B1,B2...)..it would be lovely taking them as it could nourished us through out the day leaving us with a happy and healthy life, same like the feeling of passing each step on our goal.

Best regards,
Romana

How can I help?

Posted: Sun Jul 14, 2013 7:30 am
by behnam
Hi Romana,

So many thanks for your nice words. That's very kind of you. I've met many Philippians. Without any exception, their English is excellent. What's the secret behind it? I guess English is your second language in the Philippines. In some provinces, English is maybe your official language. Anyway, your English is fantastic. I am sure you will have high band score in IELTS exam. You band score falls into something between 7 and 8. Your overall score can be 7.5 in General Module.

My writing score was 8. Three years ago, my English was very good. I used to practise at lesat 5 hours a day for about 4 years. However, after receiving the certificate, I lost my motivation. Actually, I had nothing to do with English anymore. Although I didn't stop learning and practising, the decrease in the amount of spent time on practising is not deniable. 'If you don't use it, you lose it' as an old English saying goes. :lol:

I am ready to help you with IELTS exam. That's a great honour for me to help someone else learn something. As I've written to dear Shaghayegh, I am extending the hand of help to everyone who needs my experience and knowledge. Please ask me whatever you need. In terms of IELTS exam and its sources, I am really ready to help you.

What do you do? What's your job? I hope to hear more from you.

All the best,
Behnam, 14 July, 2013

I've missed you terribly!

Posted: Mon Jul 15, 2013 10:47 am
by behnam
Hi Amal,

This is just to let you know that I've missed you very much. I am also worried about you? Where are you? What has happened to you? I hope everything is going well with you. Please be in contact.

I am waiting for your post.

All the best,
Behnam, 15 July, 2013

Re: Let's learn together!

Posted: Mon Jul 15, 2013 11:59 pm
by romana
Hi Behnam,

How are you doing. Hope all is well with you. I understand that everyone in your country is currently celebrating Ramadan and I reckon you are fasting just like other Muslim does.To be honest I look up and put my hat off to all the Muslims who are devoted with their religious practice like fasting. I read from one article some facts about it and I was amazed about its benefits to our body. I would be so proud of myself if I managed to get through on fasting for a month. However my physical condition unfortunately isn't well enough to perform this practice, my metabolic rate is more faster than normal, which cause me to feel hungry most of the time and if I won't take any food, terrible thing will happen( headache, involuntary muscle shaking, tummy ache, dizziness etc.). It's a shame but at least my condition is still manageable and not as fatal as other kind of illnesses. Anyway Happy Ramadan to you my friend and all the Muslims out there.

It was nice to read your comments about Filipinos, thank you for the lovely words. It is true that English is our second language but we don't often use it, specially in our place. We still love using our own mother tongue. When I was a student, English is one of the subject I hate the most. I didn't take it seriously and to be honest I failed this subject before. I just came to realized the importance of it when I started working. I am working as a staff Nurse in the hospital. Since I was assigned in the city, different types of patient are coming and going every day. There are also foreign people seeking for help or confine for a short period of time. Nursing is a difficult job itself in my point of view how much more if the patient is English speaking, it is like a disaster to a nurse like me who is very poor in English language. I have realized how important this language was and by then I decided to practice and study English seriously. Apparently there are some agencies recruiting Nurses to work in Europe provided that Nurses pass the IELTS exam. Agency requires band 7 to all categories, isn't it difficult? I like to go to Europe but I don't know how can I pass the exam. I would be so grateful if you could give me some links for IELTs practice. Thank you in advance.

All the best,
Romana

Re: Let's learn together!

Posted: Tue Jul 16, 2013 8:48 am
by Shaghayegh
Hello Dear Behnam;
I'm fine. How are you?
I'm agreed with you about Shirazi. I have been there for 2 years and realized that they are really lazy! :lol: They have a famous proverb : Chay Chaman Chamroon :lol: Chay is tea, Chaman means anywhere like park and Chamroon , as maybe you know, is the north area of Shiraz that has a sweet and exquisite climate. I absolutely refuse other ubiquitous things about peoples like Isfahani, Rashti and others . But I believe that Shirazi is lazy till he or she show me he isn't lazy :mrgreen:

Behnam; I have a piece of advice for you:Marry with a Rashti woman If you like delicious foods! Rashti women are best in cookery! They are famous for their delicious foods such as MirzaGhasemi, BaghlaGhatogh, TasKabab and so many other. My mom is one of the best in the cookery and I really love foods she cooks.

Very thank you for your kindness Dear Behnam. I would be grateful if you shared with me your resources for IELTS. Actually I think I haven't enough time to be prepare for IELTS and GRE! Two years is very low! :-( I'm really regretful for those years I wasted.

However, I'm now studying some books and using some programs : Grammer In Use , Vocabulary In Use, Verbal Advantage by Charles Harrington Elster, THE ULTIMATE PHRASAL VERB BOOK, Word Perfect , Collocations in use and ESL Podcasts.And I watch a movie everyday with English subtitle. sometimes I watch some TV shows such as The Big Bang Theory or The Wire. But I really want to use a program that has all English skills improvement courses. Still I haven't found that perfect program.

I think I must stop writing now until I improved my writing. I think my writing now is very bad and may annoy you. Absolutely I don't want that. I understood my writing is terrible when i saw your pretty nice writings and I'm at the lower grade than you . So I think I must stop writing at least two months and work hardly on my English. I read you posts and enjoy them but write very little until I confident of my English.

But Dear Behnam, I request you to recommend me any useful resource or program that can help me for success in IELTS or GRE. Thank you very much.

Best Regards.
your little sister and friend, Shaghayegh.

Re: Let's learn together!

Posted: Tue Jul 16, 2013 10:28 pm
by [amal]
Hi Behnam,

How are you? How is Ramadan with you? Do you spend it with your family? Do you visit your relative?

Many thanks for your off msg and your post here. They meant to me a lot, you don't believe how much they made me happy. I am glad that there is someone in this world cares about me. :-) Please don't worry about me, I am very well but I just don't find a good time for chat but be sure that you are in my mind and heart always.

Wish you the best,
Amal

Practising IELTS SKILLS

Posted: Wed Jul 17, 2013 11:19 am
by behnam
Dear friends,

How are you? I hope you are fine. Yesterday was the hottest day of this summer in Tehran. I hope so. It was 41 °C, according to what the weather-forecasting organization said. Today is also hot, very hot actually, but not as hot as yesterday. It is Ramadan and like the majority of people I am fasting. In Ramadan Muslims are ordered to avoid eating and drinking, but this is the first feature of Ramadan. Although it is quite difficult for people to avoid eating and drinking for about 16:30 hours(in Tehran), this is the first step of a real fasting. Muslims are also expected to control their eyes, ears, and tongues during Ramadan. They should avoid sinful fantasizing, negative thoughts, and bad imagination. The first step is easy, but controlling senses and thoughts are really difficult. My Muslim friends, good luck with fasting. May God bless you! Please remember me when saying your prayers.

Dear Romana, nursing is a rewarding job, and nurses are respectful. They are also kind and patient. Nursing is emotionally eroding too. They are living with patients in hospitals and looking ofter them. This is really difficult. That is why nursing requires many skills and involves a lot of efforts and attempts .I wish you success in you job.

Dear Shaghayegh, your friendly post made me extremely happy. You are very kind. Thank you very much for your sincerity and kindness. I've heard about good taste of some special food in the North of Iran. I agree with you about the skillfulness of Rashti ladies. I follow your advice and use the maximum benefits of the permission which God has given to men in the holy Koran. Therefore, a complete fulfillment for a man is having four wives. A Tabrizi for keeping the generation going(having children), a Kurd for work, A Rashti for cooking, and finally a Shirazi lady for joy and pleasure(Golgasht va Khoshgozarani). :lol: :lol: :lol:

Dear Shaghayegh, never give up writing! Writing makes your passive vocabularies become active. When you are writing, you are practising excellently, since you use what you have learned. I strongly recommend writing regularly. It may look difficult when you start doing something regularly, but little by little you will get the hang of it and it will turn to become easy and interesting. Honestly speaking, writing is crucially important for all IELTS candidates. When you are writing, not only are you directly practising writing skill, but also you are indirectly practising other skills; speaking, reading, and listening. Anyway, frankly speaking, that is wrong to stop writing!

Dear Romana and Shaghayegh, there are many sites which provide candidates with IELTS exam. However, some of them are really useful. For example, when it comes to IELTS preparation, (australianetwork.com/studyenglish) is wonderful, excellent, fantastic! I don't know how to describe the effectiveness of this site. A very kind and beautiful lady teaches almost all skills perfectly. I am sure you will enjoy it.

When it comes to practising writing, in my opinion, (http://www.ielts-blog.com/ielts-writing) is really useful.

For downloading some IELTS speaking samples vedios, juts go to http://WWW.youtube.com and search for them. You will find some real IELTS interviews.

I have to leave right now. I hope that helps.

Please do not hesitate to write more and discuss IELTS-based issues. I hope to hear more from you soon.

All the best,
Behnam, 17 July, 2013

Thank YOU!

Posted: Wed Jul 17, 2013 2:29 pm
by behnam
Hi Amal,

How are you? I hope you are fine. Fasting may make you tired and bored. I wish you strength and patience. May God help you and support you!

Thank you very much for informing me about yourself. The situation in your country is not normal. New things happen everyday. When I read headlines and see Damascus is under rocket attack, I become worried about you. Please keep in contact and post regularly, no matter your posts are short. A 'hi' from you eases my worry.

When you are breaking fasting in the evening(Azan time) please remember me. Please pray for me when you are saying your prayers. I am praying for you too.

I wish you happiness and success.


All the best,
Behnam, 17 July, 2013

Re: Let's learn together!

Posted: Fri Jul 19, 2013 7:44 am
by Mohsen
Dear Friends

The small part of body can makes the biggest corruption. The corruption of tongue can't be amended . If you say something that hurt your best friend, especially when say something in front of others to your friend. You are not able to taken the word back. Your regret can't amend the relation between you and your friend.

I don't know why people don't control their tongue , when they are among their friend , or relatives they make a joke and offend others. Sometime we heard about something and narrate it to other while we are not sure what we heard is truth.

Look at the following story.

There was a good man(scholar) who was reputed to hold knowledge in high esteem. One day an acquaintance met the great scholar and said, "Do you know what I just heard about your friend?"
"Hold on a minute," the scholar replied. "Before telling me anything I'd like you to pass a little test. It's called the Triple Filter Test."
"Triple filter?"
"That's right," the scholar continued. "Before you talk to me about my friend it might be a good idea to take a moment and filter what you're going to say. That's why I call it the triple filter test. The first filter is Truth. Have you made absolutely sure that what you are about to tell me is true?"
"No," the man said, "actually I just heard about it and..."
"All right," said the scholar. "So you don't really know if it's true or not. Now let's try the second filter, the filter of Goodness. Is what you are about to tell me about my friend something good?"
"No, on the contrary..."
"So," the scholar continued, "you want to tell me something bad about him, but you're not certain it's true. You may still pass the test though, because there's one filter left: the filter of Usefulness. Is what you want to tell me about my friend going to be useful to me?"
"No, not really..."

Take care
Mohsen

Re: Let's learn together!

Posted: Sun Jul 21, 2013 3:27 pm
by Veronicaho
Hi All old and new friends!
I hope all of you are fine. Long time since I'v been here but I promised Behnam that I should write someting from my life here again. I'm fine and have holiday. Spending the time at our summer house and at the beach sunbathing and playing with my grandchild. The summer here in Aland Island in Finland has been great with sun and degreeze around 25.
Last month I have been in a group to loose fat (just few kilos). Now I am in final and need votes. So if you want to help me to get as many votes as I can get (... to win 2500€ ... I will go to China) ... follow the link here; http://worldofshape.com/resultat/rosta The site is Svedish but very easy to do. Schroll down the site ... there you will find name of 10 persons. Chlick to my name Veronica Holmström. Then write your e-mail on the empty line. To the end cklick at "klicka här för att rösta" ... that means that you will give your vote to me and send it in. Easy :) Please help me All of you and you will do something very significant for me. But it is a bit hurry ... must be done before 25/7. Thank you!!!

Re: Let's learn together!

Posted: Sun Jul 21, 2013 11:35 pm
by [amal]
Ohhh Look who is here, Hi dear Veronica,

How are you?

Welcome back!
In fact today I was thinking of some old friends who used to write here like Andrew and I wondered why they aren't here anymore but when I saw your post you can't believe how happy I became. Anyway, I hope all friends are well.

Dear, thanks for informing us about your news and which you a happy holiday with your grandchild.
Take care,
Bye bye

Re: Let's learn together!

Posted: Mon Jul 22, 2013 9:06 am
by Veronicaho
Hi Amal!
Lovely to see you too! I'm really sorry to have short of time and thats the reason to why I'm not have possibility to be here regulary. But I will again do my best to join here sometimes because you are all in my mind anyway.
How are you? What have you done this summer?
So Andrew are'nt here anymore? Thats bad because he was also funny. But he have facebook and I talking to him sometimes there.
Kisses and hugs from your old friend!

Re: Let's learn together!

Posted: Mon Jul 22, 2013 12:06 pm
by Veronicaho
Behnam ... where are you :)

I'm back as I promised you:) How are you and your family? I hope very well.
Today I'm sitting by my computer writing at my dissertation for my master degree. My theses is about the roll communication have for the organisation. Very interesting but a lot of work.
I'm still at our summer house and I am still off from work because of my finger. I will meet the ortoped on friday so maybe it's ok to go back to work then.
Something else ... I need your help to get as much votes as I can have! Last month I have been in a group to loose fat (just few kilos). Now I am in final and need votes. So if you want to help me to get as many votes as I can get (... to win 2500€ ... I will go to China) ... follow the link here; http://worldofshape.com/resultat/rosta The site is Svedish but very easy to do. Schroll down the site ... there you will find name of 10 persons. Chlick to my name Veronica Holmström. Then write your e-mail on the empty line. To the end cklick at "klicka här för att rösta" ... that means that you will give your vote to me and send it in. Easy :) Please help me All of you and you will do something very significant for me. But it is a bit hurry ... must be done before 25/7.

Don't think that I'm crazy ... yeah you know I am :) I will take all chanses to get votes and you can help me:) Then I will send new socks to you:)

Kisses and hugs from your friend Veronica

Re: Let's learn together!

Posted: Mon Jul 22, 2013 12:10 pm
by Veronicaho
Hi Mohsen!!!!
You are still here and thats good! I will try to be connected to all of you again here at this site:) How are you? What have you done this summer? Whats new? No new cruise:)
Hope to hear from you very soon!

Hugs from your friend Veronica

Re: Let's learn together!

Posted: Mon Jul 22, 2013 3:28 pm
by Mohsen

Hi Vernoica,

Welcome back, Hope you are fine and doing well, this is one my best summer I have had. I didn't doing special things, but everything is going ahead according my desire. When I feel that I use my time according my schedule, I enjoy my life. Off course I had been invited to several wedding ceremonies before Ramadan and also dinner party during Ramadan. I enjoyed being with my friends and relatives
Ramadan is a month that we don't eat from sunrise to sunset , so I lost a few grams till now. I hope to lose 4 kgs overweight till the end of Ramadan.
I checked the website http://worldofshape.com/resultat/rosta and voted you. Of course I didn't look at your body I scrolled down the page rapidly and ticked the Veronica Holmström, you know that a Muslim does not look at the women body. I hope you win 2500Eur, I don't need a sock or something else . your happiness is mine.

Good Luck,
Mohsen