The Folk Story: "Shangool & Mangool"

The story called “Shangool, Mangool and Habbe-ye angoor” is a popular folk story told to the children in Iran. It’s the story of a wolf that wants to enter to the home of a goat, which has three lambs, Shangool, Mangool and Habbe-ye angoor. The lambs are so delicious to the wolf, and once he tries to cheat the lambs to open the door while the absence of their mother. He knocks on their door and while imitating their mothers voice, he says, open the door, I’m your mother. He even makes his skin white, and show it from behind the door to cheat them.
The story is so popular in Iran and almost all the people have heard it once in their childhood. Many of today’s parents still keep telling this story to their children and because of the nature of folk stories there are many versions of it with minor or sometimes major changes in it. But all of them explain the one story, “Shangoul o Mangoulo o habeAngour”.

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Looks like stupid lambs - you know, children today are different from us when we were child -- because of todays mass media, TV, Internet, children's magazine, they now so much about everything, maybe when they hear this story, they would say: "What stupid lambs, I would call police if I was in their shoes"!!!


Image is originally taken from a cartoon, exposed in a police exhibition in Iran.

The leaning tower of Pisa

Language Class Activity 5

I chose the leaning tower of Pisa to write about. What a good choice, since it caused me to know everything about Pisa, Italy. I wish someday to be there.

The leaning tower of Pisa is one of the glittering masterworks of Romanesque style architecture in Europe. The tower is originally a campanile adjacent to three buildings, but its bell never rung. During the construction of the structure an unexpected problem caused it to stretch for more than 200 years with some long-term interruptions/halts. It started to sink into the soft soil from one side and the tower began to tilt more and more every year. It is said that the lean to be increasing at a rate of about 1mm per year and at its summit it was about 5 meters tilts from the vertical.
Although the structure is glorious, but it is mostly renowned for its marked tilt. It is known to the most of the people in the world as a leaning tower and maybe it’s tended to be obscure the fact that it is also a magnificent Romanesque style architecture. In the past it was widely believed that the inclination of the Tower was part of the project ever since it’s beginning, but now we know that it is not so.
The eight story round tower is 55 meters tall consisting of a ground floor and six additional stairs with open galleries with round arches supported on columns. At the top of the tower there is the bell chamber which is somewhat smaller in diameter to other stories. 294 spiral staircases are leading to the bell chamber. The famous physicist Galileo did his experiments about gravity and relative speed of falling objects from this chamber. The exterior is adorned by fine marbles and excellent carved work. The doorway which is especially ornate, featured with grotesque carving of animals.
In a process of conservation in 1992 the tower closed to the public. City officials have initiated a bold plan to attempt to counter the lean of the structure and prevent the Leaning Tower of Pisa from toppling with very advanced methodologies.

List of resources:
Encarta Encyclopedia
CNN Travel
Pisa.it

Friends forever

Language Class Activity 4

Today class activity is a short story. Writing this story took me more than 4 hours. I hadn't ever to write a story and this is the first one. I have tried my best, hope you enjoy it.

It was the dawn of the fall, the first day of school at the most beautiful school of the city. The first year students were coming to school with their parents, some were happy, some were amazed and some were crying while trying to not separate from their parents. But between the mass of the students there were three students which later, this day became their first day of their life-long friendship relation. Majid, Said and Ashkan were the students of class C grade one.
One day Majid noticed that Said and Ashkan are contesting outside of the school, because Ashkan was thinking that Said inkied his notebook. Majid tried to make peace between them and this adventure was as a starting point of their deep friendship.
After finishing the years in elementary school, they went to the talent’s school, where they were the most successful students and also the closest students in the school. Finally, the years of high school were elapsed and it was the day of graduation. They were feeling astonished, one side there were feeling happy because of their graduation ceremony and on the other side, they were feeling grief when recalling the happy days they had been spent together in the school which were finished.
After ceremony finished, they decided to have their last walk in the beautiful, green campus of the school. But this time unlike always, they had a feel of amazement. Said was telling nothing, and just had to stare everywhere his eyes turn, resembling if the point by point of the corpus is familiar to him. Majid broke the silence and said: I’m thinking to the future like you, a future which everything can be possible to happen. It may be each one of us has to choose a different way, completely different from the others. It may be each one of us has to go to a far off point in the world and couldn’t have chance to meet each other for the years.
Ashkan suddenly interrupted Majid and said: Let’s have a pledge in this beautiful corpus filled with lots of unforgettable memories to stay friends forever. Said continued: good idea, ever it is worthy if we set aside a specific day of year to our friendship, so all ever at anywhere, at that day we would have an appointment to meet each other.
Ashkan warmly pleased with this proposal and said: wonderful, this way we never forget each other.
Said suddenly noticed to Majid, which was staring at a point, thinking hardly. “What do you think of that Majid?” asked Said.
Majid suddenly shocked, looks like waking up from a heavy profound sleep. He mumbled: you know…, good idea…, that’s right but…, but you know… in my viewpoint it’s not necessary to meet each other every year, we can stay friends from afar. Even it is not at all related to being far or not. Saying “being far, being close”. Just our hearts should be close to. Tell me, how many years do you think we can stay friends from afar?
Said said: as deeper of our friendship as longer we stay friends. Forever, I’m sure, Ashkan shouted.
Three friends fell into thinking for a few moments, after a while Majid broke into unexpectedly and said: “How do you think if we give it a try?” after gazing for some moments, Majid and Said shook their hands as a sign of confirmation.
Majid continued: “How about 20 years?”
“20 years later, at this day, at this time and at this place.” Ashkan confirmed.
*****
Twenty years spent and three friends as they were vowed, kept afar from each other on their own way. It was the appointment day; they were keeping counting seconds to that moment from months ago, when they first looked each other, teardrops were pouring from their eyes. It was a wonderful, indescribable feeling that was dominating them. They were not able to believe that they are the same friends as 20 years ago. They were feeling full of pride and delighting.
Now Majid was one of the best university professors at Harvard, Said was a co-founder and manager of a big communication company and Ashkan was an outstanding chemist.
Three friends were in the campus, resting on the trees which were reminders of their years at school.
Ashkan said: we were not away from each other over these years, I hadn’t a feel of missing you even for a moment, but I always had keeping a passion to meet you again.
Said continued: I beholden all of my prosperities to this friendship. Over these years, everything that I was achieving and each stair I was gaining, you unexpectedly were resembling to me and it always was giving me motivations.
Majid said: we are friends forever; an experience of these years showed us that while our hearts are close, nothing can make us divided. We each other went to a separate way and maybe if we were just three strangers who incidentally came together, we couldn’t find any similar points to keep us together. But our hearts are close and we will stay together forever.

The first taste of smokes

Language Class Activity 3

The third language class activity is about a childhood memory. I have chosen my first experience of smoking to write about. Hope you enjoy it.

During my childhood I always had been curious about smoking. Looking people who smokes anywhere and anytime, it was always been a question for me that how people smoke and why they like inhale such smelly smoke? Is there any hidden pleasure in it that I don’t know? Smoking was always forbidden in our home.
During those days, I usually had to stay over at my cousin’s home; we were really close and have same age. One day after talking a bit about smoking we decided to give it a try, so we went to the roof stealthily and got prepared for smoking. Since we didn’t have any cigarettes, we decided to build them ourselves. We rolled up some pieces of newspaper in place of cigarettes and as an imitation from smokers we putted them through our lips and lighted the tip of rolls. You don’t believe, but we were really surprised, because the rolls had a lot of smokes more than any cigarettes. We started to inhale the smokes as smokers inhale. But unlike the smokers, as soon as the smoke came to my throat, it made me coughing. We were very serious experiencing smokes, so we kept going, inhaling and coughing, inhaling and coughing… after a while we were really feeling bad, Even without smokes coughing was keeping on strongly with the feel of vomiting. We coughed all the day and suffered the throat ache but HATED SMOKING FOR YEARS.

Enrique Iglesias

Class Activity 2

This is the second class activity which is a research about popular singer Enrique Iglesias. Doing this research was a great experience to me.
The words in bold form are described at the end of the research.

Enrique Iglesias is a very popular pop music singer. At the dawn of new millennium, Enrique was the best-selling Latin recording artist in the world.
Enrique is the son of a multimillion-selling music performer Julio Iglesias. He has followed in his father's footsteps with even larger footsteps of his own. At the first point everyone considers that Enrique has used his father to gain acceptance as a musician, but simply when you refer to his biography, you'll see in the counter point he never used his father's popularity or had his supports. In Enrique's childhood he never had been close to his father because Julio was mostly away from home busy with his own music career. When Enrique was in middle-school, he was keeping his musical aspirations a secret, saying "I never wanted to tell my parents".
Enrique was born in Spain, but he moved to Miami when he was only 7, mostly because of terrorism threats in his home country. While there, Enrique was exposed to three different cultures and musical influences; Hispanic, European, and American.
The young Enrique always had aspirations to become a famous musician, as after a year studying business at the University of Miami, he decided to follow his passion for music and released his first album at age 20. The album which was recorded in Spanish, sold more than a million copies in three months and to date has sold more than 6 millions worldwide. The second album "Vivir" (1997) enjoyed global sales of more than 5 million disks and launched his first world tour, backed by sideman for Elton John, Bruce Springsteen, and Billy Joel. In a mere three years, Iglesias has sold more than 17 million Spanish-language albums, more than anyone else during that period. He also won the 1996 Grammy for best Latin performer, 1996's Billboard artist of the year, in addition to other magnificent awards and countless accolades around the world.
With 1998's album, Cosas del Amor, Enrique moved to more mature content; He released his first Interscope and first in English, which achieved gold or platinum status in more than 30 countries and brought his global album sales to more than 23 millions.
Now Enrique Iglesias moves on to the next chapter. And though the secret to any artist's success is constant growth, Enrique says there is one thing that will never change: his striving for that next great song and next great album. "That's the challenge, that's the fun," he says. "That's what will always drive me. I keep having to prove myself."

Resources:
The official website of Enrique Iglesias
Yahoo! Music
sing365.com

New Words:
dawn: begin, start.
aspiration: ambition, goal, dream .
passion: desire, love, heat.
to date: until the present time.
backed by: supported by.
sideman: musician who plays music to support a solo performance.
mere: only, just.
Grammy: any of a number of golden statuettes awarded by the American National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences for outstanding achievement in the recording industry .
Billboard: weekly American magazine devoted to music and the recording industry (includes the weekly charts for top songs and albums) .
strive: endeavor, try hard.

A traditional wedding in Iran

Language Class Activity 1

"Before going to the heart of the matter, It is mentionable that this writing is originally written as a language class activity. My teacher Miss Hajilou at pishro language institute asked us to write a brief essay about marriage to practice new words and expressions we just learned at the class. This is my essay, I know there may be too much errors in my essay, but I hope she correct me!"

Iran is a large and multiracial country which includes too many different races within the country. So it is common to have different traditions in the country including wedding traditions.
Arabs, Lores, kurds, torks and fars people which make up the most population of the country, has their own wedding customs, but in this brief writing I’ll try to explain a typical wedding in Iran that I think it is mixed of the customs of the different country races.
In a typical Iranian family, the groom’s family which probably including matchmakers (maybe groom’s uncle, aunt …) goes to the brides home and formally asks for her hand in marriage. In ask for hand feast, usually the bride offers the tea to grooms family. When the bride’s family agrees, two families talk about the other arrangements. They talk about the amount of marriage portion, marriage lines and set a date to get marry (Aghd) and the marriage ceremony.
Before of the marriage day, usually there is a feat of ‘hanabandan’ which the families put some hennas on the new couple’s hands. It is a traditional custom.
The next day, the couple take each other in marriage in presence of a priest, who should record the marriage with the signs of witnesses.
After that the period of engagement begins which may take from a few days to a few years, depends on the couple’s view.
After this period if everything goes well, they will take a formal wedding ceremony, inviting all of the friends and relatives of two families and usually serves a dinner or lunch with candy.
The day after the reception is the shower day, which the ceremony attendants should donate their presents.