الإعراب و التغلبق

لكل شيء في الوجود إعراب-- أي سبب و تفسير، كما أن لكل سبب أو تفسير محل-- أي غاية و مرمى. هذه الأسباب و التفسيرات و الغايات و المرامي لاتتجلى إلا لأصحاب الباعات من العلماء ممن يطلق عليهم مصطلح "الفقهاء". فمثلا، العالم المتضلع و المتمرس و المتمكن من البيولوجيا وجب نعته ب "فقيه البيولوجيا"، كما يجب نعت عالم السانيات ب "فقيه اللغة" وهكذا ذواليك بالنسبة لشتى أنواع العلوم. فاللساني الحق ممن يفقه خبايا اللغة و فتاتاتها لما تلتقط أذناه في المؤتمرات و الندوات أو تلحظ عيناه في الكتب و المجلات شيئا مما يحسب على اللغة تثور ثائرته العلمية خصوصا اللسانية منها. فكأني به يقول : "قل صوابا أو صه" أو ربما تجده يتحسر و لسان حاله يردد : "ما بال أناس أصبح الخطأ لديهم مألوفا حتى ظنه عموم الناس صوابا؟".

لكن هذا اللساني الفقيه الملم المحقق، ولكثرة الأخطاء المرتكَبة و استفحالها، يقف عند ذلك الحد مقنعا لسانه بأن يتوقف عن التعليق و عيناه عن الملاحظة و التدقيق. فنحن في عصر غاب فيه التدقيق و حل محله " التغليق" ( التغليق مصطلح دارج في اللغة المغربية الدارجة، مِنْ "غلَّق، يُغلّق، تغليقا"؛ و التغليق في اللغة العربية الفصحى صفة مبالغة لكلمة "الإغلاق" بمعنى الإغلاق الشديد و المحكم؛ وَرَدَ فعل "غَلَّقَ" في القرآن في سورة يوسف لما غلَّقتْ امرأة العزيز الأبواب على النبي يوسف عليه السلام مغرية إياه).

 ربما تتساءل عزيزي القارئ عن محل كل ما ذكرته من الإعراب. بعجالة أجيبك فأدعوك بأن تتأمل الصورة أسفله. فبعد ملاحظة و تدقيق دقيقين لواقع جل، و ليس كل، الفتيات من اللائي يضعن "الفولار" اعتقادا منهن أنهن وضعن ما يجب وضعه حول رأسهن إرضاءا إما لأنفسهن أو لعائلاتهن أو لخالقهن؛ أو لربما حتى لإخفاء ما لايرغبن أن يظهرنه من شعرهن الذي لايعلم حاله سواهن أو ..... أو..... أو...... مما لايتسع المجال لذكره هنا. هذه الظاهرة التي أصبح من خلالها هذا النوع من الفتيات و النسوة يظهرن ما هو أخطر مما يخفين. إنها ظاهرة الاعراب و التغليق؛ إعراب من حيث أنه تفسير لغاية وضع "الفولار" ، وتغليق من باب سد الذرائع مع فتح أبواب--أقصد بوابات-- أخرى أخطر بكثير مما يُعتقَد أنه تم إغلاقه.  ولك عزيزي القارئ واسع النظر في الصورة للتأمل  وواسع المجال في هذه الصفحة لإبداء الرأي

Tea and Teaching

A give-and -take of ideas took place between me and a colleague over drinking tea while teaching. " Teachers are not allowed to take cups of tea with them to the classroom and during a class time", my colleague said assertedly and nervously. Unsurprisingly, my colleague's attitude towards tea, and consequently towards me, does not come out of the void; for he always glimpses me holding a cup of tea, coffee or sometimes soda, while heading for the classroom.

Admittedly, I really enjoy drinking tea during teaching. And I do believe drinking tea can promote the teaching/learning process for the following reasons:

1. Drinking tea, coffee or soda does enable a teacher to carry on teaching energetically.

2. Students feel much at ease and stress-free when they see their teacher at ease and behave "naturally".

3. Students ( especially high school students) are grown up enough to be treated "rigidly" and "strictly" like kids*.

4. High school Students must be prepared for the university life and "rituals".*

5. Language teachers (especially teachers of English) are supposed to transmit not only the language but the culture as well. 

To conclude, there is no harm in drinking tea, coffee or soda in the classroom while teaching. It is not anti-pedagogic! Rather it is a healthy "phenomenon" as long as the teacher does his/her job right. And I drink tea, coffee or soda, so I teach well. Even the word "teaching" embodies-- or maybe better, co-exists with-- the word "tea" !

آش داني للورد

 كانت عقارب الساعة تشير إلى الساعة الرابعة صباحا، إذ كنت على وشك الإنتهاء من  إيداع السيارة بمرآب الحي. ربما كانت ذاكرتي في حالة سبات ، لكن لازلت أذكر جيدا ذلك اللحن الأطلسي البديع المنبعث من مذياع الحارس الليلي. كانت هذه أول مرة أستمع فيها لهذه الأغنية "آش داني للورد" . لم أشعر بجسدي حتي اتكأ على مؤخرة السيارة، أسترق السمع لذلك الكلام المعبر و الحابل بالمعاني.            

                                                              هاك، عزيزي القارئ، ما استرقت أذناي 

 آش داني للورد شوكو جرحني في يديا           جنان بلا رباع و جرحو أثر فيا

الورد فيه لوانات فيه البلدي و الرومي     قلت نعشق الحمر باش ينسيني فهمومي

الورد فيه لوانات فيه البلدي و الرومي      والوردة لي ذبلات هي اللي زادتني في همومي

كانت وردة حمرة نابتة في عرص الجنان     ونسقيها بيديا و نراعيها بعياني

هذي وردة صفرة شامخة تتعالى قدامي    وبغيت نسولها خفتها ما تفههم كلامي 

الوردة البيضا لونها  فيه سرار و معاني      آمال و سلام بلا بيها القلب يعاني    

An uncalled-for Behaviour

I saw her exchanging arsenals of kisses on the cheeks. She was so happy, or maybe she pretended to be so. She was too proud of her "kissing" achievement. Whenever she came across girl-students, the teacher welcomed them with open arms; Sorry, I should have said, with open kisses, without even counting them.

It is really uncanny! Being so unprofessional with students would end up in some mal-interpreted behaviours, for students are not mature enough to fathom out such extrovert acts; i.e, kissing. It is not because the teacher does not know the perilous outcomes of such acts, but rather because she is not aware of them. Sometimes some teachers feel compelled to greet their students informally only because they live in the very same neighbourhood; and this is very true for popular neighbourhoods where the school is at its heart. A teacher is a teacher if and only if s/he professional, task-devoted, committed, and humanistic. Sad to say, some teachers tend to both misunderstand and misuse the cornerstones of the humanistic approach. They are unaware of the consequences of being so close to students that they dare exchange kisses on the cheek in public! I still remember well how we used to venerate a teacher, how we reacted when we happened to come across a teacher, and how sweaty we got when the teacher addressed us. 

I am not against female teachers exchanging  kisses on the cheeks with their girl-students, but I am for being professional in its every sense of the word. 

Teaching and Culture

What is the nature of the liaison held between TEACHING and CULTURE? For most Pedagogues and practitioners, when you are teaching a language, you are, willy-nilly, teaching a culture. But this is not my utmost concern behind writing this essay. In fact, the question that often exhausts me is the following:  which one has the impact on the other: TEACHING or CULTURE? In other words, is it teaching which determines and/or shapes culture or the other way around? 

In an attempt to answer this exhausting question, I will start by defining separately teaching and culture before putting them together. In fact, both terms (teaching and culture) are elusive and contested. Both terms' definitions defied consensus amongst both pedagogues and sociologists in terms of their specific meaning and broad content. 

One highly acclaimed definition of culture was given in 1889 by the famous British anthropologist Edward B. Taylor. Though offering a broad definition, yet still his definition is considered to be the guiding framework of any cultural study or research. Culture, for Taylor, is “that complex whole which includes knowledge, belief, art, morals, law, custom, and any other capabilities and habits acquired by man as a member of society.”  Personally speaking, this is my favourite definition, even if there is approximately around 150 definitions, according to one study.

Nest of Rest Doesn't Exist???

     Once upon a time, and a dark time it was, there was an old man living in a metropolitan city. Though living in such a city and having a high-rank profession there, the old man still never felt at ease. Unable to know why he was so, he was always at the low of his ebb; for he had never found his phycholigical  rest. Till a day, it was a holiday, one of his intimate old friends invited him to his diamond wedding, so to speak. The old man in the city did not even know about his friend's wedding ceremony, let alone his diamond wedding!!!

    All that he knew was that his friend was appointed years ago somewhere in an unknown town. Unhesitatingly, the old man in the city accepted the invitation and took the road early next morning. He was there at around 5:55 pm. the sun was about to set; the old man's heart was about to cease throbbing, for he could not believe his eyes. The scene defied description. For he, the first time in his life, had ever felt so calm or, say, phlegmatic. Everything in the town was tacitly but warmly welcoming and inviting him; his mind went tabula rasa. At the time nothing occuppied his mind; his heart went pit-à-pat as though a new blood had been injected in it.

Bray or Pray!!!

Isn't the donkey's loud sound, bray, as musical and artful as other animals?!

Just because you don't like it means that the bray is not musical or worthing listening to! In our culture, Moroccan and Muslim, the donkey's loud sound is socially and religiously unaccepted-- or as it is referred to "monkar". Sheer nonesense. Even in the holy Quran, the unacceptedness or the state of being "monkar" refers to the loud sound of the donkey, not the donkey itself.

For me,

The Kitten's Mystery

As a matter of habit, I always wake up on birds' chirppings, regardless of how much I stay  late. But on that day (sunday), and as a matter of exception, a kitten's mews disturbed my peace of sleep.  Yelling, screaming and shouting was she producing repetitively.

She, the kitten, was running to and fro, producing the very same rescuing sounds on and on.  "What can I do to help such a helpless cute baby- kitten? Maybe she's

I was About to Forget

He filled the petrol tank. He skimmed through the car papers. He put oil. He checked the tyres. He got on his car, then he fastened the seat-belt. 

Sure, he is now travelling and the speedometer does not exceed ninety kph. All of a sudden, a sharp ring penetrated his eardrum. He very quickly tried to pick up the "instrument" from his trouser pocket; but as soon as he pressed the button <yes>, it dropped down and disappeared. He searched for it; and having found no trace of it, he bent down seeking out for