Homeschooling Is Worth A Try Before College

      Many of the developing countries around the world these days are making greats efforts to get every child into schools to receive education, while there are a growing number of children in developed countries are leaving schools to receive home education which is also known as homeschooling, is a form of education in which parents teach children at home, instead of sending children to schools, or in some cases, homeschooling can be done by calling for tutors (Merriam Webster).  Homeschooling has been around in the United States for a while and achieved extensive recognition from the public. According to the most recent poll conducted by National Home Education Research Institute (NHERI), the number of homeschooled students in the United States was more than 2 million. The number has a startling increase, compared with that of 2003 which was just 850,000. The National Household Education Survey shows that homeschooling is increasing a steady rate of 15 percent per year (Swift, 2010).

     Although homeschooling is a challenge for most parents, this challenge is well worth trying for those who have the ability to educate their children. Inasmuch, children can benefit a lot from homeschooling. On the one hand, it provides higher quality of academic education for children; on the other hand, it is a good way for parents to practice moral education.

     First, homeschooling, which means one to one education (in some families, it may be one to two or three), can provide children with higher quality of academic education because homeschooling parents can have more attention on their children than school teachers.  Parents can keep a closer eye on children’s learning progress and spend more time on children’s weakness, which is hard for school teachers to achieve (Pros of Home Schooling).

     Some people may question about the quality of the curriculum that homeschoolers receive. But parents should be aware of that there are currently many already-designed curriculums from legitimate sources available for homeschoolers, and most of the homeschoolers use them. Parents are also able to design their own curricula that best meet their children’s needs, which is one of the beauties of homeschooling, because parents are those who know their children best. So the curriculums can be built upon children’s interests. Assume that your children are enthralled by housing design, we can let they read architectural books, build a model house on their own, pay a visit to museum to view some models of the great buildings in the world. One of the advantages the own-designed curriculum is that avoiding the awkward situation that what they learned at school cannot meet the needs of their future professions. Therefore, when your children get to work, they would be quite competent for the work (Rupp, 2000).

     Some parents may worry that they themselves with limited knowledge would not have the ability to deal with all the courses, especially when the courses are getting more difficult and more broad. It may be true, but please do remember that you are alone. There are many local homeschool associations across the American society. The homeschool co-op will be a good example.  A homeschool co-op is a group of homeschooling families that join together to share the experience of children’s education. Parents can meet each other, encourage each other, and ask questions and exchange information and ideas about homeschooling.  In a group setting, supplies can be pooled and expenses can be shared through homeschool co-ops classes. They also offer classes that are difficult to teach at home (Hernandez). More importantly, there should be two motivations for parent to homeschool their children. One is developing the love of the knowledge, the other one is cultivating the ability to read. Every child has curiosity which is inherent. In order to build the foundation of love of learning, parents can teach children through vivid and vigorous ways. If children have built the love for knowledge and fostered the ability to read, then potentially children have had the motivations. When children have the ability to learn by themselves, then there is no need for parents to worry about the difficult courses (Arai, 2000).

     The success of home schooling is not easy to determine because of the dispersed population of homeschoolers. Even though there is no controlled experiment has been conducted comparing the academic achievement of homeschooled students and their counterparts, a number of researchers have found the effectiveness of homeschooling. Some Ivy League admissions officers reported that homeschooled students have high SAT scores and adjust well to the demands of college. These admission officers also were impressed by an astonishing accomplishment of homeschooling: A family with three home-schooled children at Harvard (Gross, 2009). The academic achievements tests from University of Maryland found that “25% of the homeschooled students tested are enrolled one or more grade levels above their age-level peers in traditional public or private schools.” (Lips, 2009)

     In addition to the higher quality of academic education, homeschooling can also provide good moral education for children.

     First, most parents may worry that homeschooling would affect children’s socialization. But, it actually doesn’t have to be that way. For one thing, parents must be clear is the definition of socialization. Socialization refers to “the process by which a human being beginning at infancy acquires the habits, beliefs, and accumulated knowledge of society through education and training for adult status.” (Merriam Webster) So when you walk down the school hall and ask yourself, what kind of behaviors you want your children to learn. The interaction with ill-behaved or problem students at school is the socialization that we expect, but it cannot be avoided and children are and vulnerable and susceptible. Especially, when children are at their puberty, they tend to have mental health problem, for example rebelling. They are likely to learn some bad habits from other peers. In addition, public schooling does provide many group discussions and activities for students, but have you asked your children did they really get involved? Undoubtedly, the students who participated in and have positive incomes are those well-educated at home.

     Second, homeschooling doesn’t mean that children have to be kept at home all day. Homeschoolers don’t need to spent time on the road to school so that they save more time. Children can go with parents on almost all of errands out there in the real world, etc. Children can have interaction with people at different ages in the neighborhood. It is a mixed-aged learning. During homeschooling, children can learn the wisdom of the eldership, share the experience of the contemporary, and admire the naiveté of toddler. Moreover, a homeschool co-op or church can provide an opportunity for homeschooled children to socialize and make friends. They also learn to deal with peer pressure.  Families can also meet a couple times a month for field trips and social gathering. There is no reason for a homeschooler to be isolated. In addition, more and more public schools are about to open their sports teams, clubs, music groups and other extracurricular organization to the home-educated students in this nation (Dao, 2005). With so many activities to satisfy their children’s needs, there is no reason for a homeschooler to be isolated.

      Dr. Belfield, associate director of the National Center for the Study of Privatization in Education at Columbia Teachers College, said there was no research in this area but much anecdotal evidence that homeschooled children can have plenty of social contact and eventually benefit from outside school (Gross, 2009).

      Second, homeschooling is the education of life.  During homeschooling, if there are something parents are no clear, parents should be honest to children and study that part. Above all, children can learn the spirit from parents. This spirit is far more important than knowledge itself. Honesty is the one of the most importance attitude in life. Furthermore, since children can have more time to help parents do some chores, to socialize with people at different ages and to act or think dependently, they are more likely to be mature mind and have fine character. When they have to go to school to receive higher education, they are more patient to the boring circumstance. Besides those, as we know that we spend the longest time with our family and the harmonious families are the foundation of the health society. Children who receive homeschooling tend to have deep connection with family members. When they grow up and have family, they will know how to love their spouse and children and be a responsible parent. And if it is possible, they would have more experience when they decide to home-schooled their child (Ray, 2003).

     In recent years, public schooling is failing, both academically and socially. According to a research, when parents were asked what are the most important reason for them to homeschool their children. 31 percent of parents said they concerned about the environment of the public schools, such as safety, drugs, and negative peer pressure. 30 percent thought that public school did not provide religious or moral instruction. 16 percent showed their dissatisfaction with the academic instruction available at the public schools (Princiotta, 2006).

     Homeschooling your children seem like a challenge, in fact, it is not that hard. If parent start homeschooling their children at their early age, then parents actually have gained some years of experience as teacher before teaching children’s primary program. After teaching children’s primary program, then starting the secondary curriculum should not be a problem because parents already have substantial experience as a teacher. Moreover, in order to ensure the high quality of home education, schools and some other organizations in the society cooperate closely. There are numbers of sources of curricula or books for children’s homeschooling: a public library; a homeschooling catalog, publisher, or individual specialist; distance learning media. (Princiotta, 2006)

      Homeschooling is perhaps the fastest growing trend in education in U.S. It is a great option if the factors of social isolation can be overcome through proper socialization. Of course, please think twice before try it because the strength of parents is the determiner of the success of homeschooling.

Reference

Arai, A. B. (2000). Reasons for Home Schooling in Canada. Retrieved Dec 13, 2010, from JATOR: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1585954?seq=3

Dao, J. (2005, Jun). Taught at Home, but Seeking to Join Activities at Public Schools. Retrieved Dec 10, 2010, from New York Times: http://www.nytimes.com/2005/06/22/education/22home.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1&adxnnlx=1258916122-Lj zgN0eRk5p8uxo0ZwT4w

Gross, J. (2009, Nov). Unhappy in Class, More Are Learning at Home. Retrieved Dec 10, 2010, from New York Times: http://www.nytimes.com/2003/11/10/nyregion/unhappy-in-class-more-are-learning-at-home.html?scp=4&sq=homeschooling&st=nyt&pagewanted=2

Hernandez, B. (n.d.). Homeschool Coop - Benefits of Joint Classes. Retrieved Dec 2010, from About.com: http://homeschooling.about.com/od/socialization/p/homeschoolcoop.htm

Lips, D. (2009, Sept). Homeschooling: The Sleeping Giant of American Education. Retrieved Dec2010, from Student Research Center: http://web.ebscohost.com/src/detail?vid=1&hid=6&sid=8f24c2b4-a928-4f43-80d5-2d6117792557%40sessionmgr12&bdata=JnNpdGU9c3JjLWxpdmU%3d#db=ulh&AN=443    07324

PrinciottaD. (2006). Homeschooling in the United States: 2003. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Education.

Pros of Home Schooling. (n.d.). Retrieved December 12, 2010, from Home School Info: http://www.homeschoolinfo.org/prosofhomeschooling.htm

Ray, B. D. (2003). Homeschooling Grows Up. Retrieved Dec 11, 2010, from Home School Foundation: http://www.hslda.org/research/ray2003/HomeschoolingGrowsUp.pdf

Rupp, R. (2000). Home learning year by year: how to design a homeschool curriculum from preschool through high school. New York:New York: Three Rivers Press.

Swift, W. (2010, Jul 7). Home-schooling: Rising statistics. Retrieved Dec 12, 2010, from Sonoran News:http://www.sonorannews.com/archives/2010/100707/commnews_homeschool.html

Homeschooling Is Worth A Try Before College

Introduction:

Homeschooling has been around for years and it has achieved much recognition from public. Homeshcooling is really a good idea for some educated parents. Homeschooling, on the one hand, provides higher quality of academic education for children; on the other hand, it is a good chance for parent to practice moral education. (Thesis statement)

Body paragraphs:

First, homeschooling can provide children with higher quality of academic education.

• Homeschooling mostly means one-to-one education which has more benefits than traditional schooling.
• There are a lot of already-designed curriculums out there. Parents can design curriculums for their children. 
• Homeschooling can share their experience of homeschooling their kids.

In addition to the higher quality of academic education, homeschooling can also provide good moral education for children.

• Children can avoid interation with ill-behaved students.
• More activities for children.

Finally, in recent years public schooling is failing, both academically and socially. …

Conclusion:

Homeschooling is perhaps the fastest growing trend in education in U.S. …It is a great option to educate your own children in your own ways.

Thoughts On My Final Project

For my final project, I would like to write something on homeschooling. Homeschooling sounds like a very interesting topic for me and I would like to do some research on that. I want to find out the advantages and disvantages of homeschooling.

The Evaluations of The Third Interview

Here is The link to the evaluations of the third interview

For the third interview, the winner in my head is Laci Brune.

The parameters that I used again were the same ones. Overall I think Laci did a good job on her second interview.

First, Laci has all the elements covered in the preparation and description parts. Finding an interviewee by e-mailing is a pretty good strategy. You can e-mail a bunch of international student once and there must some willing student getting back to you, which sounds like a good idea. Moreover, there is no need to worry about what if they will turn you down because you don’t have to ask them in person.

Second, I didn’t give her full credits on country report because I think she could have expanded her country report a little bit.

Third, I like her interview part. I like her questions. By reading the answers, I gain some knowledge on Germany. By listening the response from the German student, Laci had a sense that he was in fond of the United States and she chose not to responde was a right thing to do.

Finally, Laci’s interview is also a very readable one. Good visual appearance! I could found every element easily. I didn’t find many errors.

The Evaluations of The Second Interview

Here is The link to the evaluations of the second interview


For the second interview, the winner I think is Rashmi Pun.

The parameters that I used to evaluate the second interview were exactly the same as the ones that were posted on the homepage of our course. On the whole, Rashmi did very well on the five parameters. 

Firstly, Rashmi's preparation for her second interviews is well documented. I was very glad to see that how much efforts she put on her interview. She reviewed her first interview, read more articles, and gathered more facts on Sri Lanka so she could be more confident in the second interview. It was a good idea to let her friend introduce an interviewee to her and it is also a good idea to interview the person in her own place. Rashmi also described the interview at length.

Secondly, Rashmi’s country report is also informative. Based on the country report on Sri Lanka she posted for the first interview, she added some additional information on her country report for her second interview, which is great. It is also helpful to write some information on the country report related to her interview questions.

Thirdly, I like the questions she used for her interview. Some questions and the answers to the questions are very interesting to read, for example the family structure and interaction between males and females. And I also got to know something on Sri Lanka.  It was good to see that she explained her questions in a different to make the questions more understandable for her interviewer and the interviewer answered those finally.

Finally, I have to say that after reading all of the posts for the second interviews for all of my classmates her post is one of the most readable ones. I went to her blog and I knew where everything was located immediately. And there are just few grammar errors she made on her blog.

Overall, Rashmi did a good job on her second interview. Way to go!!!

Preparations For The Third Interview

Having completed two wonderful interviews, I was not worrying about whether or not the third interview would go well. Therefore, on Saturday (November, 06) I decided to go to our library to randomly pick a Somali student to finish this interview project.

When getting to the library, on the first floor I saw a seem-like Somali guy sitting at the computer lab doing his homework. I went over to him and asked if he was from Somalia. He said yes. Then I slowly explained the interview thing to thing and asked if he was willing to be my interviewee. He said he would like to but asked me to wait a little bit because he was in middle of something. So I grabbed a seat near him, took out my homework, and waited for him while doing my homework. Before long, I saw some friends of his came and sit tighter with him. They began to talk in Somali. Soon after, he called me over and asked how long the interview would be. I said I just needed maybe fifteen minutes at most. He said a friend of his was willing to be my interviewee and then introduced his friend to me.

Next, his friend and I went found a quite spot on the first floor and prepared for the interview immediately. We introduced ourselves a little bit. His name is Ibrahim Ahmed. He is from Somalia but he was born in Kenya at 1991. Ibrahim came to the United States last year. He is majoring in electrical engineering at SCSU now.

In order to find more connections with him, I brought up my friend Issa Gure (my first interviewee) again and he happened to know him (My friend is a popular guy in this Somali community :). I showed him the Somalia country report I wrote and he was very happy to see what I wrote. I said I would focus on the cultural part of Somalia and let him not worried about any sensitive issues.

We talked a lot before the formal interview.

Finally I had him see the interview and we started the interview right away.

Description of The Third Interview

To my surprise, this impromptu interview went extremely well. I was so impressed on how friendly, polite, and cooperative my third interviewee Ibrahim was. It was like we were just strangers one minute ago and all of sudden we became very close friends. He also speaks English surprisingly well even though he has just been here for one year. With his help, I finished this interview project successively.

Before the formal interview, we had a very nice and long talk, which helped us to get to know each other better. After the warm-up talk, I thought to myself, “There is no need to worry about how well he would do in the interview. You are so in luck, Heqiu! This is the right guy that all the interviewers are looking for. All you need to do today is just to be yourself and you should thank his friend who introduced this guy to you.” I had so much confidence on him. To be honest, for the first time I was so excited before an interview. 

During the interview, He behaved very politely and kindly. He had his smile on all the time; he said thank you after each of answering my questions and gave a sign to ask the next question; he also help me wrote down something he thought I would not know and explained it to me. “What a thoughtful student is! How could this student be so nice?” I was impressed.

This is the longest interview I have ever done and I really enjoyed every moment of this interview.

Transcription of The Third Interview

Interviewer: Heqiu Liu

English 191

Interviewee:  Ibrahim Ahmed

Interviewee's country of origin: Somalia

Interview date: 11/06/2010

Interview #3

Me: Could you please tell me a little bit about yourself, such as your name, the country you are from, how long have you been here, and your major?

Ibrahim: Yeah, Ibrahim Ahmed. I’m from Somalia. I was born in Kenya 1991. I have been here now for year. And I am majoring in electrical engineering.

Me:  First, I would like to know your greeting customs. We know that people in the United States say, “Hi, how are you” and shake hands when people first meet.  But, how do you guys great each other? Is there anything special there?

Ibrahim: Yeah, it depends. We have cultural greeting with Assalam Alaikum. In English, it is like ‘Peace Be Upon You.’ That is the first one. And the other thing we have different greeting customs. We have Somali people from the southern side and Somali people who are from the northern side. So for the southern side, people are born in Kenya. We say, ‘Setahay.’ In English, that means ‘How are you doing?’ the other thing is like we say, ‘Subah wanaagsan!’ that means ‘Good morning!’ we also have ‘Galab wanaagsan’. Also you can say when you want to say ‘Good bye. Good night.’ ‘Good night’ we say ‘Garitibulle Ossetian.’ The other thing is that we normally shake hands when we greet each other. Sometimes we don’t see other for a week or some days, we will hug each other. And the other thing unlike here, when you greet with your friend, maybe you hold his hand, people tell you two men cannot hold hands and walk together. But in country, it shows how much we love each other. So it is Ok.  

Me: If I was a good friend of yours and I want to pay a visit to you one day, how would you treat me as a guest in your house?

Ibrahim: The way I would treat you depends on the situation. But whenever if you like call me say, ‘Ibrahim, can I come to you?’ I will tell you, ‘ Oh, you can come, I’m ready.’ Anytime whether they want to visit you, we feel like we are very important people. We will welcome. What we will depends. If you come to my house every day, I will prepare you for some drinks, like tea, milk, or water, or juice. But if you come especially once a week, once a month, I will prepare for you good meal, like maybe I will cook for you meat. I will cook you goat meat. We will also have pasta. We also eat banana. Those are nice and delicious things we prepare. Whether you come, the food and the drink are ready. Everybody in the family will come. They would like to talk to you. ‘How is everything?’ ‘How are you doing?’ And we normally talk you strangers you know. When we see people from other parts of the world, we like to talk to them and ask them, ‘How is your country? What you guys…’ we need to know more about strangers. When American people see someone they don’t know, they don't talk to them. If you are in this room, they won’t ask you, ‘Hi, how are you?’ they just keep quite. When we see people from China, we will go to them and ask about their country. When we see people from America from Europe, go to them and ask them.  

Me: Next, I want to know what you guys usually do for entertainment.

Ibrahim: Uh, it is like…it really depends for entertainment. People have different hopes. We don’t go to parties, drink. In our culture, we don't drink. What we do entertainment is that we get together as a group, maybe with your relative, families, friends, get together, like five, six, twenty person, just have fun, ask them about their background. Maybe tell a story. What is you experiences during the week. We come together just talk, talk about our day lives. That is how we normally entertain. Sometime, if one of your friends going to marry, we will collect some money, so we can give the person who is going to marry. We will eat food, enjoy things. That is the party we go, only wedding. And just have our own parts of drinks. And if you come as group, stay for maybe one of my friend’s apartment. My friend will bring us juices, drinks, tea. And we have to tell a story. Mostly, in the weekend, like last night, I went to visit my friend. We just talked what happened during the week.  

Me: what sports do you usually play?

Ibrahim: Like me, I like watching soccer. I am fan of Arsenal. Very nice football they play. Sometimes go with friends, just play around. Especially, during the weekend, we watch, we enjoy the soccer. I don't like American football. Physical violence. But what I like about them is basketball.

… we talked something else.

Me: Then, I would like to know something on your family structure. What are some of the roles that family members play?

Ibrahim: My family structure is totally different from the United States of America. We are collective culture. One thing we do is we share the work. The father will do a part. The children will do other parts. And the mother will do… And we don’t have specific roles for every person. But helping the family, everybody will do their parts. Today, if I need to wash cloth, I will go clean the laundry. My mother will cook the food. My father will go the market and buy food. But today if I do the laundry, tomorrow I can go to buy food.  

Me: How many family members usually live together?

Ibrahim: usually like five or six family members. But you can have twenty three people live together. Like my mother gave birth to twelve children, seven boys and five girls.  And my father has other wives. They also have kids. So almost twenty kids. That is why I have twenty three together. It depends. Some people have one kid, some people have two kids, and some people have ten, six. Not like here the average they have is two kids. So no restricts. It depends on how man … we don’t have specific number of kids. It is how…

Me：Next, I would like to know something on your food culture. What do you have for your diet (such as breakfast, lunch, and dinner)?

Ibrahim: Sure, the breakfast we have is called Anjera. For the lunch, we normally take rice or pasta with bananas. We like eating bananas. Every meal we take with bananas. If it is breakfast, we eat a piece of banana. Lunch is the most. For dinner, it depends on the family. Sometimes what we take is called Gitther. It is made of rice and beans cooked together. Or they call it Anbulo. It really depends on the family members, people like different flavor.

Me: Are there any types of food you usually don’t eat in your home country, but you eat here?

Ibrahim: There are many vegetable I have never seen before, but I eat here. But we have something called food taboo. So we don’t eat pork, like any kinds of food (made of pork), bacon, ham or whatever. They are cooked different ways, we don’t normally eat any type of food from the pig.

Me: Do you go to Chinese restaurant?

Ibrahim: Yeah, I go to Chinese restaurant or Pakistani restaurant. They don’t cook with pig. That is why the pork is separated. So we got there, take the rice, add some chicken or fish or shrimp.

Me: Finally, I would like to know your body languages. Do you have any special and interesting body languages?

Ibrahim: yeah, our body language is very important. That is why we can know the person whether he is annoying. We chat with person with our physical language. It is more important than our verbal language. We nod head this way; this is mean ‘Ok’. This is (Shake his head) means ‘No’ just like in every other culture. If you see this (hold up his thumb), it means not really good. It is sarcastic. If you see some say ‘Thank you’ like this (with his thumb up), but that thank you is not a good one, it means the opposite. If people are showing this to you, it means you are not good. Uh, eye contacts. Here you can see, even the professor, we call him like Professor Coffey. But back into Africa, we use the word ‘Sir’. We respect them. we don't call their names. We call sir or teacher. And the other thing we have is that the elder, we don't give them eye contacts. So we just look them, that means we respect them. I feel uncomfortable when I call their names. You have to treat people of you age and the elder differently and people will treat you nicely.

Me: we have a lot of common in body language. How you do use your body language when you say someone is out of mind.

Ibrahim: when you say someone is out of his/her mind, we say like (making a circle around his head using his index finger). That means your mind is upset-minded. And this one (knocking his head with his index finger) is different, that means you are mad.

Me: I think we are done. I appreciate it.

Ibrahim: thank you very much. What is your name?

Me: Heqiu. We can keep in touch.

Ibrahim: Can you write me your email?

Me: Yeah.

First interview results

Link

Description of The Second Interview & Somalia Country Profile

 I would say this interview was in my favor. Yahye and I had a great conversation in the interview. I was so impressed by how talkative he was. The interview went pretty well due to three important reasons.

First, he is a good talker. My anxiety of wondering how the interview would go was gone right away before the interview because I could see that he is so prepared. In the interview, he attentively answered all of the questions I asked and seemed to talk forever if I didn’t intentionally stop him sometimes; he was very open to talk about Somalia and Somalis; he used a lot of gestures demonstrating what he was trying to say.

Second, my fair knowledge on Somalia. Just a couple weeks ago, I wrote a country report on Somalia so in the interview what he told me made more sense. And I knowingly shared some knowledge on Somalia to induce him to talk more and he did.

Third, the atmosphere that we created. The spot we chose was just right. It was quite and comfortable. We sit in sofas, which make us feel relaxed. There was nobody passing by to distract us so we could focus on the interview.

Now, I am looking forwards to my third interview.

Somalia Country Profile

Overview

Somalia, officially the Republic of Somalia, is a country located in the east coast of Africa. Due to its special location, it was once an important trading center in the ancient. However, in the 19^th century, Somalia was colonized by the European powers. Although Somalia gained independence back after 1960, it has been suffering serious civic unrests since then. Without a working government, its economy still functions well. Because of the close ties with the Arab World, Somali people share similar customs and traditions with Arab and other Islamic cultures.

History

Somalia’s early history traces back to the seventh century A.D. when the Somali state and an Arab sultanate were founded. During the 15^th and 16^th centuries, Portuguese and Turkish gained control of several coastal towns. Afterwards, and the sultans of Oman and Zanzibar took back the territory, and ruled the surrounding area.

Somalia’s modern history began in the 19^th century. After British occupying Aden in 1839, the European powers subsequently began to established colonies in Somalia. In 1960, Italy granted independence to its colony and then Britain withdrew from its protectorate in Somalia. As a result, the Republic of Somalia was formed on July 1, 1960. Ten years later, Somalia experienced a civil war which lasted for 21 years.

Continuous fighting on territorial interest happened until 2004 when the transitional parliament was founded to somehow bring back regulations, laws, and order. Whereas, without an effective government, Somalis have a long way to go on resolving the chaos and corruption issues (Backgroud Note: Somalia).

Government

During January 1991 and August 2000, Somalia had no functioning government. A weak parliamentary government was formed in 2000 but soon dissolved in 2003 because of its inability to normalize the administration. In 2004, a new transitional government, known as the Transitional Federal Government (TFG), was installed and a new president was elected (Somalia).

Geography

Somalia, which is located on the east coast of Africa with the longest coastline on the continent, covers a land mass of 637,657 square kilometer. It borders on Ethiopia, Kenya, and Djibouti.  Somali terrain consists mainly of plains, highlands, and hills. Mogadishu is its capital (Backgroud Note: Somalia).

Economy

Despite the lack of a working central government, Somali economy has surprisingly continued to keep healthy. The main types of industry supporting the economy are agriculture, livestock, limited financial services, textiles, transportation, telecommunications, and fishing.  Agriculture which is the important sector, with livestock, makes up to about 40% of GDP and more than 50% of export earnings (Africa: Somalia).

People

·         Population

Somalia has a population of around 9,832,017. 45% of the population is under the age of 15 and 52.6% between the ages of 15 to 64. Years of civil war and unrest and its inability to deal with poverty and disease have caused up to one million people to die (Hare).

·         Religion

The constitution of Somalia defines Islam as the religion of the Somali Republic. With very few exceptions, 99.9% of the population are Muslims (Backgroud Note: Somalia).

·         Education

Somalia shares the same 8-4-4 education system with Kenya. Although the number of students enrolled and schools founded has increased since the transitional federal government was in power, due to various realities, inequalities on the quality of and access to primary education are still major problems in this country (Hare). A majority of children in Somalia aren’t able to gain education opportunities. According to the CIA statics, only 37.8 percent of Somalis can read and write, males holding 49.7 percent of that, females 25.8 percent (Africa: Somalia).

·         Languages

The Somali language is the official language of Somalia. In addition, Arabic is also an official national language. Many Somalis speak Arabic because of their tight ties with the Arab World. English is also widely used and taught. Italian, once a major language, now has lost its influence because of the independence of Somalia (Language).

·         Customs

Somalis usually greet each other with handshakes, but it is disallowed to shake hands with the opposite sex. Common verbal greatings include Assalam Alaikum (Peace be upon you), Subah wanaagsan (Good morning), and Galab wanaagan (Good afternoon). Somalis like using various hand and arm gestures when talking. There are some specific gestures, for example, “a swift twist of the open hand means ‘nothing’ or ‘no’, snapping fingers may mean ‘long ago’ or and ‘so on’, and a thumb under the chin means ‘fullness’." On the marriage, clothing, family, food, and some other customs and traditions, Somalis has much in common with Arab and other Islamic cultures. However, in some parts of this country, there are still some local traditions that Somali practice every year. DABSHID (fire burning) is an annual festival in Low Shabelle region, which the local people burn a big fire and dance around it (The Customs of Somalia).

·         Food

Somali usually eat homemade bread which is called Injera, liver soup, toast, cereal or cornmeal for breakfast. For lunch which is the most important meal of the day, Somali people usually have meat with pasta or rice.  For dinner, they eat a light meal or barely eat.

Somali eat all kinds of meat, except pork which is forbidden in the religion. Meats are the main dishes. There are also many ways cooking the meats. For example, goat, beef, lamb, camel, and chicken can be fried, grilled, or broiled. They are often spiced with turmeric, coriander, cumin, and curry, and eaten with basmati rice.

Vegetables are the side dishes. Often time, they can be combined with meat to make a stew. Green peppers, spinach, potatoes, carrots, and garlic are the vegetables most eaten. There is a large selection of fruits in Somalia. Bananas, dates, apples, oranges, pears, and grapes are the popular fruits. Some types of fruits are even made into fresh juices.

Somalis also like black tea with milk and sugar, sambusas which are stuffed triangular dumplings coming with all kinds of fillings, and so on.

Like all Muslims, in the ninth month of the Islamic calendar, Somalis fast from eating from dawn to sunset. One that is considered healthy over the age of 15 is required to fast. (The food of Somalia).

Photo gallery

Location of Somalia (photo taken from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Somalia#Cuisine)

The flag of Somalia (photo taken from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Somalia#Cuisine)

Somali man (photo taken from http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-552829/British-UN-aid-worker-kidnapped-Somalia-wounded-gun-battle.html)

Somali women greeting each other (photo taken from http://www.corbisimages.com/Enlargement/CV001093.html)

Somali Sambusa (photo taken from http://www.mysomalifood.com/appetizers/somali-sambuuse/)

Somali Injera (photo taken from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Injera)

Somali children (photo taken from http://members.virtualtourist.com/m/30b4a/f9b/)



Reference

"Africa: Somalia." 18 October 2010. World Factbook. CIA. 25 October 2010 <https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/so.html>.

"Backgroud Note: Somalia." 14 May 2010. U.S. Department of State. 25 October 2010 <http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ei/bgn/2863.htm>.

Hare, Harry. "ICT in Education in Somalia." December 2007. infoDev.org. 25 October 2010 <http://www.infodev.org/en/Publication.428.html>.

Language. 25 October 2010 <http://countrystudies.us/somalia/51.htm>.

"Somalia." Infoplease. 25 October 2010 <http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0107979.html>.

The Customs of Somalia. 25 October 2010 <http://www.somaliculture.net/customs/index.html>.

The food of Somalia. 26 October 201 <http://www.somaliculture.net/food/index.html>.