Speaking with Proficiency

May 13, 2017May 13, 2017 jacquelineobyikocha32 Comments

I love learning new languages and believe that I have an ear for it. I find it amusing that Linda gave us language as our prompt for SoCS because I was just finished looking at my test result.

I took my French Language evaluation test in March and the result just came back from Paris yesterday. My result makes me feel like a Top dog. For a language that I haven’t used consistently for years, close to 10 years now – after spending five years of my life, learning, eating and breathing the French language, my result is absolutely great.

Phew! What a relief! I must tell you that I was a bit concerned before the exam, during and after.

I just couldn’t afford to fail – ha, ha! I’m not sure how I would have explained to my children that I failed a French language proficiency exam when they always look at me as a guru. Thank God for small mercies.

As for other languages, I speak Igbo, which is my mother tongue, a smattering of Yoruba, Hausa, and Spanish. Now I am experimenting with Arabic. Who knows, maybe by the time I leave The Middle-East my command of Arabic language would be un peu passable.

Bon weekend à tous 🙂

Jacqueline

My Best Material Possessions…

November 27, 2015 jacquelineobyikocha33 Comments

Whenever someone asks me what the best purchase I ever made was, I wonder why my mind simply drifts to the books that I have read and those that I look forward to reading?

Books are such ordinary things to call prized possessions, yet no gemstones like them have I found. Does this happen to you too?

My mind traces back to those books that have imparted valuable knowledge and fed my eclectic taste and senses.

I am always hard pressed to think of other material belongings that give me as much pleasure as my books and my Kindle does.

Is it my diamond encrusted ring? I do love it so and it always glows on my finger and makes me smile.

They say that diamonds are a girls best friend but I am still not yet so sure if it is truly mine. I appreciate it’s value but it is yet to speak to me.

Is it my latest pair of LV slippers? Yes they are certainly popping beautiful feet candy but not my prized possession.

Is it the fantastic new perfume of mysterious origin that I discovered at the Souk?

I have no idea what the name of the perfume means, since it is written in Arabic, but I must tell you that the fragrance is divine.

The list could go on and on but if the truth be told, none of these other things gives me the depth of satisfaction that books I have read gave me.

When I buy a book, it’s like I found a new friend. I usually can’t wait to curl up on my sofa or bed to get acquainted.

I always think that the cover of a book is like a door. Which gives me delightful glimpses of where I have not been before.

Sometimes it casts a spell, tickles, teaches or chastises. I always wonder when I knock what welcome there will be.

This little poem I wrote a while back will tell you more of my thoughts about books.

So what’s your best purchase of recent? Do share the fun, whatever that may be 🙂

NaBloPoMo prompt – Friday, November 27

What’s the best purchase you ever made?

Creative Writing · Fiction · Short Stories · The Daily Post

Boomerang!…

November 12, 2015November 12, 2015 jacquelineobyikocha31 Comments

The loud bang of the gun shot startled and sent Habiba racing in the direction of the sound, her Ferragamo slippers clattered as she rushed along.

In disbelief, her bulging eyes stared at Hamid’s body scattered at an odd angle. His gold plated hand gun on the floor beside his slackened hand.

Dead! Hamid died from a single well aimed shot to the temple; blowing parts of his crown to pieces.

In horror she screamed endlessly. The catastrophe before her eyes horrified her senses.

The ruckus alerted the maid’s and the children; who all came rushing to the scene.

Why? Why? Habiba sobbed and mumbled incoherently in Arabic.

She had noticed his withdrawn and restless attitude for days on end but his heated discussions over the telephone had not appeared any different from other days when he was brokering a deal.

She had paid no mind to it at all. Her days were consumed with the usual shopping sprees, yacht meet ups with friends, an occasional private party trip to the casinos in Monaco and the high-life of a pampered wife of a stupendously wealthy industrial giant.

“No! Y’Allah!” she yelled at the Philippina nanny’s. ”Take them away from here.”

She didn’t want them to see the mind numbing horrifying sight. It would scar their psyche for the rest of their lives.

The note simply said: “I am sorry. It’s all gone. I lost it all.”

She frantically called her brother Majid on her gem-studded Vertu phone; he would know what to do.

Nothing made any sense to her befuddled mind.

This story is total fiction conjured from an article in The National: online United Arab Emirates news about a major jewellery line owner who has been jailed for fraud.

The Daily Post prompt Ripped from the headlines.

Head to your favorite online news source. Pick an article with a headline that grabs you. Now, write a short story based on the article.