Learn Tamil, Bengali, Malayalam and Related Languages

 Tamil is spoken in Tamil Nadu in India. 

Tamil Nadu means Tamil country. The capital is Chennai, formerly called Madras..

Tamil is also spoken in Sri Lanka. 

Lanka means island. Sri means resplendent.

Sri Lanka previously was called Ceylon. You might still see Celonese tea. Twinings Tea company websites uses both words, 

Singapore

Tamil is additionally one of the four national languages of Singapore. Tamil is spoken in Little India, where you find shops and restaurants. Also in schools for those whose family language is Tamil.

Learning Tamil

I could not find Tamil in Duolingo. But I could find Hindi, and one of the Indian languages has learning English as an option.

Wikipedia has articles on the language and the countries and places mentioned. Wikivoyage has a phrasebook for each country.

Quora has interesting discussion on saying hello and goodbye in Tamil.

Wikivoyage has a phrasebook. They say that Tamil language is spoken by 74 million people. 

Tamil is closely related to Malayalam, and more distantly related to Kannada and Telugu. It is not related to the languages spoken in northern India, but like other Indian languages has been heavily influenced by Sanskrit.

What to see in Tamil Nadu

The capital city, Chennai, has beaches. 

Huge Hindu temples. The religion of the majority is Hindu.

What to see in Sri Lanka

The majority religion is Buddhist.

What to see in Singapore

Little India has small shops, and huge Mustafa's department store.

 Restaurants serve meat or vegetarian dishes, and Singapore's speciality, fish head curry, with white rice on green banana leaves. The banana Leaf Appollo is one of many South Indian restaurants, many of which are vegetarian.

Little India has a museum about Indian immigration to Singapore. very interesting and visitor friendly. For example, when I was there you could try on hats and take a selfie..

Useful Websites

https://en.wikivoyage.org/wiki/Tamil_phrasebook

https://twinings.co.uk/collections/sri-lankan-tea

Wrong deliveries, broken deliveries, tax on deliveries

 In the good old days a smart person could mail home anyhing too heavy to pack. Nowadays the moral is, sender and recipient beware - of extra charges, taxes.

USA Postage and tax

A relative of mine in the USA visited their relative and accidentally left behind a coat and some clothes. The used clothes were posted from one state to another. In addition to the mailing cost, the recipient was charged sales tax.

Singapore to UK

We posted crockery and leftover kitchenware from where we were renting a service apartment in Singapore, back to our home in the UK. Most of the household stuff was bought in the UK and taken or sent out to Singapore. 

To our surprise, in addition to the huge cost  in Singapore, of mailing each of the three boxes, on each box we had to pay a large sum of money on import duty to the UK before the company would delivery our goods.

What is the moral? 

1 When packing to return, check all high cupboards by standing on a chair or ladder, and/or sweeping top cupboards and above cupboards with a broom. 

2 Mark the box as used or second hand goods. Customs and excise will assume you are shipping new goods bought from department stores. Even so, be prepared to pay tax on delivery. 

We had broken items delivered. So we had paid tax on the delivery of broken items!

3 Bubble wrap everything. Paper and tissue is not enough wrapping for crockery. Even socks and d, clothing is better than just paper. Your parcel could be dropped, or crushed. Layers of card or tin boxes, double layered, lined and filled with bubble wrap, offer extra protection. Now you know why your small item from Amazon arrives in a huge box inside a box like a Russian doll.

Useful Websites

https://www.openweb.com/share/2f8MHDrUys3y9yOXmWnSfklSVqG

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The Three Xhosa Clicks taught easy!

South Africa has several languages. English. Afrikaans, which is based on Dutch. Xhosa, the language of Nelson Mandela. Zulu.

I remember when I visited South Africa how impressed I was by people who could speak the native languages, and even speak or understand several of them. As for the click language - amazing! I was impressed that local could speak it, and that any multilingual foreigners could learn to speak the language, or even understand it.

When I started investigating the languages I started with Wikipedia. I was impressed to read that as many as 7 million people spoke Xhosa.  The number of African languages even in South Africa alone was daunting. 

However, at the end of the Wikipedia was a chart comparing several languages, showing the translation of the opening paragraph from the constitution. The English was on the left. I could see that with my knowledge of a few words of German, and the ability to follow the similar Dutch words, I could see that Afrikaans would be easy to pick up. 

The other piece of good news was the similarity of the native African languages. Zulu and Xhosa had several words which were almost identical. Another group of three languages were either similar to the first two, or similar to each other. If you knew one language from home and a second from school. You need only study two more to know 8 languages!.

I learned the clicks from this video. first above. Learn easy it says. I would say learn easily, but never mind, I agree that he made the learning easy. Only three sounds. For three letters. C x and q. Sounding like a horse clopping, tut tutting, and so on.

Their other video taught me the word shap.

I started looking at languages to fulfil my dream of being a polyglot (meaning a speaker of multiple languages) by starting a club for Polyglots.

 Click Languages

Practise xhosa sounds with a man

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dw_hBNyi_9c

Some history and world view from a lady

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dw_hBNyi_9c

Perfect Anniversary dinner at Villa Bianca in Hampstead

Two storey Villa Bianca Restaurant in Hampstead. Photo by Angela Lansbury. Copyright.

Location, Location

Hampstead is a lovely area. Lively. But the hotel is a few steps down a quiet side street.

. It is in a wuite side street just off the lively main street of Hampstead on the hill.

 The name of the restaurant means white house

Seating Area - Up or Down?

The last time we visited was two years ago when we sat downstairs in the window by the door. I think upstairs suited us better.

This time, in April 2024, we had a table for seven upstairs at Villa Bianca for an anniversary dinner. We were beside the grand (samll grand - that sounds like an oxymoron)) piano upstairs. I thought the music would be too loud for conversation but we managed okay.

Upstairs also has the advantage that the toilets are only steps away. 

Drinks & Service

We started with the house Champagne. The male and female servers were smiling and helpful and a delight. Our Portuguese but multilingual waiter was charming.

The menu has a range of prices from the mushrooms on toast which was huge, three pieces, enough for two people and a piece to take home.. I was saving myself for the main course and dessert. 

Food

My main course was chicken. We swapped around. The others were happy with their liver and fish.

The dessert was chocolate pudding, oozing. I would say everything was above average. Nt Michelin standard but very satisfying. Faultless.

All in all an excellent evening.

Anniversary

My husband said he had told them it was our anniversary. They did not do anything but I had my own paper plate with the word Joyeux Anniversaire and we ordered Champagne, and our guests brought cards and gifts so we did not notice not having the word happy anniversary on a plate.

I think that restaurants seeing you order Champagne might ask if you are celebrating and if so do something special.

Our three year old got up to change places and collided with a waiter and she burst into tears. The manager found her some complimentary breadsticks which instantly distracted and consoled her. My husband said, we got freebies, we have no complaints.

Prices

If you ordered lobster or different drinks and Champagnes you could have a much larger bill if you are looking to spend more and are seeking more. But we were happy with things which suited our budget and have happy memories.

Useful Website

https://villabiancagroup.com/villa-bianca/

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THE ALPHABET EXPLAINED: The origin of every letter

Recording Animal Activity Before, During and After the Eclipse

Eclipse. From Wikipedia.

Across the world people have been recording the reactions of animals to the eclipse. Pets, animals in zoos, and animals, in the wild. Casual observers and anecdotal reports, citizen observations. Careful analytical studies.

My summary is as follows:

Nocturnal activities

Creatures of habit react to darkness as normal. Many creatures think it is night time so they show bedtime behaviours such as going back to bed or home ready for bedtime and sleep. 

Some of them chirp as they would do at dusk, birds, and insects. When it goes completely dark they go silent.

A few organized groups which have leaders and guardians and fighters and are intelligent, keep watch, group lookouts, either out of curiosity, or presumably alert for possible danger. These include gibbons and champanzees (not sure I remembered the right species - better check) which climb trees for a better view of the sky. (Watching for activity, changes, enemies, invaders, space ships, eagles, hail stones, whatever?)

The giraffes in Dallas zoo race about.  They were surrounded by excited humans. That was taken into account by scientists, who compared activity the day before and the day after an eclipse.

Some are destructive. Spiders destroy their webs. They stop hunting for food. (Is this just packing up and moving on?)

The last fun fact is the Galapagos tortoises which start mating. Evolutionists think this is to procreate before disaster, like soldiers' farewell. But I think the explanation is simpler. Animals which copulate at night in privacy just think it's an opportunity, not realiszng that humans have set up cameras. (To be humorous and anthropomorphic, maybe one says, I think we are being watched. The other replies, No, dear, take no notice.)

I was interested to read how much effort had to be put into observation. To find out whether behavious was different, scientific observers compared data from previous eclipses with later ones, from one area to another, and from previous days and later days with the days of the eclipse, to be sure that behaviour was not simply usual in high summer.

Some kinds of siders destroy webs. The next question is, are any of these behaviours bad for the animals or us, or good for us. 

Protecting Animals and Wildlife and Zoo Animals From Eclipses

Can we take action to help animals, to survive, to be stress free? (Like keeping pets indoors during Fireworks Night in the UK and New Year's Eve Fireworks worldwide.)  

Does stress affect pregnant animals? Should we keep them indoors, to protect the pregnancy? Or play soothing music? Or keep lights on?

Do the primates damage their eyes looking at the sun? Can we protect them?

Imitating Eclipses

Or could we simulate an eclipse to encourage endangered tortoises to mate?. 

Or to get rid of unwanted spiders? Or encourage them to build new webs?

 Useful Website

https://

www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7222787/

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More memories of the eclipse

Total Eclipse

Cards84664 - Own work in Wikipedia under eclipse 2024 in Wikipedia Commons
 

I went to a newly formed Toastmasters International group called travelmasters. One of the prepared speeches started with memories of the eclipse. This year the speaker saw a partial eclipse from his area. Those in the New Jersey and New York area saw more.

India

He had previously been to see an eeclipse in India. He was with a local society which was studying wildlife. They went to the forest to see the effect the eclipse would have on animals, incects and birds. They were looking at bats and monkeys. 

Prepare For Dark & Cold

As the eclipse progressed over half an hour the sky grew darker. You need a torch to get around in the dark. 

As it got dark, the weather grew chillier. So this year he was prepared for the drop in temperature and took a jacket.

Camera Ready\

You have your camera ready. Not just for the sky and the eclipse. Also for the reactions on the ground. Your astonished friends. 

Animal Reactions

But also the wildlie. As the sky grew darker during the daytime, which was unusual, the animals stopped foraging for food and hunting and went back to their homes, their burrows, or nests. For their own safety? To protect their amilies. For comfort. I dont suppose they even thought about it. Just instinct.

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