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Thursday, June 30, 2022

Learn Americanisms + British English, or Ukrainian + Russian, Or Chinese + Japanese, pairs of languages, extra similar languages



American and British English are understandable except for a handful of words. For example. 

USA - UK

candies - sweets

check - bill

cookies - biscuits

diapers - nappies

Fall - autumn

faucet - tap

parking lot - car park

pharmacy - chemist

real estate - property

realtor - estate agent

semester - term

take out - take away

windshield - windscreen

Take away sign over shop in the UK. Photo by Angela Lansbury.


UK - USA

autumn - Fall

bill - check

biscuits - cookies

car park - parking lot

chemist - pharmacy

estate agent - realtor

nappies - diapers

property - real estate

sweets - candies

tap - faucet

term - semester

take away - take out

windscreen - wind shield


Many other languages have similarities. 

How to learn languages on holiday (alphabetical list of languages)

C

Chinese

Traditional in China. variations in Taiwan and Singapore. 

D

Dutch

Learn Dutch in the Netherland and if you speak French watch the bilingual French-Dutch signs in Belgium, as well as Sint Maarten on the south side of the island shared with St Martin in the Caribbean.

F

French

Learn French in bilingual places such as Canada's capital. Also France, Belgium, Switzerland. And St Martin in the Caribbean.

German

Learn German in Germany, Austria and Switzerland.

J

Japanese

Japanese used the same signs as Chinese for most words with the same meaning. (Think of washing symbols and no smoking signs.)


Portuguese

Learn Portuguese in Portugal and pick up some Portuguese in Madeira.

Spanish and Portuguese are so similar that I could read road signs and tourist signs in Madeira. For example, the word Jardim in Portuguese sounds and looks like Jardin in French and garden in English. Can you guess banco, and botanico? Remove the o and the ico.

Spanish

Spanish is spoken in Spain, Spanish islands, and most of central America, except Belize, and South America except Brazil.


Multi-Language Cities and Countries

Canada, Ottawa

The capital is bilingual.

Singapore

The four official languages are English, Chinese (Mandarin), Malay and Tamil.

Switzerland

Learn French or German or Italian if you speak any of these three languages in Switzerland.


Travel

Go on a language course in the destination country.

Stay Home and Host

Can't travel? Invite somebody from the other country to stay with you.

Currently Ukrainians are looking for homes overseas and the UK government is giving you a payment if you commit to providing a home for a Ukrainian for 6 months.

Ukrainian is similar to Russian.

Bulgarian and Russian use similar alphabets.

Japanese and Chinese use the same signs for their language of symbols, although the spoken words are different. Visit China, Taiwan, Hong Kong or Japan, Singapore, or Chinatown in your nearby city.

Wikipedia and Duolingo will tell you all the countries where you can learn and practise and keep up your languages.

Useful Websites on Where to get help

dictionary.com

quora

thesaurus

wikipedia

https://blog.duolingo.com/ukraine-language/#:~:text=Ukrainian%20and%20Russian%20are%20distinct%20languages%20that%20are%2C%20effectively%2C%20cousins,the%20Slavic%20languages%20spoken%20today.

https://www.gov.uk/guidance/homes-for-ukraine-guidance-for-matching-organisations#:~:text=The%20Homes%20for%20Ukraine%20scheme%20allows%20people%20who%20are%20fleeing,for%20at%20least%206%20months.

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