Spanish Simple Words Translated In Online Reviews, The Media And Food

Spain in the world, from Wikipedia.

 I saw several of these everyday Spanish words in clothing reviews on Temu which were translated and in Facebook. You can also translate in Google translate. Find numbers, days of the week and phrases in Wikivoyage phrasebook Spanish.

Spanish - English

NB the ending o is masculine, and the ending a is feminine. The ending e is also feminine/ El is he. Ella is she.

buena - good

calidad - quality

buena calidad - good quality

de - of (the same word as in French)

delicado - delicate

el - the (mansculine)

elegante - elegant

en - in

en las fotos - in the photos

es - (it) is

estupendamente - great

fotos - photos

las/los - the (plural)

ligero - light (first three letters are the same_#

material - material

muy - very

muy elegante - very elegant

naranja - orange

para las noches - for the nights

Noches - nights

perfecto - perfect

y - and

English - Spanish

and - y

delicate - delicado

elegant - elegante

in - en

 in the photos - en las fotos

for the nights - para las noches

good - buena

good quality - buena calidad 

ingredients - ingredientes

(it) is - es

light - ligero

material - el material

of - de

orange - naranja

perfect - perfecto

photos - fotos

quality - calidad

the - las/los (as in Los Angeles, the city in the USA, meaning the angels)

very - muy

very elegant - muy elegante 

Useful Websites for learning simple Spanish

duolingo.com

translate google

wikivoyage phrasebook Spanish

Please follow my blogs and share links to your favourite posts.

Spanish Words For Today

Countries where Spanish is an official language. Map from Wikipedia.

Spanish is a useful language to learn. It is widely spoken as a first language in several South American countries. It is spoken as a second language in much of the USA. In Europe it is spoken in Spain and Spanish speaking islands. Portuguese and Italian are similar to Spanish.

I am brushing up - beginning again - my knowledge of Italian. I was learning Italian on Duolingo a year ago. This year I am learning Spanish. So I am doing Italian for Spanish speakers, which enables me to learn Spanish at the same time as learning Italian. The instructions are in Spanish, mostly only one to three words, often similar to English words. Because they are repeated even the unfamiliar words gradually get drilled into my mind. You could do the same with any two languages from the most common ones learned by speakers of your second language. 

I note down new words in my A5 notebook (book size). I create columns quickly by folding each page in half vertically, making two sections, then again to make four creases. To write more neatly without overlapping columns to crush in long words and phrases, I draw a line vertically with a pen or pencil, using a ruler or anything else straight nearby on the desk. 

I head the columns Spanish-English. An alternative would be to use the right hand half of the page for English-Spanish. Or to use the right hand page for English-Spanish.

Spanish - English Easy Words

adios - goodbye . The English is from God be with you. Adios comes from to God. a - dios, to the deity

buen - good (like French bon as in bon voyage, good journey)

buenos noches - good evening / good night

continuar - (to) continue

errores - errors

excepto - except

medala - medal

Perfecto/a (adjective matching masculine or feminine noun) - perfect

perfil - profile (both words have the letters p r f i l in that order. The e in the Spanish jumps to the end of the English word.

veloz -/velocity/speed/time

voz - voice

What is the difference between a medal and a medallion?  The shorter word is for the smaller object. A medal is attached to a ribbon and worn as an award for an achievement in a military battle or a sports contest. A medallion is larger, a souvenir of an important occasion and displayed on a stand on a shelf, and given or kept in a box lined with colourful contrasting shiny satin, if made of silver or gold bought as an investment. 

English - Spanish

(to) continue - continuar

except - excepto

good - buen

profile - perfil

velocity/ speed / time taken - veloz (starts with the same four letters)

voice - voz (starts with the same two letters and ce and z sound similar)

Wikivoyage phrasebook explains  pronunciation and origins of words, and similar sets if words

Spanish - English (The first pronunciation is from Spain, where the language originated, the second is from Latin America.)

círculo (THEER-koo-loh/SEER-koo-loh) → circle

circulo (theer-KOO-loh/seer-KOO-loh) → I circulate

circuló (theer-koo-LOH/seer-koo-LOH) → he/she/it circulated

estás (ehs-TAHS) → you are

estas (EHS-tahs) → these

origen (oh-REE-hehn) → origin

orígenes (oh-REE-hehn-ehs) → origins

ciudad (thee-yoo-DAHD/see-yoo-DAHD) → city

ciudades (thee-you-DAH-dehs/see-yoo-DAH-dehs) → cities

A Spanish restaurant with a Spanish guitarist in Manila, the Philippines was called Circulo.

I have listed them in reverse and underlined the syllable you emphasize

English - Spanish

circle - circulo 

I circulate - circulo emphasis on the middle syllable, the same as the English

he/she/it circulates - circuló

city - ciudad (thee-yoo-DAHD/see-yoo-DAHD)

Accents show words which are pronounced the same but have different meanings: Eight words, sixteen meanings.

él (he) el (the)

té (tea) te (you [object])

tú (you [subject]) tu (your)

mí (me) mi (my)

dé (give [present subjunctive]) de (of/from)

sí (yes) si (if)

sé (I know) se (one [pronoun])

más (more/plus) mas (but)

Useful Websites For Learning Languages

duolingo.com

Spanish Phrasebook in Wikivoyage and Wikitravel

Italian phrasebook in Wikivoyage and Wikitravel

translate google

https://translate.google.co.uk/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Spanish_words_borrowed_from_Italian

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_English_words_of_Spanish_origin

Please share links to this blog post.

Albanian learned on Memrise 30 words

 Memrise made learning Albanian easy. 

My words today are

1 I - une with two dots above the e. Like the royal we in the Queen's ENlgish, one. One does not I = une

2 ti is you, second person singular.(Like the French tu)

3 ai is he

4 ajo is she

 Annoyingly and confusingly the feminine seems to take the letter o at the end.

5 Ju is you plural.

6 ita is they masculine but ito is they feminine.

7 dite ending with double dots on the e is day. D for day. date in the day.

8 nite, again two dots on the e, is night, n for night, and t, almost the American nite.

9 Mire ending with double dots over the e is good (I think of admire)

19 keq is bad (I think he is so bad that I want to kick, but the last letter is q)

20 JO IS NO. like oh, no john in the old song. Not po but Jo.

21po is yes

22 gjuhe (accent on the final e) is language

23 shqip is Albanian language

24 mirupafshim - goodbye (gone in a puff of smoke)

25 miredita good-day

26 mire-dita good afternoon

27 mirembrema good evening

28 miremengjies - good morning (when you rise with energy)

29 si - how

30 jam to be

21 Albanian language shqip like equippeed (Not pig)

Useful Websites

https://app.memrise.com/aprender/learn?course

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_language_self-study_programs

Starting Learning Chinese

 

Ni hao - (pronounced knee how, literally you good, means) hello

hern hao - very good

wo - I

wo si - (woh see) I like (I sound in both the Chinese and the English)

wo sir - I am

lao sir - (a) teacher

welcome - 歡迎

Huānyíng

When I translated the two Chinese characters back into English I got joyous welcome

Useful Websites

duolingo.com

translate.google.com

Americanisms that amaze the Brits and British words that baffle Americans

 When we Brits went on holiday to Disney World in Florida we took the monorail, with our heavy bags. I was shocked to hear the announcement, "We will be stopping momentarily ..." 

I shouted to my family, "Quick - pick up your bags and stand by the door. It's a very quick stop."

In a hotel I phoned reception for a porter. The Receptionist said I should ring housekeeping. I left a message.

Nobody appeared. 

I phoned down to reception and asked again. 

The second time the receptionist answered, "Ma-am, we'll gladly send you one, if you can describe what it is."

I replied, "A man with a trolley, to move our suitcases. Luggage. Baggage. Carry bags?"

"Ah, ma-am, I believe you are seeking a bell-hop?"

My husband emerged from the bathroom and demanded, "What's taking so long?"

I replied, "Lost in translation. Sounds like they thought a porter was some king of cocktail. What we want is a bellhop or bellboy."

American - English

argue - row (rhyming with how)

bangs - fringe (hairstyle)

bell hop, bell boy - porter (in a hotel)

drug store - chemist

drunk - pissed (slang)

fanny pack - bum bag / waist pouch

good / I am good - well / I am well 

good to go - (ready to go)

goose bumps - goose pimples

lawyer - solicitor (in an office doing paperwork, not in court) 

math - maths

momentarily - soon, shortly, in a moment

oftentimes - often

period - full stop

pleased with yourself/proud/delighted - chuffed (slang)

raise (a child) - bring up

real estate - property

real estate agent - estate agent

regular - medium size

shopping cart - (shopping) trolley

take out - take away

zee - zed

English - American

bring up (a child) - raise

bum bag / waist pouch - fanny pack

chemist's - drug store

chuffed - pleased with yourself

estate agent - real estate agent

fringe - bangs

full stop - period

goose pimples - goose bumps

maths - math

medium size - regular

momentarily - briefly, only for a moment

my mistake, my fault - my bad

often - oftentimes

row (rhyming with now) - argue

pissed (slang) - drunk

shopping trolley - shopping cart

solicitor (in an office doing legal paperwork, not speaking in court) - lawyer

take away - take out

well (I am well) - good (I am good)

zed - zee

Useful Websites

Americanisms

https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-14201796

General Language

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portal:Language

About The Author

Angela Lansbury was born in london, England and is British. She has lived in the USA. She teaches English and runs workshops. 

About the Author

Angela Lansbury is Vice President Public Relations of Braddell Heights Advanced, and Tampines Changkat Advanced,  speakers training club which are part of Toastmasters International. The USA has several Spanish speaking as well as the English speaking clubs. You can pick up Spanish from buying or reading online their Spanish clubs welcome pages and manuals. 

In The USA, UK, Singapore and worldwide, there are many clubs which are English speaking, as well as Mandarin, Cantonese, Japanese, French, Tamil, Malay.

The inauguration of Tampines Changkat Advanced was Tuesday 29 2021, online on  zoom. Their meetings are on the fourth Tuesday evening of the month. They hope to hold meetings with a few people meeting physically, the others online, as soon as the Covid-19 conditions allow.

You can find the club through their facebook page as well as through Toastmasters International find a club. 

https://www.facebook.com/tampineschangkatadvTMC

The meetings are free for visitors. Visitors can watch, and join in speaking by introducing themselves and volunteering to do a 2 minutes impromptu  speech in table topics.

If you wish to join for a year, it costs about 190 US dollars, to have monthly meetings online, a mentor, a magazine, and one of the 11  Pathways, consisting of 14 projects. Each project starts with 3 speeches of your choice of subject, lasting 4 to 6 minutes, then 5 to 7 minutes. The Pathways include the most popular Presentation Mastery. I chose  humorous speaking as my second Pathway, costing 20 dollars. Then my third was a leadership course. Come and see for free.

The club also has meetings in person in Singapore

You can also contact my other club, smaller Braddell Heights Advanced, which is a cosy little club with more chances to speak.

Login through bha.learncool.sg/meet/bha 

That will link you through to Zoom or googlemeet. 2 pm to 5 pm.

BHA meets the first Wednesday evening each month, starting at 7 pm Singapore time. 

Then an extra meeting on the 3rd Saturday afternoon, starting at 2 pm Singapore time.

To check your time zone,  

https://24timezones.com/difference/singapore/ 

Meetings will be on Wed July 7th and  Saturday July 17th.

Contact either of these or other clubs through Toastmasters International Find a Club.

Ten Easy to remember Chinese place names and words

Flag of China

Hi, I have some easy Chinese words for you. Hi means sea in Chinese (Mandarin). I think of the high sea.

Haiku, the poetry, is also the name of a city in China. 

Haikou

The hanzi characters comprising the city's name, 海口, mean ocean/sea and mouth/port, respectively. Therefore, the name "Haikou" is also a word for "seaport" - similar to 'Portsmouth', meaning port's mouth, in England. 

Shanghai

The two Chinese characters in the city's name are 上 (shàng/zan, "upon") and 海 (hǎi/hae, "sea"), together meaning "Upon the Sea".

Beijing

The name Beijing, means "Northern Capital" (from the Chi>nglishnese characters 北 for north and 京 for capital).

English - Chinese

capital - jing

east -东 Dōng

good - how

mountain - shan

mouth or port - kou

north - 北 Běi

sea - hai

south - 南 Nán

upon - shang/zan

You  - ni

Chinese 

bei - north

dong - east

hai - sea

how - good

jing - capital

kou - mouth or port

Nán - south

ni - you

shan - mountain

Shang/zan - upon

Useful Websites (alphabetically)

chineasy

Here are the signs for roof, moon, king, person, fire, mountain (Shan - a popular first name for girls in China and Singapore), horse (ma), sun, mouth, door. chineasy uses pictures. I bought their book and flashcards. 

person

https://translate.google.com/

wikipedia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_characters

About the Author Of This Post, Angela

Angela Lansbury, travel researcher/writer and photographer, author and speaker. 

Author of Wedding Speeches & Posts, Etiquette for Every Occasion, Quick Quotations, Who Said What When?

You can contact Angela through Facebook, LinkedIn, and Braddell Heights Advanced Toastmasters on Facebook or Toastmasters Interntional.com find a club . Angela is a member of four Toastmasters Clubs and BHA IPP, Immediate Past President, and VP PR (Vice President Public Relations) for 20202-2021

Please share links to your favourite posts in

travelwithangelalansbury.blogspot.com

dressofthedayAngela.blogspot.com

Learn Ten Easy Words and Names In Spanish From Place Names

Spanish is useful in Spain, South America, Mexico and in the USA where many places names in the south are Spanish and many signs in cities are in both Spanish and English to help communicate with Spanish speaking immigrants. I am going to look at the names Los Angeles, San Francisco, Santa Cruz, Cerro Gordo and Buena Vista.


The flag of Spain.
Horizongal stripes of red and yellow, a Spanish sandwich of red and yellow, with a cymbol in the middle containing a crown.


The flag of Mexico.
Green, white and red, vertical stripes, with a symbol in the middle containing an eagle.

Spanish is the most popular language learned on Duolingo. It is also one of the easiest if you speak or know English.

A quick way to start learning Spanish is to pick place names you already know or can easily recognize and list their translations. Here are two examples.

Los Angeles
Los Angeles means the angels. Whilst you will not often need to use the words together except in the place name, los, meaning the (plural) is very handy. You could also use Los Angeles to describe people who have been generous or to thank them.

For example, two kind Spanish speaking people walk back the opposite direction to the way they were going when you asked the way to the train station, the bank, your hotel, the toilets.  You wave goodbye and bow slightly and point to them and address them as "Los Angeles".

San Francisco
San Francisco means Saint Francis. Other cities with names: San Antonio.

Santa Cruz means holy cross. Santa Cruz is a city in California.

Cerro Gordo
I read an online newspaper story about Cerro Gordo which means fat hill. The words taken separately, I checked in Google translate, taking each one separately, typing Cerro first, then Gordo below it, read hill fat.

So now we know two words and a grammar rule. Cerro is hill. Gordo is fat. The adjective comes after the noun in Spanish, the same as the French who say Moulin Rouge for red mill (windmill).  You can remember Moulin Rouge to remind yourself to put adjectives after the noun in French. Remember Cerro Gordo to remind yourself to put the adjective after the noun in Spanish.

I find it easier to remember Gordo is Fat than to remember cerro is hill. So let's start with gordo. I recognize gordo as fat from hearing a talk by a Spanish member of a Toastmasters Club in Harrow, England. At Christmas time she gave a speech in which she told us about how the Spaniards spend Christmas. One feature is the lottery. The one at Christmas time has a big prize and is known as the Gordo, El Gordo, the fat one (or big one). El is the.

So now we can remember that the adjective is second, after the noun, and that the word gordo means big or fat.

If you like to learn by sounds: Cerro is hill. Cerro Gordo rhymes. The last adjective is the same. Cerro Gordo.  (The letter c sounds like s. The cerro, hill, has a summit. We row past the hill.

If you like to learn visually: The initial letters C and G look similar. The letter r is in the middle of both words, the third letter. Cerro Gordo.

If you like to learn by repetition, we shall repeat it three times:
cerro - hill
cerro - hill
cerro - hill

Spanish - English
angeles - angels
cerro - hill
cruz - cross
gordo - fat (big)
lo - the (singular)
los - the (plural)
San - Saint
Santa - holy

English - Spanish
angels - angeles
cross - cruz
fat - gordo
hill - cerro
holy - santa
the - los
Saint - san

Names
Spanish - English
Francisco - Francis

What would you find at the top of a hill? Preseumably Buena Vista, good view in Spanish. Many places are called Buena Vista in countries including the USA.

Not to be confused with the Italian Buona Vista, a railway station (MRT-mass rapid transit) in Singapore. The Spanish word for good has an e, is buEna - yes.

Useful Websites For Travellers
MEXICO
https://www.visitmexico.com/en/
SPAIN
www.spain.info
https://www.spain.info/en/
https://info.info/newsroom/spotlight/spain-tourism-board
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanish_Christmas_Lottery
LEARN SPANISH
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanish_language
To learn Spanish for free on the internet
duolingo.com


About the Author
Angela Lansbury, the author, is not related to the actress of the same name, nor another 13 people with the same name on LinkedIn.
Angela Lansbury, the author, is a speaker and a teacher of English and other languages to schools, colleges, Toastmasters International speakers clubs, and businesses.

Deepavali Celebrated In Singapore at Braddell Heights with lights and Haldiram brand Ladoo sweets

Deepavali banners include this one outside Braddell Heights Community Club.

Upstairs, at the Braddell Heights II Toastmasters Speakers' Club, a meeting was held which started with the President's talk about Diwali.

At the breaktime, three candles were lit in containers shaped like a traditional lamp. 

Sweets

The food included sweet balls made of chickpeas.The box said, 

Haldiram's

Motichoor

Ladoo

'made from saffron infused chickpea flour'.

Haldiram's has businesses in Delhi and Calcutta including restaurants. They produce more than 100 products including drinks, sweets and savouries and post goods worldwide.

I asked an Indian Singaporean where I could by Ladoo. He told me, "Any Indian sweet shop. Go to Little India and you will find loads of sweet shops selling ladoo."

Useful Websites

www.haldirams.com

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haldiram

http://www.haldiram.com/restaurant-locator

SINGAPORE

visitsingapore.com

singaporeair.com

INDIA

www.incredibleindia-tourism.org/India‎

https://www.tripadvisor.com.sg/Restaurant_Review-g304551-d7282437-Reviews-Haldiram_s_Connaught_Place-New_Delhi_National_Capital_Territory_of_Delhi.html

Author, Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker.

Chinese (Mandarin) Words Of The Day - which you see on maps and station signs

Problem
How to remember the sounds and symbols of Chinese?

Answers
Recap
Out or exit is a double trident, three strokes pointing up, like six people rushing out.
Usually followed by a square which sometimes has a tag at the bottom right.

Ni hao - hello, now are you, literally you good?
I remember this as how are your knees.

New Word Memory Aid
wo is I.
Wo like the royal we, said by Queen Victoria. When she said, We are leaving, she meant I am leaving. But when she left, everybody left.

I repeat:
 Chinese - English
wo - I

English - Chinese (Mandarin)
I - wo

I am learning Chinese using the free website Duolingo.

A useful pictorial system is Chineasy.

You can see the trident with the high midpoint for mountain in the second row against the green. This appears in Singapore in the station name Hillview. DT3 on the blue Downtown line.

The first (left) of the three Chinese writing symbols on the panel above the platform doors is the hill or mountain sign. Look at DT3 in the underground map translation page. I used to tear this off. Now I keep it to learn the Chinese symbols.

The last sign is the word for station (which appears at the end of every station although it is not used in the English).

Useful Websites
duolingo.com

Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker.

How To Learn Portuguese From Earworms

Problem
How to learn Portuguese fast - when your time is spent driving.

Answer
Use Earworms, a short, quick audio derivative of the full Berlitz programme, no stress because it's set to soothing music.

I bought volume 2 on Ebay and was worried it might not be useful without volume 1, or that the booklet might be missing, which happened once before. However, this time I had the booklet. Even without the disc, the booklet was very good. I am delighted.

The booklet print is small. But I knew that. (I also have the German and Japanese.)

When I put the disc into a laptop, the laptop asks if I want to copy the disc. I do. Saves me carrying ten discs around for all my languages.

I'll tell you more about the words and how I remember then in a later post tomorrow.

I am also learning vocabulary from Duolingo tinycards, but earworms is giving me whole phrases so I can recognize them when I hear them.

Let's learn a few words:
Portuguese - English (Ten words)
adeus - goodbye (( like the Spanish adios - but add u for PortUgUese!)
amigos - friends
aqui - here
bom / bem - good / ok
centro - centre
espero - I hope
horas - time (hours)
onde - where
semana - week
vivo - I live

English - Portuguese (Ten words - Dez palavras, according to Google translate.)
centre - centro
cheers - saúde (to get the accent, hold down the letter u on your laptop and tap the number 4)
friends - amigos
good - bom
here - aqui
I hope - espero
I live - vivo (like the English word vivacious, meaning lively)
time (hours) - horas
week - semana

you - você (for e with the hat, hold down the letter e and tap the number three and you'll get ê)


Useful websites
https://itunes.apple.com/us/author/earworms-learning/id116220206

visitportugal.com

visitbrasil.com

http://www.visitmadeira.pt/en-gb/homepage

duolingo.com

Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker.

How to remember 23 Portuguese words - or any foreign language

Problem
I am learning Portuguese. I need a working vocabulary of about 300 words, which I can do in a month if I learn ten a day. I need to practise every day or I will forget the words.

Answer
The simple solution is to keep the word list on a page in my diary. I write the foreign word first, then the English translation.

Alphabet Letters
I list the letters of the alphabet down the left hand side. How many lines do I have? I have 26, enough for one line per letter of the alphabet. (In theory if I know there are few words, an few I need to know, starting with x, y, z, or any letter that language does not use, I could drop that letter or put two on one line, leaving space for a uch use letter, such as c in French or S in English.

I started with the letters of the alphabet at the beginning of the line, but I was short of space. So I wrote over the letters, making the initial letter in the margin. When I started the next page, for German, I had the system more condensed.

Margin
Now the initial letters are in the margin. I write as close as I can get to the edge of the page.

Saving Space
I started by repeating the letters, leaving the inital letter seaparte. However, now I use it to start the first word.  So instead of
A agua - water
b boa / bom - good
c carta - letter

I write
agua - water
boa / bom - good
carta - letter

Save Space With Dots
The hyphens between the Portuguese and the English were taking up too much space. I changed the line for a dot.

agua.water
boa.good
carta.letter

In this blog post I am not so short of space. I also want to make the words easier to read. Therefore here I am sticking to the hyphens.

If the word is the same in English I write the letter s in brackets.
pizza (s) 

Why Not Capitalise Initial Letters?
I could write
Agua
Boa
Carta

However, I have been trained as a sub-editor to use small letters to start words in dictionaries. That way the reader knows when a word always starts with a capital letter.

Folding
The page is narrow and I need all the space I can get. I fold the page in half vertically and then in half again. So I now have four columns.

Four across by 25 down makes space for 100 words on a page.

Here are my first 23 Portuguese words with my memory aids:
(Only 20 are listed in this blog post under labels because the limit is 20 labels)

agua - water (like aquaduct)
abacaxi - pineapple (P and B sound and look almost the same. AP - pineAPple - apple pine, pine apple, cut it down with an axe - ee! I might not remember translating from English to Portuguese, but I am well on the way to remembering it when I see it written on a menu in Portugal or Madeira)
boa / bom - good (As in Bombay. Good bay. How do I remember it's good and not beautiful. If it's beautiful it's good.)
carta - letter, a carta or uma carta is a letter. (How do I remember 'a carta', feminine? I visualise a lady writing a letter.)
com - with / to / by
de - of
é - is
ele - he / him / it
eles - they
eu - I
falamos - we speak
gosto - (I) like
jornal - newspaper (o / um jornal) (like the French journal but drop the u, just as the Americans drop the u from British English c o l o u r and make it c o l o r.)
lê - you read
leio - I read (I remember: Add i for I, + O for I as in Latin Amo amas amat meaning I read, you etc)
livro - book
menino - boy (I remember men, but little ones, o as in boy for masculine)
mulheres - women
nós - us / we
um - a / one / some
você - you (I remember vous with v in French. V looks like Y.) 

Other useful posts:
http://travelwithangelalansbury.blogspot.co.uk/2018/01/port-and-portuguese-wine-labels-and.
http://travelwithangelalansbury.blogspot.co.uk/2018/01/how-to-ask-for-food-and-drink-in.
http://travelwithangelalansbury.blogspot.co.uk/2018/01/learn-your-first-ten-words-in.
http://travelwithangelalansbury.blogspot.co.uk/2018/01/how-do-you-say-please-in-portuguese-is.

visitportugal.com

visitbrasil.com

http://www.visitmadeira.pt/en-gb/homepage

duolingo.com

earwormslearning.com

http://travelwithangelalansbury.blogspot.co.uk/2018/02/polyglot-poem-by-angela-lansbury.html

Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker, learner and speaker of many languages (a polyglot). Please bookmark and share links to your favourite posts. I have several more on Portuguese, Spanish, German, Chinese, Hebrew and other languages and countries.

Starting to learn Chinese Greetings - words, translations, pictures, memory aids, reminders

Problem
What's the quickest, easiest way to learn Chinese, which costs little in case I drop it, but will keep me going?

Answer
Duolingo. Why? At the moment the beginners' courses are all free. It is on both a laptop and a mobile phone, although the phone version seems restricted, in terms of the languages available and functions available. The system sends you daily reminders. I might ignore them if I am busy for a day, or a week, but eventually, I will go back and there are many stretches of a week or more when I work solidly and consistently.

Even if after a lapse I have to start at the beginning again, the second time around goes quicker and more easily.

Chinese starters
If you take a tour in China your guide will often teach you one or two phrases, most commonly the greeting equivalent to hello, which is ni haou. (Pronounced 'knee how?' I think of it as greeting granny and asking her, 'how are your knees?')

I went to a bilingual Chinese-English Toastmasters international meeting where the Chinese speaking Toastmasters of the evening kept asking Ni haou and getting the reply haou. In the interval, I asked what that meant.

The answers were, 'You good?'
'Good!'

So far, so good!

Then the system asks you to pair up the Chinese characters with the spoken words.

Recognizing the written Chinese proved harder. You have to find your own memory aid and create an image or picture using one of more of the strokes.

Ni haou is a longer word in Chinese spoken and more characters.

Ni haou sign starts with what looks like a diagonal tray balanced on a stick lower leg or knee, a big like the letter t with a broad horizontal, diagonal.

I used to be a home tutor. Half the job is leading the pupil through the steps. Half the job is simply being a homework babysitter. The duolingo website does that for you. It breaks the lesson down into small steps. It reminds you daily (like a Herbalife coach or Slimming world weekly lesson).

So now we know three words:

Chinese - English
'how' (haou) - good
'knee' (ni) - you
knee how? - how are you?
'how!' - good (equivalent to 'Good', 'Great!' or 'Very well, thank you')

English - Chinese
you - ni (knee)
good? - how? (haou)
knee how / how are you - ni haou?
good (very well, thank you) - how (haou)

Useful Website
duolingo.com

Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, teacher of English and other languages.

Jewish Holidays : New Year and more This Month

Shofah or ram's horn blown on Jewish New Year. Picture from Wikipedia.

Problem
When are the Jewish holidays and how will this affect me?

Answers
I just received an animated Jewish New Year e-card via the Jacqueline Lawson website. It was a design showing honey and bees and apples with a moving bee and bee hives.

I now have to reciprocate by wishing the senders a Happy New Year. I need to work out which of my long list of family, friends, and colleagues, might be pleased to receive an e-card. I received a Muslim card last month and decided I should reciprocate.

So now, the first question is, when is the holiday coming up?

A card I was sent. The apple, circular, with seeds, represents the circle of life and the new births. The six point stars are a Jewish symbol. Some say the six point star is the Star of David or the Shield of Solomon. Others think the points symbolize evil being caught inside the spokes or pointed tips which are like corners. Tov means good, as in Mazel tov, good luck. Shanah Tovah, (a) good year!

Jewish New Year starts the evening of Wednesday September. The important day when people will be off work and attending synagogues is Thursday. Because of the time difference in different parts of the world, holidays are celebrated a second day in the diaspora (scattering of people outside Israel) to be sure that when the holiday is being celebrated for one day in Israel, everybody in the rest of the world is also celebrating that day whatever their time zone. For Orthodox Jews and others who celebrate two days, the time ends Friday 22nd September.

Israeli New Year greeting card. From Wikipedia.

So you will find that attempts to see a doctor or dentist, or hire a taxi, might be less easy if all or some of the staff are taking days off for religious holidays.

When I lived in the USA, the system was that everybody in the company got about ten or fifteen days off a year, and you chose to have them off on your religious holidays, and the company hoped to spread the days off so that the business always had staff in the office.

About a week after Jewish New Year feast comes the Yom Kippur Fast. Any events which cannot take place on September 29-30, will have to be brought forward to Sept 23 weekend, or moved into October.

Yom Kippur Sept 29-30 2017.

If you are arranging any group events, sports or contests, meals out, trips away, you may have to check if any of your group are affected. Any food you were expecting to get from a Jewish restaurant, or bagel bakery or deli - oops, they are closed.

The new year is celebrated with the noisy blowing of the shofah, a rams horn, used as a trumpet since biblical times.
Foods enjoyed to celebrate the sweetness of the new year are apples dipped in honey and a round chollah (bread).

Hebrew - English
ha - the
rosh - head
shanah - year
tov / tova - good
yom - day

English - Hebrew
day - yom
good - tov
head - rosh
the - ha
year - shanah

You can learn Hebrew for free on the website www.duolingo on a computer, or laptop or phone.

Tips
https://www.timeanddate.com/holidays/us/rosh-hashana

Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker. See my other posts, on Israel, Judaism, learning Hebrew and learning languages. Please share links to your favourite posts.

Two Tips on Pronouncing Romanian before your trip

Problem
You can recognize Romanian words on the page, but can't say them. Words such as not, which is nu, or good which is bun, like the French bon, look easy. But when Romanians speak, you can't catch what they are saying.

Answers
I
One reason is that lots of words end with the little I with pointed  hat,

which is the same as an a with the hat

Which is a silent vowel like the e ending the English word vase.

SH!
Sh - don't tell anybody. The letter s with the comma underneath is like the two letters in English, SH. Just think of the comma as the extra letter h which is not pronounced h but chances the s into SH!

I find the easiest way is to learn using Duolingo, the free language learning website. I play the sound of the word by tapping on the sound symbol. If I have time, I play it twice or three times and practise saying it. That's how Romanian children learn to speak their language, by hearing it and repeating it.

Tips
TOURISM & TRAVEL & FLIGHTS
http://romaniatourism.com
https://www.blueairweb.com/company/about-us (Romanian airline, page includes flight query box)
https://www.budgetair.co.uk/flights/europe (They go to Bulgaria, Romania, Latvia, Lithuania and many more
https://www.cheapflights.co.uk/find-flights/to-
http://www.lastminute.com/flights/
www.ryanair.com

When I log in from the UK I get companies based in the UK. When I log in from another country, such as Singapore, I get a host from that country. Similarly, you will find a host website in your country.

Sometimes it is cheaper to book flights from another country. This is easy, especially if you have a home of business in another country.  Or you might ask your host company to book the flights for you if they get better bargains and deals, rather than booking for yourself and then claiming back the money from them.

LANGUAGES
https://www.duolingo.com/

Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author, speaker and language teacher. I teach English, and other languages with a Latin or Cyrillic alphabet. Please share links to posts. 

Romanian Revision - Sorry - and Learn ten Romanian Words

Problem
How to keep up momentum learning Romanian? I nearly started my day with Vietnamese and Korean because I wanted a new challenge.

Answer
Make a list of plans for the day, priorities, and place them beside your computer.

Romanian Revision / Additional words
bun / b u n a - good (like the French words bon but with a U)
bun venit - welcome
la - to
la r e v e d e r e - goodbye (Notice the five letters r e v e d no second r, unlike the English word reverse which I accidentally typed into Google translate. Goodbye has shortened over the years from the original greeting of God Be With You.)
multumesc - thank you (Think of it as multiple thanks. Notice the repeated U.))
n o a p t e - night (Both words start with the letter N and the last consonant is the letter t. Even if you can't remember the Romanian version, you should be able to recognise it if you hear it, and if it is said to you either repeat it or nod and smile.)
noapte bună - good night
r e v e n i - return (verb)
S c u z e - sorry (Notice The Romanian ends with ze, not si like other languages such as Italian.)
venit - income, rent (noun)

English - Romanian
good - bun / b u n a
goodbye - la r e v e d e r e
good night - n o a p t e b u n a
welcome - bun venit (The English is short for well come.)
la - to
Night - n o a p t e - night (Both words start with N. To remember the spelling, I think NOAh, Poor chap, had a good nighT-Er!)
return - r e v e n i (Sounds like the film the Revenant, meaning a ghost or person who returns.
sorry - S c u z e
thank you - m u l t u m e s c (Think thank yoU - m U l t U.)
venit - income, rent (noun)

For revision, re-read my previous posts.

Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker, language teacher. Please share posts.

Confusing Foreign Words in German, Italian and Malay

Problem
You see word in a foreign word which looks like English but the two words are not related.

Answer
You have to learn the correct word through repetition or make aug a memory aid.

Story

Tips
German - English
Das Kapitel - the chapter (not the capital - remember the chapter is capital)

English - German
the capital - die Hauptstadt

Italian
Ricordare is not record but remember. More like recall. You could make up a memory aid sentence such as 'hard to record in your brain and remember'.

On the other hand it is easy to remember that difficile is Italian for difficult.

Malay
ayer - pronounced air means water
remember the place name Telok Ayer means water

I was about to say that water is a more common name than air (I was thinking of the English place name Virginia Water) when I thought of Buenos Aires which means good air in Spanish

duolingo.com

Author
Angela Lansbury, teacher of English and languages. See my books on Amazon.com and Lulu.com

Learning Chinese Online - how to say good in Chinese

I've been hoping to find a free course on line for learning Chinese and at last I've found it.

This one gives the tones as well as the five classic pronunciations of the word ma which means different things according to how you say it. (Any Chinese person or teacher of Chinese will tell you there's a sentence consisting entirely of the word ma said in different tones.)

I always thought either the British, BBC, or the Chinese, or the Americans must eventually make a learn Chinese course for English speakers. I used to look online and on TV and not find one.

Maybe they didn't when I first looked. Today is a happy day.
 I learned at a bilingual (English and mandarin) toastmasters club in Bukit Panjang, Singapore, that a group of people asked Ni how ma (equivalent of how are you; literally you/ good/ (question word). the answer is the middle word, how, meaning good.

What is my dream? To start a multi-lingual toastmasters club in both London and Singapore. Or a multilingual speakers club. A multilingual toastmasters club would be easier.

I thought I would go straight to the children's lessons as I am a beginner and wanted the explanations kept simple.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/primarylanguages/mandarin/sounds/

Another guide to pronunciation, even shorter, is here.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/languages/chinese/real_chinese/start/

Angela Lansbury, B A Hons, ACG, CL,.