He Learned 28 Languages—Then They Scanned His Brain

An American who speaks 28 languages. What did I learn from this video?

1 Anybody with an ordinary job can learn another language or several.

2 If your parents speak different languages, that's a great start. It gears you up to the idea that speaking a language is a way to communicate with people, a practical purpose, not words on a page, but conversation.

 3 He meets all sorts of people, of whom a great many speak other languages. Whether at school, or work, or travelling. He immediately sets out to learn a greeting and a few words of conversation to make them feel welcome and happy.

4 He takes every opportunity to practise the language. 

I remember doing this in Singapore when I was trying to learn Chinese, and the Mandarin for numbers one to ten. I could not keep asking any one person to repeat the numbers endlessly. However, I could ask the taxi driver, every time I got in a taxi, to tell me the numbers one to ten. 

Everybody was delighted to do so. It put them in the position of expert, teacher, helper. It showed I was interested in their culture. It created goodwill.

He takes every opportunity to learn new vocabulary. I do this. Every time I look at food, I read all the instructions for storage and cooking and ingredients in the languages I can read, French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, German. The English is already there, with the translations.

The same applies to multilingual directions on appliances. A new microwave or cooker. Those annoying thick booklets are no longer annoying. They are free translation books. I spent a lot of money on multilingual dictionaries in small print, and children's bilingual and multilingual books. I have free multilingual translations all around me. 

When I travel in another country, many products have multilingual instructions.Tourist leaflets are often in two or three languages. 

They might contain errors, mistranslations. But I am nearer communicating than when not knowing anything. I have learned ten words, one wrong, but nine right. With a little research, or practice, I can correct the one which is wrong.

His attitude is positive.  No language is too difficult for him. No language is useless. If he meets somebody who speaks another language, that is reason enough for him to start learning it. He has a teacher and a new friend. 

I have several blog posts on easy and confusing words in foreign languages, Spanish, Italian, Hebrew, Greek, Latin and more. Dip into a few posts on languages you want to learn, and those which you find challenging.

Please share with friends, family and colleagues the links to your favourite posts about languages.

Update on Dax Festival With Bull Fighting, Food, Free Concerts

Map from
http://freecountrymaps.com/map/towns/france/26691402/

Problems
1 What happens at the Dax festival?
2 What about the bull fight? Would I enjoy Dax, Bayonne and Biarritz even if I don't want to attend a bull fight?

Answers
1 MUSIC, SINGING AND DANCE
Yes, it's like a whole town costume party with everybody dressed in red and white. Bands come from all over Europe. There's singing, dancing and parades in the street. Finishing with fireworks.

2 BULL FIGHTING
It's worthwhile reading a researching about bull fighting. I now know the difference between a picador and a matador and a toreador. If I am indifferent to bull fights, or against bull fighting, or fearful and don't like blood, it's good to know about them without the travel, financial cost and guilt of actually attending.

I haven't attended a bull fight recently (not since I was taken as a teenager on a trip to Spain years ago). But I have just watched several videos and close up photos.

Research
I have spent several hours talking to and interviewing my nearest and dearest about Dax and bull fighting and music. I checked up on the internet on the technicalities. By the time I plan my next trip I shall have forgotten. So I need this post for my own records. What is useful to me, could also be useful to you.

Whilst watching the videos I tried to identify the music played during the opening ceremony for the bullfight from an ap on my phone. No luck. Next research will be the national anthems, popular songs, songs played at bull fights*, checking the music credits, if any, on the souvenir programme, plus national flags flown above the bull ring.

Memory Corner
My late parents had a flat in Marbella in Spain.  We once drove across France literally with a kitchen sink from Wickes for them. We also drove to Portugal, staying at French chateaux hotel, Spanish Paradores, and Portuguese Pousadas.

How To Get To Biarritz, Bayonne and Dax
On previous trips we have driven many times through France to Spain.

Driving through France, we stopped to see Biarritz. We clearly remember a stay a night at the Palace hotel. (When we were all in full time employment. Those were the days!)

On this trip the route was budget Ryan Air to Biarritz, then picked up by car from a British friend who lives in the area.

The Dax festival season is also British and French school holidays, so the Hotels in Dax are booked up and high prices, like 200 Euros for a bedroom. You can stay in a gîte or guest house out in the countryside if you have a car.

Fly on a cheap airline to Biarritz, a chic little place with a casino and grand Palace hotel.

Alternatively, as part of a grand tour starting at Paris, take the train to Dax and Bayonne.

What's in Bayonne? It is a city with a grand cathedral and with hotels, about an hour away. You will find it useful to have a car.

Getting Around Dax
Within Dax you have a shuttle bus known in French as a navette (think of the English word navigate). It may be about a Euro. Where do you get the ticket - on the bus or before? "I don't know. I walked!" The walk from the car park to the Arena with the bull fight takes about ten minutes.

Tips
To identify music from a holiday video:
Ap: Sound Hound

*See later post on the festival music.

Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker. I have more posts on the sights and sounds in Dax. Please share links to your favourite posts.

How Long Does It Take To Write A Blog Post?

I have spent three hours editing photos and writing two travel blog posts. What takes so long?

Photo editing
Loading or rather downloading the photos from mobile phone to laptop. Deleting out of focus photos. Removing accidental photos of my feet, ceilings, and total blanks.

Putting a black heart to mark favourite on the best of three photos.

Adding names of people. Checking correct titles (such as worshipful mayor, mayor or mayoress).

Adding and correctly spelling names of places. Adding addresses and checking the numbers of the address and phone are correct.

Cutting parts of photos showing too much empty road in street scenes. Cutting blurred moving hands waving across corners of crowd scenes. Adding light so you can read names on bottles and shop fronts. Adding light so you can see people's faces in dark rooms.

Editing Layout of Photos
Inserting a photo at the right section of the text. Going to view to check it looks ok. Finding long areas of text and moving a photo or adding a photo to break up the long text.

Editing Page Layout of Text
Inserting side heading to break up the text.

Where I now have two identical sub-headings, cutting and pasting to move the paragraphs together and deleting the second sub-heading.

Labels
Adding labels. When I have too many and the post won't load and tells me I have more than twenty words, counting and deleting a couple of words.

Addresses and Websites
Adding an address and website so the reader can find more facts. Adding websites I have used in case I want to go back to them later and add more facts or pictures.

Checking the restaurant website address if valid. Finding out what it covers such as a menu, to tell the reader and add more facts to my blog post.

Adding a photo from Wikipedia. Checking whether I need to add the attribution of the photographer's name.

Signature
Adding my signature at the end. Remembering a call to action. Directing readers to other posts or blogs or websites.

Saving
Checking number of readers today, compared with yesterday. If numbers of readers are dipping, checking the nationalities of readers and which posts are favourites. If I have extra facts and photos, writing a second post.

Sharing
Sharing the post.

Break
At the tend of every hour setting a buzzer for an hour. Standing up, folding my arms behind my back to straighten my shoulders and prevent myself developing a hunchback. Focusing my eyes on a distance.

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

Small Xmas Gifts When Travelling: Magnetic Poetry Supporting Leukaemia & Lymphoma Research

The Leukaemia Lymphoma Research Organisation has an online shop selling gifts and Christmas cards.

Magnetic Poetry
My favourite gift was the magnetic poetry set of magnetic words to leave poetic messages and make up poems. 300 phrases. Endless fun and creativity.

A small item to pack and take away. Use it on the plane. Have fun at your destination. Small gift which most children and adults won't already have.

Especially good for poets.

Christmas Cards

One of their Christmas cards sent to my neighbour attracted my attention because unlike the other square and oblong cards this one had a cut out top. Very attractive as well as being different

Looking at my cards, if I wanted to be creative, I could take a pair of scissors to many designs. Most people don't have the time or inclination to create cards or re-use old ones as parts for new ones.

https://leukaemialymphomaresearch.org.uk/shop/item/magnetic-poetry-original