Learning German From A Berlin Guidebook Or Magazine

Flags including German flag.

I was going through old magazines and books trying to throw out anything outdated when I came across an old guide to Berlin. It was in two languages, German and English. How useful!

When I first obtained bilingual magazines I used to find them a nuisance. You get Chinese and English bilingual magazines on Singapore Airlines but it's in Chinese script so that is impossible for me to read, except the numbers one to three which are like Roman numerals turned sideways, horizontal lines.

On Ryan air to and from Italy recently I read multi language magazines and notices, safety instructions and advertisements on the plane which were in at least two languages. What a great chance to practise your languages.

You don't necessarily get a word by word direct translations. (When you do get word for word translations the result can be puzzling or amusing. Sometimes you need to read the language they have translated from in order to understand the English!)

Tourist board publication are often bilingual and sometimes there are three or four languages. Now that I am learning both German and Italian the good translations are an aid to language learning and the bad ones are an entertainment.

(Stopped for coffee. More shortly on German translations such as the word for glance.)

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