New Speechcraft Course - Crash Course in Public Speaking

Hello. I am Angela, President of the club, in the red, waving at you. In the foreground is Faith, pretty in pink. The two others are members of the club. More about them later. Fist let's look at Toastmasters Worldwide.

Singapore - clubs now

USA - clubs now

UK - clubs now
What and Where is Toastmasters International?
You can go to Toastmasters International clubs all over the world or join an online club but if you are in Singapore you can join my club - more about this in a moment.

What is it? The History of Toastmasters International
Toastmasters International started in the USA to help people learn public speaking and gain confidence. The not for profit organization spread to the English speaking UK and then Europe - and finally travelled to Asia, like me. You can find clubs worldwide and once you are a member of one club and have a little experience you are welcome at other clubs worldwide.

Angela Lansbury's Expertise
I know a lot about Toastmasters and giving speeches because I lived in the USA and attended the world championship finals in the USA. Singaporean Darren Tay was the worldwide winner in a previous year.

I am still a member of Harrovians in London; and I am a member of three clubs in Singapore. My Singapore clubs are two advanced clubs and one weekly online club which has members and guest speakers from the USA, UK, Europe, and Asia, notably Hong Kong and Singapore.

If you are interested in public speaking for work or confidence, come and join my club. I am President of Braddell Heights Toastmasters in Singapore and we are running an enlightening and entertaining Speechcraft programme starting December 4th 2019. That's a Wednesday evening, at Braddell Heights Community Club, right near the Serangoon MRT underground railway station, exit F, just a few steps to your right and you are in the right place.

What does it cost?
Let's look at your choices. Braddell Heights is a bargain. You could join the biggest public club in Singapore, at the Sheraton Hotel, the first three Mondays in the month, which normally costs about 500 Singapore dollars for the year, plus small extra sums like another $10 for their Christmas party with turkey. One of the universities has a larger club for students of their college only, at a lower price. At the biggest clubs you might have to wait a month or two before you get to give a speech, and you might not have a chance to introduce yourself for half to one minute nor give a two minute speech on table topics. A smaller club such as Braddell Heights gives you more opportunities to practise speeches.

If money is not object, join the big club as well as mine. Other clubs meet only once a month, so if you miss one month because of work or holidays that's two months without any learning or networking or socialising.

I am a member of two advanced clubs. The first club I joined was Braddell Heights Advanced. I joined for three reasons.

1 I lived centrally, then near Little India, and Braddell Heights was central and next to an MRT station and easy to find. Secondly it was a bargain.

Bargain For You
2 All Toastmasters clubs are a bargain, compared with many weekend courses which give you six hours of teaching and no follow-up.
But Braddell Heights is one of the lowest prices.

The price was lower than the biggest club, only $180 dollars. (Singapore dollars.) I had already paid the additional first year joining fee of $40 dollars which gets you registered onto the Toastmasters International website and gives you the monthly magazine.

3 Braddell Heights met twice a month, unlike the other Advanced clubs which met once a month.

4 I had a warm welcome from veteran Kan Kin Fung, who mentors everybody in the club and happily sits with you at break time or after meetings telling you how to enroll, give a speech or do any other role.

As President of Braddell Heights Advanced I am in charge of organizing the programmes, helped by our VPE, Vice President of Education. She is a lively lady. You must see her. She won first place in all four of our recent club contests. The other speakers were also excellent.

Angela Lansbury, President, in the red Toastmasters tee-shirt, back right. Faith, winner of two contests is front right in pink. Behind Faith, standing, in black, is Arinjay who was first runner up in the contest.  Front left is Sylvia Ang wearing blue. She was the second runner-up in both contests.

What Will Speechcraft Teach You?
Speechcraft at Braddell Heights Advanced is a crash course aimed to ensure newcomers have all the basics and acts as a quick revision for those who joined later in the year and want to keep practising their skills. It covers these:

Dec 4
1 Prepare to speak professionally. Introduce Yourself - The Icebreaker Speech - by Angela Lansbury. Angela - that's me, a bouncy, blonde with a British accent. My Toastmasters titles are:

I go to about six or seven speakers' meetings a week, sometimes two a day, an in-house Toastmasters' group at lunch time and an evening group at a Community Club. I have judged at many speaking contests and have several trophies and dozens of ribbons for best prepared speech, best table topics (impromptu speeches) and best evaluator. I also do language evaluations.

2 Impromptu Speaking - by Lim Tong Lee, DTM, which means Distinguished Toastmaster. He has been the Chief Judge at contests.

He is tall dark and handsome. Warm and welcoming. Toastmasters of the evening (Master of Ceremonies) as well as leader of one of the speech training sessions.

3 Pathways - by Kan Kin Fung, another Distinguished Toastmasters, handsome, smiling broadly like a Cheshire cat, a bald Cheshire cat, as he is fond of remarking.

Guess who this is.

Choose your path in Toastmasters International Pathways - and your path for the next year and in life.

Potluck Fun Food
The club provides a small amount of savoury food. We rely on food contributions to augment this with fruit or cakes or seasonal goodies.

Dec 21 Same venue, Braddell Heights Community Club but Saturday afternoon, 1.45-5 pm.
Storytelling and Xmas party.
Storytelling - by Thomas Chen CC and CL. He is President of Kampong Kembangan club and a member of NTU and Pasirisians clubs. He frequently wins ribbons for Best Evaluator of speeches.
Facts tell, stories sell.
Thomas Chen will entertain you with his anecdotes, alliteration and acronyms.

Potluck food. The club provides a small amount of savoury food. We rely on contributions to augment this with fun foods, fruit or cakes, shop bought or home made or seasonal goodies.

Make sure you get on our WhatsApp group because our January 1st 2020 meeting is on a different date at a place.

Our January meetings are held jointly with two other clubs, Cheng San and Tiarel.

We have also lined up an English teacher, Celine Goh, President of another club, to give us a workshop on the English Language.

Later meetings include combined meetings with Cheng San toastmasters and Tiarel.
https://www.meetup.com/Braddell-Heights-Advanced-Singapore-Public-Speaking-Meetup/events/

About The Author
Angela Lansbury, not related to any other people of the same name (13 on LinkedIn!) is the author of 20 books including Wedding Speeches and Toasts by Ward Lock/Cassell and is currently writing a book on Improve Your English.

Please bookmark and share links to your favourite posts.

Gold, silver, gold-plated and silver-plated in Chinese

How To Read The Sign In A Shop

English - Gold

Chinese sign for gold
金

It looks like a little roof over a house.

English Silver
Chinese sign for silver, has two signs pushed to fit the square of Chinese writing which makes it neat on the page. The left-hand sign you can see is gold, narrowed, so it is not gold but something else, silver.
銀
How can you recognize and remember this sign, which looks like gold but is silver?
I look at the gold sign with the roof over the house or treasury, then the sign, above right, like those wrought iron signs over the doors in the old shops in alleys of the old city, with the warning x underneath telling you it is not gold. Gold? Er, no, sign says silver.

Watch out for
Gold-plated
Looks more like the adjective comes first, plated gold. Gold with a cross, not solid gold, but it is gold, only plated.
鍍金

Silver-plated
鍍銀
Now you see the signs together. Gold but not gold on the right is silver. But the adjective is in front in Chinese. Gold but not gold the sign is plated. Plated silver meaning silver-plated. 

How to say it
Gold - Jīn
How to remember it? After drinking gin, I was keep to by the gold.

However, I could not afford the gold and yearned for something small in silver. Not gin but yin.
yín - silver

dùjīn - gold-plated

dù yín - silver-plated

How do remember the word for gold-plated. Do you mind gold-plated goods? dùjīn - gold-plated

More information from
Google translate

Learn Chinese with
Chineasy
Cards and a book.
Useful reviews on Goodreads. One recommended:
'Heisig, Matthews, Jing-Hua Yin and use Skritter'.

Duolingo
Memrise



Useful Websites
singaporeair.com



Singapore flag.

Travel to China, Singapore, and other countries using the same or similar signs, Hong Kong,  Singapore, Taiwan.

Travel Information Websites
Singapore Airlines
singaporeair.com

Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer. Teacher of English and other languages. I have many more posts on learning languages. Please share links to your favourite posts.

Oh, no - it's broken. What shall I do? Copy Japanese Repairs with Glittering Gold and Staples

Tunisian Trick Jugs
My first experience with packing fragile items was on a trip to Tunisia. They make wonderful trick jugs which have a lattice top half and in some cases the water flows up to the spout through a channel in the handle, around the rim at the top to the spout. How to refuse to buy one? Impossible.

I refused to buy one until the last day. I bought one. The seller offered me two more at reduced prices. I bought one.

Packing
How to pack it? Difficult. In theory a hard-sided case offers more protection.

I tried wrapping in socks and a tee shirt in the middle of the case. The smaller one inside a show survived. Another one cracked.

You can see the puzzle jugs at museums in the UK. They were once popular in pubs (taverns).

But when I went from the UK to Tunisia puzzle jugs were a novelty to me. The ones in the UK had circular holes. The ones in Tunisia were X shaped lattice, unglazed and more fragile.

Puzzle jug from the Museum of Somerset, England, UK. Picture from Wikipedia.

If you want to buy one, ebay has many at low prices, with and without lids. More on Etsy. Amazon just showed me puzzles.

If you have something broken and love it too much to part with it, you can turn the broken part or crack towards the wall.

Plant Pot
I have done this successfully with a broken blue plant pot. I have used broken crockery for plant pots and saucers in the back garden in the UK.

In Singapore saucers under plant pots are banned in cemeteries because the saucers can fill with rainwater and breed mosquitos.

Indoors, you have less problem with water.

Indoors Efforts
Again I did it the hide and seek the crack trick with a broken lamp base.

We have done invisible repairs on many items. A Balinese wood hanging.

But the Japanese have developed repairs into a fine art.

More than a thousand years ago a VIP ruler sent an item for repair. It was repaired with crude staples.

Later, another era, another ruler, another court, they stuck together broken pottery


Ceramic from Korea in the Ethnological Museum of Berlin, Germany.
Photo from author Daderot in Wikipedia article on Kintsugi.

But because it was for the court, only the best would do. They added gold.

Variations on this include silver and other less expensive metals.


Repaired porcelain from the Tokyo National Museum, Japan.
wikipedia/commons/6/6f/Dish_with_hollyhock_design%2C_Nabeshima_ware%2C_Edo_period%2C_18th_century%2C_overglaze_enamel_-_Tokyo_National_Museum_-

This chip in the top is so well cone that I kept looking at the pattern on the plate and could not see the gold filling at the top until I read the caption.

The repair was made in the 1700s. If you have a beautiful item, it is worth saving.

So you need not discard a broken item. Repair it. Make the repair a feature.

Useful Websites
Information on Repairs
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kintsugi

Information on Puzzle Jugs
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Puzzle_jug

Buying Puzzle Jugs From the UK
https://www.ebay.co.uk/b/puzzle-jug

Where to see what's described:

Germany
Ethnological Museum of Berlin
Korean ceramic. Repaired dish.

Japan
Tokyo National Museum
Repaired porcelain dish from Edo era.

UK
Puzzle Jugs.
Somerset Museum, England.
Liverpool Museum, England
Puzzle Jug.

About the author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker. Please share links to your favourite posts.

Create A Christmas Card? Or gift card? Applying a paper napkin to a card with cling wrap

When Do You Need A Card?
One year I was invited to a wedding overseas and needed a card to attach to a gift. A similar thing happened at Christmas. I needed a card to attach to a gift. No time to buy one.

My family told me, 'Then make time!'

Trying To Buy Cards Overseas
So I rushed out to the nearest shopping mall. No card shop in sight. So I thought, try a supermarket.

Yes - cards on a revolving rack, dearer ones and cheaper ones. Unfortunately all the reasonably priced cards were in Chinese. I went to the other rack.I was reluctant to do so. Sometimes the price of a card is dearer than the gift. Adding a card, if you have to buy a set of three, and wrapping paper, if they are selling packs of four rolls, can double or triple the price of the gift.The expensive cards were also in Chinese.

Translating Cards
I tried asking a customer to translate. The customers were busy shopping. The customers who spoke Chinese well enough to read the Chinese cards did not have good enough English to convey the message in translation.

Staff were too busy serving to help translate. I hung around wondering what to do. Finally, at closing time, I took three cards to the till and ended up asking a member of staff  to translate. Again a problem in exact translation. I said, 'I do not need an exact translation, just a general idea.'

Good thing I did! The dearer cards I considered buying said Happy birthday and Happy anniversary. The bargain cards were leftover sales of out of season cards saying Good luck for Chinese New Year, which was months ago and months ahead.

I have saved napkins from various events. How good to be able to make a card from a leftover napkin. After an event you often have a leftover napkin of no use for other events.

Saving Napkins As Souvenirs
If you attend a seasonal event at home or on an overseas trip, and see napkins leftover, you could ask if you might have one as a souvenir. Write down a translation of any words.

Flattening Creases
Keep the napkin flat inside a folder.

As for creases, it was very useful to learn from the craft video that you can flatten creased napkins with a low temperature iron.

Packing Spare Cards
Whether you have spare napkins, DIY cards, or spare cards, pack two or three cards in your case on your next trip. If you are unexpectedly invited to a birthday or wedding or seasonal event, you have a card ready. If your host is going to an event without you and wails, I don't have a card, you can be the saviour rushing in to rescue the situation.

Spare Xmas Cards
For example, if you are going overseas at Xmas, pack some Xmas cards. No risk of giving the same card two years running to your neighbour. The leftover ones from home will strike new to people overseas. Save you precious time on your trip.

In some places it would be acceptable to give a card with money inside. To be sure that the envelope is not thrown away, you could ask the recipient to open it on the day, or mark it contains card and small gift.

Framing Cards
You could also fame a pretty card. In the tropics items you frame often become mouldy. you might also need backing which won't damage the card.  I wonder whether laminating would save them.

Protecting and Framing Photos
Could you also do this with family photos from holidays, business dinners and reunions. You might not want to risk damaging a photo if it's your only copy. But you might print one off from a computer.

Preserving Holiday Photos?
I also have duplicate holiday and event photos from years ago when you could buy two copies for the price of one and a half.

About the Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker. Please share links to your favourite posts.

How to remember the symbols for Chinese numbers one to ten

I am learnin Chinese. It is slow progress. Yesterday I spoke to my friend Shan-Shan (which means mountains - you double for plurals in Chinese and Malay). I asked her to translate a saying which sombody muttered to her in Chinese. She asked, "Are you learning Chinese?

I replied - I told her, "Yes. I'm learning Chinese. I should be fluent to the year 3000!"

However, I get a great sense of achievement from learning a new word, or finding that a word which seemed hard and impossible to remember a year ago has at last become clear and memorable. i remember my delight on seeing the numbers one to three written in Chinese, horizontal lines, so easy to remember.

Chinese numerals from Wikipedia. The Arabic numerals zero to nine are the top line. We use one and zero for ten.

The Roman numerals one to ten are third.

The Chinese numerals zero to nine are last.

Chinese Numbers
The symbols for one, two and three are easy.
One horizontal line is one.
Two horizontal lines means two. Note that the lines are a smaller one on top of a larger one.

Number three is three horizontal lines. Looks like a sandwich. The base line is biggest. The top line is smaller. The filling is smallest.

Four is easy. A square, Likes a window with curtains making two little boxes top right and left.

Five looks a bit like a running five. The hat is blowing back in the wind. So are all three horizontals. As usual, a big base line, with the winkle picker shoe pointing forward, goes right across under the drawing.

Six. Think of the upright neck and two arms as three. underneath the two legs seaprated divide the lower area into three. That makes six.

Seven looks like a continental 7 with a central line to distinguish it fron one, turned upside down.

Eight is two circles written in a hurry. Just the legs of the upper half.

Nine is like ten but it hasn't made ten, it is running towards ten. the upright slopes backwards. the front is like a running foot, sticking up.

Ten is the plus sign, solid, very pleased with itself.

Children in schools learn the signs by learning to write them and copying them many times. They have to draw each sign within a square. I learned that from the book Chineasy. Drawing makes you notice whether the lines are straight or curved, left or right, short or long.

Where will you see these numbers?

Chinese restaurants.
In Chinatowns in the UK in London, Manchester and almost every high street in Britain.
In the USA in Chinatown in New York and San Francisco and many major cities.
In China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore, Chinese restaurants in Malaysia, Chinese areas of most Asian major cities and in airport hotels and upmarket hotels.

Take away Chinese shops. Chinese goods in supermarkets.

CHINESE calendars.


Chinese Flag

China
China introduced revised and simpler characters.

Hong Kong.

Taiwan.


Singapore.

Japan
Japan uses the same signs as China, like 'no smoking signs' in Europe. What you say is different in each country, but the signs are the same.

Japanese flag.

Useful Websites
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_numerals
http://www.alfabetos.net/japanese/japanese-numbers/learn-japanese-numbers-ordinals.php

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

About the author. Angela Lansbury is a teacher, trainer and author. Please share links to your favourite posts..

Problems and Solutions with Posting Photos From Events and Travels

How did I get photos fast in the old days and what do I do now? Back in the bad old days when you had to post your photos off and wait for the snaps to come back, I would post my first film off to the printing company in the pre-paid envelope the first time I passed a postbox.

I did this in the UK, in Europe, and in the USA.

Security of Photos
I wanted to be sure that if anything happened to me or the camera, (damage or loss or theft) the earlier photos still reached home. My earlier photos would include the country, place and name of the hotel, restaurant. Even if the outside was not interesting, the sign was a caption for the set of photos which followed.

Action
As for instant action, that way, by the time I got home my first pictures were there ready to be labelled. Before I got busy with other matters. Whilst the holiday was still in my memory.

Lists Of Places And People's Names
I also kept lists of every photo in order and the people and places. Those two principles, of speed in sending photos, and lists of subjects, still apply.

More recently I have used an Iphone and an Android mobile phone to take photos when I visited a lot of Toastmasters Clubs all over the world. For example, the UK London and other cities, Europe memorably Prague in the Czech Republic which met over Xmas), the USA, (the international convention in Las Vegas), and Asia (China, Singapore, Thailand). By the time I get home from a trip, or even an evening, I may have photos of more than 50 people, many with similar or unpronounceable names! How to label them?

Sharing Photos
I am also inundated by requests,
Please send me the photos of us at ...
Do you have any photos of the contest ...
Can you send me the pictures of me at ...

1 I send the photo to the person straight away. Otherwise one person asks for a photo and you agree. Then a second person. Then a third person. By that time you have lost track of who asked you.

I also can't, or won't, admit I don't know the first name or surname or both names of the person who asked for the photo. My solution is to ask them to type their contact details into my phone and I send the picture straight away. I tell them to put it on Facebook and acknowledge me as the photographer.

If I don't get acknowledged as a photographer, I don't know which photos are mine and which were taken by other people. This presents several problems.

I look at a photo taken by myself and can't be sure it was not taken by somebody else. I see a photo taken by somebody else and might claim it as mine.

Who Is The Photographer?
Photos which are blurred or out of focus might be attributed to me. I might not get the credit for taking better photos and editing them so the result is good.

The first time I took the official photos for a large event I ended up with huge numbers of photos, many of which showed somebody back view as they turned on stage. Or with blurred arms as they moved.

Get Credit
The advantage, or disadvantage, of being the credited photographer, is that others will come to you with request for more photos of that event, or requests for your services at another unpaid or paid event.

It might be in your interests to take photos as the official photographer to be sure all the VIPs are photographed, and to get a free supper and a thank you gift.

I take several photos in advance, at the venue before the event. Why?

Smiles
1 The smiling contestant might look glum when they find out later they are not the winner.
Early Leavers
2 People leave early. Get the group photo before the end. People even sneak off to catch the last train or put the children to bed as you are calling the group forward for the photos.
You need to Leave
3 It can take over half an hour to get all the VIP audience members for photos. They are saying goodbye to those leaving, exchanging business cards, helping tidy the venue, rushing for their last train or bus home, going after their driver, rushing to their waiting taxi, chatting up a business contact or romance. Finally - you need to leave to catch your transport home!

I just needed a couple of good pictures of each person. 10 speakers. 3 main officials. Six helpers. Each person's photo required twenty minutes of going through all the photos, selecting the best, editing them and adding captions.

Every hour for the next three days I had a request from the organizer for the photos. I kept replying I am working on the photos. Finally, he phoned and I explained the problem. He said, "Just send the photos, all of them, unedited, and I shall pick the ones I need."

I deleted the worst blurred photos, put two of the best on my own website with photos by Angela Lansbury.

In the end he put almost all of them up in three batches of 25 photos. The best one was first.

Security Precautions
An insurance company warned that if you tell readers on the media that you are attending an event and then your house is burgled the insurance company will not pay out because you have advertised to the world including potential burglars that you are not home. For the same reason I used to be cautious about posting photos of events.

Then I heard that the PR for a very successful club posts photos of the event on Facebook whilst the event is still in progress.

One way around this is to do the following.

Venue - Historic and Current Pix
1 Put up an old photo of the venue. On arrival take a new photo.
Later, you can add the date of the second event on the day's photo.
Those at the event will see the current photo when they get home.

Historic and Current Pix of People
2 You can do something similar with people.

VIP - Featured Speaker
For example, any VIP may have a photo of themselves at a previous event. Put that up as tonight's or today's speaker. During the event add the up to date photo. Later you can remove the previous year's photo.

Your previous picture from a flyer can be the page opener.

Contestants / Other Speakers
Similarly with contestants. You can even later add captions such as, winner two years running, or 3rd place last year but 2nd/1st place this year.

Photographing Speakers
You might ask a speaker to stand behind or in front of the rostrum for a photo before they speak. If they are busy re-reading their script or briefing their chairperson on the introduction, they might ask you to postpone photography. However, if the chairperson is busy dealing with crises such as missing speakers or lack of food, the neglected, lonely and nervous speaker might be delighted to pose for a smiling photo which makes them feel important and cheerful.

After the speech the banner might be removed for storage, the speaker will be dealing with fans, or the speaker will be rushing on to another event or rushing home. if you aim to get photos at every opportunity, you should be ok.

Another system is to tick each VIP on the programme as you photograph them so you don't miss anybody. You could go round the people on the programme agenda in order. Alternatively, write the number of the phot o in a circle. So if you photograph speaker two first, you have the letter one in a circle in pencil or pen beside their name on the agenda. That way you are sure not to miss anybody.

Also you might ask the chair person if anybody is arriving late or leaving early. Then you know who to photograph first, or to catch up with at the end. if the person in charge does not know, you can ask for a chance to address the audience.
Or simply take the microphone or shout as they assemble. You might want to say any or all of the following:

1 This photo will go on Facebook. If you don't want to be in a Facebook photo, please take the photo, or stand behind that pillar.
2 Please tell me your name if it has a difficult spelling or you are fussy. Email me your name and a picture of yourself so I can match names to faces for captions.

To find the names of VIPs, match up names with previous photos of the organization's events on their website. Ask for the agenda in advance. Try to learn and recognize all the faces and names.

In the interval or break time, rush out first to get to the toilets before the queue forms and delays you.
Grab food and put it on your seat or inside your bag. No drinks by your papers! Keep the agenda in your pocket so you can check names and be sure nobody goes off with your agenda, even if you change seats. Keep the camera with you in case you meet anybody in the toilet or corridor. Then go around photographing first the VIP who invited you. If necessary ask them who they especially want photographed. It is hard to tell whether a newcomer who knows nobody is simple the spouse visiting one off or the mystery VIP speaker such as the test speaker at a Toastmasters Evaluation contest.

Finally, make sure you are photographed with the organizer and alone with your camera as the photographer.

Send Photos - Problem
At a recent event I was very pleased that I had sent a couple of photos to my Facebook page. I could not get an internet connection to send the photos to the organizer.

On the way home on the train my friend Jenny and I tried to solve the problem. We were able to check first whether she had an internet problem or could send photos. She could, so it was not the internet but my phone.

We tried taking a photo with her phone and sending it to mine, and with mine and sending it to her.

Her photos would not reach my phone. She showed me that the tiny tick in the bottom right of the message or photo shows that the photo has left her phone. Two ticks meant it had been sent by her phone to mine and her other friend. When the ticks changed colour that showed that the recipient had opened the message and read it, received it.

We then went into my settings. By a process of checking what was on and what was off, after almost an hour we discovered that my phone had the data button moved to off. I think a helper on another occasion had thought that would save using up too much data, but it simply stopped me sending photos. Problem solved.

The groups of photos in my outbox then immediately went off. Shortly afterwards I received a thank you from the club president.

Conclusion
With a little forethought, you will have great photos of the venue and VIPs and everybody. the photos are PR for you, the venue and the occasion, the place and the people.

About the Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker.
Please bookmark and share links to your favourite posts.

How To Photograph A Celebration - lesson from 15+ Heartwarming Pics Of Children Who Were Just Adopted

15+ Heartwarming Pics Of Children Who Were Just Adopted: According to Together We Rise, every day, 1,200 kids enter foster care in the United States, a life that is often filled with stigma and uncertainty. To combat this, TWR brings together volunteers to help kids in foster care and to encourage families to adopt; two years ago, they started to post pictures of newly adopted kids to Facebook and Instagram. The response was tremendous.

Delightful pictures. Shows you how to get lovely photos.

Many people warn you not to include children or animals in a photo. But you can get delightful pictures of children and animals by taking multiple shots. Also offer food or treats.

Celebrate an important event with a chalkboard announcement, before and after an event.

Adoption
Before and after adoption.

Wedding
Before and after the marriage. (Bride at parents' home. Then bride with groom.)

Ask the subjects to wear co-ordinating clothes.

Stand the subjects in height order.

Have them clasping the announcement board or pointing to it.

If you are small, sit or stand on a chair or a step.

Another common pose is two people back to back, for example astride a piano stool.

If you are entering a contest, be sure to take photos in advance, when you are hoping to win.

If you don't win, congratulate the winner, who might be charming enough to say your effort was also excellent, and be photographed with the winner.

If you enter a contest, or driving test, several times and don't win, you could still take the sad face photos on failing.

Add an upbeat caption.
Then when you do win you have a pair or set with caption such as this:

Failed in 2000! Passed in 2020!

Or copy the caption idea from the adoption boards:

600 days studying French. Finally awarded B A Hons in French!

Or even,

300 days saving for our holiday, honeymoon.      Finally reached Paris!

Add the French flag.

Smile!

Share your photos.

How to learn the Flags of Europe

Flags of Europe on the map of Europe

The Flag of Europe



How do you remember the flags of Europe?
I used the tinycards by duolingo. In a notebook I drew oblongs for the flags with horizontals or verticals and labelled the colours. I looked for links between the country name and the colours.

UK
The United Kingdom is easy, uniting three flags of England, Scotland and Wales, three crosses of different colours.


England
Separate them and what do you get? The red cross of England, you may recognize from the football team. Church of England, plus sign red cross.

Scotland


Scotland is blue. We would be blue if Scotland separated from England. Blue cross. Cross and blue, x for not wanting to stay in the UK, although they voted to do so.



Wales
Welsh dragon. It was George who slew the dragon, George's cross symbol of England, but Wales still has the dragon.

Austria



Belgium
Belgium has a black section, B for Belgium and B for black.


Author of Belgium flag superimposed on map of country, PavelD in Wikipedia. Creative Commons licence.


Croatia


Denmark
Denmark has the red and white. 


Estonia

Finland


Sweden
Sweden has e for yellow.

Romania
Romania i vertical (upright) lines, red, blue and yellow. R for Romania R for red.

Greece



Iceland

Luxembourg
Luxembourg has white in the middle, letter e in the middle of Luxembourg. Letter b for blue at the base or bottom of the flag. The letters e and r are also in the name Luxembourgh and appear in red at the top.

Bulgaria


Czech Republic
Czech has red, e in Czech and RE starting the word Republic.



Germany


Germany has black, red and yellow from top to base, letter er in Germany.
Black forest for the black at the top.

Belarus
BElaRus has a Big REd section at the top.

And a fancy pattern down the side. Bella, bella, belle of the ball, Belarus.

Croatia
Red white and blue from the top down, but in the middle of the white section is and Croatia's noughts and crosses.
See above.

France



Hungary


Iceland


Italy


Italy has the tricolor, which you often see on Italian restaurant menus, green, whit,e red, avocado, white cheese and tomato.


Netherlands


Poland


Not to be confused with Singapore, which added the Crescent and five five point stars.



Nor with Indonesia


Portugal



Spain




Ukraine



Lastly some more unusual ones:
Albania


Andorra


Armenia


Bosnia (and Herzegovina)


Cyprus

Easy peasy. If only all countries did this.

Latvia







Lichtenstein



Lithuania



Luxembourg


Monaco


Vatican City


As you might not be able to see the white flag against a white background, I include a photo of a table flag.



Their flag shows the keys to the city.

https://tinycards.duolingo.com/decks/9bruoMoN/flags-of-every-country-in-europe

Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and teacher. Contact me for entertaining and informative workshops for colleges and schools.