After returning from Albania, I've looked back at the words to remember. to my list of 40 words which I found before I went to Albania, I have added a few more. The easiest word was
1 TUALET for toilet. You walk to the back and to the left or right of the bar you see this word. Again and again.
Here is my original list, with a few extra memory aids.
Arriving by plane or car, in Tirana, the capital, at Mother Teresa airport, you see the name of the airport, and the name mother Teresa on the statue on the roundabout
2 Nënë Tereza - mother Teresa
The second e with the double dot is prounced the same as the two later letters er in the word mother.
You might make your first stop the museum cafe, Komiteti Kafe Muzeum. Not a cafe turned into a museum, but a collector who opened a cafe to attract people to see his collection. Items from all eras include embroidered felt dresses.
However, the good news from a linguistic point of view is that the word
3 Komiteti means committee.
4 Kafe is coffee and
5 muzeum is museum.
They say you can see Tirana in a day. Which means a two night stay. (I couldn't.) After that, it's off to the wineries.
Albania has lots of wineries, all over the country.
Useful words for maps and street signs
The double dot is like the German unlaut
I copied it once, then used paste to put it in all the words where I needed it in the dictionary or glossary list
Albanian - English
6 rruga - street (like the French word rue)
Similar words,
7 hotel,
8 menu,
9 tualet (toilet)
10 restaurat (restaurant)
Kafe is coffee
11 coffee bar is coffee bar
12 kafene is cafe, like caffeine
13 snack bar - snack bar
14 delicious food - delicatessen (meaning delicious food literally provisions of delicious)
15 food is food, food is food
English - Albanian
1-10
16 alcohol - alcohol
17 bay - gjiri (pronounced jeery - forget the first letter, memory aid - a bay like the letter Jay)
18 beach - the beach
20 bill - fature (my memory aid, I'd rather pay this bill in the future, after the meal and coffee)
21 breakfast - mëngjes (like manger, French for eat)
22 bridge - gji (masculine)
23 castle - what is it?ë (looks like castle, or the Italian castello, e with the double dot is er; kala (feminine) Kalaja
24 cheap - i lirë (memory aid just one lira!)
25 closed - closed
26 dinner - darkë (dinner time, after dark)
11-20
drink - drinks
entrance - hyrje /exit - dalje (here we are, entrance, don't dally, leave)
expensive - shtrenjtë (shocked at the price! - but you can bargain in Albania, Turkish bazaar influence, so asking price in a family business can be high to allow for you to bid lower, and you might be given a souvenir such as a magnet which means either you paid too much, or thank you for your custom, come back)
no entry -ndalohet hyrje (no don't let anyone in here, you)
hill - kodër (up and over this hill)
hotel - hotel
house - ispi (step up to this house)
left - majtas - right - djathtas (starts with a d, like right in French is droit)
straight (ahead)/to drejt (starts with the letter d, later letters re, and ends with t, like the English word direct, or the romance languages, toute droit)
lunch - drekë (Dinner, that is lunch, but not late night dinner which is darkë (dinner time, after dark)
main street/high street - main street. ruga e lart ë (rruga like the French word for street, rue, krysore, is this street an eysore, we saw in in the street, larte pronounced later like larger street)
21-30
menu - menu
mountain - mali (both words start with m and have the vowels a then i, but in Albanian you add the l like hill)
museum - museum
new - i ri
north - the north
old - l years oldr (like the French for old, vielle)
open - hapur (Happy to be open)
park - park
parking (lot, or car park) - parking
please - ju lutem (you let him - please!)
31-40
restaurant - restorant
right
road/path - rrugë (as in the French for street, rue)
sea/salt water - deti (dirty water, with salt or sewage)
south - jug (yes, let's jog south from the UK to Spain or the USA to S America or from Albania to Greece, letter U in south and jug )
square - katrore (like quarter, four sides)
street / path (or spell it ruga )
thank you - faleminderit
toilet - tualet
breakfast/lunch/tea/dinner - morning meal, drink and dine at lunch, cha tea time, dark so dinner)
yes - po (yes, it's possible)
no - jo (yo, yo,yo, no, no, no!)
Address
Fatmir Haxhiu Street, Tirana, Albania
Useful Websites
Museum Cafe In Tirana
https://thebalkanista.com/2018/02/28/komiteti-kafe-museum-one-favourite-spots-tirana/
Find the e to copy into Albanian words in the right size here in Wikipedia from German or from the word reëntry under the side heading English"
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%8B
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