When translation a place name or menu or a bilingual leaflet, it is easier to make sense of it if you know the common small link words or conjunctions.
Albanian - English
dhe -and
e - of
per - for
por - but
te - to
teh - the
Drinks
caj - tea
kafe - coffe
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English - Albanian
and - dhe
but - por
for - per
of - e
te - to
the - teh
Drinks
coffee - kafe
tea - caj
Useful Websites
translate google
https://translate.google.co.uk/
Mother Teresa Day is the 5th of September.
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"A little learning is a dangerous thing. Drink deep."
So said Alexander Pope, a poet, born in 1688, died 1744.
I am going to tell you about time, days off, and thank you.
When you hear people trying to speak English, do you sometimes think, how good of them to try so hard.
Do you ever think foreigners are charming, but crazy, half wits?
What's worse, if you try to help them and understand them, you can see from the expression on their face, They think you are a crazy half wits!
I thought of that when I arrived late on holiday, and kept 20 hikers waiting.
'Wilkommen. Welcome. You are one hour late,' said the German speaking leader of the hikers, on my hiking holiday. 'I told you half nine. Halb neun.'
'Yes,' I said, 'It’s half past nine.'
'Nein. No! Half nine is eight hours and thirty minutes. A quarter to in English is 15 minutes before. And halb neun is half an hour before nine."
We looked it up. The Germans say half nine, when the English speakers, you and me, would say half past eight.
A little learning is a dangerous thing. Drink deep.
I think the German should learn and speak English, which is the most widely spoken first and second language in the world, closely followed by Chinese and Spanish, both of which I am learning. Spanish is the easiest language for English speakers. Chinese is the most difficult.
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In Singapore, many people are bilingual. They speak English as a second language.
I am learning German, because once a year I meet up with this hiking group. I am using Duolingo, which claims to be the most widely used language system in the world. I have signed up for a dozen languages, just to read the first page of handy hints and , and .
Benefits Of Being Bilingual
Apart from avoiding mistranslation mishaps, are there any advantages to learning a second language. Yes. Several.
The first is that being bilingual has been found to postpone the onset of Alzheimers by five years. What is the evidence? Studies have been done amongst contained populations, such as amongst nuns in the USA.
That's a long term benefit.
To keep you amused, I will tell you about mistakes I made with mistranslations in Singlish, Spanish, French,
Pope also said, to err is human, to forgive divine.
English is a common language in Singapore. But Singlish sounds the same and is slightly different.
My Indian Singaporean friend, Jaya, wanted to meet me for lunch. He said to me,
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"I want to talk to you. I'm having an off day."
I said, "If you are not feeling well, see doctor. I can see you tomorrow."
He replied, "Why should I see a doctor?".
I said, "if you are having an off day, you are depressed."
"I'm not depressed. I am not working. It's my off day.'
I said, "you mean your 'day off.' "
"Yes, that's what I said, 'an off day.' "
"No. Where I come from, an off day, means a bad day, like food which has gone off. The day when you are not working is a day off."
"thank you," he said.
He said it in English.
I speak French fluently. Many people can recognize the French word for thank you, merci. (which is also thank you in Romanian.).
In France my former babysitter Carolyn offered me tea.
I said, "merci," - "thank you".
She didn't give me any tea.
Half an hour later, she asked me again,
"Would you like some tea.?
I replied, "I did not get any the first time."
She replied, you said merci.
It took us ten minutes to work out that in English, thank you, means thank you, or yes thank you. In French you say yes please or no thank you, so thank you is short for no thank you.
Remember that.
Finally, thanks in two languages.
I shall finish by thanking you in German and Chinese.
Danke.
Shay shay.
800-1000 words
Useful Websites
duolingo - for Spanish, German, Swedish,
Flag of Israel
Memrise - for Albanian
https://app.memrise.com/courses/english/albanian/
Learning the Albanian language never crossed my mind. Until the last meeting of last year's European hiking group when somebody suggested visiting Albania. Why? Because it was a new destination for us keen travellers - and not too expensive.
Then I started writing a speech, and a blog post to remind myself what to say in my speech, about how you should learn the language of any country you hope to visit on holiday.
My trip might not be to Albania on my next trip, one after that, but why not plan ahead. I thought I would have a quick look at Albanian. Would it be easy?
Duolingo did not offer Albanian. That was a blow. I have signed up for a dozen languages on Duolingo.
I have included Korean, Greek, Chinese, Russian and other languages which are a bit of a challenge and to be left until later, on my second or third list of languages to learn.
Wikipedia
However, Wikipedia gives a useful, long, overview of the Albanian language. It is a bit tiring and tedious. But you can pick out the parts you prefer.
For a start, it tells you how many people speak the language and where. About 7 million, in Albania and a few other places.
Official language in | |
|---|---|
Recognised minority language in |
The definite article is placed after the noun as in many other Balkan languages, like in Romanian, Macedonian and Bulgarian.
The Albanian alphabet (Albanian: alfabeti shqip) is a variant of the Latin alphabet used to write the Albanian language. It consists of 36 letters:[1]
| Capital letters | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| A | B | C | Ç | D | Dh | E | Ë | F | G | Gj | H | I | J | K | L | Ll | M | N | Nj | O | P | Q | R | Rr | S | Sh | T | Th | U | V | X | Xh | Y | Z | Zh |
| Lower case letters | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| a | b | c | ç | d | dh | e | ë | f | g | gj | h | i | j | k | l | ll | m | n | nj | o | p | q | r | rr | s | sh | t | th | u | v | x | xh | y | z | zh |
| IPA value | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| a | b | t͡s | t͡ʃ | d | ð | ɛ | ə | f | ɡ | ɟ͡ʝ | h | i | j | k | l | ɫ | m | n | ɲ | ɔ | p | c͡ç | ɹ | r | s | ʃ | t | θ | u | v | d͡z | d͡ʒ | y | z | ʒ |
Note: The vowels are shown in bold.
The letters are named simply by their sounds, followed by ë for consonants (e.g. fë). 
Listen (help·info) to the pronunciation of the 36 letters.
Translate Google
Next comes translate google. I wanted to find hello, goodbye, welcome and good evening to add to my speech.
Where to start?
On Ling, beginner lessons are free.
Let's organize the words I have found in Ling into an alphabetical list.
Pronunciation
C with a tail is not s as in French but Ch.
Good luck sounds like patch fat.
J is pronounced like y as in year.
So jo, no is yo.
YES AND NO
The Albanians, like the Bulgarians, nod for no and shake their heads for yes. I did not find this a problem in Bulgaria. You just have to listen to what they say, and rely less on body language.
THE
English - Albanian
bird/the bird - zog/zogu (not just a bird, zog - ooh! this one)
flower - lule
the flower - lulja (the suffix or addition adds the word the - think of it as a flower - that one! Ya, yes, that one)
mountain/the mountain - mal/mali (another suffix or addition for the, a mountain ee! this one, the one)
Albanian - English
lule - flower
lulja - the flower
mal/mali - mountain/the mountain
zog/zogu - bird/the bird
How do you remember these words. I say the "a /an" version by looking upwards. Zog,is bird, a bird, one of many. Then I point and say zogu, meaning the bird.
Negatives
Numbers
|
Useful Websites
Hear it here
https://play.ling-app.com/learn/tutorial
https://ling-app.com/sq/greetings-in-albanian/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albanian_language
https://ling-app.com/sq/words-and-phrases-in-albanian/
https://www.facebook.com/simya.learn.languages/
