Easy similar Italian words - and an update on using Duolingo leagues on basic and upgrading to Premium

The words in Italian are in bold so you can re-read and learn them. Mano of the words simply add o to create the masculine in Italian, for bambino, mano, medico, parco, telefono, vino.  Add the feminine ending e (like our English word feminine) to aprile, credere, impossibile, and simile. Watch out for the double letters in infatti, in fact the letter t appears twice, like in the words letter and fatter.

EASY WORDS

aprile - April (No capital letters starting months in Italian)

bambino - baby

credere - believable

durata - duration 

infatti - in fact

impossibile (im-poss-ee-bill-ay) - impossible

mano - hand (like manual labor, hand work)

medico - doctor

parco - park

(il - the masculine) progetto - project

simile - similar

telefono - telephone

televisione - television

(il) trena - (the, masculine) train

vino - wine

CONFUSING WORDS

ragioni - not regions but reasons, rationality. The i at the end is a plural, like the word spaghetti.

These are todays words from my Duolingo exercises. I used Duolingo for free for a year learning Spanish. 

Now I am doing Italian. This was for a proposed holiday in Spain which has now been cancelled. Never mind. My project for the year is to learn Italian. 

Advertising On Duloingo and Websites

Duolingo is no longer the same as before. It has turned more commercial, like Facebook and the Daily Mail, everything on the internet seems to be bombarding me with advertising. I can't afford to buy another garment from Shein every hour. No point sending me cat food ads when I don't have a cat. I already have installed Grammarly.

Leaderboards On Dulingo

I am addicted to the Leaderboards on Duolingo. You can't be bored with the Leaderboard. It gives you points for every exercise completed. You compete with up to thirty others on your level. If you are in the top half dozen (the exact number varies from fewer in the lowest to more the hightest leaague) you go up. Conversely, if you are in the lowest of your league you slip back to compete with those who spend less time and effert. 

Competing For Position

You do an exercise and add points. Go away for an hour or two, to do something useful, cleaning and tidaying the house, calling a friend, calling family, writing a book, answering mail, paying bills. You come back and somebody else has been busy and caught up right behind you in points or overtaken you. 

Blocked By Duolingo

Then, last week, March 2025, I kept getting signs that I had run out of hearts and could not do any more exercises. Maybe, last year, I had not reached this limit. Maybe, this year, they have changed their system.

Resisting Paying

At first I resisted paying. I am in a system which advertises itself as free. I have been promoting it in my blogs as free. I am a loyal long term member.

I was afraid of being sucked into paying a big sum later, or small sums forever, even after I die. (I am in my seventies.) 

The system promised that I would start getting hearts again if I came back after three hours. Two hours, one hour.

Agreeing To Pay

I thought again. Let's at least check the prices. I have had a year's worth of value from them. I get hours a day from them. I owe them something. I'd pay for food, clothes, entertainment. 

Comparative Costs

The amount asked was less than UK one hundred pounds. (Some of my travel websites are quoting hotels in NZ currency because of my February trip to New Zealand when I set my laptop to the local currency.) If you are being quoted in another currency, or in your own currency and you want to tell a friend or readers another currency, you can look for the flag or currency abbreviation on the website page, click on it and change it, instead of having to go into another website to get the day's currency exchange rate and echange table column.) The answer was sixty pounds.

Family Budget

I thought, that's doable. I told all the family in a whatsapp group chat. They did not objects. They were all spending far more on other activities overseas.

Commitment and Cancelling

I now have two weeks to cancel. Then I will be committed to sign up to premium for the year. 

Any Advantage To Premium?

I must admit I am a bit disappointed because don't find that premium is doing me much extra good. 

I was expecting to be given the grammar clues about what I had done wrong. But I am getting most answers right. I am writing down the correct answers in an A6 notebook labelled Italian. 

Self-Checking Translation Answers

My hand-written pages listings are no longer in alphabetical order, dictionary style  That used to delay me in writing, while I looked for a page which still had an empty line for that letter of the alphabet. Instead, I write down in the running order of the day's words and sentences learned. 

Some of the exercises are timed. I keep Google translate open to check the spelling. 

Mistakes Allowed

f I am tired from not enough sleep, or over-confident, I get impatent and make a silly mistake. Sometimes if I mistype, or use a spelling closer to the English sound, a instead of e, or vice versa, the system just warns me of a typo. 

No time is lost on Duo. 

But I take time to check and if necessary correct that spelling in my hand-written list, or underline the vowel or double letter as a memory aid.

Time Lost On Mis-Translation

However, if I am hasty and careless, I might miss out the word not, or only, having grasped the subject object and verb. So I slow down and check both all the words in the Duolingo suggestions. Then I re-read all the words I have typed, to see if I am missing any extra word. 

Word Order And Alternative Words

I use Google to select the word order. 

Sometimes google translate gives me another similar word which is not acccenpted by the Duolingo system. Is that unreasonable? I can flag this in the choice of comments as 'my answer should be accepted'. 

But I now realised that there is a good reason for me to be using the suggested word in the Duolingo exercise. The reason is because it was teaching me a particular word and I have not learned it.

Conclusion - For You

So, hey, ho, off to study I go. I hope this has helped you, or at least entertained you.

Useful Website

duolingo.com

Please follow my blogs. Here on blogspot you can find my blogs on travel, languages, dress of the day, and comic poetry, and wine and dine. The first three are the most active with new blog daily. 

If you want to make a suggestion for a subject, you can contact me through here or another medium. I am on Facebook, linkedIn when I can recall my password after changing my email, but that's another story. Meanwhile, I'm off back to Duolingo. 

Have a nice day. In Italian that's buona giornata.!

Please, share links to your favourite posts, with your friends.

Per favore, condividi i link ai tuoi post preferiti, con i tuoi amici.

See you again, soon.

Ci rivedremo, presto.


Maybe tomorrow.

Forse domani.


I hope so!

lo spero!

Sholom Aleichem and where to see his memorials in Netanya in Israel and in the Ukraine

Sholom Aleichem created the characters such as Tevye featured in the film (movie) Fiddler on the Roof.

 USA

Ukraine

Israel

Sholom Aleichem statue in Netanya, near Tel Aviv, Israel. Photo from Wikipedia.

Sholom Aleichem memorial in Bohuslav, Kiev province, Ukraine

Netanya, near Tel Aviv, Israel. 

Picture from Wikipedia article on the man.

Sholom Aleichem In Hebrew

Sholom Aleichem was his pen name. It means peace be with you in Hebrew and Yiddish. Sholom, like salaam in Arabic, means peace. The capital city of Jerusalem also contains the word salem. The consonants are s, l, and m. The vowels change with time and place. 

The Moustache Fashion

I like to see the portrait of the man which shows the moustache which was the fashion of the day. Then clean water was not so abundant and people were poorer and could not necessarily afford to visit the barber and did not have electric razors. 

The clean shaven look came in during WWI. Then soldiers had short hair and not beards nor moustaches because they had to wear helmets or gas masks in the army. 

Later beards and moustaches became the bohemian, artistic look. Writers, songwriters, musicians, singers. Then in the nineteen sixties, the hippy look. 

Later still associated with primitives. On the one hand, this can be associated with good, simple, healthy and virtuous and honest, or uncultured. It could be associated with orthodox, traditional religious - or violent, aggressive terrorists. But in his era, it evokes a look which is artistic and romantic.  

Now let's look at the text. It is Cyrillic. Best known to most people outside Europe as Russian, which is almost the same as the lettering used in Bulgaria, I discovered on holiday in Bulgaria.

Unlike the earlier language of Hebrew, Cyrillic, named after Cyril, a priest, combines Greek and Hebrew letters. 

What looks like a W is the sound for Sh in Sholom. 

Once you recognize the Sh, it is easy to see the letters Sh-M A-L is his name, Sholom and Aleichem. 

The L looks a bit like you are starting to write a lower case l, in cursive or italic with an upward curve. Then you come down as if about to write a capital L, but you can't be bothered to finish it with the line across the bottom as you already have a line across the top, and Hebrew and Cyrillic have lots of letters which seem to be upside down or back to front or left to right. (Of course, our writing came later, so we are the ones who changed it.) 

The X is the sound like clearing your throat, like the Scottish ch in loch as in Loch Lomond.

I am a teacher of English and other languages, which I am always learning when I travel. 

Tel Aviv

Whilst I am on the subject of language, the word Tel Aviv means hill of spring, or springtime. You will see the word Tel on modern maps of the middle east. Aviv or Aviva is a girl's name. Like the word April, for the month, and the girl's name, April, for girls born in the month of April.  Tel Aviv has the old city up on the hill, and the suburbs spread along the sandy beach. The city was founded in 1909. 

Tel Aviv's Art Deco

Architecturally, many modern buildings, now historic, are from the nineteen thirties, which to me looks like art deco (deco short for decorative), but which is strictly speaking called Bauhaus. Haus is German for house.   

Netanya

Netanya is north of Tel Aviv. It is named after Nathan, the co-owner of Macys department store. Nathan's brother died on the Titanic. 

Useful Websites

When is a good day, time or place to tell a joke?

Edinburgh Festival.

Before Covid19 every year you would hear the jokes from the Edinburth Festival, held in Scotland, UK. Other festivals of comedy were held in Australia and Asia and the USA. Maybe we can all attend these in 2021. Meanwhile, time to start exploring our favourite jokes. When I went on a standup comedy course organized by Amused Moose, I heard about shows at the Edinburgh Festival. The cost of hiring a room in a pub can be expensive and you need lots of flyers and publicity to get your money back.

Many shows are supposedly free but they pass a hat for contributions.

The cost of hiring the room is not usually down to one individual, unless they are world famous, but shared by up to 20 or more participants in the sketched. It could be borne by a sponsor, such as a school or college or students union.

What about street theatre. We saw one great act. As we approached the crowd the one man performing rushed up to me and shouted, 'Mother!'
He might have done this to several other people previously. I'm sure it got a suprprised reaction from the newcomer each time.

When is a good time to play a joke?
April 1st April Fool's Day
In 1957 the BBC produced a program about a spagetti tree in Switzerland.

National Joke Day
Internationl Joke day
President's joke day - August 11th commemorates the time when Reagan joked that he was going to drop a bomb on Russia. He thought he was off air. The Russians heard and mibilised their armed forces.

What Could Go Wrong?
There are some places and occasions when you should not tell jokes or play pranks, or touch other people.

1 Military - especially guards.
Their job is to guard and protect and they are armed to do so and trained to avoid distractions.

2 Emergency Services
Fire, ambulance, police - they are doing a serious job and often short of time. They make decisions based on life and death, resulting in life or death. Don't fool with them. They need to be able to react quickly and to take it seriously when somebody reports an injury or death.

3 Anybody marching in formation or dancing.
They may have spent a year training for their big moment. They won't be pleased if you try to take attention away or make them look foolish.

4 Crying Wolf?
Next time you try to get help, they might not take you seriously. Next time somebody else rings, they might not get taken seriously.

5 When you think you are off air, in a studio, or after a zoom meeting. Remember to mute. Still always speak as if the world can hear you.

An American in Singapore phoned the police and ended her call with April Fool.
The police were not pleased. They threatened her with a criminal record, for wasting police time.

On a lighter note, I am doing Engaging Humor in pathways, a program of Toastmasters International. I belong to five clubs.

Useful Websites
Toastmastersinternational.org/findaclub
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_April_Fools%27_Day_jokes

Useful Websites
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_British_comedians
https://www.a-speakers.com/speakers/brad-ashton-keynote-speaker/
 Brad Ashton's books on comedy: 
“How to Write Comedy”, 
“The funny Thing about Writing Comedy”, 
“The Job of a Laughtime”, and 
“Stand up and Be Laughed at”.

About the Author
Angela Lansbury is a travel writer and photographer, author of 20 books, and a speaker and speech trainer.
Her books include:
Wedding Speeches & Toasts
Quick Quotations
Writing Poetry For Fun
Angela's Alarming Animal Poems

Pantomime characters, pantomime dames create humour.
Angela Lansbury is a travel writer and photographer, author of 20 books, and a speaker and speech trainer.
Her books include:
Wedding Speeches & Toasts
Quick Quotations

Writing Poetry For Fun
Angela's Alarming Animal Poems

This blog has many more posts on learning languages and destinations around the world. Please share links to your favourite pages.
See my other blog
https://how2bfunny.blogspot.com/2020/08/why-be-funny-advantages-

Masks to be compulsory in shops in the UK

People in the UK are complaining about wearing masks in shops becoming compulsory. This has been the case in Singapore for several weeks.

I can understand a fitness instructor in the UK complaining.

If you have lost your livelihood and might lose your home.

The old system for singles such as elderly widows who needed money was to take in lodgers.


In Singapore masks have been compulsory since April.
The death rate is under 100, not for a day, for the whole period.

Mask supplied by Singapore government to Permanent Residents. 

Useful Websites
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/staying-safe-outside-your-home/staying-safe-outside-your-home
https://www.gov.sg/article/when-should-i-wear-a-mask

For twice a day updates on singapore Covid19 statistics
Go.gov.sg/moh
(mof stands for Ministry Of Health)

Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer. Author. Speaker. Speech trainer. Speech workshop leader.

More About the author, Angela Lansbury

I and my family have lived in the UK, Spain, the USA and Singapore. I am a travel writer and photographer and teacher of English A level and English as a foreign language.

Please come to a Toastmasters International Club where the English clubs have a language evaluator or grammarian.  We also have French, German, Mandarin Chinese, Tamil and other language clubs based in Singapore and many more online around the world which because of Covid-19 are now meeting online.

I am President of Braddell Heights Advanced, meeting the first Wednesday of the month, Usually on Zoom. But the other Wednesdays have workshops on app learncool.sg

Incoming president Faith from Wed July 15th 2020 change dates and platforms so please contact the club.

Latest is only two meetings each month.

For meetings learncool it is quicker to type and easier to remember: 

 tinyurl.com/BHACOOL

Useful Websites On Speaking and Languages

https://www.toastmasters.org/find-a-club
translate.google.com
duolingo.com

https://www.duolingo.com/enroll/vi/en/Learn-Vietnamese

https://www.facebook.com/groups/polygotcommunity/

Other Useful Posts By Angela Lansbury Author

https://travelwithangelalansbury.blogs
https://travelwithangelalansbury.blogspot.com/2019/04/how-to-say-thank-you-in-several.html
https://travelwithangelalansbury.blogspot.com/2019/05/introducing-yourself-in-english-spanish.html
https://travelwithangelalansbury.blogspot.com/2020/01/second-set-of-portuguese-words.html 

Please share links to your favourite posts

Welsh Words In Brochures Translated

Many Welsh words in brochures are translated from English to Welsh (or the other way round) and shown in both languages. I have noted down several which are easy to recognize and remember. It's a start.

ym - in
Ebrill - April
Mawth - March.
cod post - post code
Sadwrn - Saturday

Cymru - Wales/Welsh
llechi - slate

Day
Every day
open
closed
besides
Monday
Tuesday
wednesday
thursday
Friday
saturday
sunday
sun
son
daughter
husband
wife
parents
wedding
marriage
fiancee
saint
big
small
steam engine
you know

Dydd
Pob dydd
agored
ar gau
ar wahân
Dydd Llun
Dydd Mawrth
dydd Mercher
dydd Iau
Dydd Gwener
dydd Sadwrn
dydd sul
haul
mab
merch
gwr
Gwraig
rhieni
priodas
priodas
fiancee
sant
mawr
bach
injan stêm
ti'n gwybod

Dydd
Pob dydd
agored
ar gau
ar wahân
Dydd Llun
Dydd Mawrth
dydd Mercher
dydd Iau
Dydd Gwener
dydd Sadwrn
dydd sul
haul
mab
merch
gwr
Gwraig
rhieni
priodas
priodas
fiancee
sant
mawr
bach
injan stêm
ti'n gwybod

Dydd
Pob dydd
agored
ar gau
ar wahân
Dydd Llun
Dydd Mawrth
dydd Mercher
dydd Iau
Dydd Gwener
dydd Sadwrn
dydd sul
haul
mab
merch
gwr
Gwraig
rhieni
priodas
priodas
fiancee
sant
mawr
bach
injan stêm
ti'n gwybod

About the author

Angela Lansbury, teacher of English and other languages. Please share links to your favourite posts.

Esperanto February in Stoke-on-Trent and in Dover, England, in April 2019

Esperanto flag by Ziko. See Wiki for copyright information. I received this information: Esperanto Courses

	Date & Time Sat 09 Feb 2019 10:00 am - Sun 10 Feb 2019 2:00 pm
	Address Esperanto House Station Road Barlaston, nr. Stoke on Trent, Staffordshire, ST12 9DE

About this event Free on February 9th-10th? The Esperanto Association of Britain has spaces on its free courses, held at its headquarters just outside of Stoke-on-Trent. If you're very new (e.g. part way through Duolingo), then there's Lernu. For those a little more progressed, you get fun and games at Lernu Plu. Those two classes span the weekend, 10am on the Saturday until 1pm on the Sunday. You'll have an opportunity to use the bookshop, too and people who don't already have one get a free copy of John Wells's dictionary and the picture dictionary 'Mil unuaj vortoj en Esperanto'. It's worth the trip! https://esperanto.org.uk/events/lernu/ And if you're at the point of being fairly conversational, there's a free one-day class called Postplu in London on the Saturday: https://esperanto.org.uk/events/postplu/ And don't forget the biggest event in the calendar: the national conference (the 100th) in Dover in April. https://britakongreso.org/ ........................................... More information from: https://www.visitsoutheastengland.com/useful-info/tourist-information-centres/dover-tourist-information-centre-p82091 visitbritain.com visitbritainshop.com

Shakespeare Week 12-18 March 2018 - quotations you may know and places to visit

Shakespeare. From Wikipedia. Photo by Brice Stratford. See Wikipedia for permissions.

Shakespeare is the worl'd best selling author of fiction.

Born: 1564, Stratford-upon-Avon

Died: 23 April 1616, Stratford-upon-Avon

Spouse: Anne Hathaway (m. 1582–1616)

Problem
Shakesepeare's birthday is celebrated on April 23rd. We can't be sure of the exact day, but he was baptised on April 26th and it was usual in those days to be baptised the third day after birth. Since he also died on April 23rd, that seems a suitable date. St George's Day is also April 23rd, so a good day to celebrate Shakespeare and England and the English language.

1 Shakespeare said so many things we quote. How can I remember them?
2 Where can I go to learn more about Shakespeare?

Answers
QUOTATIONS
Wikiquote will sort you out. Not just the quotations but exactly which play and where the words come from and who spoke the words. These are my favourites, short and easy to remember:

As You Like It (1599–1600)[edit]

Main article: As You Like It

• All the world's a stage,
  And all the men and women merely players:
  They have their exits and their entrances;
  And one man in his time plays many parts.
  • Jaques, Act II, scene vii.

Hamlet (1600–1)[edit]

Main article: Hamlet

• Neither a borrower nor a lender be;
  
  • Polonius, Act I, scene iii.

• To be or not to be, that is the question.
• Hamlet, Act III, scene i.

• HENRY

  Act III[edit]

  
  

  Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more;
  Or close the wall up with our English dead!
  • Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more;
    • King Henry, scene i

• Julius Caesar (1599)[edit]

  Main article: Julius Caesar (play)

  • Cowards die many times before their deaths;
    
    • Caesar, Act II, scene ii.
  • Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears;
    I come to bury Caesar, not to praise him.
    The evil that men do lives after them;
    The good is oft interred with their bones.
    • Antony, Act III, scene ii.

    • The Merchant of Venice (1596–7)[edit]

      Main article: The Merchant of Venice

      • All that glisters is not gold.
      • Prince of Morocco, reading Portia's note, Act II, scene vii; this is the source of the popular paraphrase "All that glitters is not gold."

• Twelfth Night (1601)[edit]

  Main article: Twelfth Night

  • If music be the food of love, play on.
  • Orsino, Act I, scene i.

  • Timon of Athens (1605)[edit]

    Main article: Timon of Athens

    • We have seen better days.
      • Flavius, Act IV, scene ii.

      • Macbeth (1606)[edit]

        Main article: Macbeth

        • Come what come may,
          
          • Macbeth, Act I, scene iii.
        • Is this a dagger which I see before me,
          
          • Macbeth, Act II, scene i.
  
  
  CANADA
  The Stratford Festival is an internationally recognized annual repertory theatre festival running annually from April to October in the city of Stratford, Ontario, Canada.
   

UK
Your obvious first choice is the UK, starting with Shakespeare's birthplace in Stratford upon Avon. But if you are just in London, you can visit the reproduction round theatre, as well as a monument to Shakespeare in a church, and see his bust on the front of the Guildhall building.

POLAND
Every year in August in Gdansk.

Visits
POLAND
http://esfn.eu/festivals/the-gdansk-shakespeare-festival
http://www.gdansk.pl/en/

UK
Reproduction of Shakespeare's Globe Theatre in London, England

Reproduction of Shakespeare's Globe Theatre in London, England. Photo by Another Believer in Wikipedia. See Wikipedia for copyright terms.

Stratford upon Avon:
Shakespeare's Birthplace
Anne Hathaway's Cottage
Theatre
Shakespeare's Grave in Holy Trinity Church

Shakespeare's grave in Holy Trinity Church, Stratford-upon-Avon, England, UK. Photo from Wikipedia, originally in Flickr by David Jones. 

London, England
Theatre
Reprodcution of the circular Shakeapsear's theatre in the round.
About ten minutes walk from London Bridge underground station. On the banks of the Thames, near the Tate Modern art gallery and the bridge over the Thames river.
The Globe
21 New Globe Walk
Bankside
London SE1 9DT.
Great website with clear directions on how to get there and an aerial video of the theatre.

Church
Bust on Guildhall

Shakespeare bust on outside wall of Guildhall, London, England. Photo by Angela Lansbury. Copyright.

visitbritain.com
http://www.shakespearesglobe.com (London, England)
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/William_Shakespeare

If you want your own Shakespeare bust, for your home or a museum or celebration of play, it will cost you about £66 plus delivery. A bust suitable for indoors might not be suitable for the garden, but one suitable for the garden might do for indoors. However, it depends whther you want a smooth surface or something more robust and weather-proof.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Ceramic-William-Shakespeare-Bust-Statue/dp/B007R61UO0

Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker. I have other posts on Guildhall. Please share links to your favourite posts.