Where To See Popular, Traditional, Modern, Serious, Humorous, and Minority Interest Statues And Monuments

Mr Bean at Leicester Square.
 

Popular Statues

Mr Bean is not a has-been. His videos are loved worldwide. In Singapore when I was teaching my pupils loved videos of him attempting to cheat in exams.

UK Royalty

In the UK statues of Royalty and peers are in London, Nelson's Column in Traflagar Square, Piccadilly, and inside and outside cathedrals and city squares. 

UK Royalty Worldwide

Queen Victoria's statue is in squares worldwide.

Kings, Queens and Bishops are in central squares. Royalty and Presidents are outside Parliament buildings.

Belgium

Famous mythological characters and animals, cherubs and children include Belgium's Mannekin Pis.

Outside parliament and municipal buildings you will find city founders.

Jewish, Spain & Arabic Maimonides

The seated statue of Maimonides commemorates the writer of The Guide For The Perplexed. Maimonides was Jewish, but wrote in Arabic. He left Christian Spain and became the revered physician for a Moslem ruler. He is revered by Arabs and Moslems in several countries as well as by Jews.

Moslem India & The Taj Mahal

Because of the taboo against worshipping statues in the bible, Islamic countries and those with Islamic rulers and communities do not have statues. Instead they have buildings and monuments named after those they wish to commemorate. For example, the Taj Mahal, built by the widower to commemorate his beloved wife in India.

The USA and Pocahontas

Reading the news overseas in Simple Spanish, Swedish, Malay and Esperanto

El Mundo, Spanish for the world, is the name of a Spanish newspaper.

 When you are overseas, you can gain confidence and have fun everyday picking up a new language. The easy languages are in groups. 

Romance Languages

If you speak English as a first or second language, you will find it easy to pick up a group of classical, or romance, or Germanic languages. Easy languages, taking fewest hours, in the sunny south are Spanish, with Portuguese being similar, as well as Italian. 

How do we know how long it takes to learn a language? Look in Wikipedia and it will tell you. Wikipedia refers you back to other sources. The American military trains interpreters and translators. Staff are sent on courses. Language schools also know how many lessons are needed to get a class of pupils up to different levels, basic conversation, intermediate and advanced, fluent, bilingual.

Spanish And Related Romance Languages

The romance languages come from Rome and Romans, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese and French. 

The Spanish for hello, reverse the sounds of the vowels and you get Hola. Remove the H and you get the Portuguese Ola. 

Look at the newspapers in Spain every day and you will quickly pick up or be reminded of half a dozen words.

American and Spanish Place Names

If you recognize the city name, Los Angeles, which means the angels, you already know the word for 'the'. In English we add s for plurals. The same goes in Spanish. Notices the  s in las Palmas the palms, or es in Los Angeles. A is the feminine ending, like the name Maria, and O is used for masculine, as in the name Mario. You have now learned, and can teach family and friends, three words and one grammar rule.

Swedish, Scandinavian and Germanic Languages

The easy languages are Swedish, similar to Norwegian. Or Dutch (used in The Netherlands and Belgium). 

Asian and Oriental Languages

In Asia the easiest languages are Malaysian and Indonesian, which are the same basics with slightly different added vocabulary, like England and American English. 

Japanese and Chinese use the same traditional writing. 

Classical Languages

The classical languages are Hebrew, Greek and Latin. Many medical terms are Greek. Many plants have Latin names. The Bible was written in Hebrew. The Christians introduced the New Testament, and renamed the bible The Old Testament. Priests would learn and teach Hebrew to read the Old Testament, Greek to read the new Testament, and the Romans adopted Christianity and used Latin in church services. A Priest called Cyril combined Hebrew and Greek letters to make an alphabet for Russian speakers, so their alphabet, called Cyrillic after him, and used in Russia and with a couple of different letters in Bulgaria.

Hebrew, Arabic and Malay

Hebrew is written right to left. So is Arabic. The words for hello are peace, Shalom in Hebrew, Salaam in Arabic. Selamat in Malaysian. Notice the same three consonants, S/SH - L - M.

Hindi

Hindi and Urdu are another pair of languages which overlap. Hindi and Tamil have very pretty writing, but involve more effort, unless have Indian family which is an incentive and an aid. However, I recently discovered a YouTube video which tell you 100 English words used in Hindi. 

Esperanto

If all this is still too challenging, the easiest language is a more recently made up language, Esperanto, which means I hope. It is a bit like simplified Spanish. You can stay for a couple of days in homes of other Esperanto speakers worldwide. It is popular in countries whose languages are not spoken by many others, offered as an A level to schoolchildren in Hungary. 

Spanish Newspapers

El Mundo

El Pais

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Mother of pearl pendants and my name in Arabic - at WTM

 

We are holding my name in Arabic which he has just drawn.

Thank you in Arabic is Shukran.

This grntleman is on Instagram. Based in Morocco.

I honeymooned in Morocco at the Mamounia hotel where Churchill had stayed.

We had a two centre holiday in The north then in Marrakesh

Simple Arabic, similar words to English and Hebrew

Arabic is written from right to left, the same as Hebrew. 

The Koran sold on Amazon, showing that the spine is on the right, because the writing goes from right to left.

I remember when I lived in Singapore at a dinner party held by a French Muslim women, an American guest exclaimed in surprise on seeing that Arabic books and pages and writing went from right to left.

"Well, I never knew. Arabic is written right to left, Just like Hebrew!" she exclaimed.

Her French friend from the book group was equally surprised and gasped, "You mean Hebrew writing goes right to left, like Arabic? I never knew that!"

Hebrew and English prayer book, sold on Amazon, showing spine on right and Hebrew writing from right to left like Arabic.

Learning languages is full of delightful surprises, and expansion of one's knowledge of the world, from historical times to the modern day.. 

Here are some similar words, easy for you to recognize, learn, and remember.

Arabic & Hebrew

Two languages for the price of one

English - Arabic - Hebrew

day - Araabic yam - Hebrew yom as in Yom Kippur the day (of) Atonement, which is a fasting day\

friend - Arabic sadiq

night - -Arabic laylah - Hebrew layla pronounced lie-la, laylah tov is good ight, literally night good with the adjective second 

no - la - lo

A few words

THE SAME!

bank - bank

mall - mall

supermarket - supermarket

Arabic - English

ana - I

English - Arabic

I - ana

How useful is Arabic to the traveller? It is one of the six languages of the UN.

Arabic is an official language of these countries:

• Algeria
• Bahrain
• Comoros
• Chad
• Djibouti
• Egypt
• Eritrea
• Gaza and The West Bank
• Iraq
• Israel
• Jordan
• Kuwait
• Lebanon
• Libya
• Mauritania
• Morocco
• Oman
• Pakistan
• Qatar
• Saudi Arabia
• Somaliland
• Sudan
• Syria
• Tunisia
• United Arab Emirates
• Yemen

It is also a national language of:

• Mali
• Somalia
• Senegal

Useful Resources

Basic conversational words and sentences

1 https://preply.com/en/blog/basic-arabic-words/

2 Earworms CD with small print booklet, and online support (from Berlitz - Earworms CDs are no longer available new, Feb 2025, but second hand on ebay. The boxed set is useful if you have a CD player in your car, or want to look at the booklet when travelling by bus or train or revising late at night in a good light.)

3 Wikivoyage Phrasebook arabic 

https://en.wikivoyage.org/wiki/Arabic_phrasebook

The Arabic phrasebook deals with Modern Standard Arabic. See the Egyptian Arabic phrasebook, Jordanian Arabic phrasebook, Moroccan Arabic phrasebook, Lebanese Arabic phrasebook, or Tunisian Arabic phrasebook for Arabic dialects relating to those countries and regions.

http://www.modernstandardarabic.com/cognate-list-of-arabic-and-english-words/

https://forum.language-learners.org/viewtopic.php?t=16218

Flashcards and trilingual books for learning languages

I bought a set of 11 language cards from OOOZU. 

this weekend I was looking for a background for a zoom meeting with Hapy Birthday in multiple languages. 

Useful Websites

https://chrikarublog.wordpress.com/multilingual-flashcards/

Chineasy

ooozu.com

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Language-Cards-OOOZU-Lightweight-

trilingual Books

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Trilingual-English-Arabic-Illustrated-Vocabulary/

How the Hebrew Alphabet is related to English, Cyrillic, Aramaic, Arabic, Ladino, and Yiddish

Arabic and Hebrew

Hebrew and Arabic are both official languages of Israel. You can speak Arabic in many more countries. Why learn Hebrew?

Wy Hebrew?

Why learn to read or write Hebrew or study Hebrew? To read the bible in the original language - not only one of many translations - some of which are wrong or disputed. 

The original Hebrew words may have other meanings, or ambiguous meanings, or be metaphors, or have numerical meaning, of interest to people who are scholars or superstitious.

You might want  Arabic and Hebrew are both national languages of Israel which has Hebrew speaking and Arabic speaking populations. Aramaic, the language of Jesus, is still spoken by small groups in Israel and Syria. You can read Arabic and Hebrew on on kosher and halal food in supermarkets and online. 

Here is the Hebrew written left to write.

Alef	Bet	Gimel	Dalet	He	Waw/Vav	Zayin	Chet	Tet	Yod	Kaf
א‎	ב‎	ג‎	ד‎	ה‎	ו‎	ז‎	ח‎	ט‎	י‎	כ‎
										ך‎
Lamed	Mem	Nun	Samech	Ayin	Pe	Tsadi	Qof	Resh	Shin	Tav
ל‎	מ‎	נ‎	ס‎	ע‎	פ‎	צ‎	ק‎	ר‎	ש‎	ת‎
	ם‎	ן‎			ף‎	ץ‎

Vowels

The aleph is silent and used as a hanger for the vowels written underneath as dots or a short dash like a hyphen.

Final Letters

Hebrew has final letters, like Arabic and Greek.

If you show the Hebrew alphabset written downwards, that avoid the problem of confusing or misleading the reader or learner.

Arabic and Hebrew - Differences

Arabic is cursive (joined up writing). Hebrew is written in block letters (seaparate letters). 

The Dead Sea Scrolls

The Dead Sea scrolls, now in a museum in Jerusalem, are not one document from one era, as I thought, but many scrolls from different eras, in several languages, including Aramaic, Hebrew and Greek. The first scrolls were found by Bedouins, not in one cave, but a series of caves, eventually archaelogists found about 40 caves hollowed out by humans.

Hebrew and English

If you use the English alphabet, you already know the word derived Alphabet. The word alphabet is derived from the first two leters of the Hebrew alphabet. Aleph. Bet.

Hebrew and Bamitzvahs

A 13 year old boy marks his coming of age at his 13th birthday by reading the day's passage from the Hebrew bible which is still written by hand on a scroll. (Therefore extremely expensive to make.)

Hebrew and Yiddish

Hebrew is used to write Yiddish (which is derived from spoken German),

 Hebrew and Ladino

and Ladino (which is derived from spoken Spanish).

Hebrew and Arabic

A few Hebrew and Arabic words are similar. For example, the words for peace, Hebrew Shalom and Arabic Salaam.

However, another greeting in Arabic is marhaba.

The words for two numbers are similar. 

the word for God is sinilar. In Hebrew it is pronounced El, in Arabic Allah.

Hebrew and Arabic are the national languages of Israel.

Some of the Hebrew letters are similar to the derived Greek and Russian letters.  

Hebrew and Arabic are both written from right to left. Books written in Hebrew and Arabic open from  right to left. If you go to a Jewish wedding or festive meal you might be given a prayer book or song book opening from right to left.

Aramaic

Jesus probably spoke Aramaic to other people in the stree, assuming he was a real person, not a fictitious person, and one person, not two or more people from different times, or a  series of people, or a conglomorate character describing several people, such as the holder of an office, such as a teacher or rabbi or high priest, most likely spoke aramaic, but lived in the time attributed to him, born around the first year A.D. 

He would have spoken and/or read Hebrew in the temple. Just as Italians would speak Italian to each other but classical Latin in church.

the Jewish kaddish (praise of God) is said in Aramaic as part of synagogue services, as well as a mourner's kaddish, recited after a death, to show that despite death one still believes in and praises God.

Marriage Contracts

In modern times a Jewish marriage contract given to the bride is often in Arabic, but may be multilingual. It is written in Aramaic, sometimes also in Hebrew and English. The basic contract from a synagogue might have only the synagogue symbol or logo. However, it is common for the couple to order an ornate marriage contract with a decorated border or flowers or others symbols in colours and gold for display in a frame in the home.these are sold on the internet at various prices. You get what you pay for, as the saying goes. They vary from the simplest and smallest to the largest and most elaborate.

Arabic Alphabet

Wiki reminds us> 'The Arabic alphabet is an abjad that is used to write several languages of the Middle East such as Arabic, Persian, Pashto and Urdu.

Checking Languages

I checked Wikipedia because it gives references to different sources. Wiipedia articles on these languages are long and complicated. If you just want a quick overview or a picture of an alphabet, Simple Wikipedia is useful. it does, however, write the Hebrew alphabet left to write, which is absurd. I have never seen this before.  I have several books for adults and children on learning Hebrew and they have the alphabet written the way a teacher of Hebrew would show the alphabet, written from right to left.

Useful Websites

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

https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aramaic_language

https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hebrew_language#/media/File:Israel_in_Hebrew.svg

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

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

Please save links to your favourite posts.

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

On Amazon.

Arabic alphabet songs from the quick to the easy, and the whole alphabet written out

 I thought of asking the Facebook's polyglot pages members for recommendations for alphabet songs. Then I thought of just googling it myself. Up came lots of answer.  Thry two or three. Then when you like one, pin it.

The first one I tried went fast through the.

I found the constant injunctions to follow Allah were irritating. If you are a devout Muslim, and teaching your own childen, you might be delighted. If you are an adult, it is a distraction to keep going off away from task in hand.

I then went back into wikipedia and found a helpful chart. If you know either Hebrew or Greek, the Arabic suddenly starts to make sense. A, b, t, g, h, ... Now I can go back to Duolingo and make much fast progress. Especially if I print off a chart of the Arabic alphabet.

My memory aids are, start with alif, just a straight line, like the number one. Next is ba,  like an empty bowl or basin, with a teeny foot supporting it on the table. Then thirdly, ta, equivalent of gammal, ta, a tea cup with tea inside, or thanks for the tea, two eyes.  Fourthly, da, do I want some more yes I do, three eyes. Fifth is gim, give me some more, table and hand. Ha, table and hand but nothing. Ha with a dot on top is stranger.  Dal is like a door opening. 

Useful Websites

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Arabic Alphabet, Duolingo, the polyglot LILT Toastmasters International club to be on Zoom

 I am struggling to learn the Arabic alphabet. It is nothing like Greek, Hebrew or Russian. It is all curves. I have started on Duolingo. You get the sounds and match them up with pictures. It took me a while with other languages on Duolingo to learn that in matching pairs you don't start on the left but play the sound on the right hand column and then match it with the picture without sound on the right. 

Duolingo

The second thing to remember in Duolingo when learning the alphabet, is that you will be asked to guess the picture of the written letter on the next page. So look at it carefully and create your own memory aid, connected with an English letter of the alphabet, or the picture of an object or a scene.

For example, in the picture of a sign which sounds like dow ood, I see a raised L in the air, third stroke, and think it looks like a door. However, a couple of signs later, the same sign appears again at the left sign of the word. I now have to remember that the D sound is in both words, but not where you might hope, with D at the the start of the word, but at the end. So the sound ending in D has the little L shaped like a door at the start. 

I was surprised at my progress, faster than on Korean. I got through the first two lessons quite quickly. 

I learned another sound. It looked like two uprights and a dividing letter in the middle. I thought it looked like two people arguing over something.

Now back to the alphabet. However I shall look on Memrise and Youtube to see if I can get any more suggestions. 

I need to learn the Arabic Alphabet because I have three meetings on Arabic in the World International Language Lovers, WILL (now LILT), a soon to be established Toastmasters Club. We need twenty paying members to register a new club. I thought of asking on Facebook for Arabic speakers to give a 5-7 minute speech, or a twenty minute easy introduction to the alphabet. But I have to be the backup. Even if I only teach three Arabic letters, that would be a start.

The WILL (now LILT) club meets online every Sunday night at 9 pm Singapore time. Login on Zoom fifteen minutes earlier to say hello, rename yourself online, check you are visible, get to know everyone.  If Sunday doesn't suit you, or you want more, we meet earlier in the day, 7.30 Singapore time, on the second and fourth Thursday each month. If there is a demand, we will run  a satellite in person meetings in Singapore or other countries. Arabic is the language we are learning about for the first three meetings in October, Sunday 1st, Sunday 8th, and Thursday 12th, 2023. Do come along and tell your friends.

Update 

WILL changed its name to LILT. A search for will brought up websites writing your will! Carolyn had the inspiration to create a word from the initials for Languages for Interest, Learning and Travel. The T can also be for translation. 

July 2024 We no longer do the Thursday meeting. Friday and Sunday keeps us fully busy! We need some paying members to establish the club with Toastmasters International. If you want to be a dual member, or a founder member, or just a guest. come along to the next Sunday meeting. I usually rehearse a speech on languages on Friday at SGI. The timing is UK summer time 2 pm for chat and topics, a 2.30 pm start on prepared speeches. Sunday (is an hour later to accommodate President Edward at dawn in Belize in central America, 3 pm chat and table topics for 3.30 speeches. 

Useful Websites 

Duolingo

https://thehuntswoman.com/how-long-does-it-take-to-finish-a-language-on-duolingo/

https://thehuntswoman.com/learn-arabic-on-duolingo/

Song highlighting each letter.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nnLSy4nZI80

This version repeats half a dozen letters in succession

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=joaa_H3ejoM

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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

Interlingua Festival June 24th and 25th in Lido Tegelsee, Berlin, Germany

 

English version below   Hallå, namaste, sawubona! Wir können es kaum erwarten – in 10 Tagen startet das EXPOLINGUA Festival im Strandbad Tegelsee!   Am 24. und 25. Juni von morgens bis abends erwartet Dich ein vielfältiges Programm, u.a.: Korean in a bubble, Chinesische Kalligraphie, Encuentro Hispano, Berufsbild Übersetzer, Darbuka Trommel Workshop, Sumo, Jobsuche in Deutschland, Co-creative Haiku Poetry Workshop, Meet&Greet with famous Content Creators, Workshops für Sprachlehrer*Innen, Arabisch, Dänisch, Griechisch, Persisch, Schwedisch, Tschechisch, und das ist noch nicht alles!  Das Programm wächst noch immer jeden Tag!   Das alles Open-Air und gut erreichbar mit EXPOLINGUA-Shuttle-Bussen vom U-Bahnhof Alt-Tegel und S-Bahnhof Tegel oder alternativ mit den Öffis!   Sichere Dir hier Deine Freikarte – wir freuen uns auf Dich! ­ ­ Zur Anmeldung für eine Freikarte ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ENGLISH VERSION:   We can hardly wait: in 10 days the EXPOLINGUA Festival will start at lido Tegelsee, Berlin!   A diverse program awaits you on June 24th and 25th from morning to evening, i.a.: Korean in a bubble, Chinese calligraphy, Encuentro Hispano, job profile translator, darbuka drum workshop, sumo, job search in Germany, co-creative haiku poetry workshop, meet & greet with famous content creators, workshops for language teachers, Arabic, Danish, Greek, Persian, Swedish, Czech, and that's not all!   The program is still growing every day!   Open air and easily accessible with EXPOLINGUA shuttle buses from the Alt-Tegel underground station and Tegel S-Bahn station or alternatively with public transport.    Grab your free ticket here: we look forward to seeing you! ­ ­ Register here for a free ticket! ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ Unsere Partner: ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­

­ ­ ­ EXPOLINGUA Scharnhorststr. 24, 10115, Berlin

Useful Websites

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

https://www.facebook.com/blauhomine/