Damski Comber" słuchaczy Stowarzyszenia UTW w Brzesku cz.II - Czech Dancing & Czech Language

Dancing from the Czech Republic. How jolly.

Pronunciation

The country name is prounced like check or cheque. That makes it easy for you to remember that cz is pronounced ch. One mystery solved.

Where to See Weird and Wonderful Hundertwasserhaus House, The Dancing House, and Other Offbeat Quixotic Buildings

 

Hundertwasserhaus, Vienna, Austria

Hundertwasserhaus, Vienna, Austria

Interior

Interior. 

Where can you see the weird and wonderful Hundertwasserhaus houses?

There's one in Vienna, capital of Austria. And the Quixote winery in California, USA. 

Hundert is German for hundred which is a translation of the architect's name in a Slavic language (the word for hundred is sto). He hated straight lines. He loved bright colours.

It looks pink but it is the green citadel.

Hunderthaus Plochingen

Hundertwasser kirche. Kirche means church. The K is pronounced k, like the Scottish Kirk for church.

Kunst haus means art house or art gallery.

Ronald McDonald Haus. (Haus is German for house, and pronounced the same way.)

Uelzen Station.

USA

Starting in the USA, there's the Hundertwasser designed Quixote Winery.

The first weird building I saw was in the USA, was on holiday in New York when I was a student and I visited the spiral Guggenheim art Gallery, commissioned by the millionaire Gugenheim family. I had read Peggy Guggenheim's biography. Her ancestor went down on the Titanic. She inherited the family fortune and became a patron of the arts.   

When I lived in the USA we went to see Fallingwater by Frank Lloyd Wright. Expect the unexpected. The building is not looking at the waterfall but built over it, with water underneath making a paddling pool where you could sit with your feet in the water.

 Now, next on my list is the Quixote Winery in California. Mr Hunderwasser  is the architect. I am sure it is quixotic.

EUROPE: Austria, the Czech Republic and Spain

Over in Europe there's a Hundertwasserhaus in Vienna, Austria.

We have seen the dancing house.

The Dancing House, Prague, Czech Republic.

Czech Republic

The world's well known weird and wonderful buildings include the Dancing House in Prague, Czech Republic.

We had dinner there. The furniture is equally offbeat. The chair backs were weird shapes. The waiters gave us paper and crayons to create our own works of art.

Spain

In Spain see the hotel Marques de Riscal, which we saw on a side trip from Rioja in the north.  It is named for a famous winemaker Marques de Riscal, which, I believe means the marquess of Riscal. I imagine he commissioned the building as a home or hotel. The designer is Frank Gehry.

Quite a long drive from Rioja, down side roads into a small village in the sides of a valley. Off a side road and just uphill looking down on the village, built into the cliffside, hidden, but huge when you reach the car park. Ofbeat from the get go. Up to the bedroom, along a winding corridor. The door number written in chalk on a slate board, as if they might change the numbers at will. The bath was in the middle of the bedroom. 

See videos and photos of Gaudi's cathedral, and house, in Barcelona, Spain.

AUSTRALIA

In Sydney, see the Sydney Opera House, designed to remind you of a ship's sails.

Useful Websites

Overview with pix of several Hundertwasser buildings.

https://www.touropia.com/hundertwasser-architecture/

https://quixotewinery.com/

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Buildings_by_Friedensreich_Hundertwasser#/media/File:Hundertwasser_Quixote_Entrance.jpg

http://milenaolesinska.blogspot.com/2017/08/friedensreich-hundertwasser.html

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

About the Author

Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, has lived in the UK, USA, Spain and Singapore.

Online Toastmasters Clubs With Members Worldwide

Wherever you are in the world, at home or travelling on business or on holiday, you can join a Toastmasters club or visit one. Almost every country has a club, well over a hundred countries. If your country does not have a club, then visit one when travelling, and watch some of the international winners on line.

Photographs With Winners
Naturally you will want to be photographed with the winners at a local club in a contest. I am President of Braddell Heights Advanced. So, here I am with the 2019 club contest winners. I am the club president. The first place winner goes forward to the Area contest in 2020.

Angela, President of Braddell Heights Advanced, standing on the left, wearing a Toastmasters tee-shirt. Sylvia, cool and calm in blue, is seated on the left, was second runner up in two contests. Arinjay, standing on the right, in businesslike black jacket, was first runner up in both contest. Faith, seated, pretty and passionate in pink, seated on the right, was first place winner in two contests, the International Speech contest and the Table Topics (impromptu speeches) contest.

An area consists of four to six clubs in the same area.

When you meet one of the international winners, you will then recognize them and asked to be photographed with them. If they are selling a book, they will be only too happy to be photographed with you, showing their book.

I travel a lot and this year I have been a member of two basic clubs and one advanced club in London.


Flag of Singapore

Singapore
I belong to two advanced clubs in Singapore.

Singapore's Online Club
I have just joined an advanced online club in Singapore which has had people logging in from the USA, the UK and Sweden. I went to act as tally counter (collecting votes from the anonymous jusges) at a contest at Toastmasters Club of Singapore at the Sheraton Towers Hotel. I was one of two tally counters. The other was Alicia. She immediately said to me, "We were both on the online Toastmasters club last week!"


Online speakers Alicia (left) and Angela (right). We met online and later in person.
Flag of Malaysia


Malaysia
I have an invitation to visit a club near Johor Bahru, from four girls (young-looking mature ladies) at a club just aoutside JB. They were visiting a university alumni club in Singapore.

Back in Europe, I got myself invited to a club. 



Travelling In Europe
When my husband was on business in Prague, capital of the Czech Republic, just before Christmas, we stayed on, thinking we would be all alonge and there would be no toastmassters clubs meeting during the christmas and new year period. Although I could see only a couple meeting during the holiday period, and I suspected even those which met would have cancelled their meetings because the public buildings would be closed, I wrote to six or seven clubs, all the ones in the city, just inc case they had moved a meeting or decided to holda a party in somebody's house and would be kinds enough to invite us. To our surprise and delight, after a blank two days, we unexpectedly got told that one of the clubs was having its usual meeting on the day after Xmas, the 26th, which in England is Boxing Day and a national holiday.

That club had members who were largely either expats or retired local people without large families keeping them busy. Although some of them would be busy, a core of between half a dozen or a dozen would be meeting and a couple more would make their small meeting bigger and more interesting. Even more suprising, on arrival we discovered that I already knew one of the members. He had attended a Toastmasters club meeting in Singapore when he was there and remembered me.

After the meeting we all went to a reasonably priced local restaurant in a large hall and they were able to help translate the vast menu and help us choose local specialities which were novelties to us and within our budget. I stayed in touch with an elderly gentleman, emailing about the English language intermittently, for several months.



Flag of the USA

The USA
In America there are online clubs speaking English and Spanish.

Singapore
One online club is bilingual. My club based online in Singapore is English speaking. Singapore also has bilingual clubs, and clubs speaking only in French, Chinese (Mandarin), and Tamil (an official language in Singapore and spoken in Southern India and Sri Lanka).

If you are interested in finding a club near you, at home or on holiday or a business trip, go to Toastmasters International Find A Club.

Useful Websites
https://www.toastmasters.org/find-a-club

About theAuthor
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker.

The most Beautiful Synagogue In Europe?

I visited the synagogue in Sofia, capital of Bulgaria. The synagogue is already open, although still undergoing renovation. You can see the columns with gold decoration around the tops, the huge central chandelier, the ceilings painted blue with stars.

Al around are the numerous six point star,s called magen David, or star of David. The six point star is known to Jews as the star of David and Muslims call it the seal of Solomon. The floor also has stars with more points.

The so called museum is at the moment (June 2019) just one case of objects on the left. Join up with another visitor if you don't know what the objects in the case are, but you can read the captions and check up on Google. For instance, there is the curved ram's horn used to blow loudly with great effort during the service of New Year.

It might help you to recall that the seven branch candelabra is for the Sabbath. 

Seven branch menorah in Sofia's synagogue.In Bulgaria.

The festival of lights in the autumn is Hanukah. The eight' branch candlestick', actually a nine branch candlestick, is called a hanukiah.

There is  small entry charge. One case on the wall on the right has items for sale, such as music, and head covering for men in satin look material in bright colours, such as green (kippot in Hebrew).

Keep looking and you keep seeing more intriguing objects. On the floor on the left is a glass panel you can walk on revealing what was discovered underneath, broken pieces of stone with carvings.

I was very impressed with the synagogue. I thought it was the most beautiful I have seen, of those open to the public. Maybe I should get out more.

Sofia Jewish Tour
I took a Jewish Tour, a free walking tour of Sofia. To our surprise the tour did not stop at the synagogue. But you can visit it on your own. We found it with the aid of Google maps on our mobile phones, aided by Tripadvisor.

Synagogue Museums in Europe
Other synagogues to visit in Europe include those made into museums in Amsterdam in The Netherlands and in Prague in the Czech Republic.

About the author
Angela Lansbury, author and speaker. Author of Jewish Travel Guide.

Learn to Recognize Hebrew Letters And Shalom - how and who and why?

What use is Hebrew to a traveller, outside Israel?

Israeli flag

Hebrew appears on buildings in many European buildings, synagogues, gravestones in Jewish cemeteries, labels on kosher food in supermarkets, Jewish or Israeli restaurants in American, London, South Africa. Former Jewish quarters. Jewish museums worldwide. Repurposed buildings. Amost every country of the world.

The lower clock on the Jewish Town Hall building in Prague, capital of the Czech Republic, with Hebrew numerals in counterclockwise order

If you can recognise the words Shalom, Kosher, and Israel you are starting to learn the Hebrew alphabet.

A question on the facebook polyglot page was about the word shalom. I replied:

Angela Lansbury Shalom means peace and is a greeting, same as the Arabic salaam, no vowels here. The vowels are written above in Hebrew, looking like diacritics for tones in French and other languages. Reading from the right, as in Arabic, sh, l, silent letter to which you can attach a vowel dot, m.

The Hebrew alphabet was used to create the Greek alphabet and the Cyrillic alphabet used by the Russians and with slight variation by the Bulgarians. (The Bulgarians would have it the other way around.)

Who likes to learn Hebrew - and Greek?
Scholars and students of the bible. Priests who want to learn Hebrew and Greek to understand the bible, for Christans the New Testament as well as the Old Testament.

The Hebrew alphabet is also used to write Yiddish, which contains a lot of German words.
The first letter of shalom is Sh. It looks like a W. 

Symbol	Name	Transliteration	IPA	Example
שׁ (right dot)	shin	sh	/ʃ/	shop
שׂ (left dot)	sin	s	/s/	sour

You can learn to recognize Hebrew letters on

Useful Websites
Free website learning course
duolingo.com

Conversation and lessons with speakers of the language
Fee 
italki.com

https://www.facebook.com/groups/polygotcommunity/?multi_permalinks=2317929445092481&notif_id=1560233138126677&notif_t=group_highlights

italki.com

Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, atuhor and speaker. teacher of English and other languages. if you want a lesson to get started in any language just contact me in person in Singapore or the UK, or online.

How To Learn Any Language

Flag of Singapore, where four languages are official.

Problem
I want to be a polyglot. Poly, as in polytechnic, means many. Glot, as in glottal stop, is connected with language. A polyglot means a person who speaks many languages.  When I was at school I wanted to learn German and Spanish, but the way the timetable was arranged, I could learn only French.

Czech Linguist
I was impressed by people who spoke many languages. The father of a relative of mine spoke eight languages. He came from the Czech Republic. I assumed he was a very bright person. If you look at the map, you will see the Czech Republic is surrounded by countries where other languages are spoken. Czech is not a language taught widely so when Czechs meeting others, have to be the ones making more effort.

Bilingual Canadians
Some people are forced to learn to speak two languages proficiently. When lived in the USA we travelled across the border to Canada, and learned that in the capital, Ottawa, government officials have to speak French and English and documents must be in the two languages.

Romania
When I went to Romania on a hiking holiday with a group of hiking ex-pats from Indonesia, I discovered that Romanian is similar to Italian. The name Romania comes from Roman, because Romania is near to Italy and they were influenced by the Italian language, in the same way that many English words have Latin roots.

This reinforced the new idea that learning languages was not difficult. You could not help doing it. Starting is the hardest part. Once you have got over the fear that another language is too difficult, it becomes easy and fun.

My big breakthrough came when I discovered Duolingo, the online course which offers free language lessons. You can opt for as little as five minutes a day. The system sends you a reminder every day. When I want a break from work, I do five minutes of learning a language.

It is now my policy to learn a few words of the language of every country I visit. Every time I speak to a taxi driver, a waiter in a restaurant, or anybody else, I ask them their native language and ask them to say a couple of words, such as goodbye and thank you, or count from one to three.

I worked out that if I learn only one word of another language every day, by the end of the year I will know more than 300 words. Three hundred words is get by level, enough to read a map, a menu, and signs in a street or hotel.

If I learned a new language every year for the next ten years, I would have a smattering of ten languages.

Some people have a head start. They have parents from different cultures, or live in countries with another language across a nearby border, with street signs in two languges. Learning a new language impresses others, helps you start conversations with other people, and gives you confidence when travelling and a sense of achievement. Those hours spent sitting on a plane or train or waiting at bus stops need not be wasted.

Useful Websites For Travellers and Language Learners
LANGUAGES
Earworms 
earwormslearning.com
(This is a shortened version of Berlitz where you hear the words, provided on a disc or download, but the addition of music in the background makes it relaxing when you listen and they claim improves the speed and ease of learning). I bought the German and Spanish, then added other languages when I saw the discs available at low prices second hand on ebay. The booklet is amll and easy to carry. The print is small and hard to read in a poor light at night but much better in daylight, outdoors, such as when waiting at a bus stop.
It is written with the traveller in mind, starting with words you need on a flight.

Duolingo - my absolute favourite system. It's free.
duolingo.com

Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker, teacher of English and other languages. Workshops and speeches for students and businesses. 
Please share links to your favourite posts.

What To See in Dusseldorf, Germany: Gehry buildings, and Goethe Museum

Here's Germany. There's a lot of it.

Germany. Ja. (German for yes.) A chance to practise my German.

Problem
Should I go to the ProWein event in Dusseldorf? Wein is German for wine. Any point in combining business with pleasure? Should I extend my stay beyond the event? What is there to see in Dusseldorf? I have about a year to make up my mind.

ProWine / ProWein
Germany (Düsseldorf) - 17-19 Mar 2019. The great advantage of ProWein in German is that I like German wines. From the popular Liebraumilch of Britain in the 1960s to the more expensive Icewines.

It's a pity that the ProWein event is not in the autumn, because a big parade and celebration is in November.

However, regardless of the time of year of my visit, I can instantly select my top three places to see in Dusseldorf:

1 Goethe Museum.
(I think there's another Goethe museum in Nuremberg, but we had just half a day there and it went on the main museum about the more recent WWII history.)

2 The landmark Gehry building.
Twisted towers. I have seen two Gehry buildings. My favourite is the Dancing House in Prague, capital of the Czech Republic. The building is also a wonderful restaurant. It embodies the twisted tower concept. The Dusseldorf building features another twisted tower effect.
The other one was the Guggenheim museum in Spain. This had the twisted roof concept.

Building designed by architect Gehry in Düsseldorf, German.

3 Cartwheel Fountain
Now cartwheeling is unusual. One story goes that a bride riding to her wedding was feeling despondent, until she saw people doing cartwheels and they made her smile.
Nobody else, no other city, has cartwheeling as a theme for fountains and buildings.

A statue of a bride appears on a pillar. Statues of people on pillars are scattered through the city.

Famous People From Dusseldorf
1 Heinrich Heine who wrote the songs and poems beloved of the German people. The university is named after him.
2 The inventor of an ingenious language of symbols, easy to learn by handicapped children.It's simpler than sound languaged, and has simpler descriptions of the parts. Instead of verbs it has action words.

Düseldorf's Food Factory Shop Visit
Go the mustard factory shop and you can taste their strong mustard. It's not all strong, savoury stuff. Flavours include strawberry.

Learning German
If you are considering going to ProWein, or going to Germany in 2019, you have a year to advance your understanding of German. I did the Duolingo free online German course.

Useful websites

http://www.antor.com/members/germany (Tourist boards)

Their website teacheds you: Gute Reise! (Have a good trip!)

www.germany.travel

wikitravel dusseldorf

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

Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker. Seeking more information about everyday items, and about unusual places. Please share links to your favourite posts.

Kinetic (moving) Kafka sculptures in Prague, Czech Republic and Charlotte, N Carolina USA

Kafka moving statue, by artist David Černy, photo by Jindrich Nosek (NoJin) from Wikipedia.

I have my own photo of this somewhere. But I have taken so many pictures that I have exceeded the capacity of my laptop and had to remove the older ones to make room for new ones. 

Problems
What can you see and do for free in Prague, the capital of the Czech Republic?

Is everything old? The hilltop castle is old. The Charles bridge leading to it is full of old sculptures. I love seeing historic things. But eventually a feeling of unease takes over, as if I am watching another era, looking at long-dead photos and sculptures created by long-dead people, not living now but living in the past.

Answers
Modern sculpture, even if the subject is old, helps you feel you are seeing a modern, living city, and supporting current culture.

Useful Website
You tube video of kinetic head of Kafka, each horizontal layer moving to create a changing vision of a giant head. Particularly suitable for a depiction of Kafka, as he wrote about Metamorphosis.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gc39FFMIzK4

Would you believe, another version is in Charlotte, North Carolina, USA. Amusingly named Metalmorphosis.

Wiki says:

METALmorphosis is a large (7 metre, 13 tonne) kinetic sculpture of a human head, by Czech artist David Cerný. The sculpture is in the Whitehall Corporate Center in Charlotte, North Carolina, where it sits in a large reflecting pool.

The piece is executed in polished stainless steel. The sculpture is made of 40 layers articulated into 7 pieces that can rotate individually. Originally, the sculpture could spout water from the head's mouth.

A later and larger work, Head of Franz Kafka (Czech: Hlava Franze Kafky), a bust of Franz Kafka made of 45 tonnes of steel, is in Prague.

Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photogrpaher, researcher, author, speaker. Please share links to your favourite posts.

Where to see St Valentine's Relics and Celebrate Valentine's Day with dinner, lockets and chocolates

Basilica of St Valentine, Terni, Umbria, Italy. Wikipedia.

Problem
My first choice would be to go to Terni in Italy on Valentine's Day to see the church with relics of St Valentine. Where else could I go and what could I see and do?

Answers (Countries listed alphabetically)

CZECH REPUBLIC - LOVE LOCKS
1 Valentine. Church of St Peter and Paul, at Vyesehrad, Prague, Czech Replublic.
2 Lovers add lockets to a pedestrian bridge all year. Expensive lockets are sold by vendors nearby. Despite the high prices, so many lockets are put on the bridge every year, that the lockets are reputedly removed every month to make way for new ones! Where is this bridge? It is a pedestrian bridge, (below the famous Charles bridge leading over the river to the castle - at the castle end), near the John Lennon Wall and the Kafka museum.

Many countries have forbidden affixing locks, because the weight can break section of the bridge, cause rust and ruin the historic or aesthetic appearance. In some places signs warn that those affixing locks will be fined. However in the USA one town encourages locks in a designated place.

FRANCE
Relics are in Roqumaure, Gard, S E France on the Rhone river. This is the wine region of quality (Cote du Rhone is a protected name). When the wines suffered from Phylloxera (introduced by buying American rootstock), relics of St Augustine were bought from an auction of relics on Rome in  1868 in the hope that the relics would bring protection. Apparently, within four years the saint's relics worked. (Funny - in northern Spain's nearby Rioja region I was told that the problem was cured by importing American root stock which was immune to the problem.)

Never mind. As the saying goes: 'Why let the truth get in the way of a good story!'

The acquisition of the relics, and their supposed efficacy is celebrated on the weekend nearest St Valentin'es day by a one day Saturday festival, yes, by a kissing festival! (Read to the end of this post. Then see next post.)

GREECE
Relics of St Valentine on the Island of Lesbos, Greece.

IRELAND
St Valentine in Whitefriar Street, Dublin, Ireland.

St Valentine shrine in Dublin, Ireland. Photo by Blackfish from Wikipedia.

ITALY - RELICS AND CHOCOLATES
1 Valentine in Savona in Luria, N Italy. Savona, near Genoa.
Savona was also where Christopher Columbus farmed and you can see his cottage.
2 Valentine in Rome, flower-bedecked alleged skull displayed in Basilica of Santa Maria in Cosmedin, Rome, Italy.
3 St Valentine in Church in Terni, Umbria, Italy.
If you are in Perugia, buy the local chocolates, Baci Perugina, chocolate kisses  containing hazelnuts which come with love messages in four languages. Not cheap, but several sizes and styles. The more chocolates you buy, the cheaper they are.

St Valentine's Relic in Rome, Italy. Wikipedia.

POLAND
Fragment of skull in St Mary's Assumption, Chelmno, Poland.

SINGAPORE - COMMERCIAL SUCCESS
This successful, modern skyscraper city, like New York and America, celebrates anything which can be celebrated with cards, flowers, chocolates, gifts and dinners, before, during, the weekends before and after, and on sale the day after.

SPAIN
Remains in St Anton's Church, Madrid, Spain.

UK
England
Chaucer made the story of St Valentine popular.
Shakespeare mentioned the custom of young unmarried girls getting up early hoping that the first man they saw on the day would be the one they would marry.
Relics are in the Reliquary in Birmingham Oratory, England.
Scotland
Remains are in Blessed John Duns Scotus Church, Gorbals area, Glasgow, Scotland

USA: CARDS & LOCKS
Valentine's Day cards simply expressing affectionate love, not necessarily romantic love, can be sent to all sorts of people by all sorts of people.  For instance, diy cards are made in schools in arts and crafts lessons for primary school children to send to their teacher and / or their parents. Get everybody addicted to Valentine's Day while they are young. ''The business of America is business,' said an American President.

According to Wikipedia:
 People are actually encouraged to leave their locks on chains strung between posts at Lover's Lock Plaza in Lovelock, Nevada.^[18] The name of the town is unrelated to the love locks, it was named after a family that settled in the area in the 1860s. The town didn't adopt the practice until much later. In San Angelo, TX, the city has erected a sculpture "Forever Love" inspired by other "love locks" such as (formerly) the bridge in Paris.^[19][20]

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

AMERICAN JEWS (& ISRAEL)
Do Jews celebrate Valentine's day?
https://reformjudaism.org/practice/ask-rabbi/do-jews-celebrate-valentine’s-day-there-jewish-holiday-similar-valentines-day
This answer from reform Judaism is, as you might expect, in favour of harmony and modernisation.
As the old English saying goes, 'If you can't beat them, join them'.

A more traditional answer brings in a Jewish festival to echo Valentine's day's origins in courting and / or matchmaking on another date, Tu Bav, with a full moon.
https://forward.com/sisterhood/347404/8-quirkiest-facts-about-tu-bav-the-jewish-valentines-day-you-never-heard-of/ 

Useful Websites For Your Travels

But what did St Valentine look like? Forensic scientists have made a reconstruction, just as they do trying to find the identity of murder victims when remains are found. Right now, it's a novelty, quite a shock to see the reconstructed face of somebody, based on their skull. However, one day it will be commonplace, and no more unusual than looking at an old photo of painting or statue. Meanwhile, here's St Valentine, still influencing as today.

Português: Reconstrução facial forense de São Valentim. Cícero Moraes, José Luís Lira, ABRHAGI, Santa Maria in Cosmedin, Marcos Paulo Salles Machado.
Date	26 October 2017
Source	Own work
Author	Cicero Moraes

Author
See my previous posts on Valentine's Day, Umbria, Italian chocolates, and Osteria Modigliani.
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker. Please share links to your favourite posts.

Holocaust Love Story At Auschwitz - to read Before and After Visiting Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia or Melbourne - Background Reading on Auschwitz

Problem
In Poland you inevitably learn about the Holocaust. You will hear about the holocaust from a guide on even a standard city tour as you pass a museum or site, or the guide us asked by fellow tourists about the other tours. A trip to either the capital of Poland, Warsaw, or the pretty, small, historic city of Krokov, where the Nazis quickly invaded from nearby Germany and set up their capital in the small city which they preserved, whilst bringing in Jews from all over Europe, just across the border to Auschwitz.

A recently published book tells the love story of the Jewish tattooist of Auschwitz, "Lale" Sokolov (1916-2006), who fell in love with a girl called Gita from his home country, Czechoslovakia, now the Czech Republic. They both survived the camp - he sent food to her.

After the war, he searched for her. They found each other, married, and emigrated as far away as possible. They lived the rest of their lives peacefully in Melbourne, Australia.

Sokolov was the surname which Lale adopted when he lived in the Czech Republic, under Russian rule. His birth name had been Ludwig Eisenberg. He was forever the survivalist, inconspicuous.

Everybody will share the understanding of the love story and man's feeling of guilt and fear about the controversy over a potential accusation of collaboration.

In addition, what stands out for me, as I am a keen polyglot, is the vital life-saving factor, the tip, that he survived because he spoke so many languages.

He spoke many languages, like the late relative by marriage of mine who also came from the Czech area. The tattooist was a clever man, but also living in the Czech area surrounded by several other countries. He had to speak other languages to be understood by foreign visitors. Also he had the outgoing personality which impelled him to learn languages, as well as the native wit which allowed him to learn languages. If he had not spoken all those languages, he would not have been chosen to do that job, as a tattooist which saved his life in two ways. It kept him off the lists of those who would be gassed. He was given extra food.

The newspaper account also includes one sentence which makes no sense: 'he died before learning that his parents had died". He could not learn after he died. Do they mean 'without learning' or 'before he could learn', I presume so.

I see that the writer of the article has a European name, Ritu Prasad. Maybe the bilingual translator confuses before and after, gets the time sequence wrong, meaning, 'after learning' or 'just after learning' which implies that the shock of the news hastened his death.

My last thought is that the writer means 'before we/they i.e. the researchers learned'? Such errors and ambiguities are increasingly frequent nowadays.  You don't have to be foreign to confuse a clause, attach a description of the subject as an afterthought, after the object of the sentence. In this case, two whole sentences are linked.

What's wrong with the sentence structure? Lack of a sub-editor? Cost-cutting? Carelessness? Race to publish first?

Grammatically, a case of a missing subject, attaching a sub-clause which appears to belong to the subject of the sentence, he, instead of the missing subject of the attached second sentence 'we learned instead of learning).  If you have to read a sentence twice it's badly written.

However, you may be interested in both the BBC article and the book:

Helpful Websites:
http://www.bbc.com/news/stories-42568390#_=_

Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, teacher of English and other languages.

Ill over Christmas? Can't Cook? Lonely or Alone In December or January? The Answer - travel to later celebrations

Problem
You are ill over Christmas and can't enjoy it. A relative by marriage tells me and the world on Facebook that she is too ill to celebrate Christmas. She is too ill to get out of bed, go out, cook, taste the food, indulge in Christmas food, cook or drink alcohol. I have managed to celebrate Christmas with others from early December through to mid-January. How?

Answer
Rest
In my experience I get ill if I am doing too much and not getting enough rest. Some years I feel I have been travelling too much on crowded buses, trains and planes and mixing with too many crowds and breathing too many of other people's germs. Eventually something goes. Illness is my body's way of going on strike and telling me to go to bed and get some rest. After a day's sleep, I feel rested, better. Going to a club party means minimum effort organixing food, although some parties are pot luck.

December 25th, 2017, Chritmas Day at rooftop bar, Singapore. Just pay $22 entry per person for admission which includes $2 towards food, then add $2 to order a $24 platter of pizza.

Singapore's Early Christmas Parties In December
In Singapore the Francophone Toastmasters club which meets the first Friday of the month had their Christmas party at the start of December.

Changing Dates and Time Zones
In Singapore Christmas ends on Boxing Day (which is a holiday in the UK and some Commonwealth countries). However, if you wish, you can celebrate the 12 days of Christmas and leave up the decoration until January 6th.

Going Out To Meet Friends On Boxing Day
In London we used to meet a specific group of friends for a Boxing Day evening get together at a restaurant. This is a good system for a group including mixed nationalities, mized religions, couples with mixed marriages, or small families where you cannot have Chrsitmas Day at granny's, mother's, or one sister's home and boxing day at the other sister or sister-in-law or brother-in law.

I asked a Chinese single lady who has eight brothers and sisters and a clan of three generations, "Do you have a pot luck party?"

She said, "No. Americans like pot lucks. We are all too busy working, often from 7 am.  I teach in a local primary school.  Some of my family get home at 7 or eight or even nine at night. Too tired and busy to cook. We have a catering company delivery a buffet for our big family."

In Singapore our Indian friends organize an annual Boxing Day lunch at an Indian restaurant. The husband says, "It is because 'Judy' (his wife) is a teacher always has that day off from teaching." His wife teaches English and French at American and ex-pat schools.

Singapore's Late December Celebrations
Bishan Toastmasters club has a meeting December 26th, 2017 with one Christmas theme speech listed.

Cairnhill Toastmasters club has a Christmas potluck supper in the break of a Christmas theme meeting on December 27th, 2017.

In London in 2017 a club's meeting date fell late in the month, too close to Christmas. Some people were involved in office parties. Others were travelling overseas to family, or just taking a Christmas holiday. Therefore they postponed the club Christmas party to January when they also got a lower price for a restaurant meal for the group and choice of dates because the restaurants were not already booked up with other people's Xmas parties. Christmas decorations in the shops were cheaper and club members had leftovers from their own home Christmas parties as well as stocks from previous years.

Christmas Warmer and Earlier Down Under
In Australia and Singapore, the clocks are different. Therefore you can see the Queen's Speech several hours earlier on TV.

If you suffer from SAD (lack of sunlight as well as cold making you stay indoors out of the sun causing depression) you could go south around the world to the warmer tropics such as India, Singapore, or South Africa or Australia or New Zealand.

Czech Republic In Europe
Last year, 2016, I was in Prague, Czech Republic. I thought there would be nothing happening on December 27th, certainly not a club meeting. I emailed the half dozen clubs in Prague and was amazed to find an enthusiastic response from a Pague club which was holding a Christmas theme meeting.

If you are visiting a club overseas, you might wish to pack Christmas theme biscuits from home as a contribution to the festivities. Be prepared for a charge made to visitors and members for Christmas food. It will be less than you would pay in a restaurant with the added bonus of networking and conviviality. The Czech group ran things differently, a short meeting, then all going on to a budget restaurant with long tables in a giant cellar beer hall - with Christmas decorations. If you have a small family, or are single or widowed, visiting or joining a club is a way of finding a group with whom you can talk.

(Toastmasters International, which started in the USA, is now worldwide. Membership is about £100 a year depending on the location and frequency of meetings. You can join most clubs for half a year at a reduced price. When you are a member, you are welcome to join meetings worldwide and learn how to log into Find-a-club.)

Travel To A Change Of Christmas Scene
Back to Christmas. Dates are arbitrary. You can follow the sun or the moon, Julian's calendar or Gregory's calendar. Some countries have a day of rest on Friday, others on Saturday, others on Sunday. If you can't co-ordinate with one country's celebrations, find another which co-ordinates its parades with your health when you feel ready to go and celebrate.

Celebrating New Year
Who celebrates later? If you need a mid-winter break or holiday, the Scots have their main celebrations at New Year. Join the Scots in Scotland and Scottish ex-pats worldwide or in Scottish communities or watch on TV.

Celebrating In January
Eastern Europe and Eastern Orthodox communities worldwide celebrate in January. If you haven't the health or money or time to travel in January, you can travel on the internet.

Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker.

Sorting Out Cyrillic Alphabets and Slavic Languages

Problems
Who speaks what where?
How can I cope with Cyrillic writing?
Is Russian any use in Bulgaria?

Answers
Russian used Cyrillic writing. So does Bulgarian. However the Slavic languages are divided into West and East and south Slavic.

Who writes with which alphabet and why?
The Roman catholic countries under the Pope living near Rome use the Latin or Roman alphabet.
Cyril was a Greek priest sent to Constantinople in what is now the Turkish region and he and / or his followers took what we now call Cyrillic (which has some Greek style letters) to Russian and other countries, mostly East of France and Italy.

East Slavic Languages
Coming from the East, the East Slavic languages are
Russian - or Greater Russian - spoken in Russia - Cyrillic writing
Ukrainian - or Little Russian - spoken in Ukraine  - Cyrillic
Belarusian - or White Russian - spoken in Belarus - Cyrillic

West Slavic Languages
Czech - spoken in Czech Republic Republic (stress initial syllable) - Roman alphabet
Poland (stress last syllable but one) - Roman alphabet
Slovak - spoken in Slovakia - Roman alphabet

South Slavic
Bulgarian (uses article, a and the) - spoken in Bulgaria (Cyrillic alphabet)
Macedonian - Cyrillic alphabet
Serbo-Croatia split into Serbia and Croatia which have different alphabets.
Slovenian -  spoken in Slovenia - Roman alphabet

Serbian is written in Cyrillic but
Croatian is written in Roman alphabet.


Cyrillic Alphabets
The letter c is pronounced like s, as in palace.

Story
I started learning Greek, Hebrew and Russian on Duolingo because I thought it would be handy to know the alphabets. When I went to Romania I was surprised how easy it was to learn Romanian which is similar to Italian, derived from Latin, the language of the Romans.

Going south from Romania you reach Bulgaria which is popular with British travellers, partly because of good prices, Bargain Bulgaria. Some of my friends are considering a trip to Bulgaria next year and I might join them. However, on hearing that Bulgaria uses the the Cyrillic alphabet, which I find challenging, I decided I must start learning the Cyrillic alphabet now.


Tips
LANGUAGES
More details from
https://www.duolingo.com/comment/17638789 Ukrainian letters and links to pages on verbs. Personal pronouns grammar portal.

http://www.encyclopedia.com/literature-and-arts/language-linguistics-and-literary-terms/language-and-linguistics/slavic

TRAVEL
https://www.cheapflights.co.uk/find-flights/to-Ukraine/

Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker. Teacher of English and other languages.

What to see in the Czech Republic, Serbia and Slovakia, Warhol, Tesla and Kafka

Problem
First of all, they know who and where they are but I have to think hard. Which is which and what is where and who is who - or should it be whom? And what would I want to see?

Answers
If you are into art, you'll want to the Andy Warhol exhibits in Slovakia. If you are into science go to Serbia, to the Nikola Tesla Museum in Belgrade, Serbia. If you are interested in medieval times, WWII and Jewish history, go to Prague.

Czechoslovakia divided into the Czech Republic and Slovakia. So far so good.

The Czech Republic and Prague
The capital of the Czech Republic is Prague, all the C and K letters go with it. The Czech capital features the Charles bridge full of statues. The bridge is above the Kafka museum. The bridge leads across the river up to the hilltop castle which may or may not be the inspiration for Kafka's story.

I am a people person and to me the top attraction in any place is a museum based on somebody famous, best if it's somebody's home turned into a museum, or a trail around sites associated with a famous person. For me, Prague is Kafka.

Kafka was Jewish and there's also a Jewish museum. An extensive historic trail covers WWII, after his time, and includes Jewish sites before his time such as the cemetery connected with the medieval Golem (a bit like Frankenstein).

Combined visits:
Kafka Museum and Mucha Museum.
Jewish trail.

• The Castle
• The Charles Bridge
• The Kafka Museum - and Kafka statues 
• The Jewish Museum
• The Jewish Cemetery 
• The Dancing House Restaurant

Slovakia
The Slovak Republic has a Carpathian wine tour. See:
Andy Warhol Museum of Art
Contains more than 150 works of art by artist Andy Warhol and by his brother and his son.
http://www.region.sk/warhol/index2.html
www.slovakia.com

Slovenia
Previously part of Yugoslavia, capital Bratislava, has some caves and the notable city is the small capital Lublijana.

Serbia
Learn about the engineer and inventor, Nikola Tesla at the Nikola Tesla Museum.
Nikola Tesla Museum in Belgrade, Serbia.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nikola_Tesla_Museum
https://www.nikolateslamuseum.org/web/
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/blogs-news-from-elsewhere-40171776 on Tesla museum and urn with his ashes in museum.

If you are in the USA, you may be interested in the Tesla Science centre.
http://www.teslasciencecenter.org

Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker. I have other posts on the Czech Republic and Prague. Please share links to posts.