Walnut Pie
Highly calorific, the walnut pie, walnuts and honey filling in a shortcrust pastry. Chop up a small piece to go with coffee. Buy as a gift. Can keep well for months.
German name Nusstorte
Bündner Nusstorte (Graubünden nut pastry), also known as Engadiner Nusstorte,
Luxembourg (co-official language alongside Luxembourgish and French)
Italy: Recognized as an official regional language in the South Tyrol (Alto Adige) region.
Namibia: Recognized as a national minority language (due to its colonial history).
Minority Communities: German is also spoken by recognized minority populations in parts of
Poland,
Czech Republic,
Hungary,
Romania,
Slovakia,
France (Alsace and Lorraine),
Denmark,
Russia (Volga Germans).
Film - film
oft - often
Maschine - machine
machine - Maschine
often - oft
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Where can you learn and practise speaking German?
Flag of Germany
You can use German in Germany, Austria and German-speaking parts of Switzerland. Also Luxembourg, Liechtenstein, and parts of Belgium and Italy.
I am learning German on Duolingo.
I listened to a BBC podcast about how apps can help, and whether you gain more by adding a conversation with a live person or doing that instead. For me, at home alone, or on public transport, the app is a start and a constant practice.
Apparently you can turn off the sounds at the ends of an exercise, which might annoy others at home or in public places such as on a bus or train.
A capital letter at the start of a word indicates that it is a noun rather than a verb or adjective.
(Die )Jacke - (the ) jacket
du - you singular, like tu in French
Remember to use a capital letter when writing nouns in German.
jacket - Jacke, the jacket is die Jacke, (both die and Jacke end in the letter e)
you singular - tu
(you singular) must - musst (You must use the double ss in German)
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I have been learning German on Duolingo. I can recognize bread, butter and breakfast. But now I am planning to go to German speaking Switzerland.
What's different about Swiss German? In some ways, from an English speaker's point of view, Swiss German is German made easy. Let's start with the easy bits.
Firstly, Swiss German is easier for English speakers to read because it uses the double s instead of the vertical squiggly s which most English speakers don't have on their laptop keyboard.
Swiss German speakers are likely to understand standard German, so learning German will help you to be understood when speaking, as well as helping you to read signs and menus. In fact there's a hybrid language, Swiss standard German, which is used for writing and formal situations, which is closer to standard German spoken in Germany.
Swiss German is also spoken in Liechtenstein, which is sandwiched between Switzerland and Austria.
raclette - melted cheese (often raclette cheese) served on boiled potatoes, or on bread as a snack, with black tea or white wine
They use the French word merci for thank you.
The word for little is li added on the end of a word, notably for bun (little bread), kitten (little cat), hundli for puppy (little dog), like the English doggy and dolly.
Brot - bread / loaf
Brötli - little bread (bun?) or roll
Hend Si ... ? - Do you have ...?
merci - thank you
merci vilmal - thank you very much (literally thanks many times)
rösti - (Same as standard German) grated, fried potato, like American hash bowns
Hash browns, also spelled hashed browns and hashbrowns, are a popular American breakfast food consisting of finely julienned potatoes that have been fried until golden brown. Hash browns are a staple breakfast item at diners in North America, where they are often fried on a large, common cooktop or grill. Wikipedia. Julienned means cutting into long thin strips.
Spätzli In Switzerland they are called Spätzli or Chnöpfli, in Germany Spätzle - is an egg noodle dish, with pieces of a lumpy shape.
According to wiki, it is the Swabian and Alsacian diminutive of Spatz, thus literally 'little sparrow'.[3] Some linguists derive it from the word “clump”, meaning dough which tends to form clots.[4]
Znüni - elevenses (snack in a mid-morning break)
Do you have ...? - Hend Si ...?
bread - Brot )
bun / roll - brötli (Swiss-German)
croissant (French and English and German) - gipfil (Swiss-German)
chocolate - schoggi (German Schokolade)
I am - ich bi (Standard German is ich bin)
thank you - merci (French and Swiss-German) - (German danke)
German uses capital initial letters for nouns. English and French use capital initials only for proper names (Places and people, personal names).
Useful Websites on Swiss German and German
https://www.swiss-german-online.com/at-the-restaurant.html
Simple and comprehensive
https://en.wikivoyage.org/wiki/Swiss-German_phrasebook
Detailed and technical
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swiss_German
Clear, amusing, but fewer words
https://studyinginswitzerland.com/swiss-german-vs-german-differences/
For Standard German
Translate Google
https://translate.google.co.uk/
Food Terms in German
https://www.switzerlandisyours.com/E/guide/basics/food-terms-german.html
You can find Swiss delis in the Finchley Road in Dublin, Eire; London 0 though that might just take its name from Swiss Cottage; and New Zealand.
Food articles
https://www.mashed.com/289205/what-is-spaetzle-and-what-does-it-taste-like/
Entertaining article with recipe and picture of a device for making spaezli:
https://www.helvetickitchen.com/recipes/2015/10/15/spaztli
Spazli maker on Amazon £7.99 plus £4.99 postage to a UK address.
Websites updated Wed July 1st 2026.
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Click Languages
Practise xhosa sounds with a man
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dw_hBNyi_9c
Some history and world view from a lady
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/
At a recent meeting of our language lovers club, I gave an introductory session on German. I started by asking who knew no German. I asked if they could think of one word of German. Silence. So I asked, 'Do you know any names of cars or food?'
The answer which came from the audience surprised me. I had not thought of it. It was the name of the car Volkswagen. That was a great example. Volks, meaning folk/in this context, belong to fol,. The w pronounced like a W. The English words, fol's wagon. A vehicle for the people, a cheap car for mass production.
I was delighted to add this to my existing list.
I already had two popular examples in mind. Kindergarten. kinder is child. Garden is garden.
So that is two word, three words if you count the combination. Child. Garden. Kindergarden.
Doesn't everybody know this already? Some people had forgotten it and were pleased to be reminded that they knew as many as five words. Others spoke English as a second language. The analysis of the word was new for a Hindi speaking guest in London, It was also new for a Chinese speaking guest who I met at Toastmasters in Singapore, now working and living in Korea.
For those with a wider vocabulary, several words come to mind.
Schwarz, german for black, in the name of the opera singer, Elizabeth Schwarzkopf. Kopf is head, so the family name's meaing was a black haired person. The most common surname in German is Smith, the same as in England, naming the trade which would have been popular years ago. Schmidt, smith. Schneider is tailor.
Blau is blue.
More sophisticated words include ersatz, false, synthetic, pretend.
Sunday Feb 18 th 2024 the subject is Japanese. You can visit our online speakers' language club LILT. The timings are
USA Central time and Belize and Central American time 7.30am,
USA New York 8.30 am,
UK 1.30 pm.
France 2.30 pm (14.30).
India 7pm.
Indonesia (Jakarta time) 8.30 pm,
Singapore, China, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Japan, th Philippines and Western Australia, 9.30 pm (21.30).
For the Zoom login, contact Carolyn Street on Facebook with a personal message, or find her or me though Advancity Toastmasters International club.
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Yiddish is mainly German vocabulary. A few words of Hebrew. Written in Hebrew.
Carried around the world. Dropped into the local language in New York, London, and worldwide.
Yiddish - English
ganif - thief
machataynim - in-laws
mishpocha - family
oy veh - oh dear/goodness gracious/well, I never
kaput - broken, not working
l'chaim - to life (used repeatedly in song in Fiddler on the roof)
shlemiel - idiot?
shnorrer - beggar, person looking for a freebie, hustler?
shobbas - sabbath, Saturday, shabbat(Hebrew)
shpiel - game
tuchus - bottom, behind, fanny
yomtov - religious festival day, holiday (Hebrew day-good)
English - Yiddish
god willing
good health
cheers/(literally to life) - la-chaim
oh dear - oy veh
Please God by you
I wish you well to wear it
On Amazon books, and in big bookshops, you will find several amusing books on Amazon the Uk version ending co.uk and the US version.com,, as well as straightforward dictionaries, and phrase books, and teach yourself books.
Duolingo has Yiddish.
Useful Resources - Books
Oy Vey
The Joys of Yiddish
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Which is which and which is where? Even though I have been to five out of six, I recently got in a muddle. I was happily telling a man selling wines on the Liechtenstein stand about driving for a day tip to Liechtenstein when I was a child and my father who was driving saw somebody talking to a policeman and identified the tourist as an Italian.
The man representing Liechtenstein wines nodded, agreed that you can identify Italian by the way they talk with the hands, and politely pointed out that in Lieichtenstein they border German and Switzerland and speak German. We had a very jolly, amicable and educational conversation.
When I got home, I looked up Liechtenstein and realized, to my invisible embarrassment, that I had been recalling a trip to San Marino. When I checked the locations I could see why. San Marino is only a few miles from Rimini in Italy, which I had visited many times as a child with my parents and later as an adult. Rimini with its long sandy beach is a destination which has for years been promoted in package tours to the British traveller. Let's come back to Liechtenstein in a moment and sort out the facts and look at the little countries in Euorpe in alphabetical order.
Andorra - see the skiing and speak Spanish, or maybe French.
Andorra in winter is a ski destination and my son went there specially to ski last Christmas time as a side trip from northern Spain and sent me pictures of streets and restaurants, landmarks and attractions. Andorra has mountains with skiing in winter and water providing seafood. Sandwiched between Spain and France, depending on the area you visit, you can get by with speaking and reading menus in French or Spanish. You are in the north of Spain, near the border with France, and if the Spanish sounds strange, or the spelling is slightly unusual and unexpected, that's because they are speaking the related language Catalan. The Catalan language is found both sides of the country, in place names, family names and everyday language in Andorra as well as adjacent Spain and France.
Liechtenstein wine
Leichtenstein is a German speaking principality. I immediately recognized the word stein as German for stone, as in Einstein, a surname meaning one stone. The Leich part means light, like modern German as well as the Scottish. (I recall the Scottish poem from Burns, 'a broad licht moonlicht nicht, a broad, light, moonlit night). The spelling is i before e at the start.
In Liechtenstein, a big attraction is the wine cellars of the prince. The country produces ice wine, which means it has some cold moments.
Eiswein, which is German language for Ice Wine. They speak German.
Luxemburg
Luxembourg has more than one place to visit. Again in mountains. Multi-lingual opportunity and challenge.
Small but affluent. They speak French and German and the local language. As for food, Luxembourgish cuisines like Bouneschlupp (green bean soup), Ierzebulli (pea soup), and Glühwäin (mulled wine).
Monarch of Monarco - and its Casino
Driving east along the southern coast of Spain you reach opulent Monarco. When I went there from Nice I could not get into the country. You needed a visa. I can't remember whether we lacked the money or time to get one, but either we or the border control thought that the opulent country, its luxury fancy hotels and restaurants, was beyond our budget at that time.
San Marino
A side trip from Rimini in Italy. A road uphill to the top with the view. Buy postcards and postage stamps and drive down again. Speak Italian.
The Vatican
The Vatican has assorted treasures, the physical ones, the architecture, history, paintings, treasures, documents, as well as the living treasures to see, the pope, the priests, the nuns, the devotees. The blessings and the balcony. The outdoors and the shady indoors.
It also has the world's shortest railway.
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A top attraction for Roman Catholics, especially at certain times of year. If you are not religious and want to avoid crowds, time your trip off-season or at a suitable time of day, according to advice from the Vatican and your local travel agent or online.
Expect to speak Italian. They used to speak Latin in services.
Useful Websites
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vatican_City
I completed the April challenge on Duolingo they say. I can't remember what this was. It must have been German.
Then I felt tired. Korean was too challenging. Which easy language could I practise for five minutes?
I went back to the simplest language. Esperanto. A language without a country.
But isn't Zoom a worldwide country?
Zamenhof
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"A little learning is a dangerous thing. Drink deep."
So said Alexander Pope, a poet, born in 1688, died 1744.
I am going to tell you about time, days off, and thank you.
When you hear people trying to speak English, do you sometimes think, how good of them to try so hard.
Do you ever think foreigners are charming, but crazy, half wits?
What's worse, if you try to help them and understand them, you can see from the expression on their face, They think you are a crazy half wits!
I thought of that when I arrived late on holiday, and kept 20 hikers waiting.
'Wilkommen. Welcome. You are one hour late,' said the German speaking leader of the hikers, on my hiking holiday. 'I told you half nine. Halb neun.'
'Yes,' I said, 'It’s half past nine.'
'Nein. No! Half nine is eight hours and thirty minutes. A quarter to in English is 15 minutes before. And halb neun is half an hour before nine."
We looked it up. The Germans say half nine, when the English speakers, you and me, would say half past eight.
A little learning is a dangerous thing. Drink deep.
I think the German should learn and speak English, which is the most widely spoken first and second language in the world, closely followed by Chinese and Spanish, both of which I am learning. Spanish is the easiest language for English speakers. Chinese is the most difficult.
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In Singapore, many people are bilingual. They speak English as a second language.
I am learning German, because once a year I meet up with this hiking group. I am using Duolingo, which claims to be the most widely used language system in the world. I have signed up for a dozen languages, just to read the first page of handy hints and , and .
Benefits Of Being Bilingual
Apart from avoiding mistranslation mishaps, are there any advantages to learning a second language. Yes. Several.
The first is that being bilingual has been found to postpone the onset of Alzheimers by five years. What is the evidence? Studies have been done amongst contained populations, such as amongst nuns in the USA.
That's a long term benefit.
To keep you amused, I will tell you about mistakes I made with mistranslations in Singlish, Spanish, French,
Pope also said, to err is human, to forgive divine.
English is a common language in Singapore. But Singlish sounds the same and is slightly different.
My Indian Singaporean friend, Jaya, wanted to meet me for lunch. He said to me,
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"I want to talk to you. I'm having an off day."
I said, "If you are not feeling well, see doctor. I can see you tomorrow."
He replied, "Why should I see a doctor?".
I said, "if you are having an off day, you are depressed."
"I'm not depressed. I am not working. It's my off day.'
I said, "you mean your 'day off.' "
"Yes, that's what I said, 'an off day.' "
"No. Where I come from, an off day, means a bad day, like food which has gone off. The day when you are not working is a day off."
"thank you," he said.
He said it in English.
I speak French fluently. Many people can recognize the French word for thank you, merci. (which is also thank you in Romanian.).
In France my former babysitter Carolyn offered me tea.
I said, "merci," - "thank you".
She didn't give me any tea.
Half an hour later, she asked me again,
"Would you like some tea.?
I replied, "I did not get any the first time."
She replied, you said merci.
It took us ten minutes to work out that in English, thank you, means thank you, or yes thank you. In French you say yes please or no thank you, so thank you is short for no thank you.
Remember that.
Finally, thanks in two languages.
I shall finish by thanking you in German and Chinese.
Danke.
Shay shay.
800-1000 words
Useful Websites
duolingo - for Spanish, German, Swedish,
Flag of Israel
Memrise - for Albanian
https://app.memrise.com/courses/english/albanian/
My Starting Point
It's my birthday in the month of March. I already had a share of photos of a birthday cake bought for two other March babes (babies - adults, once newborn babies) at Emmaus Catholic Toastmasters International club in Singapore. I have a birthday dinner later this month so I am practising saying or recognizing the words Happy Birthday in various languages.
Why Learn Or Teach Happy Birthday?
Happy Birthday to you is one of the world's most widely known songs, along with Auld Lang Syne. Since the four words of Happy Birthday to You are modern English they are easier to use and recognize.
What\s more, the same song is used in several countries.
England and the UK. The USA. Hong Kong.
Now let's move onto France which is across the sea from the UK and Canada which is over the border from the USA.
French For Happy Birthday
The French is Joyeux anniversaire. It sounds like the English words joyful anniversary, easy to learn, at least recognize, and teach. When saying it, note that the eux sounds more like a Z, jew - eye-(h)ers
Spanish
The Spanish is cumpleaños with a NY diacritic over the n .
It is my birthday - es mi cumpleaños
Happy Birthday - feliz cumpleaños
Congratulations - Felicidades
That does for Spain and much of South American. It sounds like compliments.
German
Google translate gave me
Alles Gute zum Geburtstag
A useful reminder to capitalise all the nouns. Alles is like all. Gute is like good. Ge is the past. burt is like birth. Tag is day.
Hebrew
The Hebrew includes the word for day which is Yom. You might know the important Jewish holiday, Yom Kippur. Or the Yiddish yom tov which is literally day good, or have a good day or rather holiday. In English on any festival you say in London, England, good yom tov, which is repeating the word day in two languages.
You might like to run these phrases through in your desired language.
It's my birthday
Happy birthday
Congratulations -
Useful web sites
Lovely Spanish version of Happy birthday and another song with subtitles.
https://www.berlitz.com/blog/happy-birthday-spanish-song
Translate google
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b6/Most_common_birthdays.svg
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_birthday_songs
This list of birthday songs contains songs which are the equivalent of Happy Birthday To You, sung around the globe on birthday occasions.
These are translations or variations sung to the tune that is commonly associated with the English language lyrics "Happy Birthday To You".
Albania: "Shumë urime për ty"
Arabic countries: "سنة حلوة يا جميل" (Sana helwa ya gameel)[1]
Argentina and 
Uruguay: "Que los cumplas feliz"[2]
Armenia: "Tsnundd shnorhavor" "Ծնունդդ շնորհավոր"[3]
Brazil: "Parabéns pra Você"
Bulgaria: "Честит рожден ден" (Chestit rozhden den)
Canada:
Chile: "Cumpleaños feliz"[4]
People's Republic of China: "Zhu ni shengri kuaile"[5] (祝 你 生日 快乐)
Colombia: "Cumpleaños feliz"
Croatia: "Sretan rođendan ti"
Ecuador:[6] (Unable to find name of real name of song, but here are the lyrics) "Cumpleaños feliz, Deseamos a tí, Cumpleños (nombre 
Estonia: "Palju õnne sulle!" or "Õnne soovime sul!"
Finland: "Paljon onnea vaan"[7]
Georgia: "გილოცავ დაბადების დღეს" (gilotsav dabadebis dges)
Germany: "Zum Geburtstag viel Glück" and even the English original
Hong Kong:
Hungary: "Boldog szülinapot"
Iceland: "Hann(m)/Hún(f) á afmæli í dag"[7]
Ireland: "Lá breithe sona duit"
India: Happy Birthday to You often sung in English. वाढदिवसाच्या हार्दिक शुभेच्छा (Vad Divasachya Hardik Shubhchchya) in Marathi or जन्मदिन की शुभकामनाये (Janmdin Ki Shubh Kamanayen) in Hindi or ജന്മദിനാശംസകള് നേരുന്നു (Janma dinasamsakal Nerunnu) in Malayalam and in Tamil (பிறந்தநாள் நல்வாழ்த்துக்கள்) and in Telugu జన్మదిన శుభాకాంక్షలు / పుట్టినరోజు శుభాకాంక్షలు (Janma Dina Shubhakankshalu / Puttina Roju Shubakankshalu) and in Kannada (Huttu Habbada Shubhashayagalu) and in Konkani (Vad Divasache Mast Mast Shubhashayu)
Indonesia : "Selamat Ulang Tahun" often sung in English tune. Or
Israel:
Italy: "Tanti auguri a te"[7]
Japan:
South Korea: 생일 축하 합니다 (saeng-il chukha hamnida)
Lithuania: "Su gimimo diena"
Malaysia:
Netherlands: "Een fijne verjaardag voor jou". Dutch Children often sing the song in different languages (like English German, French parody Russian and parody Chinese)
Nigeria: It Is Your Birthday by LekanA [8]
Peru : "Cumpleaños Feliz"
Philippines: "Maligáyang Bátì"[7]
Russia: С днём рожденья тебя (S dn'om rozhden'ya teb'a) (sometimes sung in English)
Serbia: "Srećan ti rođendan!" (Cyrillic: "Срећан ти рођендан!")
Slovakia: "Veľa šťastia, zdravia"
Slovenia: "Vse najboljše za te"
Spain: "Cumpleaños Feliz" (also see below)
Somalia: Hip Hooray Hip Hooray Dhalasho Wacan and Tanti auguri a te
Switzerland:
Taiwan - "ㄓㄨˋ ㄋㄧˇ ㄕㄥ ㄖˋ ㄎㄨㄞˋ ㄌㄜˋ" (祝 你 生日 快樂)
Thailand:สุขสันต์วันเกิด
Turkey: "İyi ki doğdun (isim)"
United Kingdom: Happy birthday to you
United States: Happy birthday to you
Wales: "Penblwydd hapus i chi"
Belgium: Brazil: Bulgaria: Много Лета (mnogo leta) : Many Years Canada (French Canada): Gens du pays (Mon/Ma cher/chère [name], c'est à ton tour, de te laisser parler d'amour [bis])
Czech Republic: "Štěstí, zdraví"
Cuba: Felicidades
Denmark:
Dominican Republic: El Regalo Mejor (Celebro tu cumpleaños)
France : Bon Anniversaire ("Happy Birthday, sincerest wishes to you") Georgia: მრავალჟამიერ (Mravalzhamier) : Many Years Germany:
Greece: "Να ζήσεις και χρόνια πολλά" (Na zisis ke hronia polla) Hong Kong: India (Hindi): Janam Din ki hardik shubhkamana/badhai Indonesia:
Iran: "Tavalodet Mobarak" تولدت مبارک ("blessed be your birthday") by Anoushiravan Rohani Israel:
Latvia: Daudz baltu dieniņu Lithuania: Ilgiausių metų Malaysia: Allah selamatkan kamu /الله سلامتکن کامو ("May Allah bless you"), popularized through movies of P. Ramlee such as Nasib Labu Labi and Tiga Abdul.
Mexico: Las Mañanitas
Nepal: "Janma din ko Subhakamana" Netherlands:
Norway
Poland: Sto lat ("[We wish you to live] A hundred years")
Romania: Mulţi ani trăiască Russia: Песенка Крокодила Гены (Song of Crocodile Gena) Serbia: Danas nam je divan dan
South Africa: Veels geluk liewe maatjie (Afrikaans language: Much happiness dear friend - also slightly religious - Christian) Spain: Feliz, feliz en tu día, originally from a TV show but now quite extended as a traditional birthday song.
Suriname: A di mi yere yu friyari (Sranan Tongo)
Sweden: Ja, må han (hon) leva
Ukraine: Хари Бирдеи то иу (Happy birthday to you)
Vietnam: Happy birthday
Venezuela: Ay, que noche tan preciosa
