Quick way to learn German Quickly And Easily

 I am learning German ready for a trip to German speaking Switzerland next year. Their accent is different from German speaking Germany and Austria, but I hope to understand German speaking tourists in my group and to read signs. I should be able to understand local people speaking Swiss German by asking them to speak slowly, or by using my mobile phone to help out. Goodness, that's a modern change in the English language. When I was a child you helped. Nowadays you help out. What is the difference?

Never mind that. I must stick to the subject of how I am learning German effortlessly.

Every morning I take a pill. Thyroxine. I have to wait half an hour before eating breakfast. As a distraction, so that I am not tempted to shorten the time, I do a couple of Duolingo lessons in German. That reinforces what I have already learned, and keeps me either ahead or on par with others in my league who are getting points in the games of being paired, or competing in the 30 person weekly contest.

By the time I eat breakfast, I have already ticked one item off my to do list and feel in charge of my day. Duolingo done.  And I have taken my pill at the right time. Two wins. Breakfast, number three. 

How about some words for what I have done? Start translating my everyday thoughts. I shall type out my thoughts and translate them using Google translate. You can do the same. Next time I shall translate my blog into German. After reading it in English, you can read the translation and see how many words are the same.

I shall make a list of my thoughts, and conversations first thing in the morning. I shall translate them at odd moments through the day.

German  

LEARNING GERMAN - ENGLISH THOUGHTS TO TRANLATE

I am learning German. 

I am winning.

I am doing well.

You are winning.

You are doing well.

This is what I do.

Please speak slower.

I can help you.

Let's call it a day

German translation of  everyday thoughts

Ich lerne Deutsch.

Ich bin auf der Gewinnerstraße.

Ich mache mich gut.

Du bist auf der Gewinnerstraße.

Du machst dich gut.

Das ist es, was ich tue.

Bitte sprich langsamer.

Ich kann dir helfen (My memory aid is, 'I can help you, dear')

für heute Schluss machen

However, Duolingo translates 'Were you able to call it a day, then,' as

Konntet ihr (can you plural) dann (then) Fierabend machen.

(I shall have difficulty saying this but might recognize it if somebody says it. I can now put the two phrases into AI and ask it to explain the difference. You could also ask QUORA, but I used QUORA a lot and then they started asking me for money, so I stopped. Maybe after a hiatus the system will let me join for free, or let me search for previous answers to similar questions.)

BREAKFAST

Have you had breakfast?

What time is breakfast?

I have had breakfast.

TO DO LIST

You can do the same.

 I have a lot to do today.

I have started.

I have finished.

I have already started.

I have already done it.

THE DAY'S ACTIVITIES

What next?

Where shall we go?

What shall we do, today?

Have you any suggestions?

What are your thoughts?

EATING OUT

Let's go out.

Let's have lunch in a restaurant.

Can you suggest a restaurant?

Any preference?

That sounds good.

Tell them one o'clock.

I have already booked it.

GROUPS

Who else is going?

I don't know.

I don't have a list.

I have a list.

How do you know?

They told me.

Our friends.

Nobody we know.

Nobody you know.

Nobody I know.

I like meeting new poeple.

ALLERGIES

I am allergic to shellfish.

I forgot to tell them.

I'll tell them.

I'll phone them.

Thanks.

Looking forward to it.

See you later.

Goodbye.

-ends-

Please save.

  Where can you learn and practise speaking German? 

Flag of Germany

Flag of Austria

Flag of Switzerland

You can use German in Germany, Austria and German-speaking parts of Switzerland.  Also Luxembourg, Liechtenstein, and parts of Belgium and Italy.

Flag of Luxembourg.

Flag of Liechtenstein.

Let's look at the easiest languages

 Navajo

Can I see in Duolingo how many lessons?

At the end of level six it sets a test to see if you can jump. Unless you jump you cannot see how many lessons are ahead. Can I cheat the system by using google translate to fill in correct answers. (This would speed me up, and I would still be learning.) No. Google translate has dozens of languages, the common ones and obscure ones, but not Navaho.

Google Translate

This is ridiculous. I could add half a dozen words to a dictionary. Would that be valid? 

No. Because I am not a native speaker. But it could be in a not yet published system waiting to be checked by native speakers.

Google translate's algorithms would check whether my answers are correct. At one point I was invited to join an online panel correcting English translations on Google. They ask a dozen people who have signed up as native speakers (passing a spelling and grammar test), and when all agree they add the result.

Esperanto 

Esperanto is another easy language. Easy for some. it has regular rules. No exceptions. But you have to learn them. i don't find them easy to remember or say. Easy to read. And lots of speakers. Used by Hungarians. 

Interlingua

I like Interlingua. But nobody speaks it or uses it. It's what you use if you are a polyglot in a desperate situation, like I was trying to warn a group of laughing Spanish girls that they needed to evacuate Euston station in London in the year 2000 because of a bomb scare. You picks words which are the same in several languages and add the most common endings, such as s for plurals, o for male, a for female. Similar to Spanish.

I like this because it says what it is. I think every flag should have its name in English or at very least in its own country's major language.

Interlingua seems to use salute for hello, saluta, for say hello, bon die for hello/ good day, salute mondo for hello world.

Useful Websites

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

Translation English to Interlingua

https://glosbe.com/en/ia/hello

Please share links to your favourite posts

How To Say The Word for Travel in several languages

UK flag


US flag

The English and American for travel are the same. But the British say holiday, whilst the Americans say vacation.

English - travel
Arabic - safar (like safari, also Bangla, Hindi, Urdu)
Catalan - viatge (spelling with a g like voyage, closer to the French than the Spanish)
Esperanto - vojaĝi
French - voyage

Hindi - safar (also Arabic, Bangla, Urdu)
Indonesian - perjalanan
Italian - viaggio
Malay- bepergian (to travel)
Norwegian - Reise
Portuguese (Brazil) - viagem



Spanish - viaje
Urdu - safar (also Arabic, Bangla, Hindi)

I tried the Chinese for I like to travel in Google translate. I could grasp wo for I.

我喜欢
去旅行

Wǒ xǐhuān
qù lǚxíng

Useful Websites
Polyglot page on Facebook
https://www.facebook.com/groups/polygotcommunity/2343793145839444/?comment

Duolingo

interlingua


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

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

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

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

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

Latest is only two meetings each month.

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

 tinyurl.com/BHACOOL

Useful Websites On Speaking and Languages

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

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

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

Other Useful Posts By Angela Lansbury Author

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

Please share links to your favourite posts

How To Start Learning Dutch From a Nursery Rhyme

Dutch is an easy language. Similar to English. Similar to German. A half way house.

I found this in Wikipedia when reseraching ten green bottles.

Modern popular version

Dit is het eerste couplet.
Van een potje met vet.
Ik heb een potje met vet,
Al op de tafel gezet.
Ik heb een potje potje potje potje ve-e-et,
Al op de tafel gezet.

Dit is het tweede couplet... etc.

Translation into English:

This is the first verse.
Of a little jar of fat.
I've got a little jar of fat (grease),
I've got a little, little, little jar of fa-a-at
and put it on the table.

This is the second verse.

You can go into translate google and add the words second, third, fourth and so on.

English - Dutch

a/an - een 

couplet/verse - couplet

fat/grease - vet

have - heb

I - Ik

jar/pot - potje

of - van

of/with - met

on - op

is - is

first - eerste

second - tweede

table - tafel

this - dit

Dutch _ English

couplet - couplet/verse

dit - this

een - an/a

eerste - first

heb - have

ik - I

is - is

met - with/of

op - on

potje/pot or jar

Tafel - table

tweede - second

van - of

vet - fat/grease

useful websites

Useful websites For Song Titles

https://spinditty.com/playlists/Songs-About-the-Sun-and-Sunshine

About the author

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

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

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

I am Immediate Past President of Braddell Heights Advanced, meeting on Zoom the first Wednesday of the month but  the third Saturday afternoon and occasionally on other Wednesdays our workshops are on app learncool.sg 

Incoming president Faith from July 1st 2020 could change dates and platforms so please contact the club.

learncool.sg

Or quicker to type and easier to remember: 

 tinyurl.com/BHACOOL

For language lovers:Useful Websites

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

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

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

https://travelwithangelalansbury.blogs
https://travelwithangelalansbury.blogspot.com/2019/04/how-to-say-thank-you-in-several.html
https://travelwithangelalansbury.blogspot.com/2019/05/introducing-yourself-in-english-spanish.html
https://travelwithangelalansbury.blogspot.com/2020/01/second-set-of-portuguese-words.html Please share links to your favourite posts
https://www.toastmasters.org/find-a-club
translate.google.com
duolingo.com

How And Why To Translate Languages Such As German from the news

I keep reading that a way to learn to speak is to listen to the news. I have been learning German. By accident I clicked on Facebook on a link to a live broadcast of questions about

One suggestion I found on the Facebook polyglots page was to have the German (or other language your learning) news or radio paying in the background when you are doing something else, to get used to the intonation, reinforce the words and constructions you already know, and expand your vocabulary with similar words.

German - English
(note that in German the nouns have capital letters)
aber - but
aus - out
diese Minute - this minute
ersten - first
Bürger - citizens
diese - this
dramatisch - dramatic
gut - good (often used in surnames, as in the English Goodman)
kontakt - contact
kranken - ill/sick (think of the English word kranky)
krankenhause - hospital
Flugzeug - plane (add e on the end for plural)
Flüge - flights
frage - question
frangen - to ask
heute - today
informationen - information
influenza - flu
international - international
Kindergarten - kindergarden
lage - long
Maschine - machine (in German pronounced machine-er)
menschen - people
Muss - must
natürlich - naturally
nicht - not
noch - yet
funfzig - fifteen
Reise - travel
Spektrum - spectrum
sprechen - speak
statistiken - statistics
szenario - scenario
zu - to

I managed to finish the German basic course in Duolingo and I am now on the Spanish.

Useful Websites
www.google.com/search?q=google+translate+english
https://www.wordreference.com/
https://www.facebook.com/groups/polygotcommunity/
duolingo.com
memrise.com

About The Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author, speaker, teacher of English and other languages.
Please share links to your favourite posts.

How To Practise Speaking Foreign Languages: American and British English, Chinese, Greek, Italian and more

From Wiki article on speech. Click to see the mouth and tongue and throat move.

On the 'Polyglots (The Community' page in Facebook, somebody asked for recommendations on how to practise speaking a language.

Powerpoint Presentation
I have written an introduction to myself in powerpoint, with English in the left column and Chinese (Mandarin) in the right hand column. I shall practise it and eventually deliver it at a bilingual Mandarin-English Toastmasters club in Singapore.

Each slide is a simple sentence which I would use to introduce myself to a Mandarin speaker if we met. For example, My name is ...;- I am a teacher - of English; I am British; I live in London, England; I also live in Singapore.

My aim is to read this every day, once or twice a day, perhaps first thing in the morning if I wake early, over coffee, or last thing at night, and read it aloud.

Earworms
Another system good for spoken languages is Earworms. The vocabulary is great for travellers. You hear simple sentences you might say on a plane and around a city you visit.

You could keep it on your laptop. Or play it in the car. Or play it as you fall asleep.

Duolingo
Duolingo is also good. It is multiple choice and has symbols you can click on to hear the word said. Listen and say the phrase aloud three times. At the end of each exercise click on the review button. Even if you got all the words right when it comes to recognizing them, use this exercise to read the words aloud.

If you are not sure about your pronunciation, ask in the forums.

Skills Future
The Singapore government subsidises skills course for Singaporeans and Permanent Residents. Courses include languages such as Spanish.





Tinycards
Language cards, which say aloud the words so you can copy them. From the Duolingo people.

Wikipedia
When looking up the cities you will be visiting on your next trip, click on the sound button in the Wikipedia article about the city. The sound button is after the name.

You could try reading Wikipedia in your target language, such as French or Spanish or many other languages. Check the list of available languages in the left hand column of your wiki pages. Read the English version and then the other language and read that aloud.

Google Translate
You can also put the names of cities into Google translate. I type in 'Google translate' every time but the website is 'translate google'.

Learn With Buddies
If you want to practise speaking, find a buddy.
Online through Polyglots on Facebook.
In person through Meetup in your city.

You can list your interests on Meetup and attend meetings organized by others. Alternatively pay to organize an event or series of events on Meetup. Or list events in Facebook Events on a suitable page.

YouTube
Type in the language you want and the word learn and you will find several options. FluentYou has videos from native speakers and offers one month free trial. that is handy if you are going on holiday in a month's time or less or just want to get started with the right pronunciation. If you are on business with an expense account or think language is vital to negotiating, you might later use their paid for version.

Useful websites (listed alphabetically)
CONVERSATION
https://www.conversationexchange.com/



Duolingo.com

Earworms
https://www.earwormslearning.com/

Eurolingo
https://www.eurolingo.sg/spanish/

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

FluentYou
https://www.fluentu.com/en/

Google Translate
https://translate.google.com/

Greek
https://www.iamgreece.org/culture/language/you-speak-greek/

Meetup
https://www.meetup.com/en-AU/start/organizing

Pronunciation of Single Words and Placenames
https://forvo.com/word
For the country name Cyprus pronounced in Greek
https://forvo.com/word/%CE%BA%CF%8D%CF%80%CF%81%CE%BF%CF%82/

Pronunciation in Dictionaries Online
https://www.macmillandictionary.com/british-and-american-pronunciation.html

Simple Wiki - see Wiki below

Skills Future
https://www.eurolingo.sg/spanish

Tinycards (Italian an an example and link)
https://tinycards.duolingo.com/decks/Q6xStDM/how-to-speak-italian?lesson=0


Translate - see Google above


TOASTMASTERS
https://www.toastmasters.org/find-a-club

Tripadvisor
You can ask questions.
https://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Travel-g190372-s604/Cyprus:Important.Phrases.html

YouTube
Try FluentYou - see above

Wikipedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pronunciation

Simple Wiki
https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Phonetic_Alphabet

About the Author
Angela Lansbury
travel writer and photographer
teacher of English and other languages. I have many more posts on language learning and destinations. Please share links to your favourite posts.

A quick way to learn Spanish for Mexico, Peru, South America, Central America and Spain

I was reading about Mexico on a BBC English language page when I saw a link to BBC news in Spanish. I followed the link and read some of the headlines and the opening lines of the stories. I was amazed how much I could understand from words which were similar to English.


Flag of Mexico

The flag of Mexico is similar at first glance to the flag of Peru, another country where Spanish is spoken. But flags have three stripes, red and white stripes and a symbol in the middle.

Look closer or keep them side by side and you will see that Mexico's flag is green white red. But, Peru's flag is red white red.

     

Flag of Mexico    

Flag of Peru

Look at the symbols.

Mexico's flat has an eagle eating a snake. The story goes that seeing that told the founder of Mexico city where to found the city. A handy reminder to me to watch out for snakes. I remember seeing snakes on the ground ahead on the steps of an archaeological site which was a trip when a cruise ship from the USA landed at the Mexican city and popular port of Cancun.

Going back to Wikipedia to check on Cancun, I was intrigued to read the its name Cancun is based on the word for snake:

There are two possible translations of Cancún, based on the Mayan pronunciation kaan kun. The first translation is "nest of snakes". The second version and less accepted is "place of the golden snake".^[

Returning to the BBC website I read:
Lo encontraron con 15 puñaladas en su celda, donde cumplía una condena de 13 años por tráfico de drogas. El exmilitar era considerado por las autoridades el nexo del Cartel de Sinaloa en el país.

I could easily see 13 years for trafficking of drugs, ex military (person) considered (by) authorities and Cartel.

Reading the news in Spanish was no effort. My automatic response was to check up on just one or two words in the three sentences which I did not know by using Google translate.

Finding Google Translate
Typing into google translate might bring up translation services which charge a lot of money to translate just one word.

Using the newspaper as your source of whole sentences has the advantage that you have a context.

Pinning Google Translate
I have pinned the symbol for google translate to the top of my screen, second left of my menu. That way I can find it fast.

How To Pin The Google Translate Symbol
To pin you right click on your mouse and when you do this up pops the multiple choice box f more actions.

Remembering How To Pin Google Translate
Click on pin and your favourite website is pinned or made semi-permanent on the left of all the sites currently opened or opened in the recent past. You could unpin it the same way. Right click. When the symbol is pinned, the choice offered is now unpin. If you change your mind, pin it again. If you want to remember how to pin, pin and unpin several times until the action is embedded in your memory and you can do it fast.

One of the words I checked on looked like peace but turned out to be country. Words which sound the same or look the same but are not are sometimes called 'false friends'.

You can then pin the Spanish news from the BBC, or any other new site, to have up to the minute news of your favourite country, or to follow a news story. A quick way to refresh your knowledge os Spanish, including technical and slang words.

Spanish - English
 años - years
celda - cell
con - with
de - of
donde -where
drogas - drugs
ellos - they (like the French elle for she and elles for they)
en - in
lo/Los/las - the (singular and plural, as in Los Angeles meaning the angels)
el país - the country (like the French, le pays)
paz - peace

English - Spanish
cell (in a prison) - celda
(the) country - el país
drugs - drogas
in - en
of - in
peace - paz
the (plural) - los (as in Los Angeles meaning the angels)
they - ellos
where - donde
with - con
years -  años 


Flag of Spain

You could also learn Spanish as spoken in Spain from a Spanish newspaper online.

Where You Can Use The Spanish Language
Countries where Spanish is spoken: Argentina, Bolivia, Balearic Islands (Majorca/Mallorca, Minorca, Ibiza, Formentera): Canary Islands: , Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Equatorial Guinea, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Puerto Rico, Spain, Tenerife, Uruguay, Venezuela,

Learn Portuguese, which is similar to Spanish, as spoken in Brazil from a Brazilian newspaper. My family and others on a holiday in Madeira could recognize words on signposts from holidays in Europe in Spain and Portugal. Spanish is also a help when learning Italian.

BBC news in Spanish
https://www.bbc.com/mundo/topics/

USA
Notice the Spanish names of the cities Los Angeles (The angels), San Francisco (Saint Francis) and El Paso (The pass).


Duolingo
duolingo.com


Memrise
Memrise.com


About The Author
Angela Lansbury is a travel writer and photographer, blogger, author of 20 books including an ebook on Improve Your English, from Amazon, and teacher of English and Business English and other languages to individuals, colleges and companies. For more information on learning languages see the previous posts. For information on sites to see in Spain and Portugal see the next post. Please bookmark your favourite posts and share the links with your family, friends and colleagues.

How To Learn A New Language On Every Holiday Or Business Trip

Are you keen on learning new languages?
✋
Polyglots' Tricks
I was looking at the Polyglot page on Facebook and read that one language enthusiast saves books in other languages just in case he ever needs to immerse in that language. What dedication!

Several polyglots replied that they do the same. I think this would work well in languages similar to English. You can download well-known books, either where you know the language and characters and plot, or where you can easily get the translation.

Wouldn't Alice in Wonderland in other languages be more fun for some people than lists of words? You can read the Esperanto on the left, the English on the right, with the original now out of copyright Tenniel illustrations.

For example, if you see the story of Cinderella or any children's book in French or Spanish or Italian, that might be a good start. You can find translations of the bible and fairy tales and classic children's stories which are out of copyright. Those which have been in print for years are available in Latin and the made up simple language, Esperanto.

Dictionaries
Until today I had never downloaded a whole book in a foreign language, but I did buy a mini dictionary in every language. I saved the translation pages in airplane magazines. Where to find them? The files of travel maps and brochues went out of date and eventually got thrown out by my family. So I began to fold the handy lists of common words and phrases and slide the page or part page under the front cover of one of my dictionaries.

Japanese is challenging. But the written language is more or less the same symbols as Chinese. Think of the symbols on your washing insructions and no smoking signs which are cigarettes with lines through them.

Leaflets
In Singapore if I see a leaflet in English and another leaflet in Malay or Chinese I pick them up and look for capital letters or repeated words or short sentences to learn or look up. I used to take the whole leaflet.

I would circle repeated words in the English. Or simple words I might need often. Looking at the foreign language, I would circle the equivalent word.

I would check in Google translate. Then I would create a page in a notebook if I had one handy. If not in my diary - no empty pages - sometimes back in January I had an empty page. Failing al else I found an empty half page in the leaflet or wrote the translation on both leaflets.

Then I decided that taking information leaflets was antisocial, costing the government money. I was also creating clutter in my home.

So I started taking photos insted. I would leaf through the leaflets. When I saw a useful page, with either very little text, (when I started learning thelanguge) or lots of text (later on), I took a photo of the English language cover and first page and back page, then the Malay or Chinese translations.

Travel Sites - Places for Polyglots to Visit



Flag of Austria from open Emoji, free to use Emojis.

AUSTRIA
Vienna has a museum on languages, specifically made up or cimplified languages. You can learn about the origin of Esperanto which is like a mix of Spanish, Italian, Latin, English, German, but following set rules, no exceptions. You don't have to worry about accents. Accents don't matter because no country pssesses this language.

Who speaks it and where? You can find Facebook pages and an annual conference. Several smaller countries whose language you might find hard, or too many to master, favour Esperanto. Handy in Hungary where the older generation could take their exams in Esperanto as a foreign language because Russian and German were too complicated and different from Hungarian.


Flag of Belgium.

BELGIUM


Bilingual road signs in French and Dutch.



Flag of Bulgaria
The top is white which does not show up well against the white background of this blog post..


So here's the OpenEmoji which shows the Bulgarian flag framed.

BULGARIA
Easy to learn Cyrillic if you take the free tour then the cheap Cultural walking tour (after one free tour, you will be hooked, maybe glad to leave a tip, if not you may decide that two tours for the price of one is a bargain. On the cultural I was given the card with the Cyrillic letters and was helped to write my own name in Cyrillic.


Flag of Canada.

CANADA
Start at Niagara Falls - who wouldn't!
Ottawa - everything in two languages, French and English. Inspiring, encouraging.
Montreal - to immerse yourself in French. The Montreal accent is more like Marseilles in France.
Toronto - to immerse yourself in English.
A beautiful bilingual holiday, two cultures and two languages in one country.

FRANCE
Paris - to get the standard accent, not the Canadian accent which is more like Marseilles.

Flag of Germany

GERMANY
A surprisng number of words sound similar to English. Kindergarden in English is child garden. Garten is garden. Kinder as in Kinder Surprise is child surprise. Kinder looks a bit like child or children. Be kind to children, especially your kith and kin.

German is similar to English, Dutch and Scandinavian languages, as well as being understood in those countries.


Flag of Singapore.

SINGAPORE
Pick up Mandarin Chinese, Malay, Tamil and Singlish.

UK
London is becoming a polyglot capital. You have restaurants of all nationalities. Some areas are inhabited by speakers of specific languages.
For example, such as Southall for sari shops and Indian restaurants and halal or vegetarian food.
Chinatown has restaurants which is Cantonese speaking from immigrants from Hong Kong, Most High streets (main streets) have at least one Chinese (Cantonese speaking) restaurant, and one Indian restaurant (mostly run by Pakistanis).

You will also find israeli restaurants for Hebrew, often middle eastern foods such as Jewish restaurants (Yiddish speaking - a European menu with variant on German and Russian which and kosher).

Plus Greek restaurants (Greek language and songs! Don't ask for Turkish coffee, it's Greek coffee here.

Turkish restaurants (Turkish menu). Lebanese (Arabic - could be halal and Muslim, or Christian - check website and menu before trying out your languages.

Malay - often combined with menus and staff of Chinese or Indonesian or Thai. (Malay national might be Chinese or Indian or Malay by race. by religion they could be Muslim but Asian not Middle Eastern, not Arabic and not Arabic speaking. Malay language is an easier language in the Roman alphabet)

USA
Pick up Spanish from bilingual signs, especially in public places such as hospitals and cities near borders. You will pick up some words effortlessly. Los Angeles means the angels. Now you know the plural and plurals for nouns.

ARMCHAIR AND AIRLINE SEAT LEARNING

Useful Websites
List and links to stories in other languages including Alice in Wonderland in Esperanto and several other languages.
http://bilinguis.com/

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





Bilingual English and Spanish Toastmasters Club in the USA
https://bilingualaustin.toastmastersclubs.org/

https://www.straitstimes.com/lifestyle/these-singaporeans-can-really-talk-0
https://www.toastmasters.org/find-a-club

Toastmasters International
You can practise your languages at toastmasters clubs in person and some clubs are online. For example, In Singapore, clubs in Chinese Mandarin, Chinese dialect Teochew, French, Malay (similar to Indonesian), Tamil (south Indian and Sri Lankan laguage).

In the USA you can find Spanish speaking clubs. Canada has French speaking clubs.

Europe has clubs in various languages. You can buy the Toastmasters literature in several languages including English, French, Arabic. Once you have joined a toastmasters club you will be welcome at Toastmasters clubs worldwide where you can network and socialise and find friends.
https://www.toastmasters.org/find-a-club
Author
Angela Lansbury, teacher of English and other languages. president of Braddell Heights Advanced Toastmasters Club in Singapore (see Facebook page.) I have many more posts on language learning, specific languages such as easy Esperanto, symbols and stories in Chinese, Cyrillic, Japanese, Indonesian, Malay, Mandarin, Greek, Hebrew, Italian, Korean, Russian, Spanish, Welsh. Please bookmark and share links to your favourite pages.