After Visiting Vietnam, First steps in learning Vietnamese, with the help of Duolingo

Why Visit Vietnam?

I rated my trip to Ha Long Bay is one of my top two world sites, with a close runner up in the temples of Cambodia.

Ha Long Bay.

The same peak are on the coast, but the ones reflected on water are the most stunning. Especially if you overnight on a boat with a bedroom with a balcony for drinks at dusk and pre-breakfast on the balcony. 

The Vietnamese flag has a distinctive five-point, yellow star on a red background.

We went shopping in the market for Vietnamese style long dresses with slit sides and co-ordinating trousers (Americans say pants).

Schoolgirls in traditional dress. From Wikipedia.

I was heavier then than I am now, and black hid more of my curves/

Angela Lansbury in Vietnamese style dress, bought in the city of  Hanoi in Vietnam. Photo by Trevor Sharot. Copyright.

Vietnamese Language

We were on a boat with an English speaking guide and did not get much chance to use or learn Vietnamese. 

I made up for it this week by starting Vietnamese. This was an accident. Serendipity - something found fortunately by chance. (Sounds like the word serene.)

 I had added Vietnamese to my Duolingo list. My priorities are the easy languages, easy for me because they are romance languages, with the same alphabet as English, next are Greek, Hebrew and Russian, which have a few letters in common with English and a few letters in common with each other,Spanish, finally the harder languages, Chinese, Japanese, Hindi and Urdu,Korean, Vietnamese and Thai.

Then I met a neighbour who is from Thailand and says her husband does not speak one word of Thai. Afterwards, I went onto my list of languages in Duolingo, found what I was looking for, and clicked on it to open the first lesson. 

After learning five words, I realized my mistake. I had learned five words of Vietnamese, not Thai!

I discovered this when I said to my husband, 'I have learned a word in Vietnamese.

An an is Ann eats.

 It's ga for chicken. My memory aid is go chicken go. Go - ga. Chickens are ga ga. Ga is chicken.' 

But ...ga (nha ga add the accent, in Google translate to copy it )

---

nhà ga

 is train station, like the French gare, as in Gare du Nord, French for station of the north, in Paris. 

My husband replied, 'Yes, it's the same word in Thai. You hear it a lot because they eat a lot of chicken.'

Thailand is north of Malaysia which is north of Singapore. Singapore used to be part of Malaya.

So I now know the word for chicken, ga, which is handy in restaurants and food courts. Even if you don't like the cheaper food courts or have meals booked, you find food courts in Malaysia and other countries as you drive north from Singapore along main roads and stop for a break, or eat at railway stations.

Now I have started Vietnamese and it is not as hard as I expected. Korean, supposed to be easy, was my biggest challenge, along with Arabic and Urdu, with their fancy, curly, but unfamiliar writing.

The Vietnamese in Duolingo is written in what looks like the British alphabet with lots of accents. But, for my first lesson, I have ignored the accents and just listened to the pronunciation which you easily find by clicking with your mouse over the little loudspeaker button.

Duolingo offers you a recap of the words you have learned under Review Lesson.

Grammar tips

Adjectives follow nouns

Vocabulary may be slightly different in north and South Vietnam.

On Duolingo, check the forums, called DISCUSS, even if you got the answer right, to learn tips.

Word Revision

Vietnamese - English

an - eat(s)

cà phê - coffee 

ga - chicken

nhà ga - train station

English - Vietnamese

chicken - ga

coffee - cà phê

eat(s) - an

train station - nhà ga 

From Wiki phrasebook

north

bắc (...)

south

nam (...)

east

đông (...)

west

tây (...)

Colors[edit]

When describing the color of an object etc., use the word below. When referring to the color itself, use màu or mầu followed by the word below.

black

đen (Dan)

white

trắng (chahng?!)

gray

xám (sahm?)

red

đỏ (daw... aw?)

blue

xanh nước (sahyng neu-uhk?)

yellow

vàng (vahng...)

green

xanh (lá cây) (sahyng lah? kay)

orange

cam (kahm)

purple

tím (just as it is written, tim but long 'i' )

brown

nâu (know)

My name is ______ .

Tôi tên là ______ . (Thoye theyn la _____ .)

Please.

Làm ơn. (lam uhhn)

Thank you.

Cảm ơn. (gam uhhn)

You're welcome.

Không sao đâu. (kohng sao doh)

Yes.

Vâng (affirmative). (vuhng); Dạ (affirmative, respectful) (ya'a) ; Đúng (correct) (duhn)

No.

Không. (kohng)

Hello. (informal)

Chào. (jow)

Hello. (formal)

Xin chào. (seen jow)

Hello. (on the phone)

A-lô. (AH-loh)

How are you? (Are you healthy?)

Khỏe không? (kweah kohng?)

Fine, thank you. (I am healthy, thank you.)

Tôi khoẻ, cảm ơn. (thoy kweah, gam uhhn)

What is your name? (formal, to a man (forties or older, depending on the sensitivity of the person you address))

Ông tên là gì? (ohng theyn la yi)

What is your name? (formal, to a woman (forties or older, depending on the sensitivity of the person you address))

Bà tên là gì? (ba theyn la yi)

What is your name? (informal, to a male who is not quite middle-aged AND/OR is not significantly older than you)

Anh tên là gì? (ayng theyn la yi) Anh is an umbrella term for any older male figure. Its literal meaning is "older brother".

What is your name? (informal and also flattering, to a female who is not quite middle-aged AND not significantly older than you)

Cô tên là gì? (goh theyn la yi) There is a distinction between this and the last phrase, because in Vietnamese culture, one generally assumes that a woman, regardless of whether she looks middle-aged or not, is either not yet married, or does not yet have children, or is younger than she looks. Using "Cô" instead of "Bà" implies that you are giving her the benefit of your lack of knowledge about her. Thus, if she feels the need, she will (as a result of your flattery and politeness) correct you to use the mature "Bà" or the gender-disregarding term for an adult who is anywhere in their late thirties to fifties, "Bac" which is equivalent to "Sir" or "Madam". Some men and women prefer to be addressed as the polite and age-ambiguous "Bac" indefinitely, until they feel it is appropriate to be addressed in more mature terms.

Typing tips for translations

When copying a word from a website, after inserting check text size. In blogger .com where you create your blogs, look for the letter T in two sizes across the top menu bar. Keep every text thing normal size. You could also change the font.

I used to type everything in both the English to a foreign language and then the foreign language to English. Then I tried copying it once, using the translation in the second list, and typing in the other language. Today I discovered an even quicker way. copy the word and translation from the first list. Paste it twice. Then delete the parts you don't need. You might want to insert a hyphen between the English and the other language.

Thailand

I think of Thailand as a fan from the top  of Malaysia, like a left hand. Vietnam is to the east, like a right arm

Vietnam is separated from Thailand by Laos. Vietnam in on the sea to the East.

Useful Websites

Flag

https://www.countryflags.com/vietnam-flag-image/

Language

duolingo.com

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

https://yourvietnamese.com/learn-vietnamese/vietnamese-grammar-in-short-lessons/

Tourism

wikivoyage Vietnam

 lastminute.com

tripadvisor.com

booking.com

Please follow me and share links to your favourite posts.

Who teaches which languages? Spanish and others. How to Record Your Sources

I started learning several languages in Duolingo. I finsished Grman and Esperanto and am now onto Spanish daily and Chinese intermittently (using Chineasy physical flashcards instead). 

Whether you are interested in one language or several, it is handy to keep a list of all the places to go to learn your favourite language or languages. You can do this on your mobile phone. 

Use a spreadsheet in Excel (which is a brand name, known generaically as a matrix, or series of columns divided across). 

Or write on a page in an A4 notebook. Put a sticker on the front of the notebook recording Language Learning and the page number. (You will have to number the pages of your notebook in the top right. I do this wiht all new notebooks.)

Keep updating as you find new sites, or when you want to add a new language. You can also keep a column for your own language if you are teaching English to foreigners or doing a language swap. Here is my work in progress. First I listed the languages. Then I went to the websites of my favourite places, starting with duolingo and Memrise. At the start it is quite time-consuming if you are checking several languages. But once you have the basics it is much faster.

Arabic

Chinese

Danish

Esperato - Duolingo

French - Duolingo

German

Greek

Hebrew

Hindi

Italian

Japanese

Korean

Latin

Norwegian

Polish

Portuguese

Romanian

Russian

Spanish 

Swedish

Ukrainian

Vietnamese

Welsh

Languages I am not learning on Duolingo include Klingon.

You can also learn Dutch, Malay and Urdu, a total of 75 languages, on langmaster.

Here's another. their welcome page was all in Spanish with a testimonial in Spanish. I could understand most of it and put it into Google translate to catch the couple of words I had missed.

https://www.deliberatespanish.com/

Useful Websites

English

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

Indian government program

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hello_English_(government_program)

Tamil

https://www.wikihow.com/Learn-Tamil

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

https://digitaldefynd.com/best-tamil-language-courses/

https://www.livinglanguage.com/languagedemo/tamilflash/11930/essential-saying-hello

duolingo in January 2021, The Tamil course is 75% complete.

Langmaster

http://www.langmaster.com/lmcom/com/web/en-gb/pages/free-language-online.aspx

Spanish

http://download.langmaster.cz/grammar/en-gb/spanish1/grammar/les01/g05.htm

Duolingo 

Languages available

Chinese, German, Hebrew, Russian, Spanish, Portuguese, Vietnamese, Welsh, Ukrainian

Memrise

Languages available

Chinese, French, German, Spanish, Turkish

Mango

mangolanguages.com 

(see next post)

 

Other Language Websites From Wikipedia's List

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_language_self-study_programs

Flashcards List of Sources from Wiki

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

About the Author

Angela Lansbury teacher of English (advanced and English as a Second Language or English as a Foreign Language, French and other languages, aspiring polyglot.

How To Make Your Posts and Pictures Popular. Why Should You Read And Update Your Old Posts?

I looked at the numbers of readers of my posts and which posts they were reading. I found that an old post on Esperanto was still relevant and attracting lots of readers.


Esperanto flag. Photo from Wikipedia.

 I keyed into blogger.com (the page for creating posts, blogspot is for reading posts) the search word on Esperanto. My search brought up all my posts on the subject. I thought, let's have a look at the popular post.

I took a set of steps to improve my old posts:

1 Correct Spelling And Typing Errors
When I read my old posts I spotted one or two typing errors.  (I am getting typing errors as I type this post. I just corrected 'of' to 'or' in that sentence I just typed. Then I started the next sentence without a capital letter. The word 'sentence' keeps coming out as sentance. You have to keep correcting as you type if you type fast as I do.)

2 Correct Grammar
So, step one was correcting the spelling and punctuation.

As I read through, I found that I had sentences using the word they, which could refer to either the speakers of a language or the words they spoke. Oops - I had to change 'they' to 'speakers' or 'words ' for clarity.

Wikipedia
The Wikipedia entry was not clear. I changed it, although I left in the acknowledgement, and pointed out that I had changed the text for clarity. So my post was not just repeating but improving on the original.

I love Wikipedia. It gives me copyright free photos.

Grammarly
The next check was for correct and understandable grammar. I use Grammarly. Some writers type  their posts elsewhere, in Word, do a Grammarly spelling and grammar check, then load up the corrected version to the blog.

3 Add Transitions
Finally, in my post's text at the end I had jumped suddenly from learning the language to places to visit. it was like reading two unconnected posts. I needed to add a transition or bridging sentence.

Time Spent Updating
I had now spent 15 minutes, 30 minutes, changing an old post, rather than writing a new one for today.

4 Ideas For New Posts
However, I had a new subject for a post. The language Ido, I had mentioned but not in detail. A little known artificial language. A totally minority subject. 

5 Note Relevant And Popular Subjects
I then considered my method in updating. What is gratifying is that when I look back at old posts, I find the content still relevant. Been there, done that. I know it all, but new readers are finding it interesting.

6 Add New Skills In Creating Posts
Why rewrite, or write another post? Because my grasp of what to do to make a post interesting is improving.

So after writing the text of this post, I add photos, references to other websites, and references to my other websites.

7 Add Keywords For Text
In blogger, they are called labels. As I edit and save I add keywords.

8 Add Keywords For Photos
Click on your photos. Up pops options including the boring word properties. This is really very exciting. It is labels or keywords to help photo searches find the photo in your post. So adding the word bagel to my picture of bagels will send readers interested in bagels to my post on buying bagels from Brick Lane in East London, England.

9 Link Your Posts
Link your earlier posts to later posts.

10 Focus On The Reader
I know to focus not on myself but on what the readers want. So I shall end this post with a focus on you. I hope this helps you as a writer of your own posts and reader of my posts.

11 Focus On Readers You Want
I can see that I have lots of readers in the USA, Russia and Italy. I can go through all my posts ensuring that I mention these three area of the world, to keep my readers interested in other posts and becoming regular readers.

On the other hand, supposing I have only a few readers in Singapore. I could add a post on Singapore. Or link each post on Singapore to another. Or refer to Singapore in posts on other subjects. Add labels or tags to Singapore. Add flags of Singapore.

Here are some links to subjects I have mentioned in this post and often in my posts.

Some of My Popular Posts And Esperanto Posts
https://travelwithangelalansbury.blogspot.com/2020/01/how-to-learn-esperanto-easy.html

Useful Websites
Duolingo.com


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

Quick Way to Learn Chinese and Malay from foods and root words

Here's a great, quick way to learn Chinese.
And understand the ingredients of lots of foods.

Where will you see these foods?
Everywhere.

Especially in Singapore food courts.

In Singapore restaurants and supermarkets and food courts you will see lots of signs and friends from sia will recommend and yearn for their favourite dishes.

It's so much easier to remember the names when you know the component parts.

Chinese Language
The Chinese language, or main language taught nationwide in schools, is Mandarin, the language of the capital, Beijing.

Chinese
For example
popiah

po is thin
pian is round

So a round thin pancake. Rolled up around the filling.

Chinese - English
Po - thin
Pian - round
popian - fried, round stuffed pancake
'shay-shay' - thank you

English - Chinese
round - pian
thin - po
stuffed pancake - popian
thank you - 'shay-shay'

(Listen to the recorded messages in English, Chinese and Malay on the Singapore MRT underground railway stations and you will hear the announcements ending in thank you in English, Chinese and Malay as well as Tamil.)

Malay
The Malay language and Indonesian are similar. Some of the vocabulary is different. Malay is easier than Chinese for ENglish speakers because there are no tones. The language is phonetic.

Chinese and Malay Grammar
The grammar of Chinese and Malay is easy. No verb to be, no past and future tenses ( I go yesterday I go tomorrow. The noun and verb are often the same. Plurals are the word repeated so thank you in Chinese sounds like shay-say, like thanks, thanks. Similarly, child in Malay is anak and children is anak-anak.

Indonesia has different languages on different islands. On some islands most people are trilingual, speaking English, chinese (mandarin) and another Chinese dialect or Indonesian or Malay.

Goreng is fried.

Fried banana from ProjectManhattan in Wikipedia under friend banana Pisang goreng

Pisang goreng is fried banana.

It took me a while to learn that pisang is banana.

Deep fried banana does look very battered and bad for one's diet. As the old song said, 'It's immoral, it's illegal - or it makes you fat!' Enjoy.

Malay - English
makan - food
minuman - drink
pisang goreng - fried banana
terima kasih - thank you

English - Malay
drink - minuman
food - makan
fried banana - pisang goreng
thank you - terima kasih

Quick ways to learn the language
Pick up a bilingual take away menu (the Americans say take out). Circle words which sound similar in both languages. Circle food you want to order and add a tick. Learn to say them smiling nodding your head.

Circle words describing foods you do not like and add an X. Learn to say them frowning and shaking your head.

Useful Websites
http://www.singlishdictionary.com/
singaporeair.com

About the Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker. Please share links to your favourite posts.

How To Find Opportunities Overseas

Gandhi said, Be the change you wish to see.

As an English teacher, I might query his grammar. However, language is changing all the time and the leaders such as royalty and presidents and prime ministers set the trend, so I'll let that pass. The important thing is that you understand the message, that you could and should make the changes you would like to see made. Many of them are within your power. I recently asked a friend at Toastmasters, "Could you be the Toastmasters of the Day for a contest? Have you done it before?"

She replied, "I haven't done it before - but I can find out how to do it."

If you go to a new place, a new country, nobody knows you and you know nobody. Make or break. Rise or fall. It doesn't matter. 

1 They will make allowances for the fact that you are new to the country and the job and help you without expecting you to know all the answers. 

2 If you make a mistake you can move on. If you don't have family or friends or property or a business nearby, you can simply start again. 

3 Your first job can be your apprentice job. Apply for jobs even if you cannot do them or don't have a work permit. Sometimes the company can get you a work permit. I found when I applied tor a job in a school, teaching English, all that was needed was for the head of the school to type out a one line letter to the local permit place. 

I had an interview, even though I was on the point of going on holiday. 

I was given the job to start a week later, the day after I returned on a night flight. The permit request letter said, in effect, 'We have a job for this teacher of English. We need a teacher immediately. This teacher is a native speaker and has a university degree. Please grant her a work permit.' 

By that time, I had asked my family in the UK to courier overnight my original of my degree certificate from the UK.

My son could not find it. I said, "Keep looking. It has to be in a frame somewhere in the house. Maybe it is half covered by something else."

He protested, "Mum - you have a hundred frames!"

I replied, "It won't fit in any of the tiny ones. So you have about fifty. I am away seven days. You are sitting at home for at least an hour each day. Just go through them methodically. When you have tried them all,  if you don't find it, you have to write to the university department which is closed in the university holidays and pay for a replacement. I might miss out on my job opportunity."

He started going through all the frames which were large enough to hold a certificate. Fifteen minutes later I got a reply from him:

"Mum - I found your certificate!"

"Wonderful. I will buy you a lovely dinner next time I am home. How many frames did you have to open?"

"Not many. Actually, only three."

When you are job-hunting, don't postpone interviews because you are on the point of going home to the UK, USA or Australia. That could be all to the good. You might need to pick up documents from home such as the original of your certificate showing your qualification for teacher training or music or anything else.

You might also get another job in the company if you get to meet HR. In the UK I left university and had no job. My arts degree was not a qualification for any kind of business. I want for a low-paid job just to do typing in an advertising agency just to say I had a job and to have a little money coming in. Personnel immediately offered me a job as personal assistant to the head of copywriting, Eric Webster, who was the author of a book called How To Win The Business Battle.  

Later, I was offered a low paid job teaching English in a foreign country. I had not taught English. I did not have a work permit. I said I could be a stand-in teacher for a week or two whilst they looked for somebody else or until I got a permit.

I was paid a pittance. However, the alternative was spending my time shopping, money going out instead of coming in.

A chance to get to know other teachers, where you applied for a work permit, the text books, the standard of English of the locals.

I had a conversation starter at parties. 




In the UK as young married we had a home with a back garden (which Americans call a yard) containing apple trees.

We also shared houses in the USA. 

Students And Teachers
I remember when I was a student in London, England, during the holidays another girl asked to move out of her larger room into a smaller one just for the summer holiday of six weeks.

Painting A Room White
 She had asked for white paint and painted the first room white. She asked again and was given white paint to fix up the second room. In the end she had painted three rooms in the building.  

Her skill, her interest in life, was decorating, painting, improving the place, for herself, then for others. She was intent on doing it the day she moved in. 

For some of us it takes longer. We don't do it until we see someone else do it. 

Cleaning A Communal Kitchen
Cooking In the same student building when I moved in the kitchen was filthy. I took one look and decided never to touch it. 

Cleaning Later another girl moved in. She instantly cleaned the entire kitchen and started cooking. She made food for everybody in the building as a housewarming. 

Housewarming And Making Friends
In the Netherlands, you are expected to invite the neighbours in and offer food on arrival in a new neighbourhood. If you do, you instandly have friends. If you don't, nobody will speak to you. Simple. One of my friends in Singapore whose husband worked for an oil company was given instructions by the company on the etiquette of the country they were moving to. 

You could do the same in every country. Make friends of your neighbours.

My son took a series of low paid jobs. One was in a phone exchange in the evening. Just the two of them.

A couple of years later I was on the phone to a company late at night. My son was in the room. I said to my son, "I'm getting nowhere. I have asked to speak to the manager."

My son laughed and told me, "If there are only two people on duty at night, when you ask to speak to the manager, he just hands the phone over to the other phone operator."

So, even the lowest paid job can teach you how the world works. All his lowly paid jobs taught him how the businesses operated. Whether he goes into an electronics shop or a shop selling. 

Gandhi
Sometimes we can copy other. Sometimes we finally are overcome by the urge to do it ourselves. As Gandhi said, 'Be the change you wish to see.'

Jack Ma

Don't be discouraged. Remember the story of Jack Ma. He was turned down more than twenty times even for lowly paid job. Without a job, he started his own business, was co-founder of Alibaba selling on the internet in China and became a multi-millionaire.

Useful Websites
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Ma

About the Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker. See my other posts on making marmalade

Please share links to your favourite posts.

Learn Ten Easy Words and Names In Spanish From Place Names

Spanish is useful in Spain, South America, Mexico and in the USA where many places names in the south are Spanish and many signs in cities are in both Spanish and English to help communicate with Spanish speaking immigrants. I am going to look at the names Los Angeles, San Francisco, Santa Cruz, Cerro Gordo and Buena Vista.


The flag of Spain.
Horizongal stripes of red and yellow, a Spanish sandwich of red and yellow, with a cymbol in the middle containing a crown.


The flag of Mexico.
Green, white and red, vertical stripes, with a symbol in the middle containing an eagle.

Spanish is the most popular language learned on Duolingo. It is also one of the easiest if you speak or know English.

A quick way to start learning Spanish is to pick place names you already know or can easily recognize and list their translations. Here are two examples.

Los Angeles
Los Angeles means the angels. Whilst you will not often need to use the words together except in the place name, los, meaning the (plural) is very handy. You could also use Los Angeles to describe people who have been generous or to thank them.

For example, two kind Spanish speaking people walk back the opposite direction to the way they were going when you asked the way to the train station, the bank, your hotel, the toilets.  You wave goodbye and bow slightly and point to them and address them as "Los Angeles".

San Francisco
San Francisco means Saint Francis. Other cities with names: San Antonio.

Santa Cruz means holy cross. Santa Cruz is a city in California.

Cerro Gordo
I read an online newspaper story about Cerro Gordo which means fat hill. The words taken separately, I checked in Google translate, taking each one separately, typing Cerro first, then Gordo below it, read hill fat.

So now we know two words and a grammar rule. Cerro is hill. Gordo is fat. The adjective comes after the noun in Spanish, the same as the French who say Moulin Rouge for red mill (windmill).  You can remember Moulin Rouge to remind yourself to put adjectives after the noun in French. Remember Cerro Gordo to remind yourself to put the adjective after the noun in Spanish.

I find it easier to remember Gordo is Fat than to remember cerro is hill. So let's start with gordo. I recognize gordo as fat from hearing a talk by a Spanish member of a Toastmasters Club in Harrow, England. At Christmas time she gave a speech in which she told us about how the Spaniards spend Christmas. One feature is the lottery. The one at Christmas time has a big prize and is known as the Gordo, El Gordo, the fat one (or big one). El is the.

So now we can remember that the adjective is second, after the noun, and that the word gordo means big or fat.

If you like to learn by sounds: Cerro is hill. Cerro Gordo rhymes. The last adjective is the same. Cerro Gordo.  (The letter c sounds like s. The cerro, hill, has a summit. We row past the hill.

If you like to learn visually: The initial letters C and G look similar. The letter r is in the middle of both words, the third letter. Cerro Gordo.

If you like to learn by repetition, we shall repeat it three times:
cerro - hill
cerro - hill
cerro - hill

Spanish - English
angeles - angels
cerro - hill
cruz - cross
gordo - fat (big)
lo - the (singular)
los - the (plural)
San - Saint
Santa - holy

English - Spanish
angels - angeles
cross - cruz
fat - gordo
hill - cerro
holy - santa
the - los
Saint - san

Names
Spanish - English
Francisco - Francis

What would you find at the top of a hill? Preseumably Buena Vista, good view in Spanish. Many places are called Buena Vista in countries including the USA.

Not to be confused with the Italian Buona Vista, a railway station (MRT-mass rapid transit) in Singapore. The Spanish word for good has an e, is buEna - yes.

Useful Websites For Travellers
MEXICO
https://www.visitmexico.com/en/
SPAIN
www.spain.info
https://www.spain.info/en/
https://info.info/newsroom/spotlight/spain-tourism-board
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanish_Christmas_Lottery
LEARN SPANISH
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanish_language
To learn Spanish for free on the internet
duolingo.com


About the Author
Angela Lansbury, the author, is not related to the actress of the same name, nor another 13 people with the same name on LinkedIn.
Angela Lansbury, the author, is a speaker and a teacher of English and other languages to schools, colleges, Toastmasters International speakers clubs, and businesses.

Singlish words you need to know translated into British English

Singapore flag. 

Problem
Singlish sounds like English but the change of grammar or introduction of a new word can lead to ambiguity or total incomprehension by English speakers. Once you have mastered a few words most of it becomes clear.

Lee Kuan Yew, who was both revered and feared, was educated in the UK and an advocate of using British English to encourage the ability to speak proper, recognizable English to pass exams and  aid international communication making Singapore more accessible to trade and tourism.

However, increasingly Singlish is making a comeback.

After my family bought Kleenex boxes with Singlish words, I went to the Kleenex Facebook page and asked for translations.

You can buy books on Singlish from bookshops in Singapore and on line.

Singlish From Kleenex Boxes:
bojio -
chope - reserve a seat of table by placing on the table of chair an item such as paper tissues
lim kopi -

Singlish
b (baja?) - Singaporean educated in the UK and speaking British English at home

Singlish often shortens sentences, making it quicker and easier to speak Singlish

General Singlish Terms
borrow - borrow or lend
can? - can you / can I ?
can, can! - yes I can / yes, you can
Correct (often pronounced without the t as correck) - you are right / yes
off day - day off (in the UK an off day or bad hair day is a day when everything goes wrong)
off the light - turn off the light
off service (on buses) - out of service
out of point - speaking off the topic
lend - borrow or lend
no more already - we are out of stock
pick you at the airport - pick you up at the airport

When you read the history of education in Asia and the UK it is interesting to see how the pendulum swings. In the UK after WWII it would have been considered of little use and very difficult to find a teacher or take an exam in Chinese or Japanese. However, in 2018 increasing numbers of Asians are visiting the UK, which means translators are required for tourists as guides and in shops, and increasing numbers of pupils are learning Chinese and Japanese (which is different as a spoken language but can be read or written using both Chinese and Romanised writing).

https://www.britannica.com/topic/education/The-spread-of-Western-educational-practices-to-Asian-countries

(More text and pictures will be added later.)

Angela Lansbury
Author and teacher of English and other languages

Writers, Singers and Actors at Swanwick Writers Summer school

Potatoes. The way to my heart is through potatoes. A restaurant, hotel or conference centre can do no wrong, in my eyes, if they serve potatoes.




Chocolate cake. Alas, they say, a moment on the lips, a lifetime on the hips.

However, I have my moment with the man in the kilt.

He does look better with a girl his height. 

On the last night people dress up in their finery - or national costumes, in this case on the right, Scottish tartan complete with sporran. 

Geoff Parkes told us how to sell niche books. 

Then he taught us grammar, to be sure we had books which deserved to be sold. His books on grammar were sold in the Book Room.

All pictures by photographer Angela Lansbury, taken at Swanwick writers Summer School. For details of next year's event and more photos and information, see previous posts.

Author

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

Accurate English and Correct Spelling

Grammar

I find Grammarly very helpful. It often adds a comma after a words such as however when I have used ti to start a sentence.  If you are writing a speech, or reading aloud to check the sense, the commas indicate pauses.

Spelling

I love looking at word lists and spelling errors. The funniest I've found today was deity wrongly spelled diety. I am diety but not a deity.


Common Spelling Mistakes
wrong - right (depeding on context)

compliment (praise and flattery) - for complement (part of the matching whole or set)
complimentary (free) - complementery (part of the set, matching, going with it, completing)
dairy - diary
stationary (cars) - for stationery (letters)

Useful Websites

grammarly.com

https://www.wikihow.com/Avoid-Common-Spelling-Mistakes-when-Writing-a-wikiHow-Article

https://www.wikihow.com/Sample/Spelling-Rules

https://www.wikihow.com/Sample/Common-Misspellings

https://www.wikihow.com/Sample/Spelling-Tips-and-Tricks

NB Many websites use American English and some of the words they list as wrong spelling would be correct if you were writing British English for a British speaking audience.

Author

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

More on the 16 rules of Esperanto

Problem
I can't see the 16 rules of grammar in Esperanto. I found 8.

Answer
I went onto Facebook and found an Esperanto page. That led me to another. I then clocked onto a third. Time to stop.

This page was all in Esperanto. So, I thought, it's only polite to ask in Esperanto. I typed the message into Google translate and read it back. It looked ok. Later, I re-read it. It had vi, which I thought was you so I changed it to mi.

For a beginner like me, using a translation service, it would be better to send a message in both the English and the translation - plus a request for correction of any mistakes.

My message in English read:
Please could you send me the 16 rules - preferably in English. If not, I can use Google translation.
Thank you.

Bonvolu sendi al mi la 16 regulojn - prefere en la angla. Se ne, mi povas uzi Google tradukitan. Dankon.

Here are four rules:
1 No indefinite article (no a).
2 Definite article is la for masculine, feminine and neuter.
3 Adjectives end in a.
4 Nouns end in o.

La granda kafo means the big coffee.


(See later posts for Esperanto rules.)

Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker. I have several more posts on Espereanto. learning languages and Zamenhof and travel.  Please share links to your favourite pages.

What Impressed Me at a Singapore School?

Problem
We have a meeting at a school. I imagine it will be run down and depressing. Hard to find and reach?

Answer
Not at all. A bus stops outside. We are out in the rain between the gatweay and the front entrance. However, the covered path from the front entrance to the school building at the back has open sides but a roof as protection against sun and rain. Along the side of the open-sided corridor created, is a wavy line with historic photos and cpations explaining the history of Singapore and the school and all the inspiring pioneers and people and pupils.

Upstairs in the corridor is a panel of grammatical tips for good English, tongue twisters, common errors by Singaporeans, sentence structure.

Photo by Angela Lansbury.

In the audiotrium, the seats have swivelling trays so you can rest your notepad and pencil. The stage, of course, has a screen for audio-visuals. Up the side aisles, on the walls, are posters with inpsiring messages and sayings, quotations, from famous people.

Outside, turning in the opposite direction another wall has the history of common objects.

The school was in the East of Singapore near Bedok MRT (railway station).

What an inspiration. Not just artwork, but fascinating facts.

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

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.

About Angela Lansbury, travel writer

About

About and Contact Details
Who am I?

I am Angela Lansbury - yes, that's my real name. If it sounds familiar to you, that because there's at least one other. Somebody once asked me, Are you THE Angela Lansbury. I replied, as far as I and my family are concerned, yes, I am THE Angela Lansbury. There is another one.

At that time two Angela Lansbury ladies existed, me and the actress. We have more than just the name in common. We both had fathers from the East End of London, but spoke perfect, clear English,  and we both had a son called Anthony. And we both wrote.

I discovered there was a third writer called Angela Lansbury. She wrote fiction and I wrote practical books. My dream was to write fiction, to be a classic author, like Charlotte Bronte.

My latest look at LInkedIn revealed that the numbers of people called Angela Lansbury had risen to thirteen. I wrote earlier about the pleasure and problems and confusion when more than one person has the same name. Equity won't allow it. They don't want payments going to the wrong person. Singapore insisted that you give your NRIC number, and ID number, like a passport number, as proof of identity. In England doctors and banks and insurance companies tend to use your birthday as a second way of ascertaining who is who.

Books
I am a travel writer. I write articles about travel. I have written about twenty books. The first book I wrote was Enquire within Upon Travel and Holidays.

Ten of my books were published by mainstream publishers. I have self published another ten and I always have there or four books not he go.

You can read about me and my books on www.Amazon.com and www.Lulu.com

Contacts
If you want to meet me, I belong to two Toastmasters Speakers Groups in London, (usually your first two or three meetings are free). In Singapore I belong to another club and go to a club every night, speaking, or evaluating speeches or judging competitions.

Messages
If you want to send a message, I am on Facebook and LinkedIn. I am more likely to reply if you can write a sensible, grammatically correct sentence and spell correctly, which is quite likely if you have read this far. If your fist language is not English, I suggest you get the free ad Grammarly which checks both grammar and spelling. That ap includes punctuation.
www.linkedin.com
www.facebook.com
www.grammarly.com

Like most people I prefer praise to blame, though I am always interested in extra information and the polite correction of an occasional error which we hope gets spotted by one person before all the others have seen it.

If there's a place you would like to know about I can research it. If there's a book you would like me to write, please tell me. It's always encouraging to know a book has at least one potential reader.

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

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TEACHING OVERSEAS, qualifications, grammar, spelling, time management

If you are a native English speaker you can get work by teaching English. I am going to tell you how solve problems which plagued me for years.

PROBLEMS
1 QUALIFICATIONS
How to get qualified - to learn to teach fast

2 GRAMMAR & SPELLING

3 SETTING TIMES
One hour tutorials and two or three hour workshops can spill over time. What could you do?

4 KEEPING IN TOUCH
How do you evade people who are a nuisance or dangerous?
How do you keep in touch with people who you like and/or could be useful later?

ANSWERS
1 QUALIFICATIONS
INSTANT ENGLISH
You can do a course full-time over a year or longer, in the evenings, at weekends, or as a crash course in about a month.

To get paid work in a school you might need a TEFL course or similar qualification.
You can learn a foreign language for free by having an hour with somebody who wants to learn English

2 GRAMMAR & SPELLING
Use Grammarly.

3 SETTING TIMES
If you travel times are too long for you, get pupils to come to you or your area, or meet in a central place.
At first I would teach for an hour, then spend another ten minutes setting homework. If you teach for an hour you could set a silent buzzer to warn you when 50 minutes is up and then start setting homework.
If pupils outstay their welcome or constantly arrive late, make it clear at the outset that another pupil will arrive on the hour after their hour. Or tell them that you have to leave for another appointment and get a family member or neighbour or colleague to arrive and call you away.

4 KEEPING IN TOUCH
To guard privacy, make your contact through an intermediary, such as a college or employer.
This is also a way to keep in touch. You could tell somebody that when you move house they can keep in touch through your employer.

Conversely, if you think you might change jobs, or countries, you can give the pupil or friend a home phone number.

Story
I tried to trace an old friend (both of us moved countries) through his current employer (an American Company with an office in Asia). The employer took my details but said my friend was away on leave and they could not release his details to me until he came back and agreed that he was willing to do so. Of course, when he came back he was delighted to be in touch. But they had done the right thing.

Once you start taking the steps, you are on the road to success.

Tips
Take a look at these. I use Grammarly and it is very handy at picking up typos.
http://grammarly.com
http://tefl.org.uk
http://www.teachinghouse.com
https://www.tefl.net/elt/articles/training-articles/avoid-tefl-course/

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

Explaining the English Language to Others - Phrases

Problem
How do you explain English terms you take for granted to people who seem to have a basic or good grasp of English and want to know more? I get asked questions like, Can you explain the subjunctive? What's the difference between subjunctive and subjective?

Answer
If you are teaching English as a foreign language overseas, or at home, even if you are not, start a card index with terms you need to explain. Or a file, containing photocopies of pages from grammar books or workbooks so you don't have to spend hours hunting. When teaching, you can use a workbook and go through everything logically, starting with the present tense, then the past, simple past, then the future. Instead of missing your lunch, tea-time drink, or your toilet break, tell the pupil where to find the answer in the class work book and then ask the pupil to explain to the class after the break. You repeat, correct, clarify, and tell the pupils to write down the answer in their language, or to write down the reference to the page in their workbook, or add the reference at the end of their class book's index.

Stories
At the end of the day's English class I was teaching in Singapore I was standing with some pupils looking out at the driving rain in Singapore and we all hesitated to go home because of the weather.
I commented, "It's raining cats and dogs." Everybody was silent for a moment. My pupils were contemplating the weather, I thought.
Then one boy replied, "I see the cats, but I don't see any dogs. Where are the dogs?"
I had a fit of giggles, unbecoming for a teacher, who is supposed to be authoritative, and said, "It's an English phrase."
My pupil stared at me suspiciously. "Really? What does it mean? Why cats and dogs?"

Two thoughts ran through my head. The first was, "It's an old medieval phrase, something to do with cats on thatched rooftops jumping down when it rains, especially cats and dogs coming indoors in thunderstorms."

My second thought was, "The French have a rather rude version something like - how can I put this politely? Water gushing as forcibly as a cow or bull urinating.

Later I looked it up in a dictionary of phrases and a dictionary of proverbs and the huge dictionary in the library. The origin is not important. It's one of those phrases whose original meaning is not known to most people, who just use the phrase, which is a metaphor.

The real origin is important to scholars and those studying language at university in order to write a thesis. But for pupils trying to learn to speak, it is more useful to have a visual image reminding them of the phrase to use in conversation, or to recognise and understand the meaning when they hear it, as happened when I spoke to them.

Similes and Metaphors
A simile says this is similar to that, this is like that.

A metaphor says this is that. In a metaphor one thing stands for another.

For example, a simile would be: "The bride in her voluminous skirt looked like / similar to a ship in full sail."

A metaphor would be: "The bride in her voluminous skirt was a ship in full sail." The word similar is dropped so it is not a simile but a metaphor.

Angela Lansbury, author, English teacher. I teach individuals and groups and businesses in private lessons in written and spoken English, giving presentations and speeches and reading English books and newspapers and technical journals.
My books are on Amazon and Lulu.com
You can read more about spelling, grammar and language in my other blogs, also see me on Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram and twitter.
Please follow and like and share.

English grammar terms you need to know (when learning German and other languages)

If I were you I would learn the subjunctive. What is the subjunctive? Learning languages, even on easy to use, or user friendly website Duolingo, involves learning some grammar, especially in German.

It's hard to learn a foreign language when you have forgotten the technical terms in English. Here's a quick reminder for me and you.

Technical term - easy explanation
false cognate - false friends (confusing words which sound the same but are different. For example in German
wo is where and
wer is who
(I remember 'who is where' and where is - who?)

nominative - name or subject of sentence, the person doing the doing (The cat in the sentence
'The cat sat on the mat.')
accusative - person who things are done to, object of sentence, in the sample sentence, 'the mat'

Noun - name or naming word (John, book, cat, mat)
In English only proper names - of people and places - have capital letters

Capital letters - THIS IS IN CAPITALS
lower case - all small letters - this is in lower case
initial letter - first letter of a word

verb - doing word (sat)
adverb (describes a verb) quickly eg he ran quickly / the fox ran quickly

adjective (describes a noun) quick his answer was quick / the quick fox
pronoun word which stands for a noun such as I you he she they it 

indicative - indicates what is happening - (I am or I will)
subjunctive - what your subconscious dreams or wishes, wishful thinking, possible but not actual if 'I were you I would' - sub meaning under - as in subway- the underworld underground - not real, usually prefaced by the words if or maybe.

If I were you I would learn the subjunctive.


Angela Lansbury, English teacher and tutor

My powerpoint/keynote Speeches

I have speeches on these subjects:
Good Grammar
Inspiring Lives
Harrow Celebrities
Polish Heroes
Speech Disasters
Spelling Is Simple
Perfect Pronunciation