Why do you need to know Chinese?

 

Why do you need to recognize Chinese signs even if you cannot speak a word? So you can identify the correct sex of toilets in China, Hong, Kong, Taiwan, China (same writing symbols), or a rest room in a restaurant in Chinatown anywhere in the world.

I went into the Gents in China.

Chinese writing is easier than you might think. Do you know Roman numbers? One, two, and three. Uprights. Like holding up your fingers? What about Chinese?

Chinese is not the same as Roman writing. The exact opposite. The Roman numbers one to three  are vertical. The Chinese numbers one to three are horizontal.

Useful Websites

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.

Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker. Member of many toastmasters  speaker training clubs and speaking contest judge.

Angela Lansbury, the author of 20 books including Wedding Speeches & Toasts, and Quick Quotations, has lived in the USA, Spain and Singapore. 

She  has several blogs and writes daily on at least two of the following:

travelwithangelalansbury.blogspot.com

dressofthedayangela.blogspot.com

translateforfun.blogspot.com

 Please share links to your favourite posts.

Pickpocket-Proof Clothing Shows New Designs, Colours and Comments

I am a great fan of pockets, concealed pockets, and pickpocket-proof clothing.

I am on the mailing list of clothing arts so get to see all their updates and read their site religiously, including the users' comments.

Colours
I notice that they now have the women's 'shirt' in navy as well as black and what I would call sand colour. That's great. Neutral colours which go with everything. But I do get fed up with black. When I was teaching English at a school in Singapore, the head teacher told me the pupils complained that I wore black and white every day. They wanted me to wear brighter colours, such as red on Monday, Orange or pink on Tuesday, Yellow on Wednesday. Blue on Thursday. Green on Friday.

I had a red, white and black clothes colour scheme as a travel writer, so that everything I wore and packed co-ordinated with everything else. My edito,r who travelled with his entourage of writer and photographer on travel rpess trips, told me, 'I am tired of seeing you in red. Wear another colour - any other colour.'

Pockets
One of the reviewers pointed out that the woman's shirt had only one pocket whilst the man's version had two.

How irritating. I hate single pockets. I never use single pockets. I forget they are there. High single pockets are silly if you have any shape. Left empty, they look lopsided. Filled, they give you a lopsided bust.

One of the reviewers points out that the pocket is not big enough to fsten over a passport. The reply is that you are supposed to wear the shirt with their (matching or contrasting) skirts or pants. (In the UK we say trousers).

Hm. Not everybody can afford both - or even one.

Cost and Offers
If you are strapped for cash they frequently do money off offers. As the lines of colours and items available expands, I look forward to more choices.

https://www.clothingarts.com/

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

Afrikaans - more words translated - Afrikaans is easy to read - instant learning!

Where Afrikaans is spoken. Map from Wikipedia.

Afrikaans is a language we saw on signs in South Africa. I had heard it was similar to Dutch.

Problem
We understood a few words just at a glance. Now let's try the rest using a translator.

baie
begin
behoefte
besluit
bestudeer
dames
denominasie
Dinsdag
elke
enige
het
in
is
kom
leiding
moedertaal
'n
om
onder
ons
persone
te
van
waar
weens
Woord

These come out as:
many
start
need
decision
study
ladies
denomination
Tuesday
each
some
has
in
is
bowl
lead
mother tongue
one
to
under
us
people
to
of
where
due to
Word
Google Translate for Business:Translator Toolkit Website Translator

The ones which immediately strike me as easy to remember are dames for ladies and tag for day, same as the German Guten tag which is good day.

It strikes me that it would be pretty easy to either learn or simply feel comfortable seeing signs in Afrikaans if you already speak English, even easier if you know German or Dutch.

Useful Websites

wikipedia Afrikaans

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

Please share links to your favourite posts.

Starbucks in the station at Baker Street; for quick coffee and souvenirs

Returning from an event at London Business school,after drinks at the crowded The Windsor Castle pub, we were looking for a coffee bar. We ran through the pouring rain and puddles. I wished that London had the covered ways which Raffles built in Singapore.

Dreaming of Covered Ways
Raffles organised the famous (famous in Singapore) five foot ways. I can't remember whether their main purpose was shelter from the sun or rain, probably more from the sun, as in many hot countries, but equally effective in rain.

Dreaming of Colonnades
London is such a rainy city. We should be building colonnades and soft, rubbery or bouncy awnings which could double as safety nets. These barriers protect those underneath from items dropped out of windows. Awnings could help protect flat dwellers and window cleaners or other outside workers from impact falling accidentally, or to escape fire, all the way to the ground or landing on concrete.

Starbucks
(Safety announcement over, let me return to the subject of coffee at the station.) Our last chance for coffee before boarding the train was at the Starbucks inside the station. My first impression was lukewarm, but I gradually warmed to the location.

Seating
My first thought was, no proper tables and seats, no toilets. The latter problem was soon solved. Ladies toilet nearby. Lots of cubicles.

I return. Back to Starbucks. Seating? No comfy sofas. Not the usual creature comforts. Stools at a central island. I have no choice. My two friends are already seated.

My friends are drinking their coffee. Now, what about the coffee?

What kind of coffee? A poster on the wall tells you about the coffees and the history of the company.

Now that my eyes have raised to the story of Starbucks, I look along the wall at the shelves of souvenirs above. I could buy a Starbucks theme mug, or a souvenir of London mug, large or small.

I must have passed through Baker Street station hundreds of times. I know London Transport's Lost and Found up on Baker street, the Sherlock Holmes museum opposite the Lost and Found. The museum has a shop with souvenirs of Sherlock and London. I know the statue of Sherlock Holmes outside the other station entrance, and Madame Tussauds and The Planetarium. I have passed the souvenir shop upstairs near the Sherlock Holmes statue. I didn't know the station, toilets, the Starbucks coffee shop or the Starbucks souvenirs.

If you are passing through London, and don't want to spend time, because you are catching the train on to home or Heathrow, a handy stop.

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

Are You Baffled By Washbasins? Some secrets ... Trail and Error!

You go into the toilets at airport, hotels, restaurants and you need a degree in toilet design to find the toilets, lock the cubicle door, locate the soap, turn on the water to wash your hands.

PROBLEMS
1 First, where's the toilet?

2 You want to wash. How do you turn on the tap?

3 If the tap is hand operated, now that you've washed your hands, how do you turn off the tap without putting germs back on your fingers?

4 Where is the soap? How do you extract it?

5 Where have they hidden the towels? How do you get the hand dryer to start?

6 Where is the exit?

7 You have forgotten your comb. Or can't find it. What can you do?

8 No toothpick. No toothbrush.

FINDING THE TOILET - PROBLEMS
You are in a restaurant in Singapore. The toilet is down the corridor somewhere else in the mall. How do you find it?

You are in a Community Centre. Where's the toilet?

You are in a hotel. Where's the toilet?

You want an elegant and safe rest room in a foreign city. Where can you find one?

Here are some answers.

LOCATING TOILETS
1 Where is the toilet?
The first thing a traveller in a foreign country needs is the sign for the toilet.
Mostly toilets have signs. If you are lucky they have symbols.

CHINA
I once made a mistake in China. I copied down what I thought was the sign for Ladies. Next time I saw the sign I walked in confidently and quickly realised I was in the Gents. I had copied down the sign for toilets.

SINGAPORE
Go to the toilet first, everywhere. If you try to go to the toilet at the end of the break, you might get locked out of the conference room.

Community Centres for Community Clubs
I got locked out once at Yuhua Community Centre in Singapore. The toilets were one or two floors below. (Some places have gents on one level and ladies on the next alternating.)

The conference room was locked during contests and had a self-locking door which closed behind the last person. The contest organiser had the key and door was propped open or held open or opened from the inside.

In Singapore nowadays in community centres the ladies and gents are adjacent and the washbasins are shared. At a community centre in Singapore I was able to spot the toilets from afar by seeing the bucket and mop outside the door. On another occasion I just ran anti clockwise around the building until I found the toilets.

Trail and Trial
Yesterday, yet again, I was temporarily baffled in a shopping mall. But at least after much trail and error I can solve the problem. That funny pun on trial and trail came by accident from auto correct. I typed trial and error. Auto correct inserted trail and error.

If you are lucky, a building has toilets on every floor, gents near ladies, same location on each floor with ground floor busy with a queue and more space and cleanliness upstairs.

Some shopping centres have toilet in the basement food court and the top floor restaurant area. In Singapore many office buildings have toilets only accessible with a key.

If you are running a meeting, tell people where to find the toilets, the length of the meeting and when their will be an interval or when the audience can slip out to the toilet (eg between speakers). You don't want people leaving and disappearing forever.

In Singapore went to a property seminar in a tower block. At the end I rushed off to the toilet, 10th floor locked. So I went to the ground floor, also locked. So I ran next door to the Sheraton hotel.

By the time I got back I had lost the opportunity to network and exchange contacts. Similarly, so had the organisers lost me.

ASK OR COPY
TAP TRIALS
If all else fails, ask somebody else. Or watch what they do and copy it. If they are turning a tap clockwise and your tap is not turning, then your tap may be malfunctioning. After they finish, use the tap they used.

If they are turning the tap clockwise and it's working, whilst you are trying to push it in, downwards, with no success, you are malfunctioning.

There are a limited number of ways water spray can operate. You turn the tap clockwise. You move the lever or knob up and down. You push it left or right.

You move your hand up to operate a sensor below the tap. You move your hand down to operate a sensor lower down the basin.

You tread on a pedal under the basin. This system means you are not touching anything with your dirt hands. You cannot break the handle by pushing it the wrong way, nor wear off the pretty gold or silver colour plating.

Sometimes the clue is on the mirror. If you are looking at the basin or looking at your face in the mirror you may miss the sign. Look at the mirror. Check again further along the mirror for another sign.

Yesterday I found a sign for the towel after I washed my hands. Looking back, I realised I had missed the sign for the soap.

HIDDEN SOAP
Do you need soap? Yes, you do, even if your hands don't look dirty. I discovered that in Singapore in 2016. Signs reminded you to use soap, explaining that soap will kill more germs than water alone.

Sometimes, at motorway stops in the UK, I have been on the int of leaving the washroom after washing my hands, and then discovered a soap dispenser on the wall near the exit. Sometimes dispensers offer a gel (alcoholic?) which cleans your hands without the need to wash and rinse.

TOWEL
Why bother to dry your hands? Another reminder from Singapore is not to wave your hands about sending drops onto the floor. Other people may slip on a wet floor.

If there's no paper towel, there may be a blower on the wall.

If there's no blower, there may be paper towels under the mirrors. Two clues. An almost invisible sign on the mirror above your basin or at intervals along the mirror, sometimes above alternating basins. So the signs are not above your basin but above the basins to the right and left of yours.

SOAP
If you see nozzles, this shows there must be a soap dispenser, either full or empty. Move your hands and a colourful blob of gel will either land on your watch or miss your hand and land on the white basin. Wipe it off and use it and / or try again.

PULL OUT PAPER TOWEL
If you don't see a sign, or see a sign but don't understand the symbols, look under the mirror. You will either see the paper towel, the empty paper towel dispenser. If your paper towel dispenser is empty, look along the mirrors for another dispenser.

PAPER TOWEL DISPENSERS
If the paper in a high dispenser showed just a sliver of paper which won't descend or tear, however hard you try to grab and yank, don't drive yourself nutty pulling off tiny silvers of paper, nor risk breaking the machine. Look for instructions. You may need to hold your hands below the machine which then makes the paper descend automatically. You will hear a whir and an oblong of paper will descend, often perforated for you to pull it off neatly.

Not enough paper? Try again. This time you know what to do!

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

Getting Around Olympia: Entrance, Exit, Ladies, Gents

Olympia has its own dedicated station where trains set you down conveniently right next to the exhibition centre. On our second visit to the London Wine Fair a crier outside told us we would have shorter queues if we turned right and went to the West entrance. We turned the corner of the road, then another corner past some interesting shops including an Indian restaurant. But it was a long walk.

Inside, at this show, the organiser's office and the press office were upstairs on the gallery above the other entrance. One one occasion I was looking for one of the rooms which turned out to be in a second hall. I accidentally wandered into a downstairs grand hall decorated with huge paintings. This private room was for elite people to be invited to meals, the big spenders nominated by the people with the big stands.

On the right side of the lower hall is a Ladies Toilet which on the ground floor has only three cubicles. In addition there's a larger handicapped cubicle with an outward opening door, which can be disconcerting if you have not latched it properly.

Upstairs are more toilets. Should you drag your heavy bag or trolley upstairs? If upstairs has a longer queue, you risk losing your place in the downstairs queue.

Inside the cubicle, if you are carrying a glass of wine or water, full or nearly empty, there is no flat surface to place your glass. (I was told the same applies in the Gents.)

However, if you go to the ladies on the left hand wall of the hall you will find more cubicles on ground level.

Remember to turn the tap to turn it off. It does not turn off automatically. I peered under the tap to see whether it operated by a movement sensor. No. I discovered that it swivelled clockwise to hot and anticlockwise to cold.

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

Birthday Lunch At Hawtrey's Restaurant in the Barn Hotel, Ruislip, London

Hawtreys has always been one of my two top favourite restaurants for food and historic atmosphere. The Barn hotel has a log fire burning in the central lounge under beams.

Starter
    The set menu changes daily. I am allergic to shellfish and did not feel like mushroom soup so I opted for the egg. I knew the chef would do something special. My egg appeared with a crunchy outside. Deep fried? the bacon was turned into a triangular sail. Hardly healthy. But very tasty.

Main Course
  My main course of lamb was perfect. I didn't really notice the potato. The beans were satisfying. Under the lamb I discovered asparagus.

Dessert
   I had phoned to ask for Happy Birthday to be written on my plate. The Happy Birthday was a delight. The chocolate and sorbet were not overwhelming in flavour, a slight disappointment.

The coffee was not impressive.

But all in all the near-perfect lunch. At a reasonable price.

Ladies
   The ladies toilet is always a delight. Lovely mirrors. Paper tissues as well as paper towels. Gel soap and hand conditioner. Elegant and colourful. You emerge feeling elegant, pampered and pleased.