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Showing posts with label Mandarin. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Mandarin. Show all posts

Friday, October 24, 2025

Amusing Rude Words in English, Chinese, Dutch, Thai and other languages

Flag of Singapore.

Words which sound rude or slang in English are handy words to know in other countries. You might hear Fuk and Kok in China and Hong Kong and Singapore. Crap elsewhere in Asia.

Singapore, Mandarin, Family Names

When I was in Singapore, on and off for thirty years, I kept hearing people saying fuck. At least, that was what I thought I heard. As an English teacher I wanted to tell them it was impolite in English, but I did not feel comfortable stopping strangers in the street to correct their English.  

You hear family names all the time because Chinese speakers have triple names, with the family name first, followed by the personal or given name. Think of Lee Kuan Yew, the Singaporean VIP. 

Lee is a very common name, also spelled Li, meaning plum tree, tree. Many words have different meanings, like English homophones, with different symbols, just as English words such as two and too.

Chinese, Mandarin, Hokkien Names

Years later, I learned that two of the commonest names in Chinese, in the top ten of popular names, are Fuk and Kok. Fuk, fook or Fu, depending on where you are, and the language or dialect. You might hear or speak Mandarin, in China and Singapore and taught universally, Fuk, 

In Cantonese in Hong Kong and southern China, you might hear Fook.

You might hear Fu, in another dialect. It means good fortune! 

Kok means country, city or defensive wall, or defender of the country. So that is another very popular patriotic name.

Europe - The Netherlands and Belgium

If you are not travelling to Asia, but to Europe, you will also hear the name which sounds like cock. It is Cok, which is dutch for cook. Mr or Mrs Cook.  Dutch is spoken and the name is used in Holland in The Netherlands, also in parts of Belgium, two adjacent countries.

Back in Asia, Singapore was once part of Malaysia. Malaysia's northern neighbour is the country of Thailand, where they speak the Thai language. The word which sounds like crap, sometimes written as Krub, is not rude but a respectful word used by men to address others, a bit like sir, and is used at the end of sentences, whether agreeing or making a statement, or asking a question.

Remembering Names

So, now you know what you are hearing regularly in other countries. It is easy to remember some common names, and to compliment the owner of the name by showing you know and admire its meaning in their language.

Don't tell them that their names mean something rude in English. They have already been told that many times. 

Tell them how lucky they are to be bestowed with such wonderful names, and live in places with such positive names. They will admire you for your knowledge, and be flattered by the fact that you always remember their name.

Please share links to your favourite posts.


Saturday, April 29, 2023

THE ALPHABET EXPLAINED: The origin of every letter, and which countries will help you to be bilingual


I knew some of this about the origin of language. Very effectively presented. The presenter has a lovely, attractive English accent with perfect pronunciation. A pleasure to listen to him.

I have been studying Chinese (Mandarin). Chinese combines the earliest form of writing, pictograms. diagrams of natural objects, with signs representing sounds.

He shows how the modern Roman alphabet was derived over time. 

What he does not explain is how the Cyrillic alphabet was constructed at one point in time by Cyril and his borther. Just like Korean was invented by one person.
He has another video exaplining how German is easy to read if you can see how some letters in German are equivalent to others in English. 

Useing the existing Roman alphabet, the language Esperanto was devised to help Europeans who spoke several langagues, to speak to each other in a commong language which combines parts of each of the main languages, but kept to a regular structure with only 14 rules, quick to learn. 

If you are interested in languages you might be interested in these places:

SINGAPORE
In Singapore the four major official langauges and English Chinese (Mandarin), Malay (which is mostly the same as Indonesian) and Tamil.
Go on the MRT (underground railway) and you will hear announcements in four languages and see signs in four languages.

CANADA
You will hear English in Toronto and French in Montreal but in the capital all government empolyees are required to speak both languages. Most hotel and restaurant staff are also bilingual.

BELGIUM
You will see signs in two languages, French and Flemish (Dutch).

SWITZERLAND
A chance to practice three languages, French, German and Italian.

Sunday, October 2, 2022

Do you dream of being bilingual? Or at least reading signs? Look at and listen to three languages in Singapore

 If English is your first language, you can listen to and read three other languages in Singapore, Malay, written in familiar Roman script, Chinese, written in symbols, and Tamil, with pretty curves.

In the lifts (Americans say elevators) and on station platforms you can read signs in four languages.  On the trains, you can hear the four languages.

Malay

Danger


Danger keep out translates as Bahaya Jangan Dekat

Put the individual words into translate google and you get

bahaya - danger

jangan - don't

dekat - near


At the end of the announcements you hear thank you.



The Chinese (mandarin) sounds like shay shay.

The Malay sounds like terima kasih.

The Tamil sounds like Nanri.

Flag of India


The Etymology and Translation of Navrati

(Festivals of) Navaratri - nava is nine, ratri is nights.


Hindu and Hindi

Hindus and the people and Hindi is a language.


Useful Websites

https://www.holidify.com/pages/singapore-languages-629.html

Tamil alphabet

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ETU6z5dSPTY

General Languages

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portal:Language

Facebook chats

https://m.facebook.com/people/Polyglot-Club-Singapore/100074282094582/

Language Learning

Hindi numbers one to ten and eleven onwards

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S2-YUzP7W5w

Hindi and Tamil numbers one to ten

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ya8dsK_Bec

Please share links to your favourite posts.

duolingo.com

Tuesday, April 19, 2022

LEARN LANGUAGES LIKE POLYGLOTS: GRACIAS | MY THANK YOU SONG ! VIDEO MOTIVACIONAL EN 45 IDIOMAS


The word thank you is similar in several languages. for example, in Malay and Indonesian termimah kasih, which sounds like terribly ...

Singapore has bilingual English and Mandarin or English and Tamil clubs. You can give your speech in either language.

Useful Websites
https://omniglot.com/language/phrases/help.htm

Wednesday, March 23, 2022

Starting Learning Chinese


 

Ni hao - (pronounced knee how, literally you good, means) hello

hern hao - very good

wo - I

wo si - (woh see) I like (I sound in both the Chinese and the English)

wo sir - I am

lao sir - (a) teacher

welcome - 歡迎

Huānyíng

When I translated the two Chinese characters back into English I got joyous welcome

Useful Websites

duolingo.com

translate.google.com

Thursday, July 15, 2021

Which Languages Should Travellers Learn?



Pieter Breughel the Elder's painting, Tower of Babel, in the art museum in Vienna, Austria. You can see another version in Rotterdam in the Netherlands.

If you speak English and only English or your native tongue is something few others speak, such as Hebrew or Hungarian, you might get around fastest  in countries which speak English. Where could you holiday? The obvious places are

England and the UK, including Northern Ireland. Jersey, Guernsey, USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa. Let's put them in alphabetical order so we can update easily and check nowhere is missed out.

Australia

Canada

England

Guernsey

Jersey

New Zealand

South Africa

USA. 

The languages which have the greatest number of native speakers are Mandarin Chinese, Spanish, with English third. 

However, if you take the number of people who speak English as a second language, the positions change to English first, Chinese, second, Hindi third and Spanish fourth.

On the other hand, it depends where you are travelling, who is at your business meeting, or who are your students or customers.

Spanish and Portuguese would be most useful in South American. English and Spanish in the USA. French and English in Canada. Chinese in China. Hindi in India.

If you wanted to learn Cyrillic, you could go to Russia or Bulgaria.

Esperanto

If you want penfriends worldwide and are hopeless at accents, you might stick to writing in Esperanto which is the most popular made up language, designed with communication in mind, based on European languages and  simple grammar.


Useful Websites

https://www.ethnologue.com/guides/countries-most-languages




About the Author

Angela Lansbury, is a semi-retired travel writer still researching bucket list countries and seeking out the special, unusual, people, places,  landmarks, hotels, museums and trails, fabulous foods, recipes, clothes and online souvenir shopping.

Angela Lansbury is a member of Toastmasters International.

About the Author Angela Lansbury

The Author - Quick Quotations

Angela Lansbury B A Hons  is the author of ten books by regular publishers, plus another ten self-published books. 

About Angela The Speaker & Trainer

Angela Lansbury is a teacher of English and other languages to Toastmasters clubs and businesses.

Braddell Heights Advanced Toastmasters Speakers Vice President, Public Relations, Immediate Past President. VPPR
Former Area Director S3. Club Coach for Nee Soon South Toastmasters Club.
Also Member of: TCA Toastmasters Club; Singapore Online Dynamic; Harrovians UK

BHA
Past meetings have included Garen Tee on using story-telling in business, on 
bha.learncool.sg/meet/bha . 

Recent meetings of BHA included an educational session on using Powerpoint for posters.
Next BHA meetings, always first Wednesday evening, 7 pm Singapore time. Next meeting is  the third Saturday afternoon, June 19th 2pm Singapore time.  Inauguration of the new committee was by the incoming Director of S, plus a lively speech on teamwork.

Next meetings will be on these dates (unless a national holiday in Singapore or worldwide)
Themes and word of the day are tentative

2021
JULY - JUBILANT JULY
Theme/WOD Jubilant
WORKSHOPS & EDUCATIONAL SESSIONS (based on level one of Pathways)
1 Your first speech or role EASY ENGLISH LANGUAGE (Articles A and The, Plurals, Tenses, Pronunciation, Singlish)
2 CHOOSE YOUR PATH
Wed July 7th What Your Committee Can Do For You

Saturday 17th
July 4th American Independence Day.

2021 AUGUST - AWESOME AUGUST
1 Pathway Level 1 Introductory Speeches
2 Evaluations
Wed 4th
Sat 21

2021 SEPT - SUPER SEPTEMBER
Wed 1st
Sat 18th SPEECH CONTESTS
Humorous Speech Contest
Table Topics Contest

2021 OCT - ODD OCTOBER
Wed 6th
Sat 16th

2021 NOV - NOVELTY NOVEMBER
Wed 3rd
Sat 20th Wed
Diwali Hindu Festival of lights Nov 4th.
Nov 25th American Thanksgiving.
Hanukah starts 28 Dec 8 days until Dec 6. Jewish Festival of lights, celebrated by Jesus.

2021 DEC - DARLING DECEMBER
Wed  1st (Hanukah if not previous month. Festival foods.)
Sat 18th
Speech on 

JAN 2022 - JOYFUL JANUARY
Wed Jan 5th New beginning - forget the past
Sat 15 Long-term plans = for the future/Chinese New Year (CNY for short)

2022 FEB FUN FEBRUARY
Theme Love and romance - Chinese New Year
Feb 1st and 2nd are holidays - do we move this Feb 2nd meeting date?)

Wed 2nd (Valentine's Day Mon Feb 14)
Sat 19th

2022 MAR - MARVELLOUS MARCH
Theme
Wed 2nd
Sat 19
March 1st is Christian Pancake day. 

2022 APR - APRIL'S AIMS
Wed 6th
Sat 16th
Muslim Ramadan 1-30 April.
Jewish Passover (Seder meal=Last supper) April
 16

2022 MAY - MODERNISING MAY
Wed 4th
Sat 21

2022 JUN - JUBILANT JUNE
Wed 1st
Sat 18th

Jul 6, Jul 16, Aug 3, Aug 20, Sept 7, Sept 17, Oct 5, Oct 15, Nov 2, Nov 19, Dec 7, Dec 17.
Angela The Blogger 

Angela has several blogs speeches, comedy and song writing and organizing, writing intermittently, but writes almost daily on these three:

See many varied posts such as the post on sculptor Tom Harvey.

Please share links to your favourite posts. 

TCA (A for Advanced club) is another advanced speakers' club which meets both online for visitors from worldwide and physically for walks, meals and socials in the Tampines area. Meetings are in the TC Community Club when Covid-19 regulations in Singapore allow it, but meanwhile come along to meetings online.

TCA meetings are on the fourth Tuesday evening of each month at 7 p.m Zoom room open to check your sound and online appearance and chit-chat, ready for a 7.15 pm start. I usually manage to attend meetings whether I am in Singapore or the UK.

Another club, totally online, is Singapore Online Dynamic, meeting 9 pm Singapore time on Fridays. I am a member of this club.

I am also a member of Senja-Cashew. When it meets physically it is in a convenient large complex containing a swimming pool beside a landmark lake next to a shopping complex. Right now it is online.

Once you join a club, your club's president will give you the opportunity to be informed of Toastmasters club meetings worldwide, especially those which have interesting workshops.cAbout the Author

Angela Lansbury, is a semi-retired travel writer still researching bucket list countries and seeking out the special, unusual, people, places,  landmarks, hotels, museums and trails, fabulous foods, recipes, clothes and online souvenir shopping.

Angela Lansbury is a member of Toastmasters International.

About the Author Angela Lansbury

The Author - Quick Quotations

Angela Lansbury B A Hons  is the author of ten books by regular publishers, plus another ten self-published books. 

About Angela The Speaker & Trainer

Angela Lansbury is a teacher of English and other languages to Toastmasters clubs and businesses.

Braddell Heights Advanced Toastmasters Speakers Vice President,  Public Relations, Immediate Past President. VPPR
Former Area Director S3. Club Coach for Nee Soon South Toastmasters Club.
Also Member of: TCA Toastmasters Club; Singapore Online Dynamic; Harrovians UK

BHA
Past meetings have included Garen Tee on using story-telling in business, on 
bha.learncool.sg/meet/bha . 

Recent meetings of BHA included an educational session on using Powerpoint for posters.
Next BHA meetings, always first Wednesday evening, 7 pm Singapore time. Next meeting is  the third Saturday afternoon, June 19th 2pm Singapore time.  Inauguration of the new committee was by the incoming Director of S, plus a lively speech on teamwork.

Next meetings will be on these dates (unless a national holiday in Singapore or worldwide)
Themes and word of the day are tentative

2021
JULY - JUBILANT JULY
Theme/WOD Jubilant
WORKSHOPS & EDUCATIONAL SESSIONS (based on level one of Pathways)
1 Your first speech or role EASY ENGLISH LANGUAGE (Articles A and The, Plurals, Tenses, Pronunciation, Singlish)
2 CHOOSE YOUR PATH
Wed July 7th What Your Committee Can Do For You
Saturday 17th
July 4th American Independence Day.

2021 AUGUST - AWESOME AUGUST
1 Pathway Level 1 Introductory Speeches
2 Evaluations
Wed 4th
Sat 21

2021 SEPT - SUPER SEPTEMBER
Wed 1st
Sat 18th SPEECH CONTESTS
Humorous Speech Contest
Table Topics Contest

2021 OCT - ODD OCTOBER
Wed 6th
Sat 16th

2021 NOV - NOVELTY NOVEMBER
Wed 3rd
Sat 20th Wed
Diwali Hindu Festival of lights Nov 4th.
Nov 25th American Thanksgiving.
Hanukah starts 28 Dec 8 days until Dec 6. Jewish Festival of lights, celebrated by Jesus.

2021 DEC - DARLING DECEMBER
Wed  1st (Hanukah if not previous month. Festival foods.)
Sat 18th
Speech on 

JAN 2022 - JOYFUL JANUARY
Wed Jan 5th New beginning - forget the past
Sat 15 Long-term plans = for the future/Chinese New Year (CNY for short)

2022 FEB FUN FEBRUARY
Theme Love and romance - Chinese New Year
Feb 1st and 2nd are holidays - do we move this Feb 2nd meeting date?)

Wed 2nd (Valentine's Day Mon Feb 14)
Sat 19th

2022 MAR - MARVELLOUS MARCH
Theme
Wed 2nd
Sat 19
March 1st is Christian Pancake day. 

2022 APR - APRIL'S AIMS
Wed 6th
Sat 16th
Muslim Ramadan 1-30 April.
Jewish Passover (Seder meal=Last supper) April
 16

2022 MAY - MODERNISING MAY
Wed 4th
Sat 21

2022 JUN - JUBILANT JUNE
Wed 1st
Sat 18th

Jul 6, Jul 16, Aug 3, Aug 20, Sept 7, Sept 17, Oct 5, Oct 15, Nov 2, Nov 19, Dec 7, Dec 17.
Angela The Blogger 

Angela has several blogs speeches, comedy and song writing and organizing, writing intermittently, but writes almost daily on these three:

See many varied posts such as the post on sculptor Tom Harvey.

Please share links to your favourite posts. 

You also get access to the online magazine. And the club will appoint a mentor to guide you through your first three speeches and plan your year so you can complete a Pathway suited to your personal interests. I chose the basic Presentation mastery path to start. Next I did the Engaging Humor path. Now I am onto the leadership paths such as Visionary Communication.

I am also a coach for Nee Soon South.

All the clubs worldwide have just handed over to the new team from July 1st, all full of enthusiasm, seeking new members, sometimes with a space for a committee member if you are job-hunting, or climbing the corporate ladder, just the thing to add to your c.v.

Toastmasters has made links with the Rotary club organization. So if you are interested in Rotary clubs, you might investigate both.