Learn Norwegian with Duolingo

 

Norwegian is an easy language.

I have started learning on Duolingo.

These are the words I have learned, and most of them are short version of the English word. Effortless. Instant success. I noted them all down on today's diary page. I have a page a day diary big enough for making notes like this as well as my appointments. (In case the notes obscure my appointments, the appointments are already in my phone alarm).

English - Norwegian

a - en

bread - brod

brother - bror

father - far

hi - hei (pronounced high, the same as in English)

mother - mor 

no - nei  (pronounced nigh)

sister - soster (with a line across the letter o)

tea - te

thanks - tagg

water - vann

wine - veen

Norwegian-English

en - a

brod - bread

bror - brother

far - father

mor - mother

nei (pronounced  nigh or ni as in night) - no

soster (line across the o) - sister

takk - thanks

te - tea

A little more and harder?

Norwegian-English

du- you (similar to French tu)

er- is/are

Ja - yes (similar to German and Malaysian and South African)

kaffe - coffee

melk - milk

min - my (like mine, but the Norwegian adjective comes after the noun)

og - and

vin - wine

Useful Websites

duolingo

wikivoyage norvegian phrasebook

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Tricks for learning Japanese

 I am learning Japanese on Duolingo. Japanese is a challenging language if your first language is English. The verb goes at the end, like in German. If your native language is German, or you have ever started learning German, this concept will be more familiar to you. 

Useful Websites

I am also looking at all sort of other websites. To name a few, well, let's start with one, Wikitravel phrasebook. it gives the Japanese words in the same alphabet as English, which the Japanese call Romanji. (Just like we talk about Roman numerals, I II III, the Japanese talk about the Roman alphabet, a b c.)  the Japanese like to add a vowel on the ends of words. So Roman becomes 

Romanji. 

Loan Words

You will find two types of loan words.. First, easiest to pronounce are English words borrowed from Japanese.  Second, similar sounding Japanese words borrowed from English

First, Japanese words we already know and use are from clothing and food and drink.

Clothing words include: 

kimono.  

Food words include: 

sushi. The start sounds like Susan. Susan and Sue like Soo-shi, Sushi. Drinks include Sake, which is rice wine.  

When looking for easy to remember Japanese words, one of the first things I look for is words which are almost identical in English and Japanese.  I can recognize them quickly which gives me a sense of achievement and success. 

For example, checking I find

 taxi and menu are almost the same. So is toilet! And bus. In Japanese, Bas. Computer is an adapted word. 

Duolingo teaches you simple sentences and useful words. For example, She is a teacher. He is a doctor. She is a nice teacher. He is a nice doctor. At first sight the words are challenging. I find it easier to relate them to a sentence or phrase in English which sounds similar. for example, 

isha is doctor. I remember: I shall see the doctor. Isha = doctor. 

The word for teacher looks like sen-say, same sound twice. What does the sensible teacher say twice? 

I clock on the little megaphone symbol to hear the letters said. The exercise offers the translation of Japanese into English and English into Japanese. I can now quickly pick the right word each time and hear it said correctly. 

 Useful Websites

Duolingo Japanese

duolingo.com

Wikitravel Japanese Phrasebook

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Start Albanian with ling app

Flag of Albania. Wikipedia.

The Ling app course on Albanian started with the alphabet, not too difficult. Then it progressed to pictures of a man, women, boy and girl. You matched them up with pictures and written words.

English - Albanian

you - ju

boy - djalë

he - ai

girl - vajze

man - njeri

she - ajo

Woman -- gruaja

please - ju letem (my memory aid is it is two words like por favor, in Spanish, ju is you, think if you let me,  or do you let me ju letem)

Now you can use translate google

and - dhe

thank you -faleminderit 

hello - Përshëndetje - (more challenging)

goodbye - mirupafshim

Albanian - English

you - ju ( similar to the French tu, but more like d'you, to remember the j, I think you juvenile)

Well, folks, that's all. faleminderit, dhe mirupafshim.

Useful Websites

 https://play.ling-app.com/learn/unit/1/lesson/1

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

Bulgaria for beginners

Maps of bulgaria sold in the UK show the placenames in both Bulgarian (Cyrillic) and English.

A Bulgarian Phrase Book and Dictionary

We bought our copy from Stanford's map shop in Covent Garden in London, England. You can also look on Amazon and Ebay. I like ebay because you sometimes get a range of options and the possibility of a bargain if you are not in a hurry. Ebay is a UK new and second hand goods and buy now or online auction.

Cyrillic Alphabet

Created by Cyril and his brother, a couple of priests. Their alphabet has a lot in common with the Rusian alphabet. A bit of Greek, a bit of Hebrew.

Duolingo, the free online language learning website, doesn't have Bulgarian. However, it does have Russian.

Bulgaria - where?

Bulgaria is south of Romania. Bulgaria has an East coast on the sea with popular beaches.

Capital - Sophia

We used to muddle up Romania and Bulgaria.  The capital of Romania is Bucharest. the capital of Bulgaria is Sophia.

Another great city is Plovdiv.

Bulagarian Flag
Three equal horizontal bands, white on top, green middle, then red.

Useful Websites

Wikitravel - the old wiki travel with advertisements added, which can be handy if you are ready to buy.

Wikivoyage - the old people from wiki I believe sold off Wikitravel then decided to return to the original idea of a guide without advertising. 

Tripadvisor

Author

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