Practising Polish Pronunciation - on holiday or here at home

 

Poland has a lot to offer those on business and holiday. I have already seen Chopin's monument in Warsaw. The grave of the inventor of Esperanto language in Warsaw - on my wishlist is his museum in another city. The pretty southern former capital and trips to salt mines - and Auschwitz. The amusing ankle height dwarfs in Wroclaw are on my wishlist. Amber and Polish milk caramel sweets, I loved. I have written about these in my other posts. 

Over here in London we have Polish supermarkets catering to a lot of Polish people.

We have a Polish plumber. We have trouble saying his surname. 

I looked at the written explanations of the Polish language. It seemed that the z sound is like an h so that sz is sh and cz is ch. Easy-peasy.

So, a name ending czyk is more or less chick.

Then I looked at some videos. Type in speak or pronounce Polish and Youtube will show you a choice of half a dozen.

You have to add two more sounds which are not like English. The w is pronounced v like in German. 

The j is pronounced y like in many other languages. 

And three letters?There are a few more. Add a diacritic or a little tail and you change a c to a ch. Or is there a ts? And - Enough for one day. I shall come back to this tomorrow. At least I get a rough idea. 

Try it yourself.

How do you pronounce Chinese words? Record a friend and Learn Chinese: Jay Chou Ting Mama de Hua (Listen to Mama) 周杰倫【聽媽媽的話】

Here is a handy video on the ways you can read the pronunciation of Chinese words. if you have ever wondered why ni hao is not written as ni how, this explains it. The reason is to do with certain combinations of letters already being used for other sounds.

The video usefully divides the sounds up according to where you put your tongue in your mouth. Every step on the ladder of learning brings you nearer to success.

I found the signs for the tones on the Chineasy flashcards very small and hard to read, especially in bed at night. I changed my table lamp, but it is still difficult. I find reading from the Chineasy book easier. But the translitateration still puzzles me. When I use translate google I listen to the sound.

At a meal with a Chinese friend, I asked her to teach me one or two phrases, such as, how do I say, 'My name is ..." in Chinese (Mandarin). I videotaped my question and her answer on my mobile phone. I can now play it back several times, or every morning and evening.

About The Author Angela

Angela Lansbury is a British author who has lived in the USA.

Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer.

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, 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.hraseed her to teach me one 

Useful Websites

I have several useful charts of Chinese symbols by subject on my Pinterest pages. Look for the set on lnaguage.

Flashcards

chineasy.com 

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

memrise.com

About The Author Angela

Angela Lansbury is a British author who has lived in the USA.

Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer.

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, 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.

Just three quick facts about Esperanto - and my blog posts read in Russia!

What I have learned about Esperanto:
1 No indefinite article (a). (Easy for speakers of Chinese and Russian who struggle with when to use a and the in English).

2 Definite article (the) is la (unlike French where la is for female, in Esperanto, which is simpler, la is for male, female and neutral).

3 Sentences end with n on the object so Esperanto as object of a sentence becomes Esperanton, noun. Similar to English sentence which start with I or he or they as subject but end with me or him or them.
Esperanto is easy. It looks like Spanish or Italian, but even simpler. The intonation is on the last syllable but one, like Italian. (In Italian you say Maria, then Trattoria, or Osteria, and you'll see what I mean.)

On blogger.com (where you create blogs - you read them on blogspot) I can see how many people have read each of my blog posts by week, day and now.

Who Is Reading this Post About Esperanto?
Often the majority, or at least the hightest number, of my readers are in the USA. That depends on when I write. If you are in the UK or Europe, write at midnight in Europe and the Europeans are already in bed, it's still daytime in the USA but it's the middle of the night in the Far East.

If you write in London, England, before working day starts, before 9 am, it's still night time in the USA, but the people in the Far East are already up and at work. (Similarly in Singapore and the USA, if you are writing a blog post, those who read it the minute after you have writeen it, apart from the insomniacs, you can work it out.

As soon as I had finished writing my morning's blog post on Esperanto, and Zamenhof's home and exhibition in Poland, I checked on my readership. To my surprise and delight I discovered that this week, out of nowhere, I suddenly 1,195 readers in Russia. Russia is a vast areaa, when you look on the map. I also had 180 readers in Poland, that's 180 people who speak English well enough to read a blog in English.

Before the working day had begun in London, before 9 am I already had 84 readers in Russia and 35 in the USA.Another twelve hours to go. I check the figures at lunch time to see if I have reached my daily target and where are my readers? If I have lost the Italians who were reading about the Osteria Modigliani restaurant in London and St Valentine in Ternia, Umbria, should I make sure I mention Italian? Regardless of who is reading where, I have readers. What a welcome start to my day! Welcome to all my readers in Russia, the USA, Europe, England, Poland, wherever you are, welcome everybody worldwide.

Some people play the lottery. I write blogs. I love it. I win every day. Thank you so much for joining me.

Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer.
Please share your favourite posts.

Remembering Chinese Names: Chen, Chua, Keong, Lee, Liu, Min, Ng, Ong, Toh, Tu, Wei

Problem
I have trouble registering, pronouncing and remembering Chinese names.

Answers

Chen - Chenai is the official name for Madras on the East coast of India; chendol is a Chinese dessert, looks like chin, or Chinese, rhymes with when (when shall we three meet with Chen - to misquote the opening line by the witches in Macbeth, the play by Shakespeare). Chain.

Chue - chew it over, haven't a clue

Keong - A klong is a Thai word for a canal, Mr Keong was on the Klong; we won't wait long for Keong; Keong - he has the key, we'll carry on

Lee - rhymes with be (oh to be with Susan Lee) see Miss Lee, Lee on Sea, like the British place name Leigh on Sea

Liu - in lieu, in the loo, do it with Liu

Lixiang - the x is pronounced SH, lee - she - ang (Leigh - is she anxious?)

Min - just a minute, he is minute (short)

NG - Ng is like the ng in sing, song, long, ring

Ong - rhymes with song, bong, dong, long, wrong, on

See-Toh (see a toe)

Tu - too, two

Wai - way, good way, why, why not, we, weeze, weasel, weaving.


Many Chinese people use initials, especially if doubled, so that they will be called KK or YY for short.

Once you have a way of connecting the syllables, when you hear the names said at a meeting, you can then connect them with written name and the person's face. The repetition by others of the name will help drill it into your memory.

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

TRANSLATING Dutch - how to start even if you don't know one word!

Problem
A Dutch sentence is on the screen in front of me. I do not know Dutch but I know about 100-200 common words of German. What does the sentence mean in English? Let's have a go, a try.

Een kind vraagt niet om het leven,en een kind kan zijn vader of moeder ook niet uitkiezen.
dat is ook de reden dat ik twee kinderen geadopteerd heb als mijn eigen kinderen.

At first glance it means nothing. Then I took it word by word looking for one word to see if I could identify the subject.

Een kind vraagt niet om het leven,en een kind kan zijn vader of moeder ook niet uitkiezen.
dat is ook de reden dat ik twee kinderen geadopteerd heb als mijn eigen kinderen.

The first two words are 'Een kind' . Ah! Kindergarten. Kind is German for child. German and Dutch are very similar. What is een? Either one child or a child. Now I know the general subject matter. It's about a child or children, or mankind.

As I read on the next word which makes any sense is kinderen. 

Een kind vraagt niet om het leven,en een kind kan zijn vader of moeder ook niet uitkiezen.
dat is ook de reden dat ik twee kinderen geadopteerd heb als mijn eigen kinderen.

That must be plural for kind, children. Twee kinderen. Twee sounds like twins and three. Either two children or three children. If the sense had been one, two, three, that would have been logical. My guess is that the logical jump is from one child to two children.

At this point, even that doesn't matter. I am gaining confidence. I have the subject of the first sentence and the subject of the second sentence.

Een kind vraagt niet om het leven,en een kind kan zijn vader of moeder ook niet uitkiezen.
dat is ook de reden dat ik twee kinderen geadopteerd heb als mijn eigen kinderen.

What is niet? It appears twice!

Een kind vraagt niet om het leven,en een kind kan zijn vader of moeder ook niet uitkiezen.
dat is ook de reden dat ik twee kinderen geadopteerd heb als mijn eigen kinderen.

Niet is Russian for no. Long ago I saw a film featuring Goldie Hawn with the song containing the phrase: "NIET. NIET. NIET - not any more!" Niet means no. "No, no, no - not any more." The German is nicht. The common element is the letter N starting: Negative, Null, Never, No, Niet, Nicht, Neither, Nor, Nil, None, Naught.

So sentence one is a child ... not

Sentence two is about two children ... not

Look again. The word kinderen is repeated at the end!

Een kind vraagt niet om het leven, en een kind kan zijn vader of moeder ook niet uitkiezen.
dat is ook de reden dat ik twee kinderen geadopteerd heb als mijn eigen kinderen.

A child is also repeated.

Een kind vraagt niet om het leven, en een kind kan zijn vader of moeder ook niet uitkiezen.
dat is ook de reden dat ik twee kinderen geadopteerd heb als mijn eigen kinderen.

I can't work out the start, a child vraagt, but een kind kan - sounds like a child can!

That's very common in many laguages from Europe, K for c. C is S.

Een kind vraagt niet om het leven, en een kind kan zijn vader of moeder ook niet uitkiezen.
dat is ook de reden dat ik twee kinderen geadopteerd heb als mijn eigen kinderen.

After the first comma, I see 'en'.  And or but? My guess is and.

We still don't have any idea what it's all about, but we are building up the sentence word by word, learning Dutch, growing in confidence.

If kan is can, and en is and, I guess that dat, which appears twice means that.

Een kind vraagt niet om het leven, en een kind kan zijn vader of moeder ook niet uitkiezen.
dat is ook de reden dat ik twee kinderen geadopteerd heb als mijn eigen kinderen.

What else sound familiar, related to family life and the world of a child and its father and mother?

vader of moeder ? Either murder or mother? My guess is mother.

Vader of moeder? Further of murder or father of/off/or mother?

Vader of moeder - obviously father or mother!

Een kind vraagt niet om het leven, en een kind kan zijn vader of moeder ook niet uitkiezen.
dat is ook de reden dat ik twee kinderen geadopteerd heb als mijn eigen kinderen.

Still no nearer the sense, but we are gathering a word with every re-reading.

Back to the start:

Een kind vraagt niet om het leven,

A child doesn't eat its leavened bread or a child doesn't live its life?

Leven - a noun, must be life.

Het must be his or its. Het leven, his life.

Om must be on or of.

two children 'geadopteerd' looks like adopted. 

Ge in German is the prefix, fixed ahead of the word, for the past tense. Ge-adopteerd means adopted.

Een kind vraagt niet om het leven, en een kind kan zijn vader of moeder ook niet uitkiezen.
dat is ook de reden dat ik twee kinderen geadopteerd heb als mijn eigen kinderen.

Mijn eigen kindered - my / mine own children, my / mine eye children?

I don't know eigen but I'm pretty sure mijn is mine.

Now I know that in Dutch ij is simply an i sound, so that confusing j can be ignored. IJ is simply their way of spelling i pronounced eye.

I have had enough. I am now willing to go to Google translate. Next time I see Dutch I will be able to recognize that it is Dutch, and will make an attempt at trying to get the gist of it before translating.

I'm taking a short break. Later I shall add the whole translation.

Author

Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, teacher of English and other languages.Take a look at my other travel blog:
http://luxurytravelforless.co.uk

Learning Korean And What To See And Ski In Korea

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

Problem
The Korean project starts with a piece of overall description. The language goes from left the right. Like the American Mr Webster, who simplified British spelling, the Korean king wanted the language to be easy to learn. It is said that a wise man can learn it in half a day' a fol can learn it in a day.

You start the Korean project and learn letters.

Then you are presented with a word and asked the meaning. The trick is to hover your mouse over the Korean word and the English pop up.

A circle at the bottom of a block is read -ng, so you can distinguish Pyongyang (평양) from Seoul (서울). Further, the Korean words for many common products — coffee, juice, computer — are often the same as the English words, but will be written in hangul. If you can read hangul, you'll find surviving in Korea surprisingly easy.

A must see visit for a student of Language is the Hanyeau Museum. It has all of exhibits relating to the creation and evolution of the language, and another are devoted to the King who made it happen, so that all his illiterate subjects would ave an easy to learn language.

Useful web links
www.duolingo.com/skill/ko/alphabet
http://www.koreanwikiproject.com/wiki/Hangeul_step_1
www.90dayKorean.com
Writeit!Koreanfree
www.Koreanfromzero.com
howtostudykorean.com/unit0
http://english.visitkorea.or.kr/enu/ATR/SI_EN_3_6.jsp?cid=631659 (The Language Museum)

word fireworks/learn Korean
Tree Week Deep Roots drama is a play about the creation of the alphabet.
Youtube has three videos on pronunciation.

Travel
I accompanied a family member who was working in Korea for a short visit. We stayed in a grand hotel in the capital, Seoul. The temperature was very cold in winter.

I did not speak the language and could not read it so I was afraid to go out on my own. The first day I stayed in the hotel and read magazines and watched TV and had free coffee in the hotel's club lounge.

I then asked reception to book me on two trips. The first tour took me past the city's landmarks, stopped at a park with a monument to a Korean hero. When I was there, I was told that the Koreans and Japanese have a love-hate relationship because Korea was occupied by the Japanese in the past.

I enjoyed seeing the statue in the centre of the city which honours the Admiral, Yi Sunsin, an admirable man, quite a character. He built the Korean fleet, of tough ships which looked like turtles. I enjoyed reading his life story.

I was puzzled by the white half masks covering the noses and mouths of police directing traffic, as well as many pedestrians, and people on the trains. The masks are worn when you have a cold so that you don't sneeze and spread infection to others. Since the trains are constantly crowded, this seems very sensible.

Simpler to understand were the shopping mall, and a ginseng factory with leaflet to exaplain.

I booked a second tour which took the same route, except that it went to an amethyst factory. I was hoping to buy amethyst jewellery. I saw no bargains. Why? This is real amethyst. I came to the conclusion that the cheaper jewellery on sale in London is mainly paler coloured and synthetic stones.

The guide the first day was excellent. One or both of the tours went to the American cemetery, left from the time of the Korean War. As a schoolgirl, I did not understand what the Korean war was all about. Now, everything is much clearer.

Simpler to understand were the shopping mall, and a ginseng factory with leaflet to explain. The asians were all already familiar with ginseng. I wished I had read extensively about it before my trip. You'll make more sense of it if you check up on ginseng before your trip to Korea, rather than after you've ben there and got interested.

Recommended Temples
At the weekend we took a trip to a ski resort,Yongpyong meaning nine dragons, because of the surrounding, undulating mountain peaks.  We are to go to the south with a driver, who spoke no English, and an English speaking guide. The agency told us we needed a guide and the guide could explain things to us on the journey. Our aim was to see two temples which were en route, and the guide could explain them to us.

On the way down we were told that it was better to see the temples on the way back so we could be sure of reaching the hotel in time for supper. We agreed.

Snow
The temperature at the ski resort was minus five, no, it was minus fifteen. I didn't think it was possible. But the signs showing the temperature, with warnings, were up at the entrance to the ski slope. You could not go out, even at ground level, more than five feet from the doorway opening and shutting, letting out heat, without covering your nose and face with a scarf. Even though I was not skiing, I had to buy more ski weather accessories, warmer gloves, a thicker scarf, a tight fitting hat.

Food
 As a non-skier, I had not much to do, after I had been around the shops twice. We had a meal at the hotel. As far as I was concerned, it was not a success. I am allergic to shellfish and asked the guide to check with the waitress that the soup had no shellfish. I was assured there were no shellfish.

As soon as I took the first youthful, it tasted sour. I asked again. Again I was assured there was not shellfish.

I ran my spoon and fork around and lifted what was at the bottom of the bowl. Up came shellfish! I spat into my napkin and ran off to the ladies where I spat again, cleaned my teeth, and made myself sick to bring up anything I had inadvertently swallowed.

Driving back to Seoul, on the road back we seemed to by-pass the first of the three possible temples. Eventually we got half way home and insisted that the guide tell the driver to stop, because we must have gone past it. An heated discussion ensued. The driver wanted to go home early. We could do a tour of the city when we got back instead. We were very annoyed. I had already done the city tour twice and we were due to fly out the next day. As I was a non-skier, the whole purpose of my trip out to the countryside had been to see the temples en route.

The driver and guide were silent. We then stopped at two temples which were stunning most interesting mythology and history and great photos. They were striking, beautiful, exotic and quite different to Chinese temples and Indian temples.

Korean Food
We had once last chance to see and sample authentic Korean cuisine. The food is predominantly Kimchee, pickled vegetables and meat. The vegetables are a bit like pickled gherkins but different colours. If you don't like your food in vinegar, it may not be to your taste and you might soon give up trying and revert to ordering any Western choice.

Koreans In London
Back in London, we went with friends to a Korean restaurant in Golders Green. The food was tiny portions, prettily displayed, but still mostly pickled.

In the UK I met Korean people who were extremely civilized. They were the top of the crop, people who spoke English and were well organized and ambitious and efficient and conscious of timekeeping. I was very impressed by the fact that I told the father on the Friday evening that his son should have an English dictionary, a lever arch file, a pen and a ruler.

The next morning the family arrived arrived fully equipped, with a brand new folder, not old pencils like most pupils, but fresh new pencils, ready sharpened, having driven to the shopping mall to wait outside and be first in when the shop opened, then race back for the first lesson.

If you are as keen on learning Korean as the Koreans were about learning English, you can learn Korean at a Korean university. They have many courses for foreigners, anything from a day to much longer. The language was designed, like American English, to be simpler to learn.

https://wikitravel.org/en/South_Korea
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yongpyong_Resort
The King Sejong Story+The King Sejong Memorial Hall
http://english.visitkorea.or.kr/enu/ATR/SI_EN_3_6.jsp?cid=631659 (The king and his created language)
https://www.koreanair.com/global/en.html

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

Learning languages And Listening to Words Being Spoken

Problems
Tinycards and Pronunciation
I just started trying to say hello in 50 languages, suggested by Duolingo's Tinycards. I had been using Duolingo's free ap to learn Spanish and decided to use the free Tinycards ap on Spanish fruits. The two systems are differnt. Duolingo gives you short sentences. So you learn to speak. The Tinycards are handy if you have a short attention span, it's late at night, and you want a few words of one type such as foods such as fruit to read a menu or labels in a supermarket.

Duolingo and Sounds
I have started learning twelve different languages, at first just three, Spanish, Italian and German, Welsh for a weekend in Wales, the Russian, Greek and Hebrew languages because lesson one is the alphabet and I know two or three letters from each alphabet and would like to know the whole alphabet, and others such as Portuguese, to see how it differs, and Romanian because I was hiking there.  The Duolingo main system gives recordings most of the way through.

Tinycards Without Sounds
The tiny cards don't have recordings, just one word on each side of the card, often with a picture. You click to reverse the card two or three times and then answer the question.

Learning Words For Hello In Fifty Languages
I was doing all right on the French word bonjour, which I would normally translate literally as good morning. But when I got to the second set of cards the words were Polish, cseść for hello; and Lithuanian sveiki. Firstly, no point in learning to say the wrong thing. Secondly I was stumped as to how to say it.

Accented letters
I tried Google translate which gave me the Polish.
ś=sh The accent is like adding another letter, turning the s into a sh.
ć=ch
cz is ch as in the Czech word for Czechoslovakia.
i=sounds like yeh (e as in bed not ay as in bay)

Lithuanian
But the Lithuanian isn't there. I presume no Lithuanians have yet volunteered to help.

I didn't know how the recordings were done. In a forum on one of the languages, I leanred that words have an occasional blip because in on-line dictionairies you don't have a native speaker reading every word.

Earworms
You do have a native speaker saying every word, a native speaker who is introduced and who gets the credit on the CD cover, in systems such as Earworms. That is the short version of Berlitz with background music which does all sorts of magic things, simultaneously keeping you focused whilst helping you relax.  About 200 first easy words for conversation on the plane and conversating with the flight attendant, the person sitting next to you, asking for directions, and asking the price or thanking the taxi driver.

Commputer generated voices work best when there's only one way to pronounce a word.

Let's come back to my problem, the Lithuanian and Polish prounciation.

To find the Lithuanian, I did another Google search.

YouTube
First I found a Youtube video.

Omniglot
Then I found omniglot which has a slide bar you click on to hear sounds.

Berlitz
Berlitz has schools in many countries where you can sign up for lessons.

MONEY OFF
I just went to one of their websites and they offered 30% off if I signed up by the end of this month (October 2017).

If you don't want to sign up for a course with a human teacher, you can buy their books and discs.

http://www.berlitz.de
www.earwormslearning.com
https://www.duolingo.com
https://www.tinycards.duolingo.com
https://www.omniglot.com/soundfiles/lithuanian/hello3_lt.mp3
https://www.googletranslate.com

You can also learn English and other languages from films with subtitles or set the TV to show subtitles.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-41516251 Can you learn English from Eastenders? (How one boy did so).

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

Welsh Word For Today

Red dragon, symbol of Wales. Photo by Angela Lansbury. Copyright. 

Problem
The dragon is the symbol of Wales. The Welsh and English words both begin with dra, but are pronounced differently. How do I remember how to say a Welsh Word? (Draig for dragon is pronounced Dry - g.)

Answer
When you see a double vowel, make up a sentence using the pronunciation.

For example

English - Welsh - Pronunciation of Welsh - Sentence
dragon - draig - dry-g - drag a dragon but dry a Welsh dragon's eye

Where did I learn the pronunciation? From Duolingo. The voice is computer generated. I learned that from a forum.

More transalations and pronunciations from:
www.duolingo.com
googletranslate

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

Serbian Language Secrets revealed, the Cyrillic alphabet, sounds and colours

Problem

A colleague of mine is employing some people from Serbia to do work for him online, helping with his news website. He says it's cheaper than employing people in the UK. If he writes to them, no problem. 

But speaking to them on the phone or on Skype would be a problem. So would going to meet them. He can't pronounce their names!

How often would you meet people who speak the Serbian language? Even if you are not planning travelling to Serbia in the near future, you might meet Serbian speakers in Bosnia, Croatia, the Czech Republic or Romania. Wiki says:

Official status
Official language in	Serbia  Bosnia and Herzegovina  Kosovo[a]
Recognised minority language in	Croatia  Hungary[3]  Montenegro  Slovakia[4]  Czech Republic[5][6]  Macedonia[7]  Romania

Serbian Letters

Cyrillic Latin IPA value А а A a /ä/ Б б B b /b/ В в V v /v/ Г г G g /ɡ/ Д д D d /d/ Ђ ђ Đ đ /dʑ/ Е е E e /e/ Ж ж Ž ž /ʐ/ З з Z z /z/ И и I i /i/ Ј ј J j /ʝ/ К к K k /k/ Л л L l /l/ Љ љ Lj lj /ʎ/ М м M m /m/

Cyrillic Latin IPA value Н н N n /n/ Њ њ Nj nj /ɲ/ О о O o /ɔ/ П п P p /p/ Р р R r /ɾ/ С с S s /s/ Т т T t /t/ Ћ ћ Ć ć /tɕ/ У у U u /u/ Ф ф F f /f/ Х х H h /x/ Ц ц C c /ts/ Ч ч Č č /ʈʂ/ Џ џ Dž dž /ɖʐ/ Ш ш Š š /ʂ/

How do you remember them? You'll have to make up some memory aids. Here are some of mine:

The b looks like a Big B written in a hurry so it's like a small b and the small b looks like a b written in a hurry of a number 6. Six bees. however the B shape is like v. I think of the word believe. When I see the letter b, which is at the start of the word believe, I go to the end of the word believe and find the V.

The Gamma is next. (Alpha, beta, gamma). It looks like a pointing r. Revving up. Go go go! Get the Gamma.

The D or delta looks like a door.

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

http://mylanguages.org/serbian_alphabet.php

Serbian Latin Alphabet

From Wikipedia; credit author Albatalad.

Serbian Names

Once you have managed to read the names, you need to know how to say them. I found a helpful website which gives names in both a Latin and a Serbian lettering plus a recording of the sound.

How do you get to hear the name? You see a wide oblong with the triangle on the left. At first I kept clicking on the oblong or on the teeny symbol alongside the triangle. I would tap several times and eventually hit the right place by chance. I thought the site was slow or not working. Then I wondered if it was me.

You have to be sure to click on the triangle, not just anywhere in the oblong.

The girl's name Anna looks like AHA in the Serbian script. (I remind myself, 'aha - it's Anna! But the vowel is pronounced more like u n n a , or uh-ha.

https://www.hearnames.com/pronunciations/serbian-names/serbian-boy-names/

https://www.hearnames.com/pronunciations/serbian-names/serbian-girl-names

https://www.hearnames.com/pronunciations/serbian-names/serbian-surnames

I decided to try to learn a couple of words. I went onto another website and chose colours. At first I could not see the icon for play. Then I realised I had to download flash player in order to see the bar which starts with the triangle pointing forward for go.

My next problem was that the words didn't match up with the colours in the columns. then I realised you read the two words on each line horizontally, zig zagging down the page. The words which sounded almost the same as English were Orange and Brown.
http://mylanguages.org/multimedia/serbian_audio_colors.php

If you go to Serbia, what is there to see? The Nikola Tesla museum. It is in Belgrade, the capital city. Belgrade is known as the White City, The White Castle, and The city which never sleeps.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nikola_Tesla_Museum
http://www.nikolateslamuseum.org/web/index

Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker, teacher of English, public speaking, and learner and speaker of other languages. Please share links to my posts.

Singlish and English Misunderstandings

Angela Lansbury with the Singapore flag. Photo by Trevor Sharot.

Singlish Problems

Singaporeans often translate from Chinese (Mandarin) into English, word by word, instead of taking the meaning of a sentence or idiom. A British English speaker has to work hard to understand the meaning.

Singlish Solutions 

You can buy books on Singlish from book stores in Singapore and on line and probably find them in Singapore libraries.
Big dictionaries and Reference sections of libraries have books or chapters on English grammar and spelling and common errors.

Singlish Stories

White Here
A shop assistant directed the Chinese girls, all size 6 or 8, to small cubicles on the left and sent me, size 16, to a larger cubicle on the right. She said firmly, "White here."

I had heard that in Chinese foreigners were known as big noses. I wondered why white people, who wore larger clothes were sent to different cubicles. Maybe so they could find the person wanting the larger sizes. When she returned and thanked me for whiting, I realised she had meant, "Wait here".

Pronouncing L and R

Peasant Frights

On flights to and from Hong Kong the announcers really do say, Have a pleasant fright. Asians have trouble with the letters L and R. Just as I have trouble rolling the letter r in Italian, the Asians have trouble with the letter L in English.

Theme of the Day

At Toastmasters International speakers' meetings, I often hear: "I will now introduce you to the team." I expect to meet the members of the committee. Instead I hear that the team is Chinese New Year. The speaker means THEME.

TEETH and Tongue and English Pronunciation

When I am the Grammarian or Language Evaluator, I ask the audience to say TEETH. I demonstrate placing your tongue behind your top front teeth to say T, and putting out our tongue and pulling it back under your top teeth or touching your tongue three times with your top teeth while breathing out to say TH.

Similes and Metaphors

Similar to and Simile
You are very similar to your mother.
Your dress is like butterfly wings.
Your bride's dress was like a ship's sails.

Metaphor
You are your father.
Her dress was butterfly wings.
The bride was a ship in full sail.

Metaphor Wrap up
Let's wrap up the meeting.

Oxymorons

Howling Silence (title of a book by Catherine Lim).

Phrases
Raining cats and dogs. One of many phrases I had to explain when teaching English to Singaporeans in a school. They don't need to understand the origin of the phrase. They need to understand that it means raining very hard, torrential rain.

Why you should explain jargon
I am a Singapore Resident. I have lived in or visited Singapore every year for two decades. I recognize and understand:
Ni how? (Translation: How are you?)
Gong Xi Fa Chai (Happy New Year - not literally happiness but something about prosperity)
Hong Bao - red packet containing money for children and unmarried relatives or vouchers or discount coupons for customers.
Lo Hei (Chinese New Year Dish of mixed colourful shredded vegetables.)

But many foreigners won't understand Singlish. If you are a tour guide leading a group, a restaurant owner, taxi driver, or speaker in a speaking contest, one person in thirty in a room of people will not understand. They will appreciate a translation.

Anything anybody does not understand is a distraction. They might miss the next thing you say while trying to get the translation from they mobile phone. They might distract you, the speaker, and other members of the audience, by loudly whispering to the person next them: "What did he say?"

If you are in a speaking contest and the vote is divided, one extra judge is the pre-arranged tie-breaker. If the contest has a clear winner, that one person has no vote. But two speakers might get an equal number of votes. You can have as few as five judges and three speakers. The voting could be as low as two each for two speakers, one vote for the third speaker. The result of the competition is decided by the one vote of the tie breaker. If they cannot understand the punchline of your speech, the title, the joke, the dialogue, they are likely to give their vote to the other speaker.

Singlish Misunderstanding Of Lend and Borrow
Singaporeans often confuse lend and borrow. This is because Mandarin has one word for both, bi-directional, a bit like our English word exchange.

Singlish Tips

Use the grammar and spell checker on our computer to edit the draft of any speech or greeting you are planning when meeting people who speak English or Singlish. You can buy books on Singlish.

Author Angela Lansbury

Angela Lansbury, English language teacher and tutor. I visit Toastmasters Clubs in the UK and Singapore and have tight workshops in China and Singapore on public speaking and English grammar and pronunciation. I also teach individuals as a home tour and on Skype.

Pronouncing Turkish words, why and how?

Problems
How do you pronounce foreign words? How do you read foreign languages? How do you recognise which language a word is written in?

Answer
Just look them up and record only the ones you need to know in the back of your new year's diary.

Stories
I was on the BBC online website and I saw the listing of foreign languages. My first thought was: All foreign. No use to me. My second thought was: I wonder what languages they are? I saw a word which looked like Turkish. It started with the letters Tur. I checked. Sure enough, it was. Step one accomplished. They say, Confucius said, A Journey Starts With One Step. I had made the first step.

The next step was to check Turkish pronunciation online. Why? Why not? I have no plans to visit Turkey. But I visited it in the past and might go again. Meanwhile it's interesting.

Turkish Pronunciation
Turkish has only about six little signs you need to remember. Two are on vowels and two are on consonants. Once you have solved this simple mystery, you can read Turkish words aloud, to yourself, or say them to other people, and recognise them when you hear them. I recall that they add a sound, make one letter SH, and another adding a Y sound as in yellow.

Looking at it again I learn:
C
If you want a hard c as in the English word Cat you use the letter K as in the English word kite.


The same principle applies to other languages.
http://turkishbasics.com/grammar/alphabet.php
You will need this site as well to show you a few examples of words you might get wrong. it reminds you to say every letter, especially h, as in the name Ahmed.
http://www.turkeytravelplanner.com/details/LanguageGuide/Pronunciation.html

Author
Angela Lansbury

Map of Italy showing Umbria

Problems
1 I can't remember where Umbria is on the map of Italy.
2 I can't pronounce the name.

Answers
1 Umbria is billed as the heart of Italy. What do they mean by the heart? Umbria is about half way down. Also it has no coastline with the sea on the west, nor the sea on the east. Once you know that, you can eliminate two other landlocked shapes, and see that Umbria is indeed 'the heart of Italy'.
2 Umbria with an oom as in zoom. Zoom to Umbria. (Not dumb nor um nor Cumbria.)

Story
I downloaded a map from Wikipedia but the dot for Assisi vanished.

Tip
Find Wikipedia maps for countries, cities. The tourist boards will send free maps of towns.

Start outwards and work inwards. The map of the country first. Then the towns within the area you are visiting in relation to each other. Finally the map of the main town or city or area you are visiting.

Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker.
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Welcome in all languages and Welcome to Wales

In a community centre in London I saw this handy list of the word welcome in several languages. I also photographed something similar on huge boards at the entrance to the World Travel Market at Excel exhibition centre in East London.

The word welcome is similar in several European languages.

English - welcome
I put those most similar to English in groups
I know the German from the welcome song in the film Cabaret
German - Willkommen

Dutch - welkom - (the simplest)

Danish - velkommen - similar to Danish but longer like the German but with a v
The Germans write the W but say v. (I remember the German pronunciation of w as a v from the kosher or kosher style food in Finchley restaurants which served worscht and eggs - salami and eggs, written on the menu as starting with a w but pronounced with a v 'Ver - sh - t.'

French
bienvenue  - split into two words you can see très bien, very good, venue, or place, or to come venir
Shorten bien and you get the more common ben, used in English words beneficent or full of goodwill and bounty, beneficial, bringing good,

The Italian, Spanish and Portuguese all sound similar, which makes them easy to remember but also easy to confuse.

Italian
ben venuti
(My memory aid or mnemonic is, it is the duty of an Italian to say benvenuti. The letter I is the initial of Italian, appears twice in the word Italian, and ends the Italian word for welcome - ben venuti.

Spanish
bienvenidos - the Spanish word starts like the French, which is their neighbour on the border to the north, then rhymes with dos (two) and amigos (friends)

Portuguese
bemvindo - the Portuguese like the letter m. Bem instead of ben. I remember than Portuguese is More difficult because it has the letter M. It is also West of Spain. Turn the letter W upside down and you get M. But both the first and second syllables are shorter than the Spanish, and the word is narrower and the country is narrower than neighbour Spain. The vowels in the Portuguese follow the vowel sequence (a)EIO(u).

Hebrew (modern)
Shalom - peace -
It is two syllables, a word which is very well known because in addition to welcome it is both hello and goodbye in Hebrew.
Also it is part of the word Jeru-salem city of peace. You might also have heard it used in the chorus song Shalom Aleichem (peace be with you) e-vay nu shalom aleichem (we bring you peace, popular song) - I think it's in Fiddler on the Roof, and or Exodus.

In addition it is easy to recognize and remember because it is similar to the

Arabic (modern) and Aramaic (ancient and modern)
Salaam aleikum, peace be with you in Arabic. Both languages coming from the Aramaic, the joint or root language. Aramaic is still spoken and/or understood in a few places, in Northern Israel and by nomadic Beduins. For historians and language buffs and those who are keen on religions and culture , excitingly Aramaic was the common language at the time of Jesus. You also get Aramaic in some names. Compare the words for son, both the Hebrew and Aramaic being used in ancient scripts, Medieval times and today, such as Benjamin, Ben Hur (in the film), Ben Gurion, and Bar Kochba.

Malay
Selamat Datang - related to the Arabic salaam, the same consonants, Malaysia being a Muslim country, it has a sprinkling of Arabic words and phrases.

Welsh
I then went looking for the pronunciation of the Welsh word for welcome, Croeso. It sounds to me like c r o y  - so.

(I have instead spaces to stop changes made by auto correct which ignores my efforts to click on the cross which should men this suggested change is not acceptable.)

At first I clicked on the play sound image and an image opened but nothing happened. It opens a window and you have to click again on the second play sound image within the new window.  Why did I not spot this immediately? Because it is the opposite of Wikipedia where you click on the image beside the word and it immediately makes the sound.

For a really handy list of common phrases in Welsh, check here:

http://www.heart-of-wales.co.uk/welsh.htm#

Google gives me a translation of the Russian for welcome

Добро пожаловат

Dobro pozhalovat

What about Japanese? The Japanese are developing an ap for that.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/blogs-news-from-elsewhere-36976211?post_id=10155595000985597_10157243217530597#_=_

I have many more posts on Wales and the Welsh language, and learning other languages including Spanish, Italian, French, German, Russian, Hebrew and Greek, Duolingo, typing foreign languages and keyboards in other languages. I teach English, English grammar and pronunciation and conversation, and foreign languages, and memory workshops.

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