Introducing yourself in another language

A useful course for introducing yourself is Earworms, from Berlitz but with soothing background music) which in level 1 on disc 1 lets you hear how to introduce yourself by name, country, married or single, to companions on a plane, asking for water or wine from the person serving. The second disc will take you through ordering taxis to airports and city centres and more. 

If you have time, you could start a Duolingo course, which is free.

If you don't have the time or money for this, you could compile your own shortlist of essential words.

Before going to another country, it is handy to compile a list of common words, especially things you might want.

For example

Greetings

Hello Spanish hola; a Chinese matey greeting is hey, like hi; the formal greeting ni hao pronounced knee how.

Good morning/afternoon/evening

A song in the film (the American word for film is movie) Cabaret, includes a song sung by Joel Grey, which starts: 

"Wilkommen, Bienvenue, Welcome." That is welcome in German, French and English.

Goodbye - French au revoir, (see you again), adieu (goodbye forever). The Chinese sounds like sigh chen. Zhai chen. The Spanish is Adios.

Please - French por favor (for a favour). German Bitte. 

Thank you - French merci (Romanian the same, spelled mersi). German danke or danke schoen. 

Not at all/my pleasure. French de rien. 

Excuse me 

Sorry

Where is 

I need

I feel

I have lost

I want

a toilet (USA rest room)

a meal

a restaurant

a drink

water

milk

juice

wine

beer

a cocktail

healthy food

vegan food

vegetarian food/Kosher/halal

I am in a hurry

no hurry

no problem

wait a minute

Do you speak English/Spanish

My name is ... (French je m'appelle ...)

You can call me ....

What is your name?

How do I address you?

Would you like to stop for coffee?

I shall pay

Let's all pay for ourselves

Let's split the bill 

How much is it?

More, please

Please - French S'il vous plait.

Milk

Sugar

cold water

hot water

is it drinking water? - French eau potable

is it free? "Est-ce que c'est gratuit?

I must go

I have a meeting - J'ai un rendez-vous / reunion (meeting is reunion - different to the English)

I need to catch a bus/train/plane

I want to hire a bicycle/a car/a big car

I have one suitcase/2 suitcases/several suitcases - French valise

English - Spanish

country - pais

Spanish - English

pais - country

If this is all too complicated, learn a made up language which is totally predictable, Esperanto. You can visit a museum about made up languages including Esperanto in Vienna, Austria.

Useful Websites

KOREAN

https://domandhyo.com/2020/12/how-to-say-my-name-is-in-korean-introducing-yourself.html

SPANISH

Spanish speaking Toastmasters Club

https://cervantes.toastmastersclubs.org/

Author

The Author

About the Author Angela Lansbury

BIOGRAPHY

Angela Lansbury B A Hons ACG ALB PM5 EH5 DL5 VC5 
The Author of several books including  Etiquette For Every Occasion. Wedding Speeches & Toasts. How to be the Best Man. Quick Quotations. Who Said What When.

Blogs travelwithangelalansbury.blogspot.com

dressofthedayangela.blogspot.com

translateforfun.blogspot.com

Braddell Heights Advanced Toastmasters Speakers Club Vice President Public Relations (VPPR), Previous President

Join BHA 1st Wednesday 7pm and 3rd Saturday 2 pm Singapore time 

Vice President Public Relations (VP PR) of Tampines Changkat Advanced;

Secretary of weekly online Singapore International Dynamic Toastmasters Speakers’ Club;

Member and past president of Harrovians toastmasters club, UK; Past member of HOD Toastmasters, London. Past member in Singapore of: Toastmasters Club of Singapore (TCS); Tiarel; and Senja Cashew.

More details from Toastmasters International find a club.

Regular attendee at annual Swanwick Writers’ School, England.

Regular attendee at annual Writers’ Holiday, Wales.

Contributor to poetry readings, and after tea courses on: Speaking On Radio To Promote Books; and Plots And Character.

Winner of many club and area speaking contests in the UK and Singapore.

Language advisor to Empire Toastmasters club in Indonesia.

Language and speech workshops in Singapore.

Speaker on radio and TV in England, Scotland, the USA, and Australia.

Compiler of a school course on public speaking for teachers to prepare pupils for school open days with attending ceremonies before government ministers, Singapore.

Former member of Harrow Writers’ Circle, London, and two writing groups in Singapore.

Angela is on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Twitter. She would be delighted to link up with new friends.

 Please share links to your favourite posts.

Books by Angela Lansbury
How to be the best man. (Ward Lock / Cassell.)
Wedding Speeches and Toasts.(Ward Lock / Cassell.)
Unforgettable British Weekends.
Poetry Workshop Workbook.
The Tailor and the Spy. (Lulu.)
Larry The Talking Labrador. (Lulu.)
Writing Poetry for fun.

Quick Quotations

Who Said What When

 

How To Photograph And Video Your Inaccessible Destination and On Holiday

First, start with the end in mind. Are you planning to video yourself for your family or the public?

Plan your destinations and inform your guide of your intentions. I have been on many trips where the guide has decided to cut out the one place which was the purpose of my trip.

I wanted a photo of the statue of Robin Hood for my article on Nottingham. The statue was in the centre of the city and it was sunny.

However, the guide said we had no time and could take it another day. On day two we took a different route. One day three it was pouring with rain.

Arab
When I was writing for an Arab publication, my family decided that it was too far to drive to the home of Lawrence of Arabia in Southern England.'Anyway, it's closed at the time we would arrive," they argued.

I insisted on going. At least I could get a picture of the outside of the house and my impression of it and whether my readers would similarly have to set off early in the day to be sure of getting to a remote place during daylight in winter during the short days.

I got my photo of the outside of the house . Also the road where he was supposed to have fallen off his motorcycle. Plus some plaques about him along the way. I read up about his life. I followed up with a phone call to the owners of the property to check what remained from his time, what tourists could and got not see. I checked opening hours.

Jewish
On another occasion I was writing for a Jewish publication. I wanted a photo of a synagogue in Shanghai. The guide told me it was closed and not accessible.

I insisted that I would photograph the street name and photograph it from a distance and describe the area. When we arrive, a guard tried to stop me entering.

However, he did not speak English and I did not speak Mandarin, so I walked a few steps past, took a very quick photo and returned, bowing and thanking politely.

Romania's Ionescu
It was shut. However, from the gate you could get a good view of the house. Photo number 1 Outside was a heritage plaque. Photo number 2. A photo of my music box playing the anthem he wrote. Picture 3. The man's face in a photo in Wikipedia.. Photo 4. His statue outside a convert hall or museum in the capital of the country. Photo 5.

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

How to say Thank you in several languages

What are the ten basic words you need to know or find easy to recognize because you hear them most often?

1 Thanks
2 Please
3 Hello
4 Goodbye
5 Yes
6 No
7 How much
8 Ok
9 Toilet
10 Restaurant

Not enough. You need another ten:
1 Exit
2 Entrance
3 Pull
4 Push
5 Water
6 Taxi
7 Food
8 Drink
9 Where?
10 Lost

Let's start with thanks.

Flag of UK

thank you / thanks - English


Flag of France.

1 merci - French
2 mersi - Romanian


German flag

3 danke - German
4 gracias - Spanish
5 grazie - Italian


6 obrigado (said by a male) / obrigada (said by a female) - Portuguese and Brazilian Portuguese
7 terima kasih - Malay /Indonesian
8 spasibo / spasibuh - Russian


9 efkaristo - Greek


10 dankon - Esperanto

bedankt - thanks (like be thanked by the Dutch)
vielen dank
tak - Danish
takk - Norwegian
tack - Swedish
arigato - Japanese

I remember the Portuguese word obrigado with the memory aid, much obliged.
I remember the Malay terimah kasih with the memory aid, terribly grateful. thanks
Gracias, Spanish, sounds like grateful.
Danke sounds like thank ya/you

What is the easiest?

Esperanto Dankon

The hardest
Bulgarian - blagodarya
Tamil - nanri



Chinese flag

CHINESE 

simplified!

谢谢

Xièxiè

(Pronounced shay shay)

Quiz

Which languages are these?

danke
gracias
grazie
merci
mersi
shay-shay
shukran
spasibo
terima kasih
tak
tac
takk
todah robuh

Can you say thank you in these languages?
1 Arabic
2 French
3 Chinese (Mandarin)
4 German
5 Hebrew
6 Indonesian
7 Malay
8 Portuguese
9 Russian
10 Spanish

Useful Websites for Travellers
Free internet language learning
duolingo.com
Facebook polyglots page for those interested in learning and discussing languages
Polyglots (The Community)
https://www.facebook.com/groups/polygotcommunity/

Flashcards to view and make
https://www.cram.com/search?query=languages&submit=Search
https://tinycards.duolingo.com/decks/8hvj9dyD/how-to-say-hello-in-20-languages

Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer. Trainer for business in English and other languages. Please see my other blog posts and share links to your favourite posts with your friends and colleagues.

About the Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker.
I and my family have lived in the UK, Spain, the USA and Singapore. I am a trave writer and phtographer and teacher of English A level and English as a foreign language.

Please come to a Toastmasters International Club where the English clubs have a langauge evaluator or grammarian.  We also have French, German, Mandarin Chinese, Tamil and other language clubs based in Singapore and many more online around the world which because of Covid-19 are now meeting online.

I am President of Braddell Heights Advanced, meeting every Wednesday, on zoom the first Wednesday of the month but the other Wednesdays are workshops on app learncool.sg
Or quicker to type and easier to remember:  tinyurl.com/BHACOOL

You don't know a word of Chinese, Greek, Latin, French, German, Malay, Russian or Swahili? Yes, you do know one word.

😕
Problem
Foreign languages seem so difficult. The hardest part is starting. You don't know a single word. They say a journey begins with the first step. (This saying is attributed to Chinese Confucius and several other VIPs from history.)

If you speak English, or any language you probably know a lot of words of other languages. You know a word or two, probably compound words, which means you know one to four words.

You also know a few near universal words. Hotel, coffee and taxi. My goodness - you will soon become a keen polyglot (speaker of several languages).
😲

Bulgarian
ciao - goodbye (from Italy)
😲

Chinese
Beijing bei-north ching-capital 
"which means "Northern Capital" (from the Chinese characters 北 for north and 京 for capital),"
The single Chinese character abbreviation for Beijing is 京, which appears on automobile license plates in the city. (From the handy Wikipedia article on Beijing.)
Listen to the sound on Wikipedia and you will hear the second syllable ching is pronounced high, like the ching of a cash register. Easy to follow and remember. You now already know and understand two of the Chinese tones. 

French
merci - thank you
rouge - red (Moulin rouge is red windmill. That reminds you and me that in French the adjective or description is second, after the noun or naming word.)
The French also have Franglais words and phrases, such as Le Weekend, the weekend.

German
kindergarden
kinder - child
garten - garden
Now you can look for or ask for a child or a garden.

Greek
In England we like to say, 'It's all Greek to me'. That's because the Greek alphabet looks so different. However, we use many Greek words. Greek letters are used as symbols in mathematics.
Acropolis - building on the head or hilltop of the city. Politics - governing a city.

✡️
Hebrew
Even if you don't know the Hebrew alphabet, you know the word bet, which is the letter B in Hebrew. The first two letters of the Hebrew alphabet, the letters A and B in Hebrew, are pronounced: Aleph, Bet.
ℶ

Bethlehem (Bethlehem means house of bread or bakery. Beth or Beit, sometimes pronounced 'buy-it' , is building. Lehem is bread. Now at least you can look for or ask for bread.)
cherubim (In Hebrew plurals are im.)
Mazel Tov! Good luck, actually luck good, with the adjective second.
Kosher - meaning food, but nowadays used in English as a metaphor, anything proper or right.

Italian
ciao - goodbye
This word is used in neighbouring Romania, a country whose name comes from next door neighbours, the Romans. The Romans used to be here (Romania), there (Rome in Italy) and everywhere.

Japanese
Haiku. (Poetry form.)
Sayonara. (Goodbye!)

Latin
Latin words are used for plants.
Plebs - ordinary people, not the elite.
Ager - field, gives us agriculture.
Hortus - garden, gives us horticulture.
I could never remember which was which, until I learned Latin at Grammar School.
From the Romans we get Roman numerals used in clocks and watches.
In the chart below the third row down is the Roman numerals one to ten..

Malay
orang utan
orang - person



Portuguese
flamingo
Bom - good (as in placename Bombay, good bay)









Romanian
mersi - thank you (from the French merci)
ciao from Italy.

Singapore's Singlish
Simple English, English vocabulary, translating from Chinese (Mandarin) or other Chinese dialects. Chinese has no past nor future tense, no a or the, and no he, she or it. Verbs are without subjects; the subject is implied by the context.
Long time no see. (I haven't seen you for ages.)
Can (Or, 'Can, can! This means I can.)
No more already. (Sorry, Madam, we are out of stock of this item.)

Spanish
sombrero - large hat
Now you can go into a hat shop or clothes shop in Spain or another Spanish speaking country (or an English speaking country) and point to your head or the back of the shop and raise your eyebrows and ask for, 'Sombrero?' A smart salesman, or a dim-witted one, will offer you a baseball cap instead, which is probably what you wanted anyway.

Swahili
safari - journey

Adios. Bye!

Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker. See my other posts on learning languages, including esperanto a made up international language. Please share links to your favourite posts. If you would like an entertaining speech or workshop for a college. club or business, please get in touch.💑

Which is the easiest language for you to learn?

Problem
I am writing a book on English so I looked at articles on languages and quotations on languages for the front cover.

The Gorilla
The gorilla Koko learned to understand 2,000 words in American sign language and use 1,000 words. Surely I can do as well as a gorilla, which can't even speak (because of the design of its mouth). And I'm complaining how difficult it is to roll my r in Spanish!

The Most Speakers
How easy is it to learn English for foreigners and how many speakers are there worldwide.?

Answers
It turns out that the two most widely spoken languages in the world are Mandarin then Spanish, followed by English.

Learning Multiple Languages
Up pops a video by somebody who had learned nine languages. How easy would it be for me to learn nine languages? I already speak two, only two, English and French. I started making a last.

My top six are:
English
French
German
Spanish
Italian
Portuguese.

What about the last three?

The Easiest and hardest Languages
Chinese and Japanese I rate as too hard to read. Korean is supposed to be easy with fewer signs, which mimic the movements of the mouth. But nothing is sticking. I can't remember one word of Korean.

Easy Malay and Indonesian
Living part of the year in Singapore, Mandarin would be an obvious choice. However, Malay is much easier. Many English words are in the vocabulary. Malay uses the Latin alphabet. Words are written the way they sound, easy to recognize, say and pronounce. Malay also doubles with Indonesian, many words identical, like English and American.

Alphabets
I have tried (on Duolingo) and ruled out Russian, Korean, Hebrew and Greek. I learn words but they don't stick. I struggle with Cyrillic (Russian) alphabet, and the Greek, and the Hebrew. Greek is marginally possible.

Usefulness
The fact that Portuguese is spoken in Brazil is only useful if I want to go there. I could use it in Macau and Madeira.
Dutch is similar to German, and so is Danish or Swedish. Which country would I drive through on holiday in Europe? Probably Holland, the nearest part of the Netherland, and adjacent Flanders in Belgium.

Priorities
Maybe I should leave worrying about the last three languages and just concentrate on the first four, German, Spanish, Italian and Portuguese. After that, Romanian is close to Italian.

Success
Let's stick to my magic six. From two languages to six is a big leap. I am reading every multi-lingual sign I see. Washing instructions. Biscuit ingredients and chocolate bars. Six languages is a good start.

what is the easiest language to learn
https://www.babbel.com/en/magazine/7-reasons-to-learn-languages-from-a-guy-who-speaks-9
https://www.babbel.com/en/magazine/language-quotes-01
http://travelwithangelalansbury.blogspot.co.uk/2018/02/how-many-english-words-from-foreign.html
http://travelwithangelalansbury.blogspot.co.uk/2018/02/learn-ten-portuguese-words-from.html
http://travelwithangelalansbury.blogspot.co.uk/2018/02/polyglot-poem-by-angela-lansbury.html
http://travelwithangelalansbury.blogspot.co.uk/2018/01/how-to-remember-23-portuguese-words-or.html

http://travelwithangelalansbury.blogspot.co.uk/2018/01/port-and-portuguese-wine-labels-and.
http://travelwithangelalansbury.blogspot.co.uk/2018/01/how-to-ask-for-food-and-drink-in.
http://travelwithangelalansbury.blogspot.co.uk/2018/01/learn-your-first-ten-words-in.
http://travelwithangelalansbury.blogspot.co.uk/2018/01/how-do-you-say-please-in-portuguese-is.

visitportugal.com

visitbrasil.com

http://www.visitmadeira.pt/en-gb/homepage

duolingo.com

earwormslearning.com

Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer author and speaker. See my other posts on languages. Please share links to your favourite posts.

Luxury and love in Georgia? And the Farsi Language used in Iran.

Flag of Georgia. From Wikipedia.

Problem
Georgia? Where is it? I've been to Atlanta, Georgia, in the USA. But not Georgia over in Eurasia.

Answer
I had just finished an aqua class in London, in Harrow, a very cosmopolitan area. In previous centuries immigrants arrived by boat in the East End of London. Nowadays they arrive at Heathrow airport and live nearby in Harrow.

A dark-haired, brown-eyes lady accidentally bomped me on the head with a sponge noodle. "I apologise!" she said. We locked eyes and smiled several times. When the lesson ended, she and her friend were talking in the water and I went to join in.

She is originally from Iran and speaks Farsi. That language is also spoken in neighbouring Afghanistan.

She recently returned from a holiday in Georgia with family from the UK, USA and Iran. When some of the family can't get back to Iran, it's easy to meet up in Georgia, which was formerly part of Russia but now independent. Currently (November 2017) you can enjoy luxury hotels at low prices, she says. She stayed at the second best standard hotel, because her group wanted enough bedrooms for all of them in the same hotel, in summer, which is high season there as it is elsewhere in the world.

I asked, "What is a well-known landmark which everybody should see, like the Eiffel Tower in Paris?"

"The animated statue of the lovers," she said. "It's a giant statue. The boy and girl move backwards and forwards, towards each other, away, then back again. It's based on the (true?) story of lovers, Christian and non-Christian, who had to part.

"It's not in the centre of the capital city, but the seaside, very nearby."

The statue is called The Statue of Love, or Man and Woman, 8 meters tall, in the seaside of Batumi, inspired by the story of Ali and Nino.

"What about the Farsi language?" I asked. Now I know that it's useful in more than one country, I am more interested. I heard an amusing talk about the Iranian language, Persian, at a Toastmasters meeting in London. We have had two memorable members, charismatic characters, who were originally from Iran.

I thought I would start by learning a useful and an easy word, used in English, and universally. Taxi.
"Is taxi the same word in your language?"

"Yes, we say taxi in Farsi."

I told her that my third level of learning languages will be Arabic and other languages with 'difficult' script. I already speak English and fluent French as a second language. I am learned Latin at school so Italian, Spanish and Portuguese are relatively easy, just a matter of putting in the time. After that, German and Scandinavian languages and Dutch.

I am learning the Cyrillic alphabets for Russian and Bulgarian. I am also learning Greek, and Hebrew which is like Greek, with one of two letters reversed right to left such as the Gimel. (In Greek alpha beta gimel delta; in Hebrew alef, bet, gimel, dalit). The gimel looks like an r in Greek but like a 7 in Hebrew.

I told her that Romanian is similar to Italian (Romania means under the rule of the Romans) with a few French words, such as Mersi for thank you.

"Mersi is also thank you in Iranian!" she said.

My family and a group of friends are already planning a trip to either Madeira (for which I need to learn Portuguese) or Bulgaria (for which I need the Cyrillic).

So now I can say taxi and thank you in Farsi. So can you.

I now have my eyes on learning Farsi, and visiting Georgia. What was previously just a name on a map, is one step closer.

If you are interested in learning languages, a free ap is Duolingo.

Currently (nov 2016) you can learn:
Chinese (hatching - in preparation - maybe you or a friend can help
Czech
Danish
Dutch
English (for speakers of various other languages)
French
German
Greek
Hebrew
(Hindi - hatching ie in preparation, maybe you or a bilingual friend can help)
(Indonesian - hatching ie in preparation, maybe you or a bilingual friend can help)
Irish
Italian
Japanese
Korean
Norwegian
Portuguese
Polish
Romanian
Russian
Spanish
Swahili
Swedish
Turkish
Ukrainian
Vietnamese
Welsh

USEFUL WEBSITES
www.duolingo.com
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jV9cNxfwfDQ Video of Man and Woman sculpture by Tamara in Batumi, seaside of Georgia.

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

ITALIAN - where is it spoken?

Problem
I started learning Italian using Duolingo when I planned taking a trip to Umbria, in the centre of Italy.  I am not the only one to study on Duolingo. It claims to have 14 million learners!

Italian seemed similar to Latin which I learned in school. One notable similarity was dropping the personal pronoun. In school I learned a m o, I love. The ending tells you it is first person, no need to add I in front. The same applies to modern Italian. The technical term is a null-subject (no subject) language.

Would all my effort be of use anywhere else? I wondered where else Italian is spoken. Where can you go to get started speaking or to keep up your Italian?

Answers
You and I can practise Italian in Italian restaurants. (Although sometimes in London your wait staff are Romanian. But Romanian is very similar to Italian, in fact the word Romanian comes from the word Rome. The Romanians say ciao for goodbye.)

• Italy.
• Sardinia.
• Sicily.
• San Marino.
• The Vatican.
• Southern Switzerland (Grigioni and Ticino cantons)
• Immigrant groups in 27 other countries also use Italian. These countries include (not in size order but alphabetically): Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Germany, the United States, Venezuela.

What does Wikipedia say?

Italian ( italiano (help·info) [itaˈljaːno] or lingua italiana [ˈliŋɡwa itaˈljaːna]) is a Romance language.  Italian, together with Sardinian, is the closest to Latin of the Romance languages.^[7]

 Italian is an official language in Italy, Switzerland, San Marino, Vatican City and western Istria (in Slovenia and Croatia). 

(It used to have official status in Albania, Malta and Monaco, where it is still widely spoken, as well as in former Italian East Africa and Italian North Africa regions.) 

Italian is also spoken by large expatriate communities in the Americas and Australia.^[8] 

It has official minority status in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Slovenia and Romania.^[9] 

Many speakers are native bilinguals of both standardized Italian and other regional languages.^[10] 

It is the third most widely spoken first language in the European Union with 65 million native speakers (13% of the EU population). It is spoken as a second language by 14 million EU citizens (3%).^[1] Including Italian speakers in non-EU European countries (such as Switzerland and Albania) and on other continents, the total number of speakers is around 85 million.^[3]

Italian is the main working language of the Holy See, serving as the lingua franca (common language) in the Roman Catholic hierarchy as well as the official language of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta. 

Italian is known as the language of music because of its use in musical terminology and opera. Italian has been reported as the fourth or fifth most frequently taught foreign language in the world.^[11][12]

Number of speakers by country^[8][edit]

Country	Number of speakers
Italy	57,700,000
Romania	1,502,950
France	829,000
Switzerland	666,000
Croatia	618,600
Australia	300,000
Brazil	50,000
San Marino	25,000
Monaco	5,600
Somalia	4,000
Slovenia	3,760
Vatican City	330

That table tells a surprising story. More people speak Italian in Romania than in France or Switzerland. More people speak Italian in France than in Switzerland. I must admit that having heard the German and French in Switzerland, I suspect the accent might be not what you are expecting. I reckon I'm better off practising my Italian in an Italian restaurant with three native Italian speakers, or people who speak Italian with parents born in Italy.

However, if you are going to Switzerland on business, either a meeting or conference, or mid-point for colleagues in different countries who speak different languages, you now know where to go for the benefit of those who want to read and speak Italian. We went to Switzerland on business and stayed on and went to Milan to the opera at La Scala opera house.

Useful Websites
LANGUAGE
www.duolingo.com
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Italian_language (Long conversational vocabulary list.)
http://official-swiss-national-languages.all-about-switzerland.info (Table of which languages are spoken where.)

TRAVEL TO ITALY
Two Toastmasters clubs in Roma and Florence welcome speakers of Italian. Their bilingual websites will give you a bit of practice:
https://www.meetup.com/ToastmastersFirenze/

TRAVEL TO SWITZERLAND
http://switzerland.embassyhomepage.com/switzerland_tourist_information_bern_tourist_attractions_lucerne_flights_switzerland_holiday_resorts_lausanne_swiss_hotels.htm
Italian speaking cities are Lugano (40,000) Locarno (20,000) and Bellinzona (25,000).

Author

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

Please share links to your favourite posts.

Brasov's Urban Grill For Romance and Romanian Food

Problem

Where can I eat Romanian food in Brasov? I see Italian restaurants, Hungarian restaurants, Turkish restaurants and kebab shops, all from neighbouring countries. On a wait day we are inclined to take refuge in the nearest nice, nooky place.

Greater Brasov spreads for miles. You drive through an uninviting industrial extended city. Then you reach the old pedestrianised city centre. You can walk around it in half a day.You can spin it out for a week  by visiting the church, museums and synagogue. But the streets of the old city are filled with restaurants.

Answer

Gratar Urban. The Romanians put the adjective after the noun, grill urban. In English that is Urban Grill. 

At first I am not sure if I am going to like this place. I want healthy food, not grills which char the outside of the food . We are shown to a table in an arched, underground, windowless room. I do like arches. I like a private room - especially for a noisy group. I'm still not sure. Plaster walls and wooden tables will be hard and uncomfortable and noisy, won't they?

However, the friendly waitress, white light, bright walls, start me on an uphill path to liking it more and more.

The piece de resistance, if you'll excuse my French, is the dessert. I must admit it's actually a Hungarian dish. But what a dish! It features chestnut puree. We used to have that in Jersey. We bought it in the local convenience store as a distress purchase. But despite it being not Romanian but Hungarian (which I found out later) at first bite our distress turned to delight. Pureed, sweetened chestnut is one the world's most more-ish 'to die for', or to diet for, foods.

Gratar Urban (Urban Grill restaurant)

Brasov

Romania

Gratar Urban, (Urban Grill), Strada Michael Weiss, Brasov 500031

Tel: +40 731832033

https://www.facebook.com/GratarUrban/

Author, Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker. I have several more posts on Romanian restaurants, food, wine, wineries and places to visit, plus learning to speak Romanian. Please share links to my posts.

Romanian Language: learn the words me, and mine, and my mother

Problem
I know that English natives as well or foreign speakers muddle up me and mine. How do I say them, and remember them, in Romanian?

Answers
My first step is Google translate. (See next post.)

English - Romanian
mine - a mea
my - m e l e
my mother - mama  m e a (No spaces. Spaces inserted to prevent changes made by automatic spell checker. Notice that the adjective comes after the noun.  Mother is mama and my is mea.)

Romanian - English
a m e a - mine
mama m e a - my mother
m e l e - my

Story
I am hoping to start a Toastmasters International online language club.(See post later.)

Author
Angela Lansbury, teacher of English and other languages.

Next post is on giving readers choice.

Romanian language: clearing confusion with similar words: my mother, apples with honey

Problem
I see a romanian word which looks like something else. I get confused.

Answer
List all the similar looking words, look up translations and learn them. If either of the two pairs is easy to remember, this sorts you out. By process of elimination, of you know the word for a, the alternative must be b.

I confused the words for apple and honey and my and mother.

Romanian - English
cu - with (like the Latin cum)
mama - mother
m e l e - my
mere - apple (Angela's memory aid: a mere apple a day keeps the doctor away.)
m i e r e - honey
vin - wine (like the French vin ordinaire) Remember that Romanian simplified. No extra e. W condensed into a v.)
vino - come
vino cu - come with

English - Romanian
and - cu
apple - m e r e (a mere apple a day keeps the doctor away)
apple with honey - m e r e  cu  m i e r e (Add honey to apple, add the letter i)
come - vino
come with - vino cu
honey - miere
Mother - mama (like the Italian Mama Mia, but with a bowl over the second a)
my - mele
wine - vin

Tips
Pronunciation
It is easier to remember the accent if you recognize a short and often used word. Mama in Romanian has a short last vowel, as in murmur . Think MUH - MER. So the bowl on top of the a can mean an er sound.

Websites
www.duolingo.com
http://romaniatourism.com

Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, teacher of English and other languages. Please bookmark and share links to your favourite posts. 

Romanian Words of the week: hard, honest, hot, old and soft

Problem
How do you remember Romanian words?

Answers
1 Romanian come from the word Roman and the language is similar to Italian.
2 Find similar letters and sounds in the Romanian and English.
3 Romanian words look like phonetic (written like they sound) or simplified versions of Italian or English.
4 If you tell yourself that Romanian is simplified Italian, or simplified English, you will remind yourself how to recognize and remember words as well as giving yourself a pep talk.

Romanian - English
honest - cumsecade (Cum is like the Latin for with. S e c a d e sounds like security.)
iuti - hot Start by remembering the letter t in both words. Both words are all vowel open mouth sounds.  Imagine you have burned the tip of your tongue with hot tea, gasp and spit it out. IUTI!
moi - soft (like moist)
tari - hard both words have the letter AR in the middle. T and D sound similar. I and hi and both open mouth sounds. Reverse the t -i and h-d  and fix them onto the middle letters and it will remind you.
vechi - old (plural) like the Italian Ponte Vecchio, Italian for old bridge, in Florence, Italy. Simpler

English - Romanian
hard - tari
honest - cumsecade
hot - iuti
old - vechi
soft - moi

Tips
www.duolingo.com
http://romaniatourism.com

Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, teacher of English and languages. I have more posts on Romanian, Italian, French, German, languages and visiting these countries. Please share links to your favourite posts.

This week's words in the Romanian Language: small, sweet, girls, not, bad

Problem
How do I remember words in another language?

Answer
Look for similarities.

Romanian - English
d u l c i - sweet (like dulcet tones, sweet tones)
mici - small (think of microscopic)
nu - not (letter n followed by a vowel)
fete - girls (like females, letter fe ...e; how do you remember the t? think of femme fatale)
rele - bad (like rascal, letter r....l, or really bad)

English - Romanian
bad - rele
female - fete
not - nu
small (think of microscopic, and mini) - mici
sweet - d u l c i (like the Italian film, La dolce vita, The Sweet Life).

Tips
www.duolingo.com
http://romaniatourism.com

Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, teacher or English and other languages.  Please bookmark and share links to my posts.

Romanian words of the week : plums and prunes

Romanian
P r u n a - plum
p r u n a  u s c a t a - prune

English
plum - p r u n a
prune - p r u n a  u s c a t a

Note the bowl shape accents on the letters tell you how to pronounce them. You can also hear the words said using Google translate and /or Duolingo.com

Duolingo.com Free language learning website.

For information on travel see
www.romaniatourism.com

Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker, teacher and learner of languages. I have several more posts on the Romanian language and other languages. Please share links to my posts.