Translating Labels, real gold and silk, real silk, real what?

Is it real or fake? One hundred per cent or a mix? If you are buying gold or silver or jewellery, it helps to recognize the words for real silver and gold, and gold plated, or silver plated.

When buying leather, such as jackets, bag, or shoes, it helps to recognize both the symbols for leather and synthetics, and the words used. I have seen PU leather, which pops up in a search for leather boots, but it is fake lather, or leather look.

Sometimes you want the alternative. You might prefer plated items because they are cheaper. Or synthetic rather than leather or fur because you don[t want to be cruel to animals. 

You might want to find out the difference between 925 silver, and alloys. Also polyester cotton, which to my mind saves ironing

 I bought a scarf, second hand, pre-loved, whatever you want to call it. I loved it.

It had the label 100%. But 100% what?

 It had three letters I could not understand, not just in a foreign language, but also in a foreign alphabet.

It felt soft. But not quite as soft as silk. I had hoped for silk. Was it a good modern imitation?

I tried googling lists of words for silk in all languages. It was not silk.

What was the language. It looked like Russian. I worked out from another Russian word that the first letter was L.   What was the E with the two dots? The e pronounced like ay. The last letter looking like an H was N.  Lane?  The French for wool is laine. The word was not Russian for wool.

I had invited a friend to lunch with me at a restaurant. I showed her the scarf. She suggested linen. That sounded like the letters L A for ay, N. But the scarf did not feel thick and heavy and tightly woven, like linen suits which are stiff, resembling denim jeans.

Linen.

However, a search for the Russian word for linen produced a match. So did copying the word as an image and asking for a translation.

Photograph by Angela Lansbury. Copyright.

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Your Traveler's Calendar

This travel calendar is useful in several ways. You can plan to hold a holiday to conincide with a festival which offers lights and parades, events, exhibitions and activities and excietment. Or you could seek to avoid the busy times with booked rooms and higher prices.

A Traveller’s Calendar

January

from Wikipedia.

Jan 1 New Year’s Day. Concert, Vienna, Austria.

USA Tournament of the Roses Parade, Pasadena, California

Orthodox Christmas Jan 7

Jan 5 Evening before Epiphany.

Jan 6 Greek & Russian Orthodox (Christian) Epiphany. (Birth of Jesus.) 

Jan 26 Australia Day. 

Burns Supper Night, Scotland. 

Jan 27 Holocaust memorial day (liberation of Auschwitz in Poland)

Chinese New Year (Moving dates.)

February

Feb 6 New Zealand Waitingi Day

Feb 14 Valentine’s Day (Ireland, Italy and worldwide)

March

March 1st St David’s Day, Wales

March 17th Irish St Patrick’s Day

March 20 French Language Day

April

April 20th Chinese Language Day

April 23rd St George’s Day, Shakespeare’s Birthday.UN English Language Day. 

Spanish Language Day.

April 25th Anzac Day (Australia and New Zealand)

May

May 1st Labor Day

May 5th Cinco de Mayo.

Jun

June 2nd Italian Feast of the Republic. Flypast of tricolor arrows, red/white/green flag colors

JUNE 6th UN Russian Language Day

20/21/22 Summer Solstice (Longest day)

July

Jul 4th American Independence

July 14th Bastille Day, France

July 18 Nelson Mandela Day

August

August 1st Swiss National Day

August 9th Singapore National Day

August 15th Indian Independence Day

September

Sept 21 Belize Independence Day Parade and Carnival

October

Canadian Thanksgiving, 2nd Monday in October.

October 3rd German Unity Day

October 31st Halloween

November

November 1st and 2nd Day of the Dead in Mexico

November 11th Remembrance Day (WWI Armistice, WW2 and all wars)

December

December 18th Arabic Language Day

December 24 Christmas Eve

Dec 25th Christmas Day

Dec 26th Boxing Day in the UK, St Stephen’s Day in Germany

Dec 31st New Year’s Eve. Midnight Mass. 

Useful Websites

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

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

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Learning and remembering names of people you meet when you travel

 "What is your good name?" was the charming question from an Asian friend-to-be.

My good name is Angela, which is Greek for messenger.

Biblical And Religious Names

Many names are from the original bible (which Christians called the Old Testament, after they added the New Testament. Abraham, David, Isaac, Joseph, Moses, Paul, Saul, Solomon. For females, Rachel, Rebbekah, Sarah (which means princess - Hebrew version nowadays is Shoshana). Diminutives include Bekky, Rae, Ray, Sally 

Jewish, Hebrew and Yiddish

The Yiddish and Hebrew versions include Abram, Avram, Baruch, Moishe, Yitzak. Diminutives (short abbreviations) include Abe, Jo, Izzie, Mo, Solly.  The twelve tribes of Israel supply surnames such as Hart (a hart or deer). 

Cohen means priest. Anglicization results in variations such as Cahn, Kahn, Cohan and Cohn.

El and Ya (or Yahweh) are the two terms for God. Joel combines both. Eliza, Elizabeth. Daniel (God is my judge). Ezekiel. Michael (Micha-el). Jo-seph. Jo-anne.

From the New Testament, Mathew, Mark, Luke, John. 

Jesus (pronounced Hay Zeus in Venezuela) and Christus are Spanish. 

French

Marie (Mary in English) is given to many girls in France. Therefore a different name is added, such as Marie-Antoinette. Blanc means white, so LeBlanc is the white one, or white-haired, or pale skinned.

Greek

Peter is rock (English) and Petur.

Moslem

Mohammed is frequent amongst Moslems. David becomes Dawood, as a surname or family name. You can sometimes see that the names in Arabic are derived from Aramaic, similar to Hebrew. Amin is Arabic and means trustworthy, often used as part of a compound word.

Latin

Latin names include Caesar, Julius (from which we get the month of July), Marcus,

Danes & Scandinavian

Danes and Scandinavians might call themselves Christian as a first or middle name, such as Hans Christian Andersen.

Italian names

Male names end with o such as Mario, whilst the girls' names often end with a, such as Maria.

Iago is equivalent to John.

English Family Names

English names often end with son which means son of. For example, Johnson, Peterson, Robinson, Stevens, Williams.

Scandinavian Family Names

Scandinavian names often end with sen which means son of.

Scottish Family Names

The Scottish Fitz means son of. Fitzwilliam is son of William. The Irish O' means of. O'Connor means of Connor. Anderson means son of Anders.

Dutch Names

Dutch names might include von which means from.

German Names

German first names include Fritz, Hans, Herman, Wolf.

The family names include: Cassell, castle; Mann, meaning Mann, Kaufman meaning shopkeeper or seller, Klein meaning small, Muller meaning Miller.

Indian/Hindu/Sanskrit

Anand from Sanskrit means joy. Balakrishnan means child of Krishna. Kaur is a woman's name among Sikhs and others, used as a last name or the last part of a first name or personal name. Mohan means

Patel is Gujurati and means the head man of the village. Reddy is a caste from Southern India, and members of this cast are known for both farming and administration.

Shah, which I thought was King, is described as Emperor in Persian but a mere merchant in other groups. Of course, a merchant could be very rich and powerful (a bit like company director).

Sharma means joy or shelter.

Names from Gods include

Names of tribes include

Russian

Russian names include of or ov for a man, son of (place or person), whilst ova is daughter/female of a place or person. So Ivanov is son of Ivan.

Spanish Names

Spanish names, like French, are often taken from the Saint's Day, which is the birthday of the child being names.  Popular names include Teresa. José is the name Joseph in English (or vice-versa) and if your surname is Fidel that means faithful.

Rude Names

Some foreign names sound rude in English. It would be rude to draw attention to it. However, I must, in case you wonder why others are laughing, from embarrassment, when you are not. Cock means a part of the male anatomy in English. It is a popular surname in The Netherlands, because it means Cook in Dutch. 

The Chinese surname Kok is frequently seen or heard.

Some other customs you might come across which could confuse you. You may need to ask questions to clarify. In the UK in previous generations it was standard for a woman to take the man's family name upon marriage. Amongst the upper classes, when both families were prominent and well-known, a name could be hyphenated. Later with the advent of TV and media celebrities, women who took their husband's name might retain their own name by which they were already well known. For example, tennis player Billy Jean-King. 

In Spain the woman's family name is often retained as a middle name. No hyphen.

Chinese Names

Shan meaning mountain is a common girl's name. Shan Shan is a plural. Mountains.

Mei means beautiful.

Japanese

Ko means a female, a girl, a daughter. Hence names such Akiko, Yoko, Yumiko. 

Travel Tip

To learn somebody else's name, or impress yours on their mind so they don't forget you, repeat the name three times.

Useful Websites

https://www.momjunction.com/articles/popular-indian-last-names-for-your-baby_00334734/

Writing my elevator speech in Chinese and other languages

Why learn to read a foreign language?

I want to read foreign languages so that I can read signs on stations and in hotels. I need to read signposts and maps when walking, driving, or taking a taxi.

It is also useful to be able to translate the headlines in newspapers.

When listening to conversations, I listen out for useful words, at least to know if the answer to a question is yes or no.waiters and hotel receptions saying, yes, no, we can, and we can't.

Greek

In the Meze restaurant in Limassol in Cyprus, I could only see that they were still discussing whether they could find us a table and when.

Russian 

When I listened to a Ukrainian woman talking on the mobile phone to her son, I kept hearing Da, which is yes in Russian, so I assumed it was the same in Ukrainian.

USA

We often hear about how you should prepare your elevator speech. That's a two minute speech introducing yourself when you happen to find yourself with the CEO or VIP - or in fact anybody who might be useful. 

First, make yourself sound pleasant: useful, helpful. (I am visiting your lovely country.) Or a recipient of the listener's greater wisdom. ('We are lost. Are you local?')

Next, end with your question. Or call to action.

Your request for action or answers could be simple. 'Where is the restaurant?' Or, 'Where is the nearest toilet?'  

Cyprus

In Cyprus, our statements and simplified questions were, "We (are) British tourists. Here (only) one day.  (We don't mind) waiting, (for a table). (Is that  ) OK? (Can we sit on) a chair? (And read) the menu? (Maybe order) a drink?"

Eventually, I want to give the introductory or icebreaker speech to a Mandarin speaking club in Singapore. I want to know how to introduce myself in a minimum of four minutes for a four to six minute speech.

Some sentences are easier than others. Some nationalities are easier to pronounce than others. Decide what you want to say, and the easiest way to remember the useful words. For example, Is it easier to say, I am English, or, I am not American. 

Can I make a joke? using the same sentence structure, I might use different nouns or adjectives. Translate, I am not American, I am not Australian, I am not Chinese, I am English. 

Many phrase books such as the Berlitz phrase books divide the sentences into useful things you can say in certain situations or places, such as at the doctor, dentist, hospital, airport, train or bus station.

Berlitz also started Earworms. I have the discs and books. They come in a set of two. I have set one for German and Chinese. The part one starts with a conversation on a plane. I would like a beer, a glass of water, and so on, to the air hostess. To your fellow passenger, I am from such and such a city. Where are you from. Are you married? I am married. (Vital for singles, this one, if looking for romance, and for married people, when trying to prevent trouble.)

In Chinese I wanted to look up the difference, if any, between I and me, and me and mine.

What are: I , me , my book 

I translate into Chinese, then separate the words to see what each one means. Then translate back into English.

Google translate gave me this

I - wo

of - de

book - shu

You have to watch the accents which are a guide to the tone. 

Useful Websites

How to learn and remember the Ukrainian, Bulgarian and Russian alphabets

Flag of Russia, bordered, from Wikimedia Commons.
 

For years I have been wanting to learn the Russian alphabet (along with Greek and Hebrew). Cyrillic is name after Cyril, a monk, who, together with his brother, devised the Cyrillic alphabet used by Russia and with variations by Bulgaria and Ukraine.

Here are my memory aids.

Tilda

The tilda or wavy line in Spanish turns the n into a ny as in a Spanish or Spanish American canyon. In Cyrillic the tilda goes a step further and means the sound is y.

The p becomes an r, but not just any r, a trilled or thrilled r as in Spanish and Italian and Indonesian.rted t

H

The H looks like the lower half of the H.

The l looks like you started to write the lower case l but got called away in the middle when a letter fell through the letterbox.

B and V

The b is a v. But a real b has a little line like a shelf over a radiator across the top, or the tiny tray on top of a half tester bed. B with a line for b as in bed.

Memory Aid Recall

If you want to record your own memory aids and go to see other people's there is a system called memrise. You records your memory aids and choose whether to share them.

Useful Websites

duolingo.com

https://duolinguists.wordpress.com/2022/03/01/ukrainian-alphabet-uk-grammar-portal/

https://app.memrise.com/signin?next=%2Fdashboard

Ukrainian Perogi (like ravioli) to eat during Purim, the Feast of Esther, Wednesday 16th March 2022

 Flag of Ukraine

I was just reading about Ukraine, where my paternal ancestors came from. Their national dish, perogi,  is what the Italians call ravioli. 

DIY perogi/ravioli

 You make the pasta envelope with a knife cutting squares which are folded into triangles. Or use a glass to cut circles. Fold them in half over the filling to make triangles. Press the edges together to prevent the filling falling out into the liquid when cooking. You can boil up your dumplings and then fry them.

The dish is popular all over Europe, including Russia, Poland, and Ukraine, as well as among Ashkenazi (Hebrew for German) Jews. Jews in London opened restaurants where you could eat chicken soup containing dumplings. You were offered the choice of kreplach (pasta pockets filled with minced meat) or kneidlach (solid dumplings or balls) - or both. I could not remember which dumplings were solid and which ones were filled, so I ordered both!

Kreplach

Both words, confusingly, start with the letter K. Both end with lach. How can I remember? I have just devised a memory aid. P for pocket. Pasta pocket. D for dumpling. Kneaded dumpling. So, kreplach are pockets, perogi. P.P.P. (Kneidlach are solid, kneaded dumplings. D. D. D.) 

Why Were Jews In the UK?

A wave of Jews came over to the UK from Germany just before WW2. Many of them went into publishing. 

A previous wave came over from Poland. The Russians had pushed out the Jews who went west. Some of them reached the USA. Others got the England's East coast ports of London and Hull. Or they had bought tickets to the USA but were cheated by the ticket sellers and ended up in England. I learned this from a local guide when I visited Hull when I was an active travel writer based in London, England.

The refugees were too tired or poor to travel further. They were welcomed by their compatriots and settled in the UK. Some moved on to the USA and South Africa. Others stayed and made the best of it. When they made money or went into trade and travelled, they moved from the poor East End of London near the port to the fresh air and green parks and big stores of the more expensive West End.

In WW2 the vast losses of Jews were in the concentration camps of Poland. The train lines took them from all over Europe to Poland. But, in any case, Poland is a large country and had pockets of Jews all over. 

When I visited Australia I discovered that borsht, purple beetroot soup, which I associated with Jewish restaurants and delis in London, came from Russia as well as Poland. The Polish version is thick and creamy, with maybe potatoes and cream. The Russian version is a clear soup. I like the Polish version which is familiar to me from the UK.

Dumplings - Perogi

Back to the filled 'dumplings'. To me, the word dumplings implies solid balls. (In the delicatessen-restaurants, such as B & K in Edgware and Hatch End, chicken soup, the solid balls, often made of matzah meal of unleavened bread crackers) are called kneidlach.)  By contrast, the perogi are pockets, are filled balls. Which in B & K would be called kreplach.

Now we come to the Purim connection. At the end of the Wikipedia article on the Ukrainian perogi, I discovered that for Purim, a favoured food is kreplach because of the symbolism of the hidden filling.

Well, now you and I know all about Ukrainian perogi, Purim, and food in the delicatessens and restaurants in London.

DIY Perogi/dumplings/ravioli/kreplach

The semi-circular crimped edges on the larger perogi can be made by pressing with a fingertip. On the tinier ones you can use the ends of a fork (the spokes are called tines). 

Puirim Dates

In 2022, the feast or Purim starts the evening of Wednesday March 16 and continues through the day of Thursday March 17th.  The dates vary each year. The Jewish calendar, like the Moslem and Chinese calendars, is used to calculate the festival dates according to lunar months.

Visit Kiev and Perogi and Kreplach In London, England

Meanwhile you can look at Ukraine and Kiev online. I hope that you and I can one day visit Kiev (the Ukrainians want us to spell it their way, Kyiv). 

Meanwhile, you can enjoy ravioli and think of perogi, and eat kreplach in B & K in Edgware and Stanmore in England and from supermarkets. Whilst Jews and their friends and neighbours in London are enjoying festive foods, such as the kreplach, and triangular pastries with poppy seeds, called Haman's ears, over in the Netherlands you can see a painting of Mordecai.

See The Painting of Mordecai In Amsterdam

If you are in the Netherlands at the Rembrandt museum you can see Rembrandt's painting, of the triumph of Mordecai on horseback. Mordecai was the uncle of Esther, I remembered, but Wiki says her cousin. She was the favourite (secretly Jewish) concubine of the king. (Which king? Ahasueros. When? Five hundred years BC. Where? In Persia, now Iran. So, which king? Maybe Xerxes.)

Mordecai's and Esther's (Purim) Story

Mordecai had warned her that Haman, the king's main adviser, had planned to kill all the Jews in the country, because Mordecai had refused to bow down to Haman as a King. (Frankly, a bad move on the part of Mordecai.) Mordecai, apparently, only bowed down to God, not to a man who was declaring he was God. 

Don't worry about it. The story might simply be a legend. It is in the Apocrypha, the semi-holy books which are not part of the main bible, or to Christians the Old Testament. But the legend, or historical story, is so popular that various groups print it as an extra to the old books of the bible, printed in English nowadays, originally approved by the Council of Trent in about the year 300 after Jesus. 

Back to the story. The heroine, tearful Esther, after starving herself for three days, went unbidden to the king. A dangerous thing to do. Wives had to wait to be called. But the king, sitting chatting to his minister Haman, was pleased by the diversion. Instead of killing her for her effrontery, he beckoned her to sit beside him.  

Haman was sent away, out of the room, or, at least out of earshot. Esther's chance to speak! Esther whispered to the king, that somebody was planning to kill her beloved people!

The king, who wisely, or unwisely, consulted advisers before making a decision. On matters of life and death. He called Haman and asked, 'What should be done with a wicked man?' And, 'What should be done with a man to be honoured!' 

Haman, thinking that he would be the honoured man, said that the wicked man should be killed. But the honoured man should be paraded through the streets on horseback. 

It was done. (Karma.)

So Esther, risking her own life, had saved her people. And her uncle, Mordecai, was honoured. 

Purim

Enjoy the telling of the story, the symbolic food. The classic painting of Rembrandt depicting the Triumph of Mordecai.

Useful Websites

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

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

https://www.greatbritishchefs.com/recipes/welsh-cakes-recipe

The Author - Angela Lansbury

My Dream of Four Language Translation Hub Cities On Every Continent

The late, great, Lee Kuan Yew wanted Singaporeans to be bilingual. He went university in London and spoke perfect English and wanted everybody else to do the same. What was good for business was good for Singapore.  

What if your first language is English/ Chinese looks challenging. What if your first language is Chinese?

For those learning English or another European language, an easy start is Esperanto. Why Esperanto? 

Esperanto is not a pretty language with a lilt like Italian or Welsh but it is an easy language to learn and enables you to communicate with anyone. For nationalists who are hostile to the idea of learning the language of what they see as another country, a rival culture, Esperanto has no country or nationality. It is neatral. Admittedly, it is European laguage based. That is its advantage. So it should be the language of Euorpe, the entry language. 

Studies have shown that learning Esperanto speeds up learning of another language such as Spanish.

We already have one country where Esperanto is a popular language for school leavers. Hungary. We also have a country where most people speak two languages, Belgium, where they speak French and Dutch. Switzerland is a country where many speak two languages, such as French and German, or French and Italian, or all three, or sometimes even four languages if you add in Romanch. 

What about China? The Chinese and Japanese written languages are the same, sign languages. Just like our international signs for no smoking with a cross over a cigarette. So if you learn to read Chinese, you can also read Japanese.  If you are Chinese, you can already read Japanese. If you are Japanese you can already read Chinese. If you are a teacher, and you learn to read either Chinese or Japanese, you can also teach people to read the other language.

Our Latin alphabet emerged from simplified signs. Chinese has been simplified. 

If you are going to China or Japan, in case you are caught in an emergency or even a regular fire drill evacuation every Friday (which we had when I was at school in the UK) you need to know the exit sign, which looks like your middle three fingers raised on a flat base.You might like to think of it as a simplified arrow. 

The other sign for exit is a mouth, a square, with two legs, the second one curon the right curved like a miniature tail on the letter y.  I cannot read Chinese but I sit on the trains in Singapore and read the English dign for emergency exit and in the middle are these two Chinese signs.

A third essential language if you are travelling or doing business worldwide would be Russian or Cyrillic. Cyrillic is the written system for the language of Russia, and Bulgaria, and several other countries. 

Which Chinese city could be the next multilingual city? Shanghai near the border with Russia? Somewhere in the South where they are nearer to Cantonese speaking Hong Kong?

Or will the Chinese stop learning English and leave Singapore to be the international multi-lingual trading centre. On Singapore's railway system, called the MRT, you hear announcements in four languages, English, Chinese (Mandarin), Malay (which is almost the same as Indonesian), and Tamil for the Indians from the South of India and Sri Lanka. 

Useful Websites

duolingo.com

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

memrise.com

https://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Wikibooks:Language_Learning_Difficulty_for_English_Speakers

https://www.italki.com/article/438/how-learning-esperanto-can-help-you-learn-other-languages?hl=en

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

About the Author

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.

Learn Russian Free Online

 

English - Russian

Set 1

1 welcome

2 wonderful

3 please

4 thank you

5 I like it

6 It's delicious

1 Добро пожаловать

2 чудесно

3 пожалуйста

4 Спасибо

5 мне это нравится

6 Это вкусно 

1 Dobro pozhalovat'

2 chudesno

3 pozhaluysta

4 Spasibo

5 mne eto nravitsya

6 Eto vkusno

Set 2

7 where is 

8 the museum

9 restaurant

10 toilet

11 apples

12 eggs

13 apple juice

14 juice

15 it's beautiful

 

7 где

8 музей

9 ресторан

10 туалет

11 яблоки

12 яйца

13 яблочный сок

14 сок

15 это великолепно

 

Useful Websites

Learn Russian free online

https://www.duolingo.com/skill/ru/Basics-1/1

About the author

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

The Roman alphabet, Greek

Chart by Chiswick Chap in Wikipedia.   

As far as I'm concerned the Romans did one good thing for us. They gave us the Latin alphabet. I have been struggling today with a message in Russian on Facebook. 

I went onto Wikipedia thinking it's time I put up the Greek, Russian, Hebrew and Arabic alphabets where I can see them easily. For example, on a pin board or wall behind my computer screen.

Greek

Is Greek 'all Greek' to you? Until you have learned every letter of the alphabet you can only read a few simple words, which use about 5 common letters.   For example, I recognized Athens on a road sign and Exit in the aeroplane. 

My attempts at learning go back so far it is embarrassing to recognize and admit how long it has taken me - without finishing!  I started seeing the Greek alphabet in school, in mathematics. In my late teens as a student I first went to Greece. I took more holidays in Greece as an adult.

Much later, I was in Singapore and as Area Director had to visit at least twice in six months a Toastmasters group called Toastmasters in Christ. I was astonished to find the well educated leader giving an analysis of bible texts, explaining the meaning of Hebrew words. at a Christian Toastmasters speakers training club. Christians who train to be priests learn Greek for the New Testament and Hebrew for the Old Testament. 

From Greek To Hebrew

Why Hebrew? When visiting Israel.  On packaging of chocolates and wines in supermarkets when buying gifts.  And in prayer books at funerals).

Why Cyrillic? On holiday in Bulgaria. Helps with Russian.

 About the Author

Angela Lansbury teacher of English (advanced and English as a Second Language or English as a Foreign Language, French and other languages, aspiring polyglot.

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

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

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

travelwithangelalansbury.blogspot.com

dressofthedayangela.blogspot.com

translateforfun.blogspot.com

 Please share links to your favourite posts.

Who teaches which languages? Spanish and others. How to Record Your Sources

I started learning several languages in Duolingo. I finsished Grman and Esperanto and am now onto Spanish daily and Chinese intermittently (using Chineasy physical flashcards instead). 

Whether you are interested in one language or several, it is handy to keep a list of all the places to go to learn your favourite language or languages. You can do this on your mobile phone. 

Use a spreadsheet in Excel (which is a brand name, known generaically as a matrix, or series of columns divided across). 

Or write on a page in an A4 notebook. Put a sticker on the front of the notebook recording Language Learning and the page number. (You will have to number the pages of your notebook in the top right. I do this wiht all new notebooks.)

Keep updating as you find new sites, or when you want to add a new language. You can also keep a column for your own language if you are teaching English to foreigners or doing a language swap. Here is my work in progress. First I listed the languages. Then I went to the websites of my favourite places, starting with duolingo and Memrise. At the start it is quite time-consuming if you are checking several languages. But once you have the basics it is much faster.

Arabic

Chinese

Danish

Esperato - Duolingo

French - Duolingo

German

Greek

Hebrew

Hindi

Italian

Japanese

Korean

Latin

Norwegian

Polish

Portuguese

Romanian

Russian

Spanish 

Swedish

Ukrainian

Vietnamese

Welsh

Languages I am not learning on Duolingo include Klingon.

You can also learn Dutch, Malay and Urdu, a total of 75 languages, on langmaster.

Here's another. their welcome page was all in Spanish with a testimonial in Spanish. I could understand most of it and put it into Google translate to catch the couple of words I had missed.

https://www.deliberatespanish.com/

Useful Websites

English

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

Indian government program

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hello_English_(government_program)

Tamil

https://www.wikihow.com/Learn-Tamil

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

https://digitaldefynd.com/best-tamil-language-courses/

https://www.livinglanguage.com/languagedemo/tamilflash/11930/essential-saying-hello

duolingo in January 2021, The Tamil course is 75% complete.

Langmaster

http://www.langmaster.com/lmcom/com/web/en-gb/pages/free-language-online.aspx

Spanish

http://download.langmaster.cz/grammar/en-gb/spanish1/grammar/les01/g05.htm

Duolingo 

Languages available

Chinese, German, Hebrew, Russian, Spanish, Portuguese, Vietnamese, Welsh, Ukrainian

Memrise

Languages available

Chinese, French, German, Spanish, Turkish

Mango

mangolanguages.com 

(see next post)

 

Other Language Websites From Wikipedia's List

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_language_self-study_programs

Flashcards List of Sources from Wiki

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

About the Author

Angela Lansbury teacher of English (advanced and English as a Second Language or English as a Foreign Language, French and other languages, aspiring polyglot.

How to get more readers - top ten tips

Look at the best selling, most readers blogs and copy their content and webpage style.

Yes, I know, this involves having a sexy girl and an exotic location. Or a cute kitten. The top bloggers spend all day preening themselves and before covid-19 they travelled in packs to top spots such as waterfalls and posed separately and together. Now you can add music and backdrops and cartoons.

What if sex, stripping and selling are not your thing?

The selling techniques are well known.

1 Famous Names. & Famous Photos
Add famous names.




For example: "Fake News. Faudster tries to sell painting of pregnant Marilyn Monroe to Trump." (Attracts more readers than, 'I just drank coffee'.)

Add Alliteration.
Tourists flock to Trump Taj Mahal In Atlantic City
Look At  Tump's star in LA



Best French Food

Romantic Restaurants

Zebra Escapes Zoo

2 Series.
(First free lesson of 12 to teach you to speak Chinese fluently.)
I sometimes go back to a earlier post and put a link to a later post. Then in the later post I put a link to the earlier post.

PART 1

Now read

PART 2
If you liked this you will love part 1.

A post on learning Chinese might pick up a few readers in Singapore, China and Asia.
Keep looking at which posts attract readers, and add more on the same subject.




Small print. You must marry the teacher and live with her for ten years. Only available this week to the first two who apply. Only available in Beijing.)

3 Numbers
ADD numbers. Top ten tips for travelling free. If you are writing a series of suggestions, as I am in this article, you can add bullet points o numbers and change the title to include a number.

The more the merrier.
5 people wh recovered from Coronavirus tell (Business Insider)

2 SUSPECTS ARE SISTERS

3 WAYS TO EARN MONEY

4 CHOCOLATE CAKE RECIPES

TOP 10 TOURIST DESTINATIONS

100 USES FOR LEMONS

1000 PEOPLE WILL LIVE IF ...

4 Pretty pictures
Not just one at the top of your blog posts. Have one at the start, another at the end, and one every other paragraph.

Amusing Author Angela

5 Look your best.
Best - or worst. Unbelievable but mermerizing.
Giant bust and lips.
Cute kitten with different colour eyes on top of zebra.
Python eating your cat and regurgitating it, in church, on your wedding day.
Quintuplet pregnant nuns in pineapple pattern dresses. Get tattoed with your country's flag and visit every country of the world.
Too difficult? You have not washed or cut your hair? Add a cowgirl hat.
Find a fetching outfit and write an article to match it.

6 Move
 Animation, videos, cartoons.
Couple in hammock swinging over the edge on the top of the world's tallest building.

7 Be topical.
Will Covid-19 end in time for your holiday flights?

8 Ask a question.
(Why did the world not end last Saturday?)

9 Humour.
(See number 8.)
BEWARE OF THE SPIDER FRIGHTENS MORE THAN BEWARE OF THE DOG

10 Drama.
Twins fight each other in coffin -why?

WIFM
Remember WIFM - what's in it for me.
How I made a million pounds is interesting. But how you can make a million pounds is more interesting.

Readers From Where?
Decide which kind of readers you and your advertisers want. I began my blog on travel. I wrote about England.




When I could not find another suitable picture, I used a flag.
I wrote about British English and American English.
I was surprised to see that I had many more readers in the USA than in the UK.

My husband, who is a statistician, pointed out that the USA has a larger population and many more English speaking readers will be on the internet in the USA.



I add contstant references to the USA to interest my American readers. When I wrote an article about the Amy Winehouse trail in London, I included a photo of Amy in the USA.

However, if I wanted to promote Italian restaurants, I would look for Italian subjects, such as Italian foods, wines and film stars.

To attract a worldwide audience, you would want to feature a place or person from each continent.

I then got some surprising results. Russians. Why? I looked back and found I had included a reference to learning Russian, or rather Cyrillic in Bulgaria. And I had included a mention of a Russian keyboard conversion.

This is changing it as you go. The more focused bloggers would plan out their year, their audience. My son who is in marketing websites, (SEO - search engine optimization), told me to focus on the title and audience, then plan my year's blog posts and see if I could link them.

Scheduling Blog Posts
What if you are away on holiday, or want a day of rest? You can schedule a blog post to appear on the day you are away. One popular blogger wrote all his seven posts on Sunday and scheduled them so each one appeared at 7 am local time (he was in London, England, UK) each day of the week.

Finally, how about adding a quiz.

Useful Websites
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Website
https://www.wix.com/
https://wordpress.com/read
https://www.businessinsider.com/coronavirus-recovered-spain-patients-advice-2020-5?IR=T

Author, Author! About the Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker. (Not related to the actress.)
Author of twenty books including: Quick Quotations; Who Said What When.
See books and profiles on Lulu.com and Amazon, such as Wedding Speeches & Toasts. Also watch videos on YouTube.
See other posts on singers and statues and languages and destinations.

Online Toastmasters International Meetings
If you want to learn to speak the Queen's English, or Received Pronunciation. join me at my online toastmasters club,
Braddell Heights Advanced. Wednesdays, 7-9 Singapore time which is seven hours ahead of London, England.

https://www.facebook.com/search/top/?q=braddell%20heights%20advanced%20toastmasters
I am also a member of
Singapore Online.9-12 pm, Singapore time, Fridays. I am also a member of
Tampines Changkat Advanced.
Harrovians, Toastmasters Club, London.
Tiarel.toastmasters club, Singapore.

Toastmasters International Find a Club
https://www.toastmasters.org/find-a-club
https://books.google.com.sg/books?id=upSEBwAAQBAJ&pg=PA21&lpg=PA21&dq=quick+quotations
lulu.com/shop/angela-lansbury/who-said-what-when/paperback/product

My Readers From Turkmenistan: What's in Turkmenistan For Armchair Travellers?

I have 200 readers from Turkmenistan.  Who are they?

Are they reading in English? Or in translation?

Their second language is Russian.

Currently
Turkmenistan officially the Republic of Turkmenistan is a country in South-central Asia. It has borders with Afghanistan, Iran, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan.




 It has no ocean but it is on the Caspian Sea to the west. The capital of Turkmenistan is Ashghabat. The majority of the country is Muslim at 93%.

History and Religion
The country under Communist rule was atheist, but now is returning to promoting the Muslim religion. You might recognize religious symbols on the flag. Some say the colour green represents Islam but others claim it represents hope.

Silk and Carpets
Long ago the country was on the silk route. A legacy from olden times is the making of carpets, featuring red colours. The symbols or repeating lozenges reflect the popular patterns of individual tribes. You can also see carpet designs on the flag.


Photo by AltynAsyr in Wikipedia article on Turkmenistan.

I looked at a red carpet in my study. It is not from the same country. But the significance of patterns not constantly changing but reflecting the family or tribal patterns of the maker might still apply. I looked at the repeating patters and wondered what the symbols stood for.

A Golden statue of former President 
Statue of former President for Life Saparmurat Niyazov.Niyazov, wrapped in the national flag|source=http://commons.File:Golden_Niya (Import from wikitravel.org/shared). Photo taken in Ashgabat, the capital of Turkmenistan.

Statue and Hero - Previous President
The major statue is the golden statue of the previous leader, the first president (...2006). the statue rotates to face the sun!

He named the country, and the month of January, the first month, after himself. Another month is named after another member of his family. This system lasted from 2002-6. His renamed months and days of the week were changed back in 2008, two years after he died.

Renamed Months
He was not the first person to name a month or weekday after the country's leaders or the country's God(s). January and July and August are named after Romans, Julius, Augustus. Sunday, Monday, Wednesday and Thursday are named afer the sun, moon, Woden and Thor.

He also banned beards and ballet. Therefore he was loved by many and disliked by a few, who were not allowed to voice opinions.

Wiki says:

Saparmurat Niyazov (February 19, 1940 - December 21, 2006) was the first President of Turkmenistan. He served from 1993 to 2006. Saparmurat Niyazov also called himself Türkmenbaşy, which means leader of the Turkmen people. He tried to make a cult of personality, which means that he put many pictures and statues of himself around his country to make himself seem important. While he was president, Niyazov made doing many things against the law, such as growing a beard or ballet dancing. He died from a heart attack on December 21, 2006.

 Gurbanguly Berdimuhammedow became the new president of Turkmenistan.

Man Made Mosques and Mausoleums
Mosques and Mausoleums abound.

• 8 Now Urgench, remains of the capital of Horezmshah with magnificent architectural monuments,
• Mane Baba Mausoleum, about 40 km south of Tejen in the Khaka region. The mausoleum was built in the 11th and 12th centuries over the grave of the famous Sufi teacher and philosopher Abu Said Maneyi (968-1049). 
• 
  
• Wise Men and Witty Words
• The legend tells that Abu Said met Abu Ali Ibn Sina (Avicenna) for a conversation that lasted three days. Afer this conversation Abi Said said: 'Ibn Sina knows everything that I see' and Ibn Sina answered: 'Abu Said sees everything that I know'.

Natural Wonders

The Darvaza gas crater (Turkmen: Garagum ýalkymy), is also known as the Door to Hell or Gates of Hell. It is a natural gas field collapsed into a cavern located in Derweze, Turkmenistan.^[Geologists intentionally set it on fire to prevent the spread of methane gas. It is thought to have been burning continuously since 1971. The gas crater has a total area of 5,350 m. Its diameter is 69 m (226 ft), and its depth is 30 m (98 ft).

Useful Websites

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

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

First President

https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saparmurat_Niyazov
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2002_renaming_of_Turkmen_months_and_days_of_week

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

About the Author

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

See my blog dressofthedayangela.blogspot.com

Please share links to your favourite posts.