Learning Language Options - English French Hebrew Welsh and other languages

England's Department of Education is paying more than £500,000 a year to schools which have large populations needing help learning to speak English. Could they do this more cheaply or quickly?

Berlitz Earworms - For Adults Travelling

Berlitz teaches by immersion. Repetition.

For adults going on holiday. No grammar. I use Earworms discs, which I play in the car on long journeys. Listen to conversations, starting on a plane, between a man and a woman and an air hostess. You can buy old copies second hand on Ebay for half a dozen languages. I bought several languages.

Linguaphone

I have also used Linguaphone discs for Spanish. They tell a story about a woman who speaks no Spanish being sent to Spain by her boss.

Duolingo's Free Courses Online

Duolingo has free language courses in many languages for children as well as adults. Each section of lessons has a guidebook, a grammar section, which gives you examples of different verbs, I you he she we they. starting with the present tense. Because they shared the school system, and flashcards, then withdrew them, it's good to save any system even if it is online, and free, in case the producers, decide it is not profitable, or they sell the system and it gets withdrawn.

Translation

Google translate covers most languages. You can play back the translation to hear the pronunciations. 

Learning Together - Buddies

If two children speak the same language, they can pair up and learn English together for a term. 

Learning By Teaching - Mentors

If two children speak different languages, they can pair up, using English as their mutual language.

Useful Travel Websites And Guides About Learning Languages

Wikitravel (with advertisements) and 

Wikivoyage (without advertisements) have phrasebooks for travellers. 

Creating School Workbooks

It should be possible to put together a standard workbook for all the world's main 50 languages. Call in the church, mosque, embassy, to  fast track a simple textbook and enrol volunteer teachers from students and the retired. And/or weekend and after school immersion classes.

Copying Other Countries

See how other countries cope.

American Schoolbooks & Simplified Spelling 

Printer Webster revised spelling for immigrants to the USA, publishing school textbooks and the dictionary. The schoolbooks must be out of copyright and can be reprinted and reused, in the USA - and the UK. Even if children in the UK learn American spelling, that is a big advance on not being able to speak English.

Family Group Teaching & Learning

Parents should attend classes with their children for half an hour after school every day.

How about getting older brothers and sisters to help the smaller ones? We may have to go back to the village school system, where brothers and sisters are in the same class, with the older ones helping the younger ones. 

Israel's Ulpans 

In Israel in 1948 Ulpans were set up to teach Hebrew to immigrants. Newcomers came from the Arab countries, Europe and elsewhere. Some centres were in Jerusalem. 

Uplans were in residential centres. Courses lasted about 5 months. Other centres were scattered around the countryside on the kibbutzim, collective farms. There the students were part time workers, part time students. 

This system has been copied in Wales, Scotland and elsewhere, such as Norway. In Wales the spelling of Ulpan is Welsh, Wlpan.

Flag of Wales with the red dragon on white and green.

America has bilingual schools.

Canada has French and English mandatory in government jobs and literature in the capital.

England used to have a bilingual school, the Lycee Francaise, for those whose parents spoke French.

Singapore has mother tongue schools for pupils whose parents speak the national languages (English, Chinese (Mandarin), Tamil (from southern India) and Malay.

French Schools in the UK

London​

L’école bilingue​

École française de Londres Jacques Prévert 

L’École des Petits & L’École de Battersea ​

La Petite École Française ​

Collège Français Bilingue de Londres ​(CFBL)​

EIFA International School London ​

Jeannine Manuel School ​

Lycée Français Charles de Gaulle de Londres ​

Lycée International de Londres Winston Churchill​​

Bristol​

École française de Bristol ​

Aberdeen​

École Française d’Aberdeen​

Useful Websites On Language Teaching

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-15553095/schools-local-authorities-non-English-speaking-kids-speed.html

Ulpan Studio Of (Hebrew Language) Instruction

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

Welsh Language Teaching

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

Scottish Language teaching

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%99lpan

https://www.institut-francais.org.uk/education-page/find-a-french-school/#/

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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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March Back to Waterloo Station after King Charles III Coronation - kilts swaying, red uniforms, in the rain!

One band after another, matching across the bridge. All wearing their uniforms. Subtitles tell you the band and the music. A great video of different bands, different marching songs. Great red uniforms. 

I find marching a challenge, never mind marching in step. Whilst playing an instrument! In the rain!

 My favourites were the Scottish bands towards the end, with their kilts.

Such a pity it was a rainy day. On the other hand, on a rainy day, it's good to have a band to cheer you up.

I read that Penny Mordaunt had two pairs of shoes, so that she could change out of her wet shoes once inside the abbey for the coronation.

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How to learn or teach the words of Auld Lang Syne for karaoke, New Year's Eve and Summer Holiday Last Night

Flag of Scotland

If you are going to an event where they are likely to sing Auld Lang Syne on the last night, it helps to know the words. You find them in Wikipedia. You can bring them up on your phone. Or email them to yourself and open the email at the event and share each verse with the person standing next to you. 

Prepare to stand up to sing, no clutter on your feet, nor a laptop on your lap. If you have a laptop to read the words, sit at a table at the front, side or back of the room. Who will I try to ensure I am sitting next to? An old friend? Or a new friend who I want to be an old friend? 

You could shake hands with a couple of people, to be sure you find somebody who does not have damp hands when it comes to holding hands through three verses!

For Covid-19, you might hold out a white handkerchief on both sides for the other person to hold, or the song sheet. I remember attending an orthodox Jewish wedding of a student I met at University College London. I was surprised  to see the men dancing around the room, in a linked line, but hands separated by white handkerchiefs. I thought how ol time and odd. Now it seems sensible.

If you are organizing the event, you can display the words on the screen. Or distribute song sheets. Or, for children or adults, practise earlier in the day.

Even if you are not from the UK or England or Scotland, you might think the words sound familiar, even if you don't know the words.

One line appears in You're a grand old flag.

Useful Websites

Auld Lang Syne - Wikipedia

You're a Grand Old Flag - Wikipedia 

(See next post for details of author Angela Lansbury and the words and tune of Happy Birthday to you.)

The tune to which "Auld Lang Syne" is commonly sung is a pentatonic Scots folk melody, probably originally a sprightly dance in a much quicker tempo. The song originally had another melody, which can be traced to around 1700 and was deemed "mediocre" by Robert Burns. The famous melody was first used in 1799, in the second volume of George Thomson's Select Songs of Scotland.^[10]

Older versions of the original song which use other melodies have survived in isolated Scottish communities. The American folk song collector James Madison Carpenter collected a version of "Auld Lang Syne" which appears to be distantly related to the original folk song version from a man named William Still of Cuminestown, Aberdeenshire in the early 1930s. William Still can be heard singing the song on the Vaughan Williams Memorial Library website.^[11]

Lyrics[edit]

The song begins by posing a rhetorical question: Is it right that old times be forgotten? The answer is generally interpreted as a call to remember long-standing friendships.^[10] Alternatively, "Should" may be understood to mean "in the event that" (expressing the conditional mood) referring to a possible event or situation.

George Thomson's Select Songs of Scotland was published in 1799 in which the second verse about greeting and toasting was moved to its present position at the end.^[10]

Most common usage of the song involves only the first verse and the chorus. The last lines of both of these are often sung with the extra words "For the sake of" or "And days of", rather than Burns' simpler lines. This allows one note for each word, rather than the slight melisma required to fit Burns' original words to the melody.

The "singable" English version given here keeps the Scots phrase "auld lang syne" rather than translating it as "long long ago" or something like that — see the third paragraph of this article for a full explanation of this phrase.

Burns' original Scots verse[5]	Standard English version (singable)	Scots pronunciation guide (as Scots speakers would sound)	IPA pronunciation guide (Burns' own Ayrshire dialect)[12]
Should auld acquaintance be forgot, and never brought to mind? Should auld acquaintance be forgot, and auld lang syne?[a] Chorus: For auld lang syne, my jo, for auld lang syne, we'll tak' a cup o' kindness yet, for auld lang syne. And surely ye'll be your pint-stoup! and surely I'll be mine! And we'll tak' a cup o’ kindness yet, for auld lang syne. Chorus We twa hae run about the braes, and pou'd the gowans fine; But we've wander'd mony a weary fit, sin' auld lang syne. Chorus We twa hae paidl'd in the burn, frae morning sun till dine;[b] But seas between us braid hae roar'd sin' auld lang syne. Chorus And there's a hand, my trusty fiere! and gie's a hand o' thine! And we'll tak' a right gude-willie waught, for auld lang syne. Chorus	Should old acquaintance be forgot, and never brought to mind? Should old acquaintance be forgot, and auld lang syne? Chorus: For auld lang syne, my dear, for auld lang syne, we'll take a cup of kindness yet, for auld lang syne. And surely you'll buy your pint cup! and surely I'll buy mine! And we'll take a cup o' kindness yet, for auld lang syne. Chorus We two have run about the hills, and picked the daisies fine; But we've wandered many a weary foot, since auld lang syne. Chorus We two have paddled in the stream, from morning sun till dine; But seas between us broad have roared since auld lang syne. Chorus And there's a hand my trusty friend! And give me a hand o' thine! And we'll take a right good-will draught, for auld lang syne. Chorus	Shid ald akwentans bee firgot, an nivir brocht[c] ti mynd? Shid ald akwentans bee firgot, an ald lang syn*? Chorus: Fir ald lang syn, ma jo, fir ald lang syn, wil tak a cup o kyndnes yet, fir ald lang syn. An sheerly yil bee yur pynt-staup! an sheerly al bee myn! An will tak a cup o kyndnes yet, fir ald lang syn. Chorus We twa hay rin aboot the braes, an pood the gowans fyn; Bit weev wandert monae a weery fet, sin ald lang syn. Chorus We twa hay pedilt in the burn, fray mornin sun til dyn; But seas between us bred hay roard sin ald lang syn. Chorus An thers a han, my trustee feer! an gees a han o thyn! And we'll tak a richt[c] gude-willie-waucht,[c] fir ald lang syn. Chorus	ʃɪd o̜ːld ə.kwɛn.təns bi fər.ɡot ən nɪ.vər brɔxt tɪ məin ʃɪd o̜ːld ə.kwɛn.təns bi fər.ɡot ən o̜ːld lɑŋ səin Chorus: fər o̜ːld lɑŋ səin mɑ d͡ʒo fər o̜ːld lɑŋ səin wiːl tɑk ə kʌp o kəin.nəs jɛt fər o̜ːld lɑŋ səin ən ʃeːr.li jiːl bi juːr pəint.stʌup ən ʃeːr.li ɑːl bi məin ən wiːl tɑk ə kʌp o kəin.nəs jɛt fər o̜ːld lɑŋ səin Chorus wi two̜̜ː heː rɪn ə.but ðə breːz ən puːd ðə ɡʌu.ənz fəin bʌt wiːv wo̜n.ərt mʌ.ne ə wiːrɪ fɪt sɪn o̜ːld lɑŋ səin Chorus wi two̜̜ː heː pe.dlt ɪn ðə bʌrn freː moːr.nɪn sɪn tɪl dəin bʌt siːz ə.twin ʌs bred heː roːrd sɪn o̜ːld lɑŋ səin Chorus ən ðeːrz ə ho̜ːn mɑ trʌs.tɪ fiːr əŋ ɡiːz ə ho̜ːn o ðəin ən wiːl tɑk ə rɪxt ɡɪd wʌ.lɪ wɑːxt fər o̜ːld lɑŋ səin Chorus

1. ^

About the Author

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

Angela Lansbury is a member of Toastmasters International.

About the Author Angela Lansbury

The Author - Quick Quotations

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

About Angela The Speaker & Trainer

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

Braddell Heights Advanced Toastmasters Speakers Vice President  Public Relations, Immediate Past President. VPPR

Former Area Director S3. Club Coach for Nee Soon South Toastmasters Club.

Also Member of: TCA Toastmasters Club; Singapore Online Dynamic; Harrovians UK

BHA

Past meetings have included Garen Tee on using story telling in business, on 

bha.learncool.sg/meet/bha . 

Recent meetings of BHA included an educational session on using Powerpoint for posters.

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

Next meetings will be on these dates (unless a national holiday in Singapore or worldwide)

Themes and word of the day are tentative

2021

JULY - JUBILANT JULY

Theme/WOD Jubilant

WORKSHOPS & EDUCATIONAL SESSIONS (based on level one of Pathways)

1 Your first speech or role EASY ENGLISH LANGUAGE (Articles A and The, Plurals, Tenses, Pronunciation, Singlish)

2 CHOOSE YOUR PATH

Wed July 7th 

Saturday 17th

July 4rh American Independence Day.

2021 AUGUST - AWESOME AUGUST

1 Pathway Level 1 Introductory Speeches

2 Evaluations

Wed 4th

Sat 21

2021 SEPT - SUPER SEPTEMBER

Wed 1st

Sat 18th SPEECH CONTESTS

Humorous Speech Contest

Table Topics Contest

2021 OCT - ODD OCTOBER

Wed 6th

Sat 16th

2021 NOV - NOVELTY NOVEMBER

Wed 3rd

Sat 20th Wed

Diwali Hindu Festival of lights Nov 4th.

Nov 25th American Thanksgiving.

Hanukah starts 28 Dec 8 days until Dec 6. Jewish Festival of lights, celebrated by Jesus.

2021 DEC - DARLING DECEMBER

Wed  1st (Hanukah if not previous month. Festival foods.)

Sat 18th

Speech on 

JAN 2022 - JOYFUL JANUARY

Wed Jan 5th New beginning - forget the past

Sat 15 Long-term plans = for the future/Chinese New Year (CNY for short)

2022 FEB FUN FEBRUARY

Theme Love and romance - Chinese New Year

Feb 1st and 2nd are holidays - do we move this Feb 2nd meeting date?)

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

Sat 19th

2022 MAR - MARVELLOUS MARCH

Theme

Wed 2nd

Sat 19

March 1st is Christian Pancake day. 

2022 APR - APRIL'S AIMS

Wed 6th

Sat 16th

Muslim Ramadan 1-30 April.

Jewish Passover (Seder meal=Last supper) April

 16

2022 MAY - MODERNISING MAY

Wed 4th

Sat 21

2022 JUN - JUBILANT JUNE

Wed 1st

Sat 18th

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

Angela The Blogger 

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

travelwithangelalansbury.blogspot.com

dressofthedayangela.blogspot.com

translateforfun.blogspot.com

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

Please share links to your favourite posts.