Useful Words In Hotels Where They Speak German

Where can you learn and practise speaking German? 

Flag of Germany

Flag of Austria

Flag of Switzerland

You can use German in Germany, Austria and German-speaking parts of Switzerland.  Also Luxembourg, Liechtenstein, and parts of Belgium and Italy.

Flag of Luxembourg.

Flag of Liechtenstein.

 English - German

bed - Bett

carpet - Teppich

ceiling - Decke

curtain - Vorhang

floor - Boden

hiking - Wandern

hotel  - Hotel

mountain - berg

packed lunch - Lunchpaket

pillow - Kissen

room - Zimmer

window - Fenster

I am allergic to - ich bin allergisch gegen

I eat - ich esse

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Useful English-German websites

duolingo.com

https://wikitravel.org/en/German_phrasebook

translate.google.com

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Japanese Language - A Quick Reminder

I thought I could probably remember up to ten Japanese words, and you could probably do the same, at least five, without visiting recently or at all.

Here is my list, amplified with a quick look back through my own blogs on Japanese.

Akiko  girl's name meaning bright or autumn child (ko as the ending of a name means child or girl)

arigato - thank you

baddo - bad

basu - bus

beddo - bed

bento - box of lunch, think of lunch box, divided into compartments like an airline meal

creamu - cream

desuku - desk

e Edo - (name of former capital, gate of the river, now used in other place names)

fan - electric cooling fan

gamu - gum

geisha girl - entertainer, usually female, multi-skilled including singing and sympathy

ginko - nuts, prized for health giving property

hai - yes (I think  of Hi. Another memory aid would be to think of a high excited agreement of delight at a suggestion)

Hiroshima - hiro is wide and shima is island

hoteru - hotel

iki-gai - zest for life, reason for living, passion, inspiration, what gives your life meaning

jinzu - jeans

judo - gentle way, (martial arts). judoka - judo practitioner, judo-ki judo clothing or uniform 

kamera - camera

karaoke - singing for fun, to recorded music, using songsheets of video subtitles in the language you choose, provided by the company hiring the studio room, often in a shopping mall or hotel The word means empty orchestra.

kawa - river

Kiko (ki-ko means hope-child, or bright future)

Kimono - wide sleeved outfit, wrap around, secured by a wide belt. Associated with women, but can also be worn by men. Often heavy, satin or similar, lined, elegant, with seasonal patterns

Kin-tsugi - literally gold(en) journey, adding a gold line over a crack in a cracked or broken porcelain 'china' case, crockery, bowl or other object, to recycle and upcycle. Kinkaku-ji means the golden pavilion.

kinokunia - bookshop name, huge store in Singapore, name meaning country, trees

kissu - kiss

Kōhī - coffee

konnichiwa - hello / good afternoon

Kyoto  kyo means capital, to means capital, together they mean capital city

l

menu - menu

Midori - green, a girl's name, and a green drink, sweet, melon flavour,20% alcohol and as it is quite strong, used with non-alcoholic mixers to make cocktails

miso soup, like a green tea, meatless, seaweed?

mori means mountain

N 

Nagasaki, name of the city, from Naga meaning long, and saki meaning headland or cape

Noriko - girl's name law-child, discipline

O obi - wide sash worn over a kimono to tie around the waist.

Ohaiyo gozaimasu. Good morning.

piza - pizza

q

resutoran - restaurant

sake - the drink, a spirit, served hot or cold from a small porcelain bottle into tiny porcelain cuts without handles. I love it.

sayonara - goodbye. You can watch a video on You Tube of the popular classical song, in English, featuring the word sayonara.

sensei - teacher master maestro

sofa - sofa

sushi - pressed rice, topped with sliced raw fish, or meat 

sachimi Sashi - sliced/pierced thinly - mi = meat)

shoppingu moru - shopping mall

taxi - taxi

Tokyo means Eastern Capital

tometo - tomato

u

v

wagu beef, tender marbled meat from a breed of cow called Wagu, fattened up from Kobo in Japan, or Australian, expensive because of the cost of feeding the cattle

Wasabi - horseradish or similar plant, green paste with sharp flavour

x

Yotto - yacht

Yoko - girls name meaning sunlight-child, child of sunlight, bright child

Yokohama yoko is by, beside, next to, and hama is beach or shore

yukata - light summer kimono, fold-over wrap, housecoat, often cotton

Yukiko - girl's name snow-child, pure and soft

zero - zero

Useful websites

https://www.namesmama.com/japanese-girl-names/

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

https://japaninsides.com/japanese-words-that-sound-like-english-38261

wordhippo.com

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Watch your background on Zoom! Unintentional Humour. Intentional Humor.

On Zoom you can create virtual backgrounds showing yourself in front of famous landmarks, or on the beach with the waves rolling in behind you. A moving background can be distracting.

Even worse is a real life moving background. It is not new for passers-by to accidentally walking across behind a live reporter, or to stand behind making silly faces. The technical term is photobombing. Wikipedia found me these.

 Many people turn off their cameras at home for good reason. They are eating. They are half naked.

Others do not check their backgrounds. You can see all sort of personal stuff. 

 What is on the wall behind, you, on the desk, or cabinet. An interview candidate for a job had to quickly remove empty bottles of alcohol, kept as souvenirs and decoration. He was applying for a job in Pakistan.

Children and Pets

Hilarious moments from the early days of working from home and meetings on zoom included backgrounds of dogs or cats which wanted to read the news or express their reaction. Others included children bursting into the room, dragged out by a crawling mother.

Bedrooms

At my Toastmasters meetings, I was once mesmerized by the speaker's girlfriend, lying in the bed behind him, every now and then turning over. My mind was inventing what she could do, alone, or if he would later join her, unaware that the back of the room was on camera.

Toilet, Bathroom and Shower

One Toastmasters International member frequently tells the story of how she went to the toilet wearing a pin-on microphone.

Recently I watched a visitor yawn, move the camera, get up and disappear into the shower at the back of the bedroom. The shower water started to run down the glass.

I was waiting to see a silhouette. It reminded me of Psycho. Would an evil stranger creep in? If so, we could not contact him.

I was unable to concentrate on my speeches and roles. Why? Because I was watching to see whether he would emerge wearing pyjama bottoms, a towel, or neither.

Some of the professional Zoom applications allow you to set up your group shots of audience faces in settings such as a classroom of tiered seating, or even mirror photos with frames. For single individuals, yourself, add humorous hats, moustaches and glasses. Key words to search for are: facial effects, studio effects, and make up filters.

Useful Websites

Zoom on facial effects to enhance

https://support.zoom.us/hc/en-us/articles/115002595343-Enhancing-your-video-in-Zoom

https://shotkit.com/funny-zoom-backgrounds/

https://www.ricotta.team/blog/zoom-memes

Humorous zoom effect tutorial

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3v0Y9b--zBM

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Advice on foreground lighting for zoom - and backgrounds

Sit near a window. Have a table lamp. Make sure your face is lit from both sides. Avoid being silhouetted.

To appear larger, move towards the screen. Make sure you are looking at the lens, not down at your notes, nor up at a picture of yourself or others on a large screen.

Don't slip down the frame. Nor so high up that the top of your head is cut off.

Check the background. Once I was mesmerized by the speaker's girlfriend lying in bed, behind him. She lay on her back. She rolled over. I thought she was going to fall out of bed.

She lay on her front. I thought she was going to have an orgasm.

Her hand reached out. For what? A book. I thought it was going to be a sex toy.

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YO6utfQm7Bg

Where you can learn to write fact and fiction, perform and speak languages

You can perform poetry and prose, mostly in pubs, if you go to open mike (open microphone) nights in the UK. You are not guaranteed a chance to read. You might find there are more keen readers than slots available and the early evening slots go to the regulars or well known people.

On a writers holiday or writers summer school if you go on a writing course or have work created on previous occasions you may be given an opportunity to persorm. This year, 2019, I missed out on both the Poetry Reading and the acting in Page to Stage. On the other hand, I made a point of sitting in the front row and volunteering, so I was on stage with a magician, as well as performing in the prose evening.

 At Writers' Summer School I recited this biographical story:

The Excitement Of Reading And Writing
I always wanted to be a writer from the day I learned to write my first three letter word in primary school. I can still recall, relive and revive my excitement at the discovery that you could look at the word bed and it looked like a bed.

The word bed was like a traditional grand bed, the sort in granny's house, and stately homes, with a headboard and a footboard. The b started with an upright line like a tree, cut into a piece of wood to make the headboard. The base of the b was a circle like a pillow. The D was a similar sound but written as a mirror image of the letter b. The e in the middle was like me curled up in bed with my thumb in my mouth or my arm folded back over my face or eyes.

My next exhilaration came from learning to read a whole sentence. 'The cat sat on the mat.' The c for cat was like a curly cat. The s sound was like a snake hissing, the s curled like a snake. The m nowadays you could learn from the M in a McDonalds arch.

I remember the first story: The letters c and s and M. The vowel a. All difficult until I heard the sentence, The cat sat on the mat. Add y for ee sound at the end. Revelation.

The cat sat on the mat. The cat sat on the bed. Mummy was angry. "Dirty cat!". The cat sat on the mat. 

Learning Numbers
Later I learned numbers. The one was a line. 1. Like the letter l in letter. 2 Two was a curl with two points ending with a neat line underneath. 3 Three had three points. 4 Four was an upright, a horizontal and it continued crossing the upright line to make two halves, a total of four. Five was like the letter F with a curl, a semi-circle. 5.  If you ate five biscuits you would get fat. Six was like a circle 6. 8 was two circles. Two, two more than 6. Nine is like six upside down. 9. Ten is one with a zero, one in a hurry because you have so many.

I watch people at airports and on planes doing crosswords and playing word games such as Scrabble. I watch children playing noughts and crosses and chess. I see adults engrossed in number games such as Soduku. (For Soduku you try to complete a box of nine squares with the numbers one to nine but sets of boxes create lines of numbers where numbers must not be repeated.
 
    
Soduku author Tim Stellmach in Wikipedia article on Soduku.

I am now a writer and love meeting other aspiring writers and best-selling writers

The joys of writing and reading and learning from others has never left me. I have just returned from the excitement of the annual Writers' Summer School in Hayes, Swanwick, Derbyshire, England.

Performing Prose
At Writers' Summer School for the Prose Performance Reading I performed the above story about the joy of learning to write in the voice of a five year old. The next day people came up and congratulated me on my in-character performance, as well as the originality. I bet that in years to come they will still remember it and my wide-eyed excitement.

Learning New Languages
I still get the same joy from learning languages to visit new countries. I love Duolingo, learning new words or a new language in five minutes a day, small chunks of time and effort which add up over the year. When I am travelling, on a train underground, or waiting at an airport, I can never be bored. I always get a sense of achievement.

On the train you can see people watching films which are adapted from books and reading books.
The heroes and heroines of the past, ancestor worship, live on in stories. Whether they were real or fiction, whether their achievements were real or wonderful fictions, their dreams and conflicts with family, friends and enemies, their conquering of doubts and fears 'though I walk in the valley of death I will fear no evil' still bring hope and stir us thousands of years later.

I remember as a child watching a stone thrown into a pond creating a ripple. May I and you create ripples of joy with our words today and every day.

Useful Websites
To Learn Languages, especially English and Spanish but many more, free online:
DUOLINGO
duolingo.com

To Learn to Write Fact and Fiction
Writers Summer School is one of several annual writing events


To Learn Public Speaking (clubs worldwide)
Toastmasters International find a club
Many clubs hold meetings which are free for guests to attend




About the Author
Angela Lansbury is the author of twenty books, more in preparation. Take a look at my books and profiles.
Books you can buy through Amazon:
Wedding Speeches & Toasts.
Etiquette for Every Occasion.
Books you can buy through Lulu:
Quick Quotations.
Who Said What When. (A quotation or two or three for every day of the year, created when I was President of a Speakers' club.)
Please bookmark favourite posts and share links with your family, friends and interested colleagues.

Travellers Guide To Bed Bug Tips

Problem
I've never had bed bugs but I don't want to get them.
My friend long ago caught bed bugs from a hotel and she doesn't want to get them.
Where are you in danger?
How do you avoid them when travelling?

Answers
In theory if you move into a house which has been empty over a year or not previously occupied the bed bugs which live on blood have had no source of food.

However, anybody can import them, including you.

Some useful tips:

Keep your suitcases on a luggage rack off the floor.
Do not put your luggage or bags down on a bed - yours or anybody else's.

When visiting a friend's or colleague's bedroom or hotel suite, do not sit on the bed or the floor and if possible not on an upholstered chair. Stand or sit on a wooden or plastic chair. Keep your handbag (Americans say a purse) on your lap or on a hard surface not on a bed or upholstered chair and not on the floor.

Tips
https://www.orkin.com/other/bed-bugs/bedbug-tips-for-travelers/
https://www.orkin.com/other/silverfish/silverfish-and-clothing/

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

The Mandarin Oriental Hotel, Knightsbridge - Where H M the Queen danced

What do you want to hear about first? The room with the giant bed, or the blue carpet ballroom where the queen danced - which you can hire for a fashionable wedding?  You might like to know what you are getting, assuming you can afford a suite, equally if you can't afford a bedroom at even the lowest price, you might like a little look.

The Entrance
   I'll make things simple - I'll describe the hotel in the order in which you see it. The doorman opens the door and somebody immediately asks, "Can I help you?' (Polite code for if you are not staying here, nor eating here, we will not let you in.)
   Up a flight of stairs. (Good thing I am not yet needing a stick nor a wheelchair.)  Grand staircases are not designed for the elderly who can afford the time and money to travel.
   At the top of the stairs is a dark, discreet area with two chairs by a fireplace. Not designed for the casual visitor to hang about. Reception is to the left. If you wish to rendez-vous, round the corner is the bar.
   The back entrance from the park is where you would enter with a royal party or a wedding group.

The Beautiful Blue Carpet Ballroom

This is where our present Queen Elizabeth danced as a young girl with her sister Princess Margaret.

The Bars and Restaurants

The Bar by Dinner Restaurant

The Lower Level restaurant

   I was on my way to the famous restaurant Dinner, featuring food created by Heston Blumenthal, using traditional recipes long forgotten from centuries ago. We lost interest in spending as much as about £37 on dover sole downstairs, when we could sample a thrilling three course lunch in Heston's restaurant for about £38 (plus service and drinks. Dinner restaurant overlooks the park.

The Bedroom
   The bedroom I saw had the largest, widest bed I've seen since I admired the Great bed of Ware at the Victoria and Albert Museum. Views from this room over the back towards the park, a delight. Some people from overseas might be equally excited by the view of the bustle of department stores opposite at the front of the hotel.
   The bathroom had a marble floor, a bath, toilet and bidet. Very traditional and comfortable.
   Nothing oo-la-la exciting like you get in Disneyland, no Jacuzzi bath, sunken bath, no music blaring Country hits like Opryland, no water feature running through the restaurant like in a jolly 3 star motel somewhere in the USA, no ra ra like San Francisco. Frankly, if I were a nouveau riche American film star or footballer I'd be seriously disappointed by so much discreet and so little wow factor.
   I'm sure it's what HM Queen would like. But she has her own room across the park and only needs a bedroom here to freshen up.

   The main big bedrooms set you back close on £1000 rack rate, although out of season discounts bring the price down to only £500 a night. I asked to see a room, which had giant bed, which will cost you only £500 a night.

Dinner Restaurant
I have a separate blog on the Dinner restaurant featuring food by renowned chef Heston Blumenthal.

Swimming and Spas
The swimming pool is being remodelled. When I get a chance to see it, I shall tell you all about it.

Angela Lansbury writes about travel, wining and dining.
She is the author of twenty books.
   In preparation Jewish Travel Tales by Angela Lansbury - the worldwide sections include Schindler Museum in Poland, Levi jeans, and Marilyn Monroe. The UK and London sections include PM Benjamin Disraeli's house, homes of the Rothschilds, Kindertransport statue on a London station, and memorials and museums which have associations with other famous people such as Anne Frank.    

   More books by Angela Lansbury the author on lulu.com