Different Ways Of Learning German For Visits To Germany, Austria, Switzerland and Theme Parks

Flag of Germany. 

Next year I plan to visit German-speaking Switzerland on a hiking holiday. I have been learning German daily using Duolingo in anticipation. Where else can I practise my German? I might fly or drive via another German-speaking country such as Austria or Germany. I might visit a theme park such as Europa in Germany, one of the biggest theme parks in Europe. When I visit websites, I can look at the English, then the German, then the English, switching backwards and forwards, occasionally using Google translate for words I don't know.

 I am learning German daily using Duolingo, first thing in the morning, last thing at night, whilst waiting for a bus or train, on the bus or train.

A friend of mine from Toastmasters, after I gave a talk on learning languages, told me that he is learning German. To obtain German citizenship you have to achieve a moderate, level 3, level of German understanding, speaking, listening reading aloud and silent sight reading, if you are of German descent on one or both sides of your parentage (maybe grandparents?), and higher level A on the language test if you have no parentage, eg if you have lived there or worked for a German company overseas and want to apply for citizenship, which would give you financial benefits, rights to stay, help overseas, as well as kudos and pride and sense of belonging. 

Phone and Laptop Setting To German

My friend was using various methods of immersion. These included setting his phone and laptop to the German language. 

Wikipedia

I found it useful with Spanish and Italian once I reached a higher level, to run Wikipedia articles in the other language after reading an article in English.

German Language Stickers

My friend was also using stickers.

 I can also use sticky labels in the middle of my copy of the book German in 10 minutes a day. ISBN 0-916682-99-4.

When I could not find my book yesterday, I looked up stickers on Amazon. I had to be careful with what my search words found, I nearly clicked on cheap 'German stickers' which were not German words but German landmarks.  

My German stickers are in German only, not bilingual with English. So I had to look up some of the words.

Easy Obvious German - English Words

die Garage - the garage

der Garten - the garden (as in kindergarden)

das Haus - the house

die Kamera - the camera

die Lampe - the lamp

das Papier - the paper

das Sofa - the sofa

Useful Websites for learning German

amazon books

German in 10 minutes a day, by Kershul, Bilingual Books Inc ISBN 0-916682-99-4.

amazon stickers

duolingo.com

wikipedia language settings

wikivoyage phrasebook German

Wikipedia has a huge list of  German Theme Parks

Germany

• Gulliver-Welt, Saarbrücken, Saarland
• Spree-Park, Berlin

Baden-Württemberg

• Auto & Technik Museum Sinsheim, Sinsheim
• Erlebnispark Tripsdrill, Cleebronn
• Europa-Park, Rust
• Familien Park, Villingen-Schwenningen
• Funny-World, Kappel-Grafenhausen
• Ravensburger Spieleland, Meckenbeuren
• Schwaben Park, Kaisersbach
• Steinwasen Park, Oberried
• Tatzmania, Löffingen
• Trampoline, Heilbronn
• Traumland auf der Bärenhöhle, Sonnenbühl

Bavaria

• Bavaria Filmstadt, Grünwald
• Bayern Park, Reisbach
• Churpfalzpark, Loifling
• Erlebnispark Schloss Thurn, Heroldsbach
• Fränkisches Wunderland, Plech
• Freizeit-Land Geiselwind, Geiselwind
• Freizeitpark Ruhpolding, Ruhpolding
• Freizeit- und Miniaturpark Allgäu, Weitnau
• Legoland Deutschland, Günzburg
• Märchen Erlebnispark Marquartstein, Marquartstein
• Märchenwald im Isartal, Wolfratshausen
• Playmobil FunPark, Zirndorf
• Rodel- und Freizeitparadies St. Englmar, Sankt Englmar
• Skyline Park, Bad Wörishofen
• Sport+Freizeitzentrum Hohenbogen, Neukirchen beim Heiligen Blut

Brandenburg

• Karls Erlebnis-Dorf Elstal,^[2] Wustermark
• Tier-, Freizeit- und Saurierpark Germendorf,^[3] Germendorf
• Tropical Islands Brandenburg,^[4] Krausnick
• AbendteuerPark Potsdam, Potsdam
• Filmpark Babelsberg,^[5] Potsdam-Babelsberg
• Irrlandia - der MitMachPark, Storkow (Mark)
• El Dorado Templin, Templin

Hessen

• Erlebnispark Steinau, Steinau an der Straße
• Erlebnispark Ziegenhagen, Witzenhausen
• Freizeitpark Lochmühle, Wehrheim
• Rodelparadies Wasserkuppe, Gersfeld
• Salzberger ErlebnisPark, Neuenstein
• Taunus Wunderland, Schlangenbad
• Wild-und Freizeitpark Willingen, Willingen
• Zoo Frankfurt, Frankfurt

Lower Saxony

• Erse-Park, Uetze
• Heide Park, Soltau
• Jaderpark, Jade
• Magic Park Verden, Verden
• Nordsee Spielstadt Wangerland, Hohenkirchen
• Rasti-Land, Salzhemmendorf
• Serengeti Safaripark, Hodenhagen
• Tier-und Freizeitpark Thüle, Friesoythe
• Wildpark Schwarze Berge, Rosengarten

Mecklenburg-Vorpommern

• Rügen Park, Gingst

North Rhine-Westphalia

• Affen-und Vogelpark, Reichshof Eckenhagen
• Fort Fun Abenteuerland, Bestwig
• Freizeitanlage Start und Ziel, Herne
• Freizeitzentrum SchiederSee, Delbrück
• Hollywood & Safaripark Stukenbrock, Stukenbrock
• Panorama Park, Kirchhundem
• Phantasialand, Brühl
• Potts Park, Minden
• Spielerei Rheda-Wiedenbrück, Rheda-Wiedenbrück
• Tierpark Nadermann, Schöning
• Wunderland Kalkar

Bottrop

• Movie Park Germany (aka: Warner Bros. Movie World Germany, Bavaria Filmpark Bottrop, Neue Traumland, TraumlandPark, Kirchhellener Märchenwald)
• Schloss Beck, Bottrop

Köln

• Kölner Tivoli
• Tobiland

Rhineland-Palatinate

• Eifelpark, Gondorf
• FreizeitPark Bell, Bell
• Plopsaland Deutschland, Haßloch (formerly known as Holiday Park)
• Wild-und Freizeitpark Klotten/Cochem, Klotten

Saxony

• Belantis, Leipzig
• Freizeitpark Plohn (aka: Erlebnispark Forellenhof Plohn), Lengenfeld
• Sonnenlandpark, Lichtenau
• Kulturinsel Einsiedel, Zentendorf bei Görlitz

Saxony-Anhalt

• Erlebnistierpark Memleben, Memleben
• Erlebniswelt Seilbahnen Thale, Thale
• Little Harz, Wernigerode

Schleswig-Holstein

• Hansa-Park (aka: Hansaland, Legoland Sierksdorf), Sierksdorf
• Tolk Schau, Tolk

Thuringia

• Märchenwald Saalburg, Saalburg

Euopa

-ends-

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Air New Zealand Amazing Toilets

 

In Premium Economy the toilet cubicle was larger than usual. One toilet had a wall of mock bookshelves whose books had amusing titles. 

The other toilet's wall had a mural of a giant chandelier.

Afterthoughts On Travel Packing

 

Packing nightmare. Photo by Angela Lansbury. Copyright.

What should I pack? Clogs, Crocs, for the day. But something smarter for the evening.

Evening Shoes

Gold sandals for the evening. Gold and silver sandals would go with everything.  Not high heels. The conference centre had grass. I could keep to paths. But what if a group took a short cut? Or an evening walk by the lake to see the sunset?

Summer Sandals

Sandals for summery weather. Socks, or nail polish for my toes? 

Rain

What if it rained? Did I need closed toe shoes?

Travel Outfits - One or Two?

I needed five outfits plus one travel outfit. I could wear it at the end. It could be hand-washed and dry in between, if I wore the same dress on the journey down and the journey back.

Day and evening 

I wanted a day outfit and an evening outfit. Could I upgrade outfits with a smarter jacket, and a glittering scarf? I wanted a hat with a brim to shield my eyes from lights. But what about the evening? A sequinned cap. It was black, no good for crossing roads at night, but okay when I stayed within a conference centre.

Stationery, Books, Gifts

For a Writers' Summer School I pack books to sell, a display stand, stickers, flyers, business cards and free bookmarks.

My books. Photo by Angela Lansbury.

Torch

Umbrella and rainhat and hooded raincoat. Waterproof bag for papers, notebooks and books and newspapers.

Coffee

On one trip, my husband did not like the coffee in the restaurant at the hotel. He made a round trip driving to the nearest town and bought a coffee maker and capsules. The following year we travelled there with the coffee  maker.

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Books and games to take on holiday - Interactive books

In 1967 I went to Expo67 the Canadian World's Fair in Montreal where the architectural novelty was Habitat 67. The housing complex was designed by Israeli Canadian architect Moshe Safdie. It seemed to innovate and turn around all one's ideas about how a building should be constructed.

Habitat67. Picture from Wikipedia.

The other novelty was the film (Americans say movie) in which the audience chose the direction of the action nine several points, so that no two performances were the same. Exciting for the audience and also entertaining for the actors.

Whatever the choices, certain things happened, such as the building burning down. It was a satire on democracy. Whatever you chose, or voted for, the author had pre-determined what would happen.

Other interactive films include to steal of Not to Steal. Not a realistic film.

Useful Websites

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Habitat_67

Cinema

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

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carmen_Sandiego:_To_Steal_or_Not_to_Steal

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

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Parallel_universes_in_fiction

Books for children

https://www.goodreads.com/shelf/show/choose-your-own-ending

About the Author

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 on bha.learncool.sg  

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.

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Bench Seats Which Look Like Books, Fruit And Other Oddities in London, Budapest, Kiev and Warsaw

EGYPT
Alexandrina Library, Alexandria, Egypt
Outdoor benches resembling books.

POLAND
In Warsaw the Chopin benches are just slabs to sit on. However, the tops show a map of the location of all 15 Chopin benches. Best of all, look for the button which when pressed plays Chopin music. A good place for a video or a Chopin trail around the city.

UK
Dog bench in Houndsditch- where dogs used to be buried. Jubilee Gardens EC4
https://www.londonfestivalofarchitecture.org/2018site/event/lfa-benches-here-lies-geoffrey-barkington-by-patrick-mcevoy/

UKRAINE
From Kiev Fashion Park, Ukraine

Watermelon bench

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kiev_Fashion_Park Ukraine




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

A decorative "rabbit bench" in Peyzazhna alley, Kiev, Ukraine

A fountain which looks like the turning pages of books is in Egyetem Square, District 5, Budapest, Hungary. See my earlier blog post.

Author	Kamelot

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 travel writer and photographer 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 language 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

Useful Websites

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

https://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/gallery/2014/sep/01/londons-book-benches-readers-photos

https://www.pinterest.co.uk/ilanacohensella/book-benches/

https://www.facebook.com/angela.lansbury.121

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

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

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

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

https://travelwithangelalansbury.blogs

https://travelwithangelalansbury.blogspot.com/2019/04/how-to-say-thank-you-in-several.html

https://travelwithangelalansbury.blogspot.com/2019/05/introducing-yourself-in-english-spanish.html

https://travelwithangelalansbury.blogspot.com/2020/01/second-set-of-portuguese-words.html Please share links to your favourite posts

https://www.toastmasters.org/find-a-club

translate.google.com

duolingo.com

Hong Kong In The Typhoon: what my friend did; lessons you can learn; and the Kinderstransport statue

My friend and I watched the news of the typhoon travelling the world, from
 Hong Kong,
which is quite small, so a typhoon is likely to affect travellers, especially if the airport is shut

The Philippines,
Manila is on the north island of Luzon (hit by about twenty typhoons a year) but two northern towns include one with rice terraces, and the 2018 problem is north of these two so unlikely to affect your holidays or business trip.

North Carolina in the USA. The USA is huge, but 90% of Americans don't have passports and many drive, so if you live on the East Coast you are like to have driven through North Carolina.

Problem
My friend went home to her husband in the Hong Kong drama. She sent me text updates. How was she doing?

Answer
She lives at the top of a building. She said the whole buildings swayed for hours in the (howling) wind.

Her IKEA bookcase tipped the books out. She now has all the books in box on the floor.

If you were on the ground floor with flood waters likely to come in, you would remove items from the floor and put them higher. However, with an earthquake or winds shaking your buildings, you want items off shelves so they don't fly around and injure you or fall and break.

What you learn from one disaster is not necessarily applicable to another. You have to learn from other's mistakes.

She said,  "Could I run? No. The whole building was swaying."

LIFTS OUT OF BOUNDS
You don't take the lifts in an emergency. If the electrics go, you could be stuck with shut doors, or stuck between floors. Even if you get out in the end, it's no fun. Worry. Will they come to help you? No food or toilets for hours.

READING & ENTERTAINMENT
No entertainment, either. Wasted time. I am reminded of Oscar Wilde's ironic remark. "I always travel with my diary, so I have something sensational to read on the train."

I always have a language course in my pocket. Stuck somewhere for eight hours? I can be eight hours through a one lesson a week course in another language. At least it takes your mind off worrying.

FOOD STOCKS
She said they did not eat breakfast until after lunch time. Yes, that's the advantage of staying home rather than running onto the street or taken transport off. You have food and toilets. Phones. First aid. TV and radio for entertainment and information, news of what is to come, or if it's over and safe to venture out.

So her husband could go off to work. She could cook breakfast and tidy up the mess. From his point of view, having her home was an advantage. Who is looking after who in your marriage? Do you want your family with you as a team.

SENDING FAMILY AWAY - KINDERTRANSPORT
Would you want to send your family off to a safer place? If you travel to Europe you will see the memorials to the children on the Kindertransport just before WWII, children sent to safety by their parents.

Kindertransport statue to see at Liverpool Street station, London, England. Credits below.

TITANIC
I remember the couple on the Titanic, the co-owner of Macy's in New York and his wife. They  had been together all their lives and wanted to be together until the end. Others want their spouse and children to survive them and carry on the family line and remember them and perhaps arrange memorials. I think about the Titanic's passengers when I am in New York and look at the Guggenheim or Macy's, also in Canada, and in Ireland which now has a huge titanic exhibition in the dockyard where Titanic was built.

STAYING BEHIND AND PLANNING
Install shutters or protection for windows, or protect with curtains and blinds and heavy duty plywood. In Singapore front doors and back doors have ironwork covers designed to let you open your front door and let in the breeze.

Emergency Supplies
Food and Drink for three days
Medicine

PRECAUTIONS & CLEAR-UP
If rain or flood water has filled pots and bowls outside or inside, empty the water to stop the breeding of mosquitoes.

Useful websites
BBC hits on hurricane preparedness:
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-45521927

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

Description	English: Kindertransport monument at Liverpool Street Station. A project established by the Association of Jewish Refugees, it pays tribute to those Britons who aided the rescue of 10,000 Jewish children from the Nazi persecution which led onto the holocaust.
Date	26 March 2011
Source	Own work -      http:lifeinmagapixels.com
Author	Wjh31

My Latest Discovery - Children's Illustration Museum in The Storybook Capital of America, Abilene, Texas, USA

Problem
What to see next and where?

Answer
I love literature and art.

I also love anything that's free. In addition to free admission, they have free fun art workshops for children on Saturday. Here's a free museum, in a place I have never visited. Abilene.

Didn't you love illustrated books as a child! I bet you still do.

It has changing exhibitions so you are sure to find something new. And a bookshop.

The idea for the place started with a meeting with the then Mayor and the illustrator, William Joyce, of a book set in Abilene. William Joyce is a co-founder of the museum.

See statue depicting the children from Santa Calls, "Childhood's Great Adventure" by Rick Jackson, downtown.

More statues are added every year in a ceremony.



By the way, the song Abilene is about another Abilene, in Kansas, which has an Eisenhower Museum.

National Centre For Childen's Illustrated Literature
Children's Illustration Museum
102 Cedar Street
Abilene
Texas
USA
79601

• Tel:+1-325-673-4586

Open 10-4 Tues-Saturday.
Closed Sunday and Monday.
One block away is the Grace Museum, which has lots of interactive activities for children. Also see the zoo.

Abilene Zoo. Photo in Wikipedia.

USA

https://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Attraction_Review-g30138-d12677273-Reviews-Adamson_Spalding_Storybook_Garden-Abilene_Texas.html

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Center_for_Children%27s_Illustrated_Literature

https://www.nccil.org

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Literary_museums_in_the_United_States

www.visittheusa.com

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

Angela Lansbury, the writer not the actress

A fellow writer has written to me a cordial letter from which I extract:

• "I have watched with interest several of your YouTube videos ...  .  I find confusing the many manifestations of your name, and wonder why you chose to adopt that of a nationally-known actress.  I can imagine what a lot of explaining I would have to do whenever you came up in conversation!"

I am not the only person in the world to have the same name as somebody else. In many offices employing over 100 people there are two or more with the same first name, and every so often you find an office where two people have the same first name and family name.

Nor am I the only person in the world to have the same name as somebody (older) whose world wide and internet success and fame has overtaken mine.

I did not choose to have the same name as a nationally known actress. 

The Family Name Change
I admit that my father changed the family surname after World War II before I started school to something which was not European but English. Unfortunately I did not record that I ever asked my father why he chose Lansbury. 

If I did, he probably answered, non committally  as he would have done, that it was just an English name. He was a practical person, ran a small optician's shop, later a second shop, and had no interest in fame. 

My father was a quiet man. He went deaf in one ear, which limited conversation. I realise, whilst typing this for you, that being deaf also accounts for liking for reading books, but also his lack of interest in anything requiring listening: radio and TV, films and theatre, concerts, nor opera. After WWII both of my parents preferred to live a quiet life. 

George Lansbury
Let's go back to the name Lansbury. My father grew up in the East end of London. George Lansbury was known for defending the seamstresses and my father's mother had been a seamstress. The name Lansbury would have been known to both my parents. However, I doubt whether they ever checked on how widespread the name was, whether it was common or distinctive. 

Many people changed their name. Something English sounding and easy to pronounce. Easier to make friends. More memorable for a business. Moss Brothers was originally Moses Brothers. Marks and Spencer.

However, my mother was the one who pushed for a change of name. Her family had been in England, for four generations, more than my father's three. My mother's family had been born in England, speaking English, for four generations.

My maternal grandmother (mother's mother) chose my first name. My mother chose the middle name Angela.

I preferred Angela. It sounded more feminine. I was a girly girl. I liked pink and pretty dresses. I liked frills. I liked to sit and sew.

When I went to primary school (known as elementary in the USA) the teacher called me Angela by mistake because another girl with the same length hair had sat in the same seat the previous year. The teacher appoogised. I obligingly told her it was OK because it was my middle name and I preferred it.

My grandmother died whilst I was still at primary school, so my mother was happy to call me Angela, matching the name I was called at school.

Unfortunately, when I went to grammar school, the teachers reverted to my, now unfamiliar, first name. I endured four years of this, until, worst of all, at O level year we read Hazlitt. Another pupil decided to nickname me Hazlit. Then somebody else decided that was too complicated and called me Hazel Nut. Finally worst of all, I was nicknamed Nut.

When I got to university I took the opportunity to r e v e r t to Angela. (Spaces inserted because predictive text inserts recent.)

As a schoolchild I spent evenings doing homework. TV showed one programme, BBC, Dixon of Dock Green. I did not go to films with my parents. 

When I went to university, I took a trip to the USA. I was delighted that reception in a grand hotel remembered my name Angela Lansbury. 

Imagine my surprise when I went out into the street and saw my name in lights. There was another Angela Lansbury.

For a brief period I added an H before my name. It didn't make any difference. I was still known as Angela and had the same conversations about my name. It just made my signature pretentious and caused confusion about my having two names.

I wrote features and travel articles and several books under my maiden name. When I married my husband insisted that I took his name.

When I started to look for email addresses and websites, my name had already been taken by other people called Angela Lansbury (I know of four of us, the actress, two authors, and one other person).

The names Angela and Lansbury are both legitimate names used by me on documents, not just nicknames, not just pen names. However, I also have other names from other periods of my life, which causes some confusion.

In many other cultures women have two names, their maiden name and their married name. Most people stick to their first married name, even if they divorce and re-marry, in order to have the same name as their children.

Liz Taylor, the actress, is a case of a person who because well-known under a name, and kept using the same name even when she married somebody of a different surname.

I once phoned Alton Towers to speak to the PR/marketing. I left a message, "Please tell Liz Taylor that Angela Lansbury would like to speak to her."

Liz Taylor, the marketing lady, spoke to me on the phone and never mentioned the fact that either of us had the same name as an actress. No doubt she had wasted enough company time doing that to other people and knew that I would understand.

When I go onto Facebook and search for a friend or acquaintance, I usually find at least three people with the same name. Businesses have problems when somebody of the same name opens a business on the other side of the world. You also have problems if anybody of the same name is associated with any kind of criminal activity. 

Worse still, newspapers merge your details with somebody else's. Easily done as people's lives overlap. Angela Lansbury the actress and I both have sons called Anthony. (She has three more children of different names.) 

In some cultures and countries a name is given to everybody in a group. Huge numbers of people are given the names Mohammed or Mary. John Smith is very common. 

I went to teach English to a girl living in Wembley whose family name was Patel. I thought it would be easy to ask where the Patels lived. After finding I was at the wrong house, I asked again. Another family called Patel lived across the road. Then I discovered that several, almost all the people in that small cut de sac were called Patel. 

In Singapore you find many people called Lim, or Wong. To claim a lottery ticket, or many other items, you have to show your national identity number. 

My family think it's pretentious of me to put letters after my name. But in Asia it is a requirement. It helps identify which department you are visiting and which level of employee you are due to meet. This spares the receptionist the embarrassment of introducing the head of the company to the office junior. It saves wasting time. It starts conversation. it helps socially. Introduce two scientists to each other. Two writers. Two students. Two heads of department. Two engineers. Two accountants. Two members of Toastmasters International.

Angela Lansbury, BA Hons, CL, ACG.
English teacher and tutor.
Travel writer and photographer, researcher, author and speaker.
Author of twenty books including:
Wedding Speeches and Toasts.
Quick Quotations.
Who Said What When.