Fifth set of handy Albanian words

 

Some more handy word for you to look up and memorize

FAMILY - familja English - Albanian 

this - kjo

this is  - kjo është (you can copy the e with the accent from a word in Wikipediat and add it to all the words in the list which need an e with an accent)

my husband - burri im (notice that my comes after the word it describes, noun then adjective, like the French phrase moulin rouge, red windmill, and Spanish casa mia, my house)

my wife - gruaja imi

My child - femija im

my grandchild - nipi im

baby - bebe

Albanian English

Familja - family

Property and Travel - Prona dhe Udhëtimi

my passport - pasaporta ime

my reservation - reservimin tim

my ticket - bileta ime

my destination - destinacioni im

my suitcase - valixhem time (like the French word valise)

my plane - avioni im (like the French par avion)

my bus - autobusi im

.....................

Useful Websites

Duolingo

translate Google

Wikipedia

Wikitravel phrasebook

Chinese conundrums - er and ma

Chinese flag.

How do you teach a child Chinese, up pops the question on the internet. I am hoping for some suggestions to help myself learn, so I click on.

The links lead back to a school in Singapore, Eton House, whose website tells me
something handy.


Singapore flag

In Chinese er can mean two, ear or child, depending on the pronunciation, as well as the context.

I already knew er is two.
yi er san shi = Japanese or Chinese for one, two, three four?
1 2 3 4

Let me check.

Facebook Polyglots
Onto the facebook 'Polyglot the community' page for instant answers.

Duolingo
Duolingo, teaching languages, basics for free, online, includes pronunciation.

Google Translate
Do does google translate. If you lose the translation from the Chinese into your own alphabet scroll down the screen. If you type in several words the whole lot appear in the Chinese writing and the pinyin which is readable translation into English alphabet is all at the end.

Useful Websites
https://parenting.etonhouse.com.sg/is-your-child-learning-chinese-the-right-way
Singaporeair.com
duolingo.com

Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker. Teacher of English and other languages.
Please share links to your favourite posts.

Baby Died In Hot Car - I forget my shopping - what can you do to remember?

We all forget things. I have left an umbrella behind in the car of a friend or a taxi to the airport. I once drove off leaving my teenager behind at school when he was loading up the car. I heard him slam the car door and thought he was in the car. But he had gone back to slam the car boot. Fortunately, I got no reply to my questions, stopped the car, looked back and saw him running after me frantically waving. No harm done.

But other people are not so lucky. I open the news and learn abut a death in a hot car.

An average of nearly forty children a year die inside cars. What can de done to prevent this?

Time to make it an offence to leave a child or pet in a locked car in hte USA. Put up a sign at supermarket entrance.

Suggestions to how to remember to take your child.

1 Warning reminders in car parks.

2 Warning reminders in cars.

3 Put your phone in your bag by the baby. If you think you might need your phone to hand in an emergency, alternatives could include leaving your shoe next to your baby, making your own handwritten or typed note, baby in car. Time for Mothercasre in the UK, to issue signs for the car.

End the news with reminders in hot weather. The temperature is ... do not leave chocolate on the back window, do not leave a baby or pet in the car.

People forget essential things all the time. They lose car keys. You don't want to lose your car keys with the baby inside.

Cars get stolen frequently. You don't want your car to be stolen with the baby inside.

But if you take the sleeping baby into the house in the car seat, that could also be a hazard.

Confession time
I left a bar of chocolate in a car. It melted. I had underestimated the heat and forgotten the chocolate. I don't do that again. With a child or pet you don't get a second chance.

How To Remember
The best and most unusal advice I saw:
1 leave a toy on the front seat to remind you that the baby is in the back.
2 Move the baby seat to the middle, not hidden behind the driver.
3 Buy a car seat alarm.

But you don't have children. How does this affect you?

The technology for alerts already exists. If you get into a car and don't do up your seatbelt, the car alerts you.

Set Alerts
The simplest alart is to set an alarm. If you know your journey taken ten minutes, set an alarm for nine or 15 to remind you to check on your child, or shopping.

Buy Alerts
Some alerts tell you that you have a passenger in the back when you open the driver's door. Others send a warning to your phone when you walk more than a certain number of feet.

One woman sais she bought car seat alarms or seats with alarms for her friends at a baby shower or a gift delivered when visitng a new mother or better still the mother to be. Garndaprents could also be given this gift, or give it to their children or children in law who are expecting a baby.

Some hire car companies supply car seats. Enquire about the seat's safety features and whether you need to buy an alarm.

An attempt was made to pass legislation but the law was not passed. Meanwhile there are sseveral items you can buy.

Some of the alarms have other functions, such as reminding you to remove your shopping or frozen food from the car.

An added incentive to buy one for yourself or others, or simply mention them to friends.

A simple solution is to set an alarm on your phone. Or to send a photo of the child dropped off to a whatsapp group of parents and granny

As they say, prevention is better than cure; forwarned is forearmed. Travel safely.

Useful websites
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7047435/Police-interview-mother-determine-left-baby-die-SUV-parked-AutoZone.html
https://myfox8.com/2019/05/18/baby-dies-after-being-left-inside-hot-car-while-parents-went-inside-store/
https://www.msn.com/en-us/health/medical/mom-shares-warning-about-car-seat-danger-after-her-toddlers-death/ar-BBPmE98
https://www.ohmyparenting.com/9-safety-warning-signs-and-labels-every-parent-should-not-ignore/2/
https://www.parents.com/parenting/better-parenting/advice/7-ways-to-not-forget-your-child-in-the-car/
https://www.fatherly.com/gear/best-car-seat-alarms/

Baby And Car Seat Alarms
https://www.kars4kids.org/safety-app/
http://ridenremind.com/

Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer.

How To Unlock A Circular Door Handle

You should be able to release it here.

If granny or a visitor or a child cannot work out how to open the door with the central pushbutton, or if they faint or are injured, this is the point where you insert something to release the lock. Unfortunately it didn't work for us. The lock was broken. (See previous post.)

Door handle release point. Photo by Angela Lansbury. Copyright.

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

Please share links to your favourite posts. 

TRANSLATING Dutch - how to start even if you don't know one word!

Problem
A Dutch sentence is on the screen in front of me. I do not know Dutch but I know about 100-200 common words of German. What does the sentence mean in English? Let's have a go, a try.

Een kind vraagt niet om het leven,en een kind kan zijn vader of moeder ook niet uitkiezen.
dat is ook de reden dat ik twee kinderen geadopteerd heb als mijn eigen kinderen.

At first glance it means nothing. Then I took it word by word looking for one word to see if I could identify the subject.

Een kind vraagt niet om het leven,en een kind kan zijn vader of moeder ook niet uitkiezen.
dat is ook de reden dat ik twee kinderen geadopteerd heb als mijn eigen kinderen.

The first two words are 'Een kind' . Ah! Kindergarten. Kind is German for child. German and Dutch are very similar. What is een? Either one child or a child. Now I know the general subject matter. It's about a child or children, or mankind.

As I read on the next word which makes any sense is kinderen. 

Een kind vraagt niet om het leven,en een kind kan zijn vader of moeder ook niet uitkiezen.
dat is ook de reden dat ik twee kinderen geadopteerd heb als mijn eigen kinderen.

That must be plural for kind, children. Twee kinderen. Twee sounds like twins and three. Either two children or three children. If the sense had been one, two, three, that would have been logical. My guess is that the logical jump is from one child to two children.

At this point, even that doesn't matter. I am gaining confidence. I have the subject of the first sentence and the subject of the second sentence.

Een kind vraagt niet om het leven,en een kind kan zijn vader of moeder ook niet uitkiezen.
dat is ook de reden dat ik twee kinderen geadopteerd heb als mijn eigen kinderen.

What is niet? It appears twice!

Een kind vraagt niet om het leven,en een kind kan zijn vader of moeder ook niet uitkiezen.
dat is ook de reden dat ik twee kinderen geadopteerd heb als mijn eigen kinderen.

Niet is Russian for no. Long ago I saw a film featuring Goldie Hawn with the song containing the phrase: "NIET. NIET. NIET - not any more!" Niet means no. "No, no, no - not any more." The German is nicht. The common element is the letter N starting: Negative, Null, Never, No, Niet, Nicht, Neither, Nor, Nil, None, Naught.

So sentence one is a child ... not

Sentence two is about two children ... not

Look again. The word kinderen is repeated at the end!

Een kind vraagt niet om het leven, en een kind kan zijn vader of moeder ook niet uitkiezen.
dat is ook de reden dat ik twee kinderen geadopteerd heb als mijn eigen kinderen.

A child is also repeated.

Een kind vraagt niet om het leven, en een kind kan zijn vader of moeder ook niet uitkiezen.
dat is ook de reden dat ik twee kinderen geadopteerd heb als mijn eigen kinderen.

I can't work out the start, a child vraagt, but een kind kan - sounds like a child can!

That's very common in many laguages from Europe, K for c. C is S.

Een kind vraagt niet om het leven, en een kind kan zijn vader of moeder ook niet uitkiezen.
dat is ook de reden dat ik twee kinderen geadopteerd heb als mijn eigen kinderen.

After the first comma, I see 'en'.  And or but? My guess is and.

We still don't have any idea what it's all about, but we are building up the sentence word by word, learning Dutch, growing in confidence.

If kan is can, and en is and, I guess that dat, which appears twice means that.

Een kind vraagt niet om het leven, en een kind kan zijn vader of moeder ook niet uitkiezen.
dat is ook de reden dat ik twee kinderen geadopteerd heb als mijn eigen kinderen.

What else sound familiar, related to family life and the world of a child and its father and mother?

vader of moeder ? Either murder or mother? My guess is mother.

Vader of moeder? Further of murder or father of/off/or mother?

Vader of moeder - obviously father or mother!

Een kind vraagt niet om het leven, en een kind kan zijn vader of moeder ook niet uitkiezen.
dat is ook de reden dat ik twee kinderen geadopteerd heb als mijn eigen kinderen.

Still no nearer the sense, but we are gathering a word with every re-reading.

Back to the start:

Een kind vraagt niet om het leven,

A child doesn't eat its leavened bread or a child doesn't live its life?

Leven - a noun, must be life.

Het must be his or its. Het leven, his life.

Om must be on or of.

two children 'geadopteerd' looks like adopted. 

Ge in German is the prefix, fixed ahead of the word, for the past tense. Ge-adopteerd means adopted.

Een kind vraagt niet om het leven, en een kind kan zijn vader of moeder ook niet uitkiezen.
dat is ook de reden dat ik twee kinderen geadopteerd heb als mijn eigen kinderen.

Mijn eigen kindered - my / mine own children, my / mine eye children?

I don't know eigen but I'm pretty sure mijn is mine.

Now I know that in Dutch ij is simply an i sound, so that confusing j can be ignored. IJ is simply their way of spelling i pronounced eye.

I have had enough. I am now willing to go to Google translate. Next time I see Dutch I will be able to recognize that it is Dutch, and will make an attempt at trying to get the gist of it before translating.

I'm taking a short break. Later I shall add the whole translation.

Author

Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, teacher of English and other languages.Take a look at my other travel blog:
http://luxurytravelforless.co.uk

Recording yourself and your family and colleagues on holidays and business trips

Problems
When my uncle who was a professional musician, died; and I had no photos or recordings or him speaking or playing. At our wedding, my family insisted that the two musicians on both sides of the family should be invited to a meal and not have to perform. The result was that after they died we had not record of them playing, for ourselfves or our children and grandchildren.

At weddings and other important occasions, we were at venues far from work and home and our musicians who were guests did not have musical instruments with them, so even if we had asked them to play, they could not.

When my mother died in her late eighties I had no instant record of her life ready to help me write a quick speech for her funeral.

When my father died a few years I was better prepared. I went through family photos with him and added dates, places and names. I wrote 100 word and 500 word and 1000 word accounts of his life ready for a funeral speech or obituary for a local paper and professional journals. I still had not thought to make a video of him.

Now if I were to organise a wedding for my son I would ask the photographer to ask everybody in the room their name, what they did for a living, the country they were born and where they met their spouse and their advice on life of business.

Answers
Video records.

If you have a musician in the family, make sure you get a recording of them playing. Either go to watch them perform. Or ask them to play just an opening bar.

If they say it's not professional, you caon't play except when being paid, instead ask them to demonstrate their musical instrument and why it's good. Or ask them to teach or deomonstrate to a child in the family. Ask uncle of grandad or auntie or grandma to teach the grandchild. (And pay the going rate or if they won't take money then give them soemthing else they need.) Then ostensibly photogh or video the child, whilst at the same time you will have the video of the adult.

Yourself on video
I often go to events and take photos. I come back with photos and video of others but not myself.

Make sure something of yourself is in the public domain. You cannot expect your family to preserve every photo and old computer. Ensure that something is in the public domain so that it is preserved and can b found.

When you go on a trip, record the family. The recording is most likely to be o f interest and to be kept and passed to others if you say aomthing interesting about the place or the family history.

Place
Ask a family member to describe the place you are visiting on holiday or business and to say how it differed from their expectations. Ask them to describe how the place has changed over the years. Ask them to compare the old parts of the city with the newer and say whether the new parts are an improvement or if they are pleased the older areas have been preserved.

Books of family records which you can buy and fill in by hand. Photo by Angela Lansbury. Copyright.

Family
I was sold a family tree book from the trolley at a maternity ward after I had my baby. In addition to the books which you see in the pictures I have also bought a Grandparent's book which I gave to my father to fill in.

Media and On-line blogs
Nowadays you can make a book from Facebook or a blog dedicated to your family or business and add videos.

Family History
Ask people to describe how they have spent their holidays or business trips and how things have changed.  If you do this even two or three years running you will have an interesting record. If you do it every year for ten or twenty years. you will have a fascinating record for your family and local archives and businesses.

 Your local history society will eventually be interested in the past. They might be interested in recording the present. If you don't have recording equipment, the local history or school might be interested in making a recording of your grandma (with you and grandchildren)  for you.

Similarly, when visiting a foreign venue, you could ask the children and adults and elderly people to tell you how things have changed or whether they are the same - food, activities, transport, business, items they sell, crafts, clothes. household objects.

A lot of shy people don't like to talk about themselves or say they don't look good on camera. However, if you ask them to demisntrate an object, you can photograph them sewing or fishing, or cooking and get them in the picture.

If you make a recording of the grandparent and the grandchild, the boss and the receptionist or post room worker, you will have a quick record to make a speech of thanks for the trip at a farewell business dinner, or a wedding, retirement party or funeral or obituary or your own memoir.

If you make a short video when you start a business, years later you will be able to look back, or show it on your website.

Remember to add thanks verbally or in subtitles at the end, the way they do in the movies.That way you have a reason to send the video to all the participants and ask them to check the spelling of their names is correct.
One of the dangers is that they might decide they don't want the picture of video shown to anybody else. However, if you have your own copy, it will still be useful to you when keeping accurate records of the places or people, or going back to different people a year later.

Just as people can be happy to be recorded, then change their minds, people can withdraw permission, then later change their minds.

A simple short video an later be expanded who you have time. You can add opening credit, closing credits, still of places, a map of the country or local area at the start, music, a diary cover, turning pages, special effects, repeat of the opening photo.

Books
The conventional family history book is a handy reference for everything from your passport number and national insurance number to photos of family weddings, or photocopies of birth certificates, and locks of hair secured in a transparent bag.

Tips
https://www.craftsy.com/painting/classes/expressive-pages-journaling-the-everyday
Family history books for you to fill in can be bought on line.

Author Angela Lansbury. Please share links to your favourite posts.

Learn Romanian Words For Foods

Map of Romania from Wikipedia.

Problem
How do I remember the written words? How do I remember which accents to add? How do I pronounce the words?

Answer
D e v i s e new memory aids or follow mine below in brackets after words in my mini dictionary. (Spaces inserted to defeat automatic spell checker inserting wrong words.)

English - Romanian
breakfast - mic d e j ù n  (short for Mick is having his petit d e j e u n e r - French for Breakfast)
butter - unt (bUTter - UnT)
cake - torta (cake OR TART, same word, as in French and Italian, not tart but t o r t a)
piper - pepper (PiPER - PePpER; remember the tongue twister Peter PIPER picked a peck of pickled PEPPER)
cheese - branza (think of B R i e ANd g o r g o n Z o l A )
child - copilul (ChILd and  p u P I L)
honey - miere (honEy BEE - miErE like the French word miel for Honey)
pie - plācintā (P I e - P l a c I n t a; or Pie P L A c e d IN oven or cooker - er sounds like a)
salt - sare (S A l t - S A r e)
soup - supa (soup is super)
sugar - zahar (change the s into z and the g into the following letter h)
table - masa (like the Spanish mesa; a massive table with a mess on it)
the - la

Romanian - English
b r a n z a - cheese
copilul - child
e, e s t e - is
la - the
mic d e j u n - breakfast
masa - table
m i e r e - honey
p l a c  i n t a - pie (spell checker prefers placenta)
sare - salt
supa - soup
torta - cake
unt - butter
zahar - sugar

I have had trouble with the accents on an Apple machine. I'll come back with notes on accents later.

Code for text for Romanian letters.

To get the sounds, use Google translate or Duolingo.com Romanian.

In an emergency

The government website advises:If you need emergency medical assistance during your trip, dial 112 and ask for an ambulance.

If you’re visiting Romania you should get a free European Health Insurance Card (EHIC) before leaving the UK.  If you don’t have your EHIC with you or you’ve lost it, you can call the Department of Health Overseas Healthcare Team (+44 191 218 1999) to get a Provisional Replacement Certificate. 

More From
https://www.gov.uk/foreign-travel-advice/romania
www.romaniatourism.com
http://wikitravel.org/en/Romania
https://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Attractions-g294457-Activities-Romania.html

Author Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker. Please share posts.

Translating European and Romanian Names - Red, Maria, Michael and more

Problem
How do you recognize a personal name in Romanian?

Answer
The good news is that, unlike German, proper names have capitals and ordinary nouns start with small letters.

Reading and Saying Names
First the good news. Most Romanian names look similar and sound similar to English names.

Now the bad news. There are slight variations which may confuse you.

Story
I was learning Romanian on Duolingo. I saw J O A N A . Easy, peasy, I thought. That must be Joanna. Wrong. It translates as Jane.

If you go into name websites, or have studied names, you will appreciate that the basic biblical names and names from olden times and the Hebrew and Greek and Roman languages have numerous variations all derived from one word.

The language is phonetic - same as it sounds, so redundant letters are dropped. That means losing double letters (except when showing plurals?)

SAME SAME!
Women's Names The Same In Romanian and English
Alexandra - Alexandra
Daniela - Daniela
Maria - Maria
Sofia - Sofia

Men's Names The Same In Romanian and English
David - David
Gabriel - Gabriel

Romanian - English
ROMANIAN MEN
A n d r e i - Andrew
C r i s t i a n - Christian
L u c a - Luke
M a r c u - Mark
M a t e i - Matthew
Michael - Mihai

ROMANIAN WOMEN
A n a - Anna
A n g e l i c a - Angela (Same in Romanian and Italian. Not surprising, as Romanian means from Romans, who were Italian.)
C r i s t i n a - Christina
I o a n a - Jane
Maria / Mary - Maria

English - Romanian
ENGLISH MEN'S FIRST NAMES
Basil - V a s i l e (More in the older generation.)
John / Jon - Ion
Luke - L u c a
Mark / Marc - M a r c u
Matthew - M a t e i
Michael - Mihai
Peter - P e t r u / P e t r e (Spell in Romanian like the French / European spelling of metre for meter and theatre for American theater.)
Stephen / Steven - S t e f a n

ENGLISH WOMEN'S FIRST NAMES
Angela - A n g e l i c a (Same in Romanian and Italian. Not surprising, as Romanian means from Romans, who were Italian.)
Christina - C r i s t i n a
Elizabeth - E l i s a b e t a / I s a b e l l a
Jane - I o a n a (Not Joanna but Jane)
Sarah - I can't find any translation into Romanian. However both Italian and German use the simplified version S a r a.
Susan - S u s a n a

Easy to remember ROMANIAN SURNAMES:
Albu - White
L u p u - Wolf
N e g r u - Black
M o l d o v e a n u - from Moldova
P e t r e s c u - Peter's child
R o ș u - Red
Ursa - bear

One popular Romanian surname is P o p a meaning priest. (Like the Jewish origin name Cohen means priest.)
P o p e s c u means priest's son or daughter.

Tips on Translation and Names
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romanian_name
To translate names into any language go to
http://www.namepedia.org/en/firstname/translate/
While researching the name priest and Cohen I found a website which analyses the endings (suffixes) of many European names used in the USA:
http://www.jewfaq.org/jnames.htm

Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author, speaker, language teacher. Please read my previous and future posts and when you find a favourite, share it with family, friends and colleagues.

Learning Russian: using letters as links

Even my 'easy' website for learning Russian is posing me challenges. My latest lesson is using sentences about knowing, or living.

First I'm having trouble with the short words.

I have worked out

Ya is I

 on = him (like one)
oni = them (add an extra letter for the plural: extra letter, add i in Russian, add t in English)

ee = her (ee! not he but her)

ty = you singular and personal and friendly like tu in French, with the y as in you in English

vy = you plural or formal / polite like v o u s in French and You Very respectful

Ikh - they/their (like the French plural for their  i l s - in French the singular he is the two letter word i l, like the two letters of he, but the plural adds a letter in french, three letters for the plural, starting with the letter i, plus tall letter following, like a crowd of people - they)

ego = his (his ego)

g d e = where  (g d E = wherE, "Good day, Where ... "

v = in

g o r o d e = grand town, like grad as in Stalingrad which was the town named after Stalin and Volgograd, town named after the Volga river

c h t o = what (I am thinking what sounds like wot/whot; reverse o and t to get  w h t o ; drop the w
the word does not mean who which also has the letters t and o because it is a four letter word

POSSESSIVES
m e n y a = my MenYa = MY  - think 'My men, ya'; ya is German for yes

NOUNS
m a m y - mother or mum like the American songs by Al Jolson about Mammy
rebenka - child or kid (r-b-n-k notice the B K - think baby becomes a kid  r-n for children)
k n i g u - book Knigu - booK; KNigu - Knowledge from a Guru (GU) from a BOOK boo book

z d e s  - here (four letter word with an e in  z d E s and in hErE) maybe think of down here

VERBS
zneate - zNeate = (you plural) kNow N in Know
think) zneaTe = Think - zNeate - thiNk - you think you know, but really you kNow NoThing you just just think N T is reverse of T..N.
d u m a e t - thinks Think=dmaeT Does Mind Think ? D M T ; or what does the Dummy Think DuMaeT

ty znaesh = do you (singular, familiar) know?

zhivesh  (ty zhivesh) =  (you live = have a home)
zhivut = (they)  (Ya zhivut) live (I think zHivut - H for Home I / My home
z v e t e (

PLACE RELATIVE TO
v o z l e - near / in the vicinity (v-icinit-y voZle - Zone)
d a l e k o - D for Distant - far away - da-far rhymes, do re me fa - dalek wandered far, l e k o - mother let me go, far away, K O for kilometers  ;L K Long treK

Angela Lansbury, travel writer and language teacher.
Please like me on Facebook or link to me on LinkedIn. If you would like me to produce a book or ebook on this subject(learning languages) or travel, or spelling or grammar or any other subject. Tell me which and whether you would like a printed book, an ebook or both.