Handy Spanish words for tea, coffee, many, mountain and more

 

Bar la escueva

Escueva means school

 A few words of Spanish

English - Spanish

and - y

another - otro

bar - bar

beautiful - hermosa

big - grande

certificate/diploma - diploma

city - ciudad

flag - bandera  (like the word band)

Hello - hola

here - aquí

is - es

mountain - montaña (like the US state)

in - en

language - lengua (looks like language and linguistics)

mi - my

nothing - nada

of - de

or -o

please - por favor

restaurant - restaurante

river - rio

royal - real

thank you - gracias

that - esa/eso

the angels - Los Angeles (the US city)

the (masculine singular, feminine singular/masculine plural/feminine plural) - el/la/los/las 

very - muy (spelled like much)

wine vino

where is - donde esta

yes si

one - uno

two - dos

three - tres

four - cuatro

five - cinco (memory aid - think of five sinks)

six - seis

seven - siete (think of seven settees)

Spanish - English

uno - one

dos - two

tres - three

cuatro - four (note the c not a q)

cinco - five

seis - six

siete - seven

...

angeles - angels

aquí  here

bandera - flag 

bar - bar

café - coffee
con - with
de - of
dia - day
en - in
esa/eso - that
hermosa - beautiful
ciudad - city

dónde está - where is

el - the

es - is

gracias - thank you
grande - big
Hola - hello

instituto - institute

la - the

los - the plural

leche - milk

lenga - language

mi - my 

montaña - mountain

mucho - much, many

muy - very

nada - nothing (it's nothing, in reply to thank you)

no - no

o - or

otro - another, other 
por favor - please

real - royal

rio - river

si - yes
restaurante - restaurant

té - tea
vino - wine

y - and

Useful Websites

Berlitz

https://www.berlitz.co.uk

Earworms

https://www.earwormslearning.com//

duolingo

https://www.duolingo.com/

memrise

https://www.memrise.com/languages/learn-spanish

translate google

MONDLY

https://www.mondly.com/blog/2019/03/27/spanish-accents-how-to-type-pronounce-and-master-them-all/

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

WIKI WORDS

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

About the AUTHOR

Angela Lansbury is an aspiring polyglot. She learned French (O level and A level) and Latin (O level) in school.

Sheltering In Caves Under a cliff - the surprising Spanish town of Setinel de las Bodegas, between Seville and Ronda

 

Walking up a steep hill in Setinel

You reach the are under overhanging rocks, by the side of the river.

Cobblestoned streets and whitewashed houses under the overhanging rocks.

Photos by the Sharot family.

Setenil is in the area of Andalucia in the province of Cadiz. The caves under the rocks provided shelter from the sun in summer and from the cold in winter. Just add a front wall. 

Its recent history dates back to Moorish times in the 15th century. The word bodega means market or warehouse or wine shop in Spanish. The word Setinel comes from seven times the Catholics tried to take back the city from the Moors until the last siege.

What can you do? Walk uphill to the castle. See the church. Sit in a bar or restaurant and take photos.

Photos from Wikipedia.

The tourist office is in an old Moorish building and contains a souvenir shop.

Bar la escueva

Escueva means school

 A few words of Spanish

English - Spanish

bar - bar

beautiful - hermosa

big - grande

city - ciudad

Hello - hola

here - aquí

is - es

montaña

nothing - nada

please = por favor

restaurant - restaurante

river - rio

thank you - gracias

the angels - Los Angeles

the (masculine singular, feminine singular/masculine plural/feminine plural) - el/la/los/las 

wine vino

where is - donde esta

yes si

Spanish - English

uno - one

aquí  here

bar - bar

café - coffee
con - with
de - of
hermosa - beautiful
ciudad - city

dónde está - where is

es - is

gracias - thank you
grande - big
Hola - hello

leche - milk

mountain - montaña

nada - nothing (it's nothing, in reply to thank you)
por favor - please

rio - river

si - yes
restaurante - restaurant

té - tea
vino - wine

Useful Websites

https://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Attractions-g1116439-Activities-Setenil_de_las_Bodegas_Province_of_Cadiz_Andalucia.html

https://unusualplaces.org/setenil-de-las-bodegas/#more-1568

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

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Setenil_de_las_Bodegas_Cadiz_Spain.jpg

https://fr.wikivoyage.org/wiki/Setenil_de_las_Bodegas

https://wikitravel.org/es/Setenil

https://www.facebook.com/people/Oficina-de-Turismo-de-Setenil-de-las-Bodegas/100057156833806/

Plastics? Leave Only Footprints

I  won through the first level of the contest of a speech about the environment. Then the second level.

Later I was called to speak on stage at a training for would be entrepreneurs to demonstrate the ability to speak in public to raise awareness for a cause or charity.

I said:

When I walk around a room like this or the street in a city, I notice all the debris that human beings leave behind, on tables and under chairs and in wastebins. We are like snails which leave behind slime, a trail of evidence of where they have been.

It doesn't have to be like that. You must have seen pictures of the debris left behind after a major event such as a rock concert in a field. Piles of trash left behind. It doesn't have to look like that next day. Every monring you can walk into Disney World and the place is pristine clean, because a group of poeple have cleaned up.

Seeing the place look clean has encouraged everybody to keep it clean. In Canada they found that even two pieces of litter on the ground was enough to make others think everybody was dropping litter and it was OK to do so. So do your bit.

If a million people in a city all drop litter we have a mess, and clutter in the ocean. If a million pople use recycling bins or better still take litter home, which everybody does in Japan, we would have clean cities and clean oceans. You can pick up a piece of litter dropped by somebody else.

When I walk past a shopping mall I see beautiful bags discarded in bins next to the smart shops. Big tote bags with lovely handles. If the bags are pretty and clean I rescue them. They can all be reused.

Most of the things we throw away could be reused. A discarded t-shirt which is old or stained or no longer wanted because it has last year's date could be made into a tee-towel. Clothes which don't fit can be changed. A top which is too tight can be slit up the sides and made into a tabard or tunic.

When I walk around the ground floor of both public housing and provate condos, I see large items of furniture abandoned by the bins. Chairs and tables have a missing leg or are chipped or need repainting.

Singapore flag

A Singapore resident told me that Singaporeans like to throw out the old and buy new. But those items, if taken to Malaysia would be used by poor people or owners of second hand shops. Old TVs and screens would be fixed.

All the small items could be reused in our homes. In the Sixties it was fashionable to conver a glass bottle into a table lamp and you could buy a top to fix to the bottle. A plastic or glass bottle can be cut in half and made into a flower vase or a  pen and pencil holder.

A cardboard cereal box can be cut diagonally and turned into a magazine holder. At Chrsitmas I have seen ceral boxes advertising that the box can be flattned and reused as a board game which is printed on the reverse of the box. I hope that one day we will all be able to reduce the mount of waste from a house or building to only the contents of one small box a year, as has been done by at least one family who experimented to see if it was possible. Yes, it is. That is my vision for my future, and yours and ours.

Author
Angela Lansbury.

Prepare for Meeting People with Magic Memory Aids - alliteration of place and people names, repeated letter

Prepare for meeting people by creating an alliteration for their names. This will help you remember their name. Dazzling Dan. You can create a memory aid for the whole name, easier if it is a short name.

PEOPLE NAMES AND ALLITERATION

BEN
Brilliant
Efficient
Nice

My friend Lynda, spelled with a Y.
Yes - Lynda is spelled with a Y.

Carole, spelled with an E.
Carole, yEs, CarolE, spEllEd with an E.

Carol, nO e.

Jon without an H - simple, straightforward, time-saving Jon.

John with an H. He is my Happy JoHn.

These alliterations help you remember both the name and its spelling. Say it three times, look at it, type it out three times.

Send them a message on Facebook, Twitter, email, messenger, each time noting the name and its spelling.  re-read three messages from them, noting the spelling. Tell your family, friends and co-workers how the name is spelled. By this time you should have imprinted it on your memory. Next time they write to you, notice the spelling and reinforce the memory.

When visiting places connected with famous people you also need correct spellings. For example Freddie Mercury. Freddie - I know his first (fIrst, Ist, name ends with IE; but mercurY ends with Y - I wonder why.

CITY NAMES AND MAGIC LETTER MEMORY AIDS
I have just named this system Magic Letter Memory Aids. If you use this title please quote Angela Lansbury's Magic Letter Memory Aids. If I find that it is popular I shall add more city memory aids.
You can do the same trick with people names and place names letters to help remember place names of cities you are visiting or plan to visit.

Hanoi - Magic Memory aid
For example
HaNoi in the North of VietNam.

HA ha - HA-Noi in the North. NOrth.
Where? Oi - HanOI is in the nOrth. Last letter Is I.

Saigon / Ho Chi Minh city - Memory Aid
Saigon in the South (of Vietnam) was renamed Ho Chi Minh city. (The c in city resembles the sound of the s in Saigon and the South.   How do you remember Ho Chi Minh - ho ho ho, I'll check in a MINute, Ho ho ho. HO, ho, ho, not CHInese but VietnaMese in the south of Vietnam. Ho Chi Min - MINd you treat Him with respect - remember the H; He is the national Hero.

See Ho Chi Minh sites in the north, in Hanoi, and in the South, in Ho Chi Minh city.
Ho Chi Minh was the northern revolutionary leader. The family name is Ho, a common name in the country. Chi means will, Chi - remember chI - in English is will wI - ll. Minh is translated into English as light, which also has a silent h. A minute of light or in a minute we will have light.

https://en.wikivoyage.org/wiki/Vietnam
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ho_Chi_Minh_City

Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker.https://travelwithangelalansbury.blogspot.com/2019/02/where-are-zoroastrians.htmlosts on Vietnam. See my  Please share links to your favourite posts.

Cambodian Place Names - Recognising and Remembering Names

Problem
How do you remember and translate names?

Answers
Cambodian - English
ankor - city
Phnom - hill
ta - ancestor
thom - big
wat - temple

English - Cambodian
ancestor - Ta (like Pa for father in English)
big - t h o m
hill - Phnom
city - ankor
temple - wat

So Ankor Wat is city temple.
Ankor Thom is big city.
Ta Prohm Kei (the one with the trees growing through everything).
Bacon inside Ankor Thom is the one with the face, which is similar to depictions of the king considered and revered as a God (a bit like Jesus and Mohammed - so remember that these places although in ruins were once places of worship and are still regarded with the respect of both royalty and holy religious leaders).

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

Hecklers - welcomed?

Problem
You are invited to give a comic speech or performance and you get hecklers. What do you do?
How do you respond to hecklers?

Answers
1 Do not get angry. Do not walk off stage nor threaten to do so. Remain good humoured. Be prepared. If you can't think of an answer, you could try silence.
'It's lovely to have such an involved audience.'
'I'm glad to know you care. Not about me, but about somebody.'
'The feeling is mutual.'
'He means well.'
'I'll thing about that - later.'
Flatter the audience.
'Ninety-nine per cent of Singaporean / American ? (whatever city or country you are in) are lovely. When they said we had sold 100 tickets for this show / this theatre held a hundred people, I thought, there could be trouble.'
When the organiser asked me, 'Do you like surprises? I said yes. That was a mistake.'

2 Plan and list some possible heckles, work out possible responses and memorise responses.
Depending on the age of the heckler - or for humorous effect if you reply as if they were a different age:
'I asked my father to come along. That was a mistake.'
'Never invite your ex along.'
'OK you can be part of the act - but you won't get paid.'
'Anybody got a funny answer to that? Thank you / Maybe there isn't one.'
'I told my brother, pretend to be drunk, angry - and stupid.'
'I said I was too busy to come to your stage act. I just changed my mind.'
'I told them I liked a challenge. Learn from my mistake.'
'I have always regretted not learning karate.'

Angela Lansbury, author, speech trainer.

Should you and I update posts?

Problem
You find more material to add to a post. Do you update your old post or write a new one?

Answer
I just updated my post on a website adding with the words UPDATE that a restaurant (B and K) which had a one star rating now had a five star rating (the top number for hygiene etc) because it would be unfair to them if somebody saw the previous post and did not know about the later one.

You can't update every post. There isn't time. You may forget - unless you do a search of your own blog. You might want to do an end of the year update, places closed down, new places, change of ratings. I think you should add an update at the end of an old post if you can find it and have the time in these circumstances:

To protect the people mentioned in a post, their associated businesses, customers, families and friends, but also to help your readers, I or you may wish to update or delete a post if:

1 A restaurant rating goes up or down in either Michelin or hygiene.
2 If a restaurant closes down. If it moves. If the menu has changed.
3 If somebody dies.
4 A person convicted of a crime wins an appeal or the circumstances are disputed or the sentence has been spent and you (are legally or morally obliged to no longer mention it) but you cannot delete the old post.

I often go back to add an address or website to a post. If that's all, I might add an update to everybody to share that I have added some websites. To send out a share and make them read again the next day is annoying, so I try to add more than one website. I find I am typing a whole new paragraph, I copy it and cut it and write a new post.

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

False Friends, as the French say, in language

French
The French have a word for it, translating into English as false friends, words which sound alike in two languages but are not the same.

Grand
In French grand is not grand (important) but merely large.

German
The German word Stadt is not state but city.
Mexico Stadt is not Mexico state but Mexico city.
Gross is German is large, but in English the word has negative connotations.

Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author, tutor and English language teacher.