Italian translation from the menu of Italian Restaurant 2 Veneti in London

Veneti means Venetian. so 2 Veneti is two Venetians, the owners.

Italian - English

bianco - white

con - with

del - of the

e - and

erbe - herb

fegato - liver

giorno - day

insalata - salad

limone - lemon

nero - black

pere - pear

pesce - fish

pollo - chicken

salmone - salmon

salsa - sauce

verdure - vegetables

vitello - veal

Zuppa - soup

English - Italian

and - e

black - nero

chicken - pollo

day - giorno

fish - pesce

herb - erbe

lemon - limone

liver - fegato

of the - del

pear - pere

salad - insalata

salmon - salmone

sauce - salsa

soup - zuppa

veal - vitello

vegetables - verdure

white - bianco

with - con

-ends-

Duolingo has free online courses for Italian speakers. Languages covered are the expected Romance languages, English, Spanish, Portuguese and German, but also Chinese, Japanese and Korean, Maths, Music, and Chess.

2 Veneti

10 Wigmore Street

London W1U 2RD

Useful Websites

https://www.2veneti.com/

https://www.2veneti.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/MENU

duolingo.com

https://www.duolingo.com/courses/it

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Cicchetti

Start Esperanto with a few easy words A-Z and some grammar rules

Dr Zamenhof created the language Esperanto (which means I hope). An easy language. 

I started this list from words I learned on Duolingo.

 I filled in the missing letters by checkling online and a paperback Teach yourself Esperanto Dictionary.

 Esperanto - English

al - to

avo - grandfather

bela - beautiful

blanka - white (adjectives end in a

blua - blue

bruna - brown

capo - cap

Dankon - thank you

estas - is/are 

estis was/were

flago - flag

griza - gray

havas - have

helpi - help

infano - child

januaro - January

kara - expensive kastelo - castle kisas - kisses

libro - book

Londono - London (all nouns end in the letter o)

Mi - I

Ni - we

oktobr - October

parko - park

q - NO WORDS quality - kvalito

restoracio - restaurant

Saluton - hello!

tago - day

unu - on ne urbo - city

Vi - you varma - warm

w NOT USED

x NOT USED Xmas - Kristnasko

y No y, use the letter j, pronounced y

zebro (nouns end in o) - zebra zipo - zip 

mi estas instruisto - I am a teacher (instructor)

Mi havas uno filon. - I have a son (add n for the object of a sentence)

Tips

1 See my other posts on Esperanto for inspiration and encouragement.

2 You see how easy it is to recognize vocabulary, which you can do on Esperanto websites. 

3 You can convert Wikipedia into an esperanto version. 

4 Or turn a short article into Esperanto after reading the English.

Please follow my blog and share links to your favourite posts.

Albanian learned on Memrise 30 words

 Memrise made learning Albanian easy. 

My words today are

1 I - une with two dots above the e. Like the royal we in the Queen's ENlgish, one. One does not I = une

2 ti is you, second person singular.(Like the French tu)

3 ai is he

4 ajo is she

 Annoyingly and confusingly the feminine seems to take the letter o at the end.

5 Ju is you plural.

6 ita is they masculine but ito is they feminine.

7 dite ending with double dots on the e is day. D for day. date in the day.

8 nite, again two dots on the e, is night, n for night, and t, almost the American nite.

9 Mire ending with double dots over the e is good (I think of admire)

19 keq is bad (I think he is so bad that I want to kick, but the last letter is q)

20 JO IS NO. like oh, no john in the old song. Not po but Jo.

21po is yes

22 gjuhe (accent on the final e) is language

23 shqip is Albanian language

24 mirupafshim - goodbye (gone in a puff of smoke)

25 miredita good-day

26 mire-dita good afternoon

27 mirembrema good evening

28 miremengjies - good morning (when you rise with energy)

29 si - how

30 jam to be

21 Albanian language shqip like equippeed (Not pig)

Useful Websites

https://app.memrise.com/aprender/learn?course

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_language_self-study_programs

Noah's Ark Reproduced In a Kentucky theme Park and Noah's pudding

 

If you can't get to Kentucky, day or night, there are others worldwide. If you are staying at home, you could make yourself Noah's ark pudding, known as Ashure.

I have several posts about Noah's ark, other biblical replicas and Noah's ark pudding.

https://travelwithangelalansbury.blogspot.com/2021/07/noahs-pudding-new-dish-fromturkey.html

Useful Information

https://www.heraldweekly.com/scientists-believe-that-may-have-discovered-2000-year-old-remains-of-noahs-ark/27?xcmg=1

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noah%27s_Ark_replicas_and_derivatives

Noah\s Ark pudding (ashure)

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

Please bookmark to save and share links to your  favourite posts.

Chinese New Year in Singapore in January - and Chingay Parade in February

 

Red wall hanging and pink flowers at Cashew Heights Condominium, Singapore in January 2023. Photo by Angela Lansbury.

Photo by Angela Lansbury.

Chingay Parade

We have more to look forward to. The Changay Parade in Singapore takes place on Friday February 3rd 2023 and Saturday February 4th. 

The government website shows photos from previous years, apparently sent in after a request to citizens. The recent pre-Covid event in 2021, which just made it before the restrictions, was a water based event, not on the river nor the sea but on a created water area.

I was confused by the advertising, because the event is supposed to be free, but you can buy some high priced tickets. I presume the tickets are for a constructed seating area, up high overlooking the central stage showing the start and end of the parade floats. 

More events take place in the 'heartlands', suburban city centres, some of which were originally villages and pioneer days government housing and shops and office development areas. Since Covid, because of Covid, to prevent crowding, and to enable everybody to share in the national events which unite everybody patriotically, local events are organized for major celebrations, spreading areas enjoying the fun and the government funds for events.

A favourite new year song is Congratulations, congratulations, Gong Xi Gong Xi.

//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gong_Xi_Gong_Xi

Chinese lyricsHanyu PinyinEnglish Translation

每条大街小巷，
每个人的嘴里
见面第一句话，
就是恭喜恭喜
恭喜恭喜恭喜你呀,
恭喜恭喜恭喜你

měitiáo dà jiē xiǎo xiàng,
měige rén dè zuǐ lǐ
jiànmiàn dì yī jù huà,
jiù shì gōngxǐ gōngxǐ
gōngxǐ gōngxǐ gōngxǐ nǐ ya
gōngxǐ gōngxǐ gōngxǐ nǐ

On every street and in every lane,
On everybody's lips,
Whenever people meet,
The first thing they say is "Congratulations."
Congratulations, congratulations, congratulations to you
Congratulations, congratulations, congratulations to you

冬天已到尽头
真是好的消息
温暖的春风
就要吹醒大地
恭喜恭喜恭喜你呀
恭喜恭喜恭喜你

dōng tiān yǐ dào jìn tóu,
zhēn shì hǎo de xiāo xī
wēn nuǎn de chūn fēng,
jiù yào chuī xǐng dà dì
gōngxǐ gōngxǐ gōngxǐ nǐ ya
gōngxǐ gōngxǐ gōngxǐ nǐ

Winter has come to an end,
That is really good news,
A warm spring breeze is
Blowing to wake up the earth.
Congratulations, congratulations, congratulations to you
Congratulations, congratulations, congratulations to you

浩浩冰雪融解,
眼看梅花吐蕊
漫漫长夜过去,
听到一声鸡啼
恭喜恭喜恭喜你呀,
恭喜恭喜恭喜你

hào hào bīng xuě róng jiě,
yǎn kàn méi huā tù ruǐ
màn màn cháng yè guò qù,
tīng dào yī shēng jī tí
gōngxǐ gōngxǐ gōngxǐ nǐ ya
gōngxǐ gōngxǐ gōngxǐ nǐ

The icy snow has melted,
See the plum tree blossom!
The long night is past,
I heard the rooster crow.
Congratulations, congratulations, congratulations to you
Congratulations, congratulations, congratulations to you

经过多少困难,
历经多少磨练
多少心儿盼望,
盼望新的消息
恭喜恭喜恭喜你呀,
恭喜恭喜恭喜你

恭喜恭喜恭喜你呀，
恭喜恭喜恭喜你

jīng guò duō shǎo kùn nán,
lì jīng duō shǎo mó liàn
duō shǎo xīn ér pàn wàng,
pàn wàng xīn de xiāo xī
gōngxǐ gōngxǐ gōngxǐ nǐ ya
gōngxǐ gōngxǐ gōngxǐ nǐ

gōngxǐ gōngxǐ gōngxǐ nǐ ya
gōngxǐ gōngxǐ gōngxǐ nǐ^[3]

After experiencing so many difficulties,
Going through so many ordeals,
How many hearts are looking forward
To the news of Spring!
Congratulations, congratulations, congratulations to you
Congratulations, congratulations, congratulations to you

Congratulations, congratulations, congratulations to you
Congratulations, congratulations, congratulations to you

Useful Websites

See a youtube version of singing  the New Year song

.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IcMGcT6gByM

Wikipedia Chinese New Year

Wikipedia Chingay Parade

www.chingay.gov.sg

https://www.chingay.gov.sg/photo-gallery/2010-2021/

Chinese New Year
"Chinese New Year" in Traditional (top) and Simplified (bottom) Chinese characters
Traditional Chinese	春節
Simplified Chinese	春节
Literal meaning	"Spring Festiv

I checked translate google for the words for 

spring festival 

to be sure which way round it was. 

I then divided the sections of the Chinese compound phrases and they mean spring-sky festival-day

Chinese (Simplified)

English

春
天
节
日

Chūn
tiān
jié
rì

Portuguese Words for football, garden, goodbye and how to remember a few words which sound similar to English, Spanish and French

 

Flag of Brazil

A few words of Portuguese, with my memory aids

English - Portuguese

and - e

beach - praia

club - clube (just add an e)

day - dia (like diary)

district - bairro

fish - peixe

football - futebol (change the two football letters o to U with two spikes, add an o, drop the l)

garden - jardim

goodbye - adeus (like the Spanish adios)

hello - olá

museum - museu (easy to remember, just drop the second m)

new - novo (like novelty)

old - velho (V like vintage)

or - ou (both start with letter o)

sea - mar

the - a

time - tempo (like temporary and tempo)

yes - sim (like Spanish si but add m)

Portuguese - English

a - the (confusingly!)

adeus - goodbye

bairro - district

clube - club

dia - day

e - and

futebol - football

jardim - garden

mar - sea (like the French word mer, and the Devonshire place name in the UK, Weston super mare, near Exeter, probably the influence of the Normans)

ou- or (both start with letter o)

novo - new

olá - hello (the same as the Spanish, like hello, but the o vowel is first, like holler hello)

peixe - fish

praia - beach

sim - yes

tempo - time

velho - old

Useful Websites

Duolingo

Duolingo.com

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Santos,_S%C3%A3o_Paulo

For more on football and Sau Paulo, Pele's football club, museum and city, see my previous post.

Angela Lansbury

teacher of languages

Beginning a new language for polyglots and expats

Flags with Suns and Stars and Moons and A Prayer For Faith ToThe Universe

Some countries' flags show the sun.

Other flag show the stars. (New Zealand and Australia.)
















My friend, Faith, who was ill, asked us for prayers. Here is my prayer for her and everybody. She fell sick and did not answer the phone, so people started sending her prayers through Facebook.

Prayer to the Universe (For Faith)

We thank the world for granting us another day, with eyes to see the universe, to see the sun at dawn, the heat of mid-day, with the clouds which blow past, revealing the blue sky beyond.

Into every life a little rain must fall. We thank the universe for the rain which waters the plants,

We thank the universe for he sunset which tells us to stop work and rest, to hear the patter of rain or the power of thunder. When we see happy families we share their joy. When we yearn for those who have gone before, we look at the happy families and know that we are part of the chain and more laughing children will bring us flowers and ask us to share our knowledge if we only smile welcome. aT NIGHT WE SEE A VAST BLACK SKY but within it for centuries the little white stars have been winking in their proper places to juide us and tell us north from south, to help us on our way.

A million men and women before us have helped, men who drew maps, men and women who grew our food and made our clothes, and built our roads, and built the planes and trains and cars and cicyles, the colles and toys, the photos and videos, the cleaners who protected us and the doctors who healed us and the communicators who passed on the knowledge.

We have been blessed by hearing the moments of joy and sadness, and questions and answers and the cuationary tales, and the folly and wisom, the mistakes and remedies, the sinesses and cures. We have been dealt blows and survived them. Yesterdys struggle, so many of them, are already forgotten, for we have passed on the greet new people, new places, new times and new challenges and new joys.

The universe is so complicated. Yes, yet it is so simple.  The sun comes up so we can se where we are going. The sun goes down so we can rest undisturbed. The water and sun gorw the plants. Even the weeds such as the stinging nettle can be made into soup, and the dock leaves frown near the nettles so that when we step carelessly without looking and get stung, if we look around carefully we can find the dock leaves which will sotthe us.

We have a universe of people who could be friends or enemies.. We can find friends or make friends. We pray for our friends who are tired and sick. We pray for our friends, we pray that our enemies will see the truth, AS WE ADMIT WE WERE WRONG AND SEE The truth, we will find Faith, again, and not simply pray, because God helps those who help themselves. For hope.


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 trave writer and phtographer 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 langauge evaluator or grammarian.  We also have French, German, Mandarin Chinese, Tamil and 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, tinyurl.com/BHACOOL

Time Zones
In Singapore we are on the same time zone as Malaysia, Hong Kong, and China (Beijing and Shanghai).
Please share links to your favourite posts.

Social Disasters: Be Precise About Dates - which day, day of the week, time and year?

It is easy to get confused over dates. Especially on a flight which leaves one day and arrives the next day. We missed dinner with friends on a Saturday night because we had a flight leaving London on Saturday and somehow failed to convey that we would be arriving in Singapore on Sunday.

Many years ago I missed a trip to Venice. To the wonderful hotel. A free trip. Why did I miss it? Because I assumed the flight went on a working day, a weekday, Monday, but it actually left on Sunday.

I arrived at Heathrow to find my flight was yesterday. Unfortunately, the PR was not understanding. I offered to pay for my own flight out. She was not interested. As far as she was concerned, I had missed the welcome dinner, embarrassed her, let her down, was unreliable. End of story.

For me of course it was not the end of the story. Every time I hear the word Venice I think of my missed trip.

It is no consolation to know that many people, worldwide, have missed trips and events. But at least I can do my part in trying to help myself and everybody else arrive the right day and the right time.

Why State The Year?
Websites often refer to an upcoming event without stating that it is this year. If you do a search on Google, up come several websites referring to last year or even as far back as ten years ago, or the most read site which might be the inaugural meeting 100 years ago!

When I am looking for an event, which might have happened last month, I am often looking for the date of the event next year so that I can plan ahead.

Which Weekday?
I find it really helps to have the day of the week and the year for every travel date and meeting date.

Oops!
I often receive emails about meetings and one of the recipients writes back to everybody, the sixteenth of November is not a Monday. The sender of the original email was looking at this month's calendar instead of next month's or even this year's diary for a date next year.

When Is 'Next' Saturday?

I wrote to a group in Singapore that we were meeting 'next Saturday'. A Singaporean told me I should have said this Saturday, because 'next Saturday' meant the following Saturday. 

I am sure anybody in London would think that next Saturday or next weekend means the nearest one and 'the one after next' means the following Saturday. However, I concede that her statement is more grammatically correct, less ambiguous, as well as avoiding any misunderstanding.

Are there any dictionary or classical or authoritative rules on this? It doesn't matter. The important point is to check and double-check every date, and give as much information as possible.

In the Polyglots webpage forum somebody raised the question of next September being understood as being this year, whilst next year was the following year. I replied:

Eddy, that's very interesting, bringing up months and years, which are more distant. I agree that next September would be the one this year. As for summer, I concede I might say, 'I can't see you this summer, but I can see you next summer,' as my Singaporean friend suggested. I also seem to recall a nursery rhyme, for a game supposedly predicting the future from folded paper: This year, next year, sometime, never.

Now let's move onto the question of times in other countries.

Clocks

How do you remember which way the clocks go from one country to another? How about the USA and UK and Europe. I remember that when Kennedy was assassinated, it was afternoon in the USA, but we turned on the TV in London, England, in the evening.

I remember that when we lived in Washington DC the latest we could phone my parents in London, England was when my son came home from school, and if my husband came home from work early. Depending on the time of year, for British summer time. I ended up writing a note above the phone of the hours in the USA when I could phone the UK.

Night Time Or Day Time
My most embarrassing moment was phoning the USA from the UK. I had received a Christmas card from somebody in the USA after my uncle died. No address on it. They had not bothered because he knew their address. I remember when I was a teenager you always wrote the sender's address on the back of a letter so that if the letter was misdirected the post office did not open the letter to try to find the sender's address. Nowadyas with security concerns, people are less keen on putting their address on the back of the envelope. But an address inside could be helpful.

Anyway, months later, I was reading through all the entries  in my late uncle's address book to try to distinguish the business addresses form the friends. Even the businesses had to be told he had died, so that they did not waste time and effort sending him reminders and offers. I came across an American address. That was it! The sender of the Christmas card. Maybe not, but I had the number so at least I could try.

I was so pleased to have solved the mystery that I grabbed the phone immediately to call whilst I had the number in front of me.

The phone rang for ages. I was disappointed, and had almost given up, when somebody answered. She sounded sleepy. I wondered if she was having an afternoon nap.

I told the puzzled woman at the other end, "You don't know me but I'm the niece of my late uncle Ronnie and I am sorry to have to tell you that he - has died."

After a silence, she said, "Ronnie who?"

"Ronnie from England."

She replied, "I am sorry to hear that your uncle has died. But I cannot recollect anybody in England called Ronnie."

"Ah," I said, Maybe you knew him by his professional name, Arthur."

"Oh, Arthur!" she replied. "Oh, no! I am so sorry. I am sorry if I sound a bit confused, but over here in California it is 4 am. And I was asleep."

I replied, " Oh my Go -sh. I hadn't realised. Shall I ring back tomorrow?"

"No," she said. "Let's talk. I am wide awake now."

Even if I had thought about the time I used to make calls to and from Washington DC I would have got the time wrong. America is thought of as a country, but it is actually a continent. Not only in terms of size, regarding population and politics. In terms of geography, the setting and rising of the sun, the time zones.


California, USA.

The USA has more than one time zone. People in New York might already be at work. People in California might still be asleep.

The moral is, check the time zone overseas, the country and the area, before you call.

24 Hour Clocks
I'll see you at nine could be nine in the morning or nine in the evening. To the speaker it seems obvious. To the listener it is no always clear. Many tickets use a 24 hour clock to avoid conclusion. This can cause more confusion if you just look at the last number and think that 14.00 if four o clock when it is 2 pm.

To be doubly safe, write down both systems, 14.00 hours (2 p.m.)

May you always arrive on time, on the right day!

Useful Websites For Travellers & Phone Callers
https://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/usa
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Date_and_time_representation_by_country

Author

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

Finding Chinese Symbols Matching English Station Names on the Singapore MRT map

Chineasy teaches you the symbols with pictures. See it on the internet. You can see king third along top row. Mountain or hill is far left of the lower row. Moon is below king.

Problem
What do the Chinese symbols on the Singapore stations mean?

NUMBERS 6 and 10
I learned the numbers first and identified six on the sign for Sixth Avenue station on the downtown line.
Later I found Ten Mile Junction station. then one-north.

Then I found the sign for mountain or hill in Hillview on the downtown line, station DT3.

The sign for king was in Downtown  station DT6, King Albert Park.

The sign for park or garden or enclosed space appears on the station signs and the MRT (mass transit) railway map.

The signs for sun and moon are not on the MRT map, but on signs about the dates and times of early closing of stations for maintenance work. The sun means day of the month, and the moon means month.



Next I was into the compass signs. One north.

I identified the sign for little in Little India.

Chinese was no longer something I shunned. I keenly scanned my map on every journey.

Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker, teacher of English and other languages

How to read Dates And Opening Times In Chinese

Singapore flag. Photo by Angela Lansbury.

Problem
I always thought Chinese signs were too difficult. No! Easy-peasy.

Answer

Then I discovered that the numbers one to three were just horizontal lines and the symbol for ten looks like a plus sign.

Afrikaans - more words translated - Afrikaans is easy to read - instant learning!

Where Afrikaans is spoken. Map from Wikipedia.

Afrikaans is a language we saw on signs in South Africa. I had heard it was similar to Dutch.

Problem
We understood a few words just at a glance. Now let's try the rest using a translator.

baie
begin
behoefte
besluit
bestudeer
dames
denominasie
Dinsdag
elke
enige
het
in
is
kom
leiding
moedertaal
'n
om
onder
ons
persone
te
van
waar
weens
Woord

These come out as:
many
start
need
decision
study
ladies
denomination
Tuesday
each
some
has
in
is
bowl
lead
mother tongue
one
to
under
us
people
to
of
where
due to
Word
Google Translate for Business:Translator Toolkit Website Translator

The ones which immediately strike me as easy to remember are dames for ladies and tag for day, same as the German Guten tag which is good day.

It strikes me that it would be pretty easy to either learn or simply feel comfortable seeing signs in Afrikaans if you already speak English, even easier if you know German or Dutch.

Useful Websites

wikipedia Afrikaans

Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker, teacher of English and languages.

Please share links to your favourite posts.

Learning Russian: how to remember at daybreak you eat

I am rushing to learn Russian. As I follow the Russian course on DuoLingo, I try to make up memory aids.

Utro, the start of the day, like uterus, the start of life. But think that the Russians, like the French, and indeed the English, like to abbreviate words. So uterus becomes u  t r o.

The very to eat in English, German and Russian starts with the letter e. In German it is essen. In Russian it is em. I eat everything.

Duolingo.com

Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, language teacher.Be my friend on Facebook, link to me on Lenked, look at my books on lulu.com Follow, like and share my blog posts.Buy a signed copy of one of my books when you meet me at a Writers' holiday or a Toastmasters meeting.