Easy Ways To Learn Languages - And Made Up Languages

 

 Flag of the international language, Interlingua. From Wikipedia.

Now German sounds like English

Italian sounds like Spanish

And Latin sounds like Greek

Although some old words vanish

Brand name bring them back

To remind us of words we lack

A gurtel is a girdle

A krawatte is a tie

So many words like English

Have you ever wondered why?

We have words which come from Latin

And words which come from Greek

And the French say le weekend

What a helpful way to speak

Some words are international

I'm sure you know them well

There's computer, and taxi

And menu, whisky, and hotel

Interlingua is a language

Made of words which are well known

But Esperanto sticks to simple rules

Is widely spoken, better known

I want to be bilingual

So I practise every day

At least I can understand and nod

On my next holiday.

-ends-

Useful Websites On International Words

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

Esperanto

Duolingo.com

ends-

Please share links to your favourite posts.

Reading the news overseas in Simple Spanish, Swedish, Malay and Esperanto

El Mundo, Spanish for the world, is the name of a Spanish newspaper.

 When you are overseas, you can gain confidence and have fun everyday picking up a new language. The easy languages are in groups. 

Romance Languages

If you speak English as a first or second language, you will find it easy to pick up a group of classical, or romance, or Germanic languages. Easy languages, taking fewest hours, in the sunny south are Spanish, with Portuguese being similar, as well as Italian. 

How do we know how long it takes to learn a language? Look in Wikipedia and it will tell you. Wikipedia refers you back to other sources. The American military trains interpreters and translators. Staff are sent on courses. Language schools also know how many lessons are needed to get a class of pupils up to different levels, basic conversation, intermediate and advanced, fluent, bilingual.

Spanish And Related Romance Languages

The romance languages come from Rome and Romans, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese and French. 

The Spanish for hello, reverse the sounds of the vowels and you get Hola. Remove the H and you get the Portuguese Ola. 

Look at the newspapers in Spain every day and you will quickly pick up or be reminded of half a dozen words.

American and Spanish Place Names

If you recognize the city name, Los Angeles, which means the angels, you already know the word for 'the'. In English we add s for plurals. The same goes in Spanish. Notices the  s in las Palmas the palms, or es in Los Angeles. A is the feminine ending, like the name Maria, and O is used for masculine, as in the name Mario. You have now learned, and can teach family and friends, three words and one grammar rule.

Swedish, Scandinavian and Germanic Languages

The easy languages are Swedish, similar to Norwegian. Or Dutch (used in The Netherlands and Belgium). 

Asian and Oriental Languages

In Asia the easiest languages are Malaysian and Indonesian, which are the same basics with slightly different added vocabulary, like England and American English. 

Japanese and Chinese use the same traditional writing. 

Classical Languages

The classical languages are Hebrew, Greek and Latin. Many medical terms are Greek. Many plants have Latin names. The Bible was written in Hebrew. The Christians introduced the New Testament, and renamed the bible The Old Testament. Priests would learn and teach Hebrew to read the Old Testament, Greek to read the new Testament, and the Romans adopted Christianity and used Latin in church services. A Priest called Cyril combined Hebrew and Greek letters to make an alphabet for Russian speakers, so their alphabet, called Cyrillic after him, and used in Russia and with a couple of different letters in Bulgaria.

Hebrew, Arabic and Malay

Hebrew is written right to left. So is Arabic. The words for hello are peace, Shalom in Hebrew, Salaam in Arabic. Selamat in Malaysian. Notice the same three consonants, S/SH - L - M.

Hindi

Hindi and Urdu are another pair of languages which overlap. Hindi and Tamil have very pretty writing, but involve more effort, unless have Indian family which is an incentive and an aid. However, I recently discovered a YouTube video which tell you 100 English words used in Hindi. 

Esperanto

If all this is still too challenging, the easiest language is a more recently made up language, Esperanto, which means I hope. It is a bit like simplified Spanish. You can stay for a couple of days in homes of other Esperanto speakers worldwide. It is popular in countries whose languages are not spoken by many others, offered as an A level to schoolchildren in Hungary. 

Spanish Newspapers

El Mundo

El Pais

Please follow my blogs on travel, wine and dine, dress of the day, comic poetry. Share with your friends, family and colleagues the links to your favourite posts.

Easy Esperanto

 I completed the April challenge on Duolingo they say. I can't remember what this was. It must have been German.

 Then I felt tired. Korean was too challenging. Which easy language could I practise for five minutes?

 I went back to the simplest language. Esperanto. A language without a country.

But isn't Zoom a worldwide country?

Zamenhof

I made a point of visiting Zamenhof's grave in the Jewish cemetery. when I was in Poland. I could not get a good photo because the grave was covered in snow and I was knee deep in snow. Photo from Wikipedia. 

Zamenhof day is the 15th of December.

Jewish Music & Yiddish Songs. Songs of the Jewish Shtetle - 3 (BIG SHOW ... And learn Yiddish or Esperanto.

I wanted a translation. Wikipedia obliged.

Bei Mir Bistu Shein" (Yiddish: בײַ מיר ביסטו שעהן, or Yiddish: בײַ מיר ביסטו שיין, [ˌbaj ˈmir ˌbistu ˈʃejn], "To Me You're Beautiful") is a popular Yiddish song written by lyricist Jacob Jacobs and composer Sholom Secunda for a 1932 Yiddish language comedy musical, I Would If I Could (in Yiddish, Men Ken Lebn Nor Men Lost Nisht, "You could live, but they don't let you"), which closed after one season at the Parkway Theatre in Brooklyn, New York City. The score for the song transcribed the Yiddish title as "Bay Mir Bistu Sheyn".^[1] The original Yiddish version of the song (in C minor) is a dialogue between two lovers. Five years after its 1932 composition, English lyrics were written for the tune by Sammy Cahn and Saul Chaplin, and the English version of the song became a worldwide hit when recorded by The Andrews Sisters under a Germanized spelling of the title, "Bei mir bist du schön", in November 1937.^[2]

Neil W. Levin, a scholar of Jewish music, has contended that "Bei Mir Bistu Shein" is "the world's best-known and longest-reigning Yiddish theater song of all time."^[3] Echoing these sentiments, writer Stephen J. Whitfield has further posited that the song's popularity and influence in pre-war America epitomizes how "a minority [immigrant] culture" can transform the popular arts of a large democratic nation.^[4]

Travel back in time to the shtetl, and Jewish music hall in the USA in the Thirties.

Yiddish Language, German and Hebrew

Yiddish is like German, written with the Hebrew alphabet.

You can learn Yiddish on Duolingo.. It is in Beta. There are about 90 lessons of a few short exercises. I found it quicker to learn the letters of the Hebrew alphabet in Yiddish, which is German words, than I had in Hebrew. However, I had already started the Hebrew course first. Maybe the reverse also applies. 

Hebrew and Arabic and Aramaic (the language of Jesus) go together. 

Languages Which Go Together

Regarding groupings of languages, I enjoy learning languages which are similar. I have now added Yiddish and Hebrew and German to my list of groups. 

Romance Languages

Spanish goes with Portuguese, Italian and Ladino.  Latin goes with Italian. 

Asian languages - Chinese and Japanese

Chinese goes with Japanese (same signs).

Russian

Russian goes with Bulgarian and Ukrainian. 

Esperanto

If you want to meet people and are not good at languages, try Esperanto, a made up language which is easy with no exceptions, and you can join a scheme which allows you to stay in the homes of other Esperanto speakers for up to 3 days, free homestay in exchange for speaking Esperanto. You could hop from country to country with Esperanto speakers, or set up a group of your own in three nearby countries, rotating who stays with whom..

Useful Websites

 

Duolingo.com

https://www.duolingo.com/learn

Esperanto Homestay

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

https://www.duolingo.com/enroll/yi/en/Learn-Yiddish

Learn Hebrew through music

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UtyT-euMOXQ

Language Teachers & Learners - Interlingua Exhibition in Germany is Online

I was emailed about the Interlingua exhibition in Germany. 23-26 November 2022. They have stands from language schools, Esperanto, all sorts of people. Linking up with them led me to other places, such as Interlinguo on Facebook and Esperanto on Facebook.

Esperanto or Interlingua

I found Esperanto first. The idea is that it follows rules.

Interlingua 

The idea is that it takes words which are already common in many languages so it is immediately understood if you know a romance language. No diacritics (those little tags and hats and dots on letters).

In theory diacritics like punctuation are designed to help you, with pronunciation. I find them easy in French, but scary and confusing in Swedish and Chinese (Mandarin). They should help speed you up in reading and saying a work. However, I find that they slow me down.

Useful Websites

Wikipedia (in Esperanto and several languages)

duolingo.com

translate google

https://www.transparent.com/language-resources/

https://www.facebook.com/polyglotclub.world/

https://www.facebook.com/groups/polyglot.group/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portal:Constructed_languages

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

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

Why Learn Another Language? (Plus 7 easy Swedish words)

Flag of Esperanto. From Wikipedia.

1 Be Bilingual

 Being bilingual could stave off Alzheimers for five years. Giving you quality of life. Saving you from sad visits to grannies. Saving the government money.

2 Why Start Language Learning With Esperanto?

If you only speak one language, (English and louder English) and are scared of languages, the easiest is to learn Esperanto. It is a made up language designed as an intermediary language for Europeans. 

What use is it?

a) People who learn it go on to learn another language and pick it up faster. 

3 Where can I speak Esperanto?

b) You can find or start Esperanto clubs on Meetup. In the UK there is one in Reading. 

c) Although no country speaks it, you can join the homestay system and stay with another Esperanto speaker for free for three days to practise the language. 

d) Countries like Hungary, whose language has little in common with neighbouring languages, favour Esperanto. Hungary has had Esperanto as an A level.) I bought the Esperato-English dictionary and did a correspondence course in Esperanto. You can see a map of where to find Esperanto speakers.

e) Esperanto speakers hold an annual conference.

3 A sense of achievement

Which languages are easiest? First Esperanto if you are European or speak English. Then Spanish, from that Portuguese or Italian. If you are learning Chinese or Japanese, they are a pair. The written language uses the same symbols, like the no smoking sign and washing symbols, the signs are the same, although the spoken words are different. Bulgarian uses Cyrillic like Russian. Cyrillic combines Greek and Hebrew with new letters. Spoken Arabic and Hebrew are similar. Salaam and Shalom mean peace or hello.  

German and Dutch and the Scandinavian languages are a group. Finland has Swedish as one of two official languages. Chinese (Mandarin) is also used in Taiwan, and Singapore. (Hong Kong uses Cantonese.)

Humour In Language

Lots of mistakes in language are funny in retrospect. I wanted trousers in a US department store. They say pants for trousers and underpants for pants.

I asked for rubbers.  

'Not stocked here. Try a drug store.' 

I found them. I confronted the assistant. 'What's this!'

An eraser.

The American for rubbers is erasers. Rubbers are contraceptives.

Spanish, Italian and Portuguese are a group.

Some simple Swedish words

Swedish - English

1 arkitekt - architect

2 modell  - model

3 polis - police

4 pappa - papa/Dad (notice the a, unlike American Pop)

5 professionell - professional

6 syster - sister

7 tomat - tomato

English - Swedish

1 architect - arkitekt

2 Dad/pop/papa - pappa

3 model - modell

4 police - polis

5 professional - professionell

6 Sister - syster

7 tomato - tomat

Useful Websites

duolingo.com

Please share links to your favourite blog posts.

Introducing yourself in another language

A useful course for introducing yourself is Earworms, from Berlitz but with soothing background music) which in level 1 on disc 1 lets you hear how to introduce yourself by name, country, married or single, to companions on a plane, asking for water or wine from the person serving. The second disc will take you through ordering taxis to airports and city centres and more. 

If you have time, you could start a Duolingo course, which is free.

If you don't have the time or money for this, you could compile your own shortlist of essential words.

Before going to another country, it is handy to compile a list of common words, especially things you might want.

For example

Greetings

Hello Spanish hola; a Chinese matey greeting is hey, like hi; the formal greeting ni hao pronounced knee how.

Good morning/afternoon/evening

A song in the film (the American word for film is movie) Cabaret, includes a song sung by Joel Grey, which starts: 

"Wilkommen, Bienvenue, Welcome." That is welcome in German, French and English.

Goodbye - French au revoir, (see you again), adieu (goodbye forever). The Chinese sounds like sigh chen. Zhai chen. The Spanish is Adios.

Please - French por favor (for a favour). German Bitte. 

Thank you - French merci (Romanian the same, spelled mersi). German danke or danke schoen. 

Not at all/my pleasure. French de rien. 

Excuse me 

Sorry

Where is 

I need

I feel

I have lost

I want

a toilet (USA rest room)

a meal

a restaurant

a drink

water

milk

juice

wine

beer

a cocktail

healthy food

vegan food

vegetarian food/Kosher/halal

I am in a hurry

no hurry

no problem

wait a minute

Do you speak English/Spanish

My name is ... (French je m'appelle ...)

You can call me ....

What is your name?

How do I address you?

Would you like to stop for coffee?

I shall pay

Let's all pay for ourselves

Let's split the bill 

How much is it?

More, please

Please - French S'il vous plait.

Milk

Sugar

cold water

hot water

is it drinking water? - French eau potable

is it free? "Est-ce que c'est gratuit?

I must go

I have a meeting - J'ai un rendez-vous / reunion (meeting is reunion - different to the English)

I need to catch a bus/train/plane

I want to hire a bicycle/a car/a big car

I have one suitcase/2 suitcases/several suitcases - French valise

English - Spanish

country - pais

Spanish - English

pais - country

If this is all too complicated, learn a made up language which is totally predictable, Esperanto. You can visit a museum about made up languages including Esperanto in Vienna, Austria.

Useful Websites

KOREAN

https://domandhyo.com/2020/12/how-to-say-my-name-is-in-korean-introducing-yourself.html

SPANISH

Spanish speaking Toastmasters Club

https://cervantes.toastmastersclubs.org/

Author

The Author

About the Author Angela Lansbury

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 

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.

 Please share links to your favourite posts.

Books by Angela Lansbury
How to be the best man. (Ward Lock / Cassell.)
Wedding Speeches and Toasts.(Ward Lock / Cassell.)
Unforgettable British Weekends.
Poetry Workshop Workbook.
The Tailor and the Spy. (Lulu.)
Larry The Talking Labrador. (Lulu.)
Writing Poetry for fun.

Quick Quotations

Who Said What When

 

New Year Resolution? The easiest languages to learn? What about Spanish, Norwegian and Esperanto?

Flag of Spain

Babbel gives a great analysis of several easy to speak languages. 

Surprisingly, the Scandinavian languages are easiest. Norwegian

 But they are not necessarily the most useful nor widely spoken by either native speakers or as an intermediate language.

Let me take a quick look at Norway.

Great hotel.

Ibsen. A bit sad.

Munch. The Scream. 

A scream is not my idea of a marketing campaign.  I think the fjords and the food are more my things.

Norway is still on my wish list.

How about Spanish?

Not surprisingly Spanish is in the top three. Some of my family based in the UK are on holiday in Spain right now, despite Covid. 

They make no mention of Esperanto which is completely logical. But a made up language. No country. Find speakers in Hungary, the UK and worldwide.

My friends in Surabaya Toastmasters club, Empire, roll their Rs. So do the Spaniards and Italians.

Useful Websites

 https://www.babbel.com/en/magazine/easiest-languages-for-english-speakers-to-learn

Going from Wikipedia back to original sources I found:

http://www.nvtc.gov/lotw/months/november/learningExpectations.html

Books by Angela Lansbury
How to be the best man. (Ward Lock / Cassell.)
Wedding Speeches and Toasts.(Ward Lock / Cassell.)
Unforgettable British Weekends.
Poetry Workshop Workbook.
The Tailor and the Spy. (Lulu.)
Larry The Talking Labrador. (Lulu.)
Writing Poetry for fun.

Quick Quotations

Who Said What When

Which Languages Should Travellers Learn?

Pieter Breughel the Elder's painting, Tower of Babel, in the art museum in Vienna, Austria. You can see another version in Rotterdam in the Netherlands.

If you speak English and only English or your native tongue is something few others speak, such as Hebrew or Hungarian, you might get around fastest  in countries which speak English. Where could you holiday? The obvious places are

England and the UK, including Northern Ireland. Jersey, Guernsey, USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa. Let's put them in alphabetical order so we can update easily and check nowhere is missed out.

Australia

Canada

England

Guernsey

Jersey

New Zealand

South Africa

USA. 

The languages which have the greatest number of native speakers are Mandarin Chinese, Spanish, with English third. 

However, if you take the number of people who speak English as a second language, the positions change to English first, Chinese, second, Hindi third and Spanish fourth.

On the other hand, it depends where you are travelling, who is at your business meeting, or who are your students or customers.

Spanish and Portuguese would be most useful in South American. English and Spanish in the USA. French and English in Canada. Chinese in China. Hindi in India.

If you wanted to learn Cyrillic, you could go to Russia or Bulgaria.

Esperanto

If you want penfriends worldwide and are hopeless at accents, you might stick to writing in Esperanto which is the most popular made up language, designed with communication in mind, based on European languages and  simple grammar.

Useful Websites

https://www.ethnologue.com/guides/countries-most-languages

About the Author

Angela Lansbury, is a semi-retired travel writer still researching bucket list countries and seeking out the special, unusual, people, places,  landmarks, hotels, museums and trails, fabulous foods, recipes, clothes and online souvenir shopping.

Angela Lansbury is a member of Toastmasters International.

About the Author Angela Lansbury

The Author - Quick Quotations

Angela Lansbury B A Hons  is the author of ten books by regular publishers, plus another ten self-published books. 

About Angela The Speaker & Trainer

Angela Lansbury is a teacher of English and other languages to Toastmasters clubs and businesses.

Braddell Heights Advanced Toastmasters Speakers Vice President, Public Relations, Immediate Past President. VPPR

Former Area Director S3. Club Coach for Nee Soon South Toastmasters Club.

Also Member of: TCA Toastmasters Club; Singapore Online Dynamic; Harrovians UK

BHA

Past meetings have included Garen Tee on using story-telling in business, on 

bha.learncool.sg/meet/bha . 

Recent meetings of BHA included an educational session on using Powerpoint for posters.

Next BHA meetings, always first Wednesday evening, 7 pm Singapore time. Next meeting is  the third Saturday afternoon, June 19th 2pm Singapore time.  Inauguration of the new committee was by the incoming Director of S, plus a lively speech on teamwork.

Next meetings will be on these dates (unless a national holiday in Singapore or worldwide)

Themes and word of the day are tentative

2021

JULY - JUBILANT JULY

Theme/WOD Jubilant

WORKSHOPS & EDUCATIONAL SESSIONS (based on level one of Pathways)

1 Your first speech or role EASY ENGLISH LANGUAGE (Articles A and The, Plurals, Tenses, Pronunciation, Singlish)

2 CHOOSE YOUR PATH

Wed July 7th What Your Committee Can Do For You

Saturday 17th

July 4th American Independence Day.

2021 AUGUST - AWESOME AUGUST

1 Pathway Level 1 Introductory Speeches

2 Evaluations

Wed 4th

Sat 21

2021 SEPT - SUPER SEPTEMBER

Wed 1st

Sat 18th SPEECH CONTESTS

Humorous Speech Contest

Table Topics Contest

2021 OCT - ODD OCTOBER

Wed 6th

Sat 16th

2021 NOV - NOVELTY NOVEMBER

Wed 3rd

Sat 20th Wed

Diwali Hindu Festival of lights Nov 4th.

Nov 25th American Thanksgiving.

Hanukah starts 28 Dec 8 days until Dec 6. Jewish Festival of lights, celebrated by Jesus.

2021 DEC - DARLING DECEMBER

Wed  1st (Hanukah if not previous month. Festival foods.)

Sat 18th

Speech on 

JAN 2022 - JOYFUL JANUARY

Wed Jan 5th New beginning - forget the past

Sat 15 Long-term plans = for the future/Chinese New Year (CNY for short)

2022 FEB FUN FEBRUARY

Theme Love and romance - Chinese New Year

Feb 1st and 2nd are holidays - do we move this Feb 2nd meeting date?)

Wed 2nd (Valentine's Day Mon Feb 14)

Sat 19th

2022 MAR - MARVELLOUS MARCH

Theme

Wed 2nd

Sat 19

March 1st is Christian Pancake day. 

2022 APR - APRIL'S AIMS

Wed 6th

Sat 16th

Muslim Ramadan 1-30 April.

Jewish Passover (Seder meal=Last supper) April

 16

2022 MAY - MODERNISING MAY

Wed 4th

Sat 21

2022 JUN - JUBILANT JUNE

Wed 1st

Sat 18th

Jul 6, Jul 16, Aug 3, Aug 20, Sept 7, Sept 17, Oct 5, Oct 15, Nov 2, Nov 19, Dec 7, Dec 17.

Angela The Blogger 

Angela has several blogs speeches, comedy and song writing and organizing, writing intermittently, but writes almost daily on these three:

travelwithangelalansbury.blogspot.com

dressofthedayangela.blogspot.com

translateforfun.blogspot.com

See many varied posts such as the post on sculptor Tom Harvey.

Please share links to your favourite posts. 

TCA (A for Advanced club) is another advanced speakers' club which meets both online for visitors from worldwide and physically for walks, meals and socials in the Tampines area. Meetings are in the TC Community Club when Covid-19 regulations in Singapore allow it, but meanwhile come along to meetings online.

TCA meetings are on the fourth Tuesday evening of each month at 7 p.m Zoom room open to check your sound and online appearance and chit-chat, ready for a 7.15 pm start. I usually manage to attend meetings whether I am in Singapore or the UK.

Another club, totally online, is Singapore Online Dynamic, meeting 9 pm Singapore time on Fridays. I am a member of this club.

I am also a member of Senja-Cashew. When it meets physically it is in a convenient large complex containing a swimming pool beside a landmark lake next to a shopping complex. Right now it is online.

Once you join a club, your club's president will give you the opportunity to be informed of Toastmasters club meetings worldwide, especially those which have interesting workshops.cAbout the Author

Angela Lansbury, is a semi-retired travel writer still researching bucket list countries and seeking out the special, unusual, people, places,  landmarks, hotels, museums and trails, fabulous foods, recipes, clothes and online souvenir shopping.

Angela Lansbury is a member of Toastmasters International.

About the Author Angela Lansbury

The Author - Quick Quotations

Angela Lansbury B A Hons  is the author of ten books by regular publishers, plus another ten self-published books. 

About Angela The Speaker & Trainer

Angela Lansbury is a teacher of English and other languages to Toastmasters clubs and businesses.

Braddell Heights Advanced Toastmasters Speakers Vice President,  Public Relations, Immediate Past President. VPPR

Former Area Director S3. Club Coach for Nee Soon South Toastmasters Club.

Also Member of: TCA Toastmasters Club; Singapore Online Dynamic; Harrovians UK

BHA

Past meetings have included Garen Tee on using story-telling in business, on 

bha.learncool.sg/meet/bha . 

Recent meetings of BHA included an educational session on using Powerpoint for posters.

Next BHA meetings, always first Wednesday evening, 7 pm Singapore time. Next meeting is  the third Saturday afternoon, June 19th 2pm Singapore time.  Inauguration of the new committee was by the incoming Director of S, plus a lively speech on teamwork.

Next meetings will be on these dates (unless a national holiday in Singapore or worldwide)

Themes and word of the day are tentative

2021

JULY - JUBILANT JULY

Theme/WOD Jubilant

WORKSHOPS & EDUCATIONAL SESSIONS (based on level one of Pathways)

1 Your first speech or role EASY ENGLISH LANGUAGE (Articles A and The, Plurals, Tenses, Pronunciation, Singlish)

2 CHOOSE YOUR PATH

Wed July 7th What Your Committee Can Do For You

Saturday 17th

July 4th American Independence Day.

2021 AUGUST - AWESOME AUGUST

1 Pathway Level 1 Introductory Speeches

2 Evaluations

Wed 4th

Sat 21

2021 SEPT - SUPER SEPTEMBER

Wed 1st

Sat 18th SPEECH CONTESTS

Humorous Speech Contest

Table Topics Contest

2021 OCT - ODD OCTOBER

Wed 6th

Sat 16th

2021 NOV - NOVELTY NOVEMBER

Wed 3rd

Sat 20th Wed

Diwali Hindu Festival of lights Nov 4th.

Nov 25th American Thanksgiving.

Hanukah starts 28 Dec 8 days until Dec 6. Jewish Festival of lights, celebrated by Jesus.

2021 DEC - DARLING DECEMBER

Wed  1st (Hanukah if not previous month. Festival foods.)

Sat 18th

Speech on 

JAN 2022 - JOYFUL JANUARY

Wed Jan 5th New beginning - forget the past

Sat 15 Long-term plans = for the future/Chinese New Year (CNY for short)

2022 FEB FUN FEBRUARY

Theme Love and romance - Chinese New Year

Feb 1st and 2nd are holidays - do we move this Feb 2nd meeting date?)

Wed 2nd (Valentine's Day Mon Feb 14)

Sat 19th

2022 MAR - MARVELLOUS MARCH

Theme

Wed 2nd

Sat 19

March 1st is Christian Pancake day. 

2022 APR - APRIL'S AIMS

Wed 6th

Sat 16th

Muslim Ramadan 1-30 April.

Jewish Passover (Seder meal=Last supper) April

 16

2022 MAY - MODERNISING MAY

Wed 4th

Sat 21

2022 JUN - JUBILANT JUNE

Wed 1st

Sat 18th

Jul 6, Jul 16, Aug 3, Aug 20, Sept 7, Sept 17, Oct 5, Oct 15, Nov 2, Nov 19, Dec 7, Dec 17.

Angela The Blogger 

Angela has several blogs speeches, comedy and song writing and organizing, writing intermittently, but writes almost daily on these three:

travelwithangelalansbury.blogspot.com

dressofthedayangela.blogspot.com

translateforfun.blogspot.com

See many varied posts such as the post on sculptor Tom Harvey.

Please share links to your favourite posts. 

You also get access to the online magazine. And the club will appoint a mentor to guide you through your first three speeches and plan your year so you can complete a Pathway suited to your personal interests. I chose the basic Presentation mastery path to start. Next I did the Engaging Humor path. Now I am onto the leadership paths such as Visionary Communication.

I am also a coach for Nee Soon South.

All the clubs worldwide have just handed over to the new team from July 1st, all full of enthusiasm, seeking new members, sometimes with a space for a committee member if you are job-hunting, or climbing the corporate ladder, just the thing to add to your c.v.

Toastmasters has made links with the Rotary club organization. So if you are interested in Rotary clubs, you might investigate both.