May Movies on Singapore Airlines

Meryl Streep as an author on a ship from the USA to the UK. 

Emma

Jane Austen's book. Excellent acting. Superb period costumes. Silent servants. Heart-warming happy ending.

Changi Prison 

Singapore comes out of it relatively well. The prison staff do impressive work helping prisoners pass exams to increase their morale and ability to find work after release, and in helping released prisoners find accommodation. Shocking statistics on the number of prisoners who re-offend. Even more return to prison outside Singapore.

Books and games to take on holiday - Interactive books

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

Habitat67. Picture from Wikipedia.

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

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

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

Useful Websites

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

Cinema

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

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

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

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

Books for children

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

About the Author

BIOGRAPHY

Angela Lansbury B A Hons ACG ALB PM5 EH5 DL5 VC5 
The Author of several books including  Etiquette For Every Occasion. Wedding Speeches & Toasts. How to be the Best Man. Quick Quotations. Who Said What When.

Blogs travelwithangelalansbury.blogspot.com

dressofthedayangela.blogspot.com

translateforfun.blogspot.com

Braddell Heights Advanced Toastmasters Speakers Club Vice President Public Relations (VPPR), Previous President

Join BHA 1st Wednesday 7pm and 3rd Saturday 2 pm Singapore time on bha.learncool.sg  

Vice President Public Relations (VP PR) of Tampines Changkat Advanced;

Secretary of weekly online Singapore International Dynamic Toastmasters Speakers’ Club;

Member and past president of Harrovians toastmasters club, UK; Past member of HOD Toastmasters, London. Past member in Singapore of: Toastmasters Club of Singapore (TCS); Tiarel; and Senja Cashew.

More details from Toastmasters International find a club.

Regular attendee at annual Swanwick Writers’ School, England.

Regular attendee at annual Writers’ Holiday, Wales.

Contributor to poetry readings, and after tea courses on: Speaking On Radio To Promote Books; and Plots And Character.

Winner of many club and area speaking contests in the UK and Singapore.

Language advisor to Empire Toastmasters club in Indonesia.

Language and speech workshops in Singapore.

Speaker on radio and TV in England, Scotland, the USA, and Australia.

Compiler of a school course on public speaking for teachers to prepare pupils for school open days with attending ceremonies before government ministers, Singapore.

Former member of Harrow Writers’ Circle, London, and two writing groups in Singapore.

Angela is on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Twitter. She would be delighted to link up with new friends.

 Please share links to your favourite posts.

How Do You Remember tones in languages?

French tones
In French I use the word eleve which has an upward diagonal above the first tone, a high note, the Chinese would say rising. The second e had a diagonal falling to the right above the letter e. Say Hey, you and you should get the sound.

Most other words in French emphasize the second syllable, such as Paree, ici (which rhymes with Paree).

English intonation
Emphasize the first syllable.













Japanese
Monotone with every syllable the same, staccato.



Chinese
Every syllable has equal emphasis. Listen to a Chinese speaker speaking Singlish (mixed English and Malay and Mandarin and local Hokkien dialect words. they say welcome as well cum. A native English speaker would say WELLcm or whelk-um.

I have joined a Polyglot group on Facebook. I wrote:

 The Chinese sentence ma ma etc with the tones indicated is a way of remembering tones in general. I remember that the one for scold sounds angry and low. I haven't yet got it but if I make the effort or had to teach it I would remember it. Make up a sentence in which the word has to be said in that tone because of the sense.

Chineasy and other YouTube videos clearly have native Chinese speakers saying the words. 

Other useful advice:

Listen to the language being spoken to become accustomed to the sounds. Listen to the radio as background sound, play recordings of the news, watch films with subtitles. Repeat what is said in the same tone even if you don't understand what is being said. Start with common phrases. 

Use Memrise and Duolingo. Look up placenames in Wikipedia and play back the sounds. 

If languages are too challenging, try Esperanto, a made up language, which looks like Spanish but has  The Chinese sentence ma ma etc with the tones indicated is a way of remembering tones in general. I remember that the one for scold sounds angry and low. I haven't yet got it but if I make the effort or had to teach it I would remember it. Make up a sentence in which the word has to be said in that tone because of the sense. They simplified everything into only 16 rules, so all plurals are the same.

Please see my other posts on English, Singlish and learning languages. Share links to your favourite posts.


Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, speaker and language teacher and trainer.

Advantages of Overnight Longhaul and Weekend flights

Advantages
You can take a late night taxi and not be caught in the morning rush hour.
You can put your bedding in the wash, get it out or dry it.
If your flight is delayed a reputable airline might put you up in a hotel overnight.
You arrive next morning in time for next day's meeting.
Cheaper prices for airlines.

Disadvantages
If you watch films instead of sleeping you miss sleep.
You arrive Monday morning but museums are all closed Monday.
Extra cost for Sunday morning taxis in the UK.

Translating Spanish

Problem
How to learn Spanish easily>

Answer
Use the bilingual film guide such as K r i s w o r l d on a Singapore Airlines flight. (Spaces inserted to defeat auto correct spell checker.)

Story
I was mesmerised by a film called El E s p e j o de l o s O t r o s.

Here are my translations:


Spanish-English
amor - love
catedral - cathedral
de - of
el / El -The
en - in
espejo - mirror (as in similar root words, spectre, spectacles, expect, aspect, spy, espy_
Historias - stories
los - the (plural, masculin or both male and female)
muerte - death
nacen - born or originating from
otros - others
restaurante - restaurant
un / una - a or an (masculine or feminine)
y - and

English - Spanish
and - y
born / originating - n a c e n
cathedral - c a t e d r a l (drop the h in Spanish)
in - en
love - amor
mirror - e s p e j o
of - de
others - otros
restaurante -restaurant
Stories - h i s t o r i a s (like the English word history - what is their history, their story?)
the - el / los (plural) as in Los Angeles meaning the angels

(You will find more commends on the film if you go back to my previous post, which you can find by searching for Espejo, or mirror.)

How Many Foreigners Do You Know From Countries You Visited, Will Visit or Would Like To Visit?

Problems
You are going to a country and want advice from a local person. You watch a film with subtitles and miss part of the plot.

Answers
1 Friends
List your friends. You'll be amazed how many people you know, relatives, friends, colleagues, even acquaintances. As soon as you develop an interest in a country or language, you will find other people who come from that country, have parents or family from there, or are learning the language.

2 Restaurants and Offices
Visit the restaurant, tourist board office or visa office or embassy. Don't just eat the restaurant food, or collect your visa. Ask for advice on the best landmarks, hotels, restaurants, and how to learn the language. If the person you are asking is British, or doesn't know, they will often call a colleague who is happy to tell you.

3 Workers
When your builder, electrician, gardener, plumber, neighbour, calls, ask them a quick question about what to see in the country they have just visited.

4 Q and A in a Queue
Any time you are waiting, in a queue (Americans call it line-up) you have a chance to speak to the person at the desk and the person behind or ahead of you. Where? Bus stop. Plane. Train. Waiting for the Toilet at the station or the theatre. Waiting for tickets at the station or theatre. Neutral, non-controversial topics for speaking to the person beside you on the plane.

Here's my list:

Albanian
A builder and a plumber.

American
Friends from working in the USA, people from the American Club and American Association and magazines I write for in Singapore. People met on climbing groups.

Australia
UK friend who now lives in Australia.

Czech Republic
Colleague.

Danes, Finns, Scandinavians
Ex-colleagues from Singapore, their families on Facebook and members of a group playing b a l l u t.

Chinese and Hong Kong
Numerous friends on Facebook, mostly met in Singapore, but some returned home. Neighbours in Singapore.

Filipinos
Members of the Philippine Toastmaster Club in Singapore.

French
Members of the Francophone toastmasters in Singapore. An ex teacher from my school.

German
Member of a writers group. Former neighbour.

Italians
Restaurants owners and waiters in my area who have known me for years.

Malays and Malay speakers
Members of a bilingual Malay club in Singapore. I found out my best friend's

Persian speaking (Iranian)
One current. From Toastmasters in the UK. (Previously another person.)

Portuguese
A gardener. The part owner of an Italian restaurant.

Romanian
Receptionist at gym. Two ladies in my sauna at the gym.

Spanish
Member of a London Toastmasters Club. Friend on Facebook.

Vietnamese
Members of a Vietnamese Toastmasters group in Singapore.

Total
That's fifteen countries where I have a friend or acquaintance who can answer questions.
Lunchtime May 10th. I shall update this.

Plus people I met at travel trade shows and food exhibitions.

If you are going on holiday you can watch films about the country you are visiting.

You can also use your mobile to photograph articles in airline magazines and email them to yourself and store them in a file of emails of that country called, for example, American Attractions; Business Trips to Belgium; FAQ on Florida; Finland Food Festivals; Holidays in Hungary; Hong Kong & Hotels; Russian Routes; Singapore Shops, Food, Restaurants; Taiwan Tours; Travel to Turkey; Walking Hols and Wales. Alliterative titles are easier to file and find and remember.

Print out a list of the world's countries. Each time you meet somebody who comes from a new country add them to your list under the country. Write the number at the end.

Ideas For Your list:
Family ...
Neighbours ...
Friends ...
Business (current colleagues) ...
Business (previous) ...
Carers and Cleaners ...
Clubs ...
Doctors and dentists
Gym staff and members ...
Sports (golf, tennis etc) ...
Studies ...
Reading and writing groups ...
Restaurant and shop staff ...
Studies students/ teachers ...
Social Media:

• Facebook ...
• LinkedIn ...
• WhatsAp ....
• Other ...

Languages Spoken
British English ...
American English ...
Arabic ...
Australian  ... / NZ vocab ... / Maori ...
Chinese (Mandarin) ...
Czech
French ...
Gaelic ...
German ... Austrian ... Swiss German ...
Greek ...
Hebrew ...
Irish N ... S ...
Italian ...
Malay / Indonesian ...
Maltese ...
Persian ...
Portuguese ...
Russian ...
Scottish ...
South African / Afrikaans ...
Spanish ...
Tagalog (Philippines) ...
Tamil ...
Turkish ...
Urdu ...
Vietnamese ...
Welsh ...

Countries
Wiki has many pages of country names. the one I enjoyed most was the one giving the origins of country names, named after people or legendary figures.
Here's a good one with national flags.
http://www.nationsonline.org/oneworld/countries_of_the_world.htm

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

Idioms in Spanish

Here's a useful website. Just short enough to be read in one go.
https://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Spanish/Idioms

A really big dictionary will have all the idioms under the respective nouns or verbs.

The best way to learn a language is not to translate from your language, but to listen to phrases used by native speakers and copy them.

You can also watch films you already know and like with the Spanish subtitles turned on.
Then films in Spanish with English subtitles. Then again without the subtitles. Then repeat every conversation aloud as you watch.

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