My favourite Spanish words - and common Spanish and South American equivalents

My favourite 

My favourite Spanish words are those which are easy to remember.

 

Spanish - English

el concierto - the concert 

favorita - favourite

el grupo - the group

los manos - the hands (like the English word manual)

mi - me/my

museos - museums

no - no

pintura - painting

(la) radio - (the) radio

English - Spanish

the concert - el concierto

favourite - favorita

me / my - mi

museums - museos

no - no

the group - el grupo

the hands - los manos

painting - pintura

the radio - (la) radio

Wikipedia wikivoyage gives this handy copanirson of Spanish in Spain and Spanish in South America.

English	Spain	Latin America	Notes
beef	carne de vaca	carne de res
car	coche	carro	In Spain, carro is a vehicle that is pulled by an animal like a chariot or a wagon. A neutral term that is understood in all Spanish-speaking areas is auto or automóvil.
computer	ordenador	computadora
juice	zumo	jugo
mobile phone	móvil	celular
potato	patata	papa

Useful Websites For Learning & Translating Spanish

duolingo.com

translate google

https://en.wikivoyage.org/wiki/Spanish_phrasebook

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Italian words and interesting idioms added to our learners' list

 Italian - English

apri - open (verbal instruction to open)

camminare - walking

(un) capello biondo - a blond hair

capelli corti - short hair (adjective after the noun in Italian, Spanish and French. i is plural as in spaghetti)

crema - cream

dopo - after

e - and  (but means is with a downward accent or diacritic on top)

esercizio - exercise

facchia - face

forma - form

guidare - to drive (not to guide)

lavorare - to work (labour in UK, labor day in the USA)

lui vuole - he wants

(mi) lavo (le mani) - I wash (like lavatory, my hands, like manual, and manual labour)

me ne lavo le mani - I wash my hands of it

magari - maybe /perhaps

malattia - sickness / malady

orecchi - ears

ospedale - hospital (drop the h and note that the i changes to e, and a second e goes on the end)

motivo - reason (not motive)

(la) nostra - ours

ospedale - hospital

paura - fear (think of petrified)

(la) partita - the match (part of the contest)

la salute - health

sana - healthy (like sanatorium)

secondo lei - according to her

sickness - malattia

sono tutti orecchi - I am all ears (I am listening, keen to hear)

stai bene - it suits you / you look good

subito - immediately

(molto) stressante - (very) stressful

voti - grades (not votes, grades is US for what the British might call marks, exam results)

English - Italian

according to her - secondo lei

and - e

(a) blond hair - (un) capello biondo

after - dopo

(I'm) all ears - sono tutti orecchi

cream - crema

(to) drive - guidare

ears - orecchi

exercise - esercizio

face - facchia

fear - paura 

form (kind, type) - forma

grades - voti

is -  e (with a down accent on top) - (it) is 

health - la salute

healthy - sana (like sanatorium)

hospital - ospedale 

immediately - subito

(the) match - la partita

maybe / perhaps - magari

open (verb, open, an instruction to the listener to open)

ours - la nostra (add la for it for possessives)

reason - motivo

short hair - capelli corti

(very) stressful - molto stressante

walking - camminare

(he) wants - (lui) vuole

I wash - lavo

I wash my hands

I wash my hands of it - m ne lavo le mani

(to) work - lavorare

you look good / it suits you - stai bene

Useful Websites

Duolingo

Duolingo.com

Translate Google

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Reading Hebrew Tombstones

 

Popular symbols include:

1 The menorah, seven branch candlestick for the seven days of the week, not to be confused with the larger nine branch candlestick for the eight days of Hanukah plus the candle which lights the others.

2 The Star of David, a star with six points, often two triangles. Muslims call it the seal of Solomon. One theory is that it was derived from an ancient amulet trapping evil in the points. 

https://www.blogger.com/blog/post/edit/4474319509042475984/6135780680510583369#oint

Two hands on the tombstone.

Here is the lion on a Jewish tombstone.

Enormously popular tour of the cemetery.

You see the lion on the right.

 Are you interested in a tombstone of an ancestor, a famous person, or the graves in a cemetery on a Jewish tour of a city such as Prague?

In Prague I first became aware of the symbols on tombstones.

The Prague cemetery is the largest Jewish cemetery in Europe. You can do a half day or whole day tour taking in the Jewish museum and cemetery.

Symbols include those for the twelve tribes, some of whose names are first names or family names such as Leo or Leve for lion, so you see lions, harts, pourers for oil, hands in prayer. Symbols for the priests (called Cohen) and the assistants (called Levi).

You also see the initial letters in Hebrew for here lies. The letters for a man are different from the letters for a woman.

I have hunted all over the net but this is a simpler version from wiki:

'Some common themes appear on many Jewish tombstones. Two hands with outspread fingers indicated that the dead man was descended from priestly stock (Kohanim) who blessed the people in this fashion, and a jug was carved on the tombstones of the Levites as an emblem of those who washed the priest's hands before he pronounced the blessing.

Some gravestones show a tree with branches either outspread or broken off, symbolizing the death of a young man or an old man respectively; or they have a cluster of grapes as an emblem of Israel.

The Star of David (Magen David) occurs frequently.

Sometimes figures symbolized the name of the deceased, as the figure of a lion for Loeb, a wolf for Benjamin, and a rose for the name Bluma/Blume.'

Ashkenazi (German and north European) tombstones are upright. Sephardi (Spanish and southern European countries) tombstones are flat.

Useful Websites

https://www.jewishgen.org/infoFiles/tombstones.html

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

About Angela The Author

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.

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

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

Garen Tee on using story telling in business, on bha.learncool.sg . 

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 meetings 1st Wednesday evening is Wednesday June 2nd at 7pm; and third Saturday afternoon, June 19th 2pm Singapore time.  

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 next post on sculptor Tom Harvey.

Please share links to your favourite posts. 

How your hands pull you forward or upward when swimming the breast stroke

How Should You Place Your Hands, Arms and Legs When Swimming?

Problem
What's the 'correct' way to do it? Does it matter?

Answer
What's correct according to one swimmer or teacher or era might not be correct for another.

In theory you don't even need arms to swim. I've seen international competitions in which an arnless swimming won, propelling themselves at huge speed through the water using only their legs.

I was amazed that they didn't sink, head first.

Several thoughts emerge. (Pardon the unintended pun.)

Arms may cause drag, holding you back.

Your head position keeps your eyes and mnouth and nose in or out of the water.

Speed comes from pushing though the water with either arms or legs or both.

What works is what works for you. I tried moving my hands back against the water. Then I tried pushing my hands diaognally down. Trhe effect is different. Move your hand back moves your forward. Pushing your hands down pushes you upward. When I pushed my hands down, my head came upward.

In many situations you would not want your head coming upward. You would get greater speed with your head half submerged wehnd doing the crawl. You only turn sideways or come up for air every other second / every backward arm stroke or every fourth second / second armstroke. My husband does two crawl armstrokes before breathing.

With breaststroke, the downward push brings your head up. Why would you ever need to do this? Maybe if you are a novice or panic easily and want to breath.

Pulling down deliberately with both arms simultaneously is the butterfly stroke. Exhausting.

Seeing Ahead And Being Seen
Maybe you want to watch where you are going. Maybe you want to be seen, by rescuers or companions or escorts in a boat. Maybe you want to avoid waves which wash into your mouth or face or eyes.

Maybe you want your face out of the way of obstacles, debris, or insects or other wildlife.

Why would you ever want to keep your head under water? To hide. (Like those horror movies, WWII, or River Wild, where you are the hero hiding from the human baddies pursuing you.) To see what is on the swimming pool base, search for items you have dropped or lost. Out in the sea to see the seabed below, to enjoy viewing wildlife, search for lost treasure - with or without goggles.

Try operating your arms like paddles, and see what different effects that has.

You can read about swimming on Wikipedia and see videos on Youtube. The disadvantage of links to youtube is that they are numbers and letters and don't tell you the contents. The wikihow links tell you what you are getting.

Useful websites
https://www.wikihow.com/Swim-the-Breaststroke
https://www.wikihow.com/Swim-the-Butterfly-Stroke
https://www.wikihow.com/Swim-Freestyle
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_River_Wild

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

Photographs - check to make yourself and your family and friends look their best

People often say, "Don't take my photograph. I look terrible in photographs."

Practise taking your own photo. If your spouse or child does not like photos, try to get them to learn to use a camera and practise taking photos of themselves.

Best of ten or twelve photos
The old Polyphoto principle for taking toddlers, and the one used by many photographers from local papers in a hurry, is simply to take a dozen photos and pick the best one. Time is money, so the newspaper photographer who is a freelance wants to be quick.

Posing and Editing
The studio photographer who wants to take lots of time posing, setting up a white umbrella to reflect light,  and will charge accordingly. He may also spend time editing the photos, selecting the best one, removing blemishes, enhancing colour, adding a frame.

Three Outfits
A wedding studio photographer or TV programme often asks you to bring three outfits, one formal, or glamorous, or a national dress or uniform or sports outfit or swimsuit, one funny or favourite.

The mixture of outfits gives three different looks. It also means if you have one disaster outfit or disaster colour there is an alternative, totally different shape, colour, style.

Best of Three Poses
You could tell somebody to pose and say you aren't taking it yet, just pose. Take one before your joker makes silly grins and V signs over your VIP.

With and Without
Remember to take photos with and without the baby and family pet. Why? Several reasons.

Why no Babies and Pets?
The baby or growing children will date the photo. Pets and babies may move. They may be unsuitable for a formal photo. (Why did this man applying for a job send us a photo where he is blocked by a picture of his pet?)

Babies are beautiful
Babies may look ugly to you. They may look interesting to far away relatives.

Pets are Popular
They create interest and sympathy amongst other pet lovers. The pet picture will be vital if the pet is wanted because the owner reports it missing or stolen. Or if a neighbour says the pet has killed their pet. If you want to report something, or get paid. Now where is that snarling photo?

That is either because:
1 The photographer needs to take more care
2 The person being photographed needs to make more care

Looking at group photographs as well as photographs of individuals, that includes myself, I have made the following observations. Call them Angela's Answers if you like to think of them that way.

1 PICK THE BEST PHOTOGRAPHER
If you don't look good in photographs you need a better photographer (or a makeover - more on that later).

2 TAKE A GREAT PHOTO
If the subject claims they don't look good in photographs, it is your opportunity to take a photograph of them in which they look good. This might involve spending more time. (More on this later.)

3 FILE FAVOURITE PHOTOS
If you don't look good in photographs, take some good photographs so that next time you apply for a passport or a job you have some good, recent photos to hand. (Keep them in a large colourful box or box file labelled Important photos and documents. If you fear that will attract burglars, just write Favourite family photos.

4 POSE FOR A PHOTOGRAPH
Ten tips

1 Smile

2 Closed and open mouth photos.
Close your mouth if you are the subject and have bad teeth. The subject's mouth is better shown both ways for speed and less embarrassment. Ask them for one pose mouth open and one pose mouth closed. Especially if teeth are badly shaped, wonky, discoloured, showing fillings. Have one smiling and friendly photo. One serious photo for passports (some now ask for unsmiling photos). Also for job intervals, or photos when you have had a family bereavement or national tragedy a grinning picture might not look suitable.

3 Take a better bust photo
Looking at photos of myself - oo - er. If you are the photogprher, make sure you are also in one of the group photos. Unfortunately the VIP visitor is most likely to offer to take a photo. You might want somebody else to take you with the VIP. You can also get the complete stranger out of the photo of the committee by asking them to take a photo with you in it. Stand to one side and then edit yourself out.

4 Take Cuddles and Separate photos.
The more photos the better. You don't want to send a photo of yourself with somebody else's arm around you on a job application or after your divorce to a dating site.

Together and Separate
Couples often hug each other. You then get the wandering hands look. As if the man is trying to get too friendly with members of the opposite sex, the same sex, under age children. As if the glamorous lady won't let go of her millionaire husband. you get disemboded hands. Pictures with people who seem to have three arms, three legs, or even four legs and four arms. You can't ask people to unclasp each other. You can ask for two different poses. First ask them to cuddle up close, even closer. Then ask them to pose separately.

Vary expressions. Tell them to smile, then look serious. (Sometimes telling people you have finished, or to smile, just makes them grin more, or frown more. So then you have to give the opposite instruction.)

4 Front and Side views
Try to get face on and left and right views. This is especially important for people who have lopsided faces. They might have a birthmark, a scar from an accident, a mouth which is lopsided because of a stroke. Most people have a good and a bad side. They often know it. If they don't, they might still prefer one side to another in the final result. You might want to emphasise it or minimise it, or have a true picture for identity purposes or medical analysis.

5 Near and Far
Take a close up of the face and one of the whole body. The whole body picture may show the face rather small. So you need a close up. The face photo might be missing their amusing outfit or fabulous figure.

A face photo only can conceal their dropping burst or protruding paunch. The whole body photo may show that the girl with bad teeth, which could be fixed, has a fabulous figure.

A close up shows teeth in detail, and eyes. Beautiful eye colour. I have seen two accounts of people whose lives were saved because a photo on Facebook told a friend or even a stranger that the person posing had signs of a problem which could be solved if it were caught fast.

6 With and without make-up
Those forties photos with the latest hairstyle and heavy red lips look so forties. Excellent if you want to show the era. But an extra plain photo, without fashionable hairstyles or make-up, would be good to show your family or friend looking natural, to make you feel closer to them in any era, regardless of fashion.

7 Clothes Style
Take photos in successive weeks at your club or family gathering. You might not want to tell aunty or your helper at the club that her baggy dress looks awful. On the other hand, the picture of her in a shapeless dress, with horizontal stripes going diagonal because she stands lopsided, with her hands in her pockets, will show her the effect without your needing to say anything.

8 Colours
If somebody looks great in an outfit, don't just tell them so, take a photo.

For stage performances at a comedy course we were told to wear white around the face. This applies to all colours of skin. White picks up the light from the overhead spotlight, reflects white onto your face, makes people look at your face rather than your shoes, draws attention to you rather than others on stage.

9 Best Underwear
Oops - who has the droops? Before a photo, tighten your bra straps. Get your bust higher, and horizontal, not drooping to one side. Keep shoulders level. If you have a protruding bust, tum or bum, wear a minimiser bra, support bra, underwired bra, corset, body shaper.

Go on a diet. Take the photo before the big lunch or Xmas dinner, at the start of the week's holiday rather than the end when you have put on a stone in weight. However, take a photo at the end if you are at a spa or active holiday and fighting fit at the end.

10 Groups
You need three or four pickers of a group. Most modern mobiles have a burst function. You may find that a person who closes their eyes in one picture can have open eyes in another.

11 Time Delay to Include Photographer
Look around the room for a table where you can set up your mobile on a tripod or fixed surface to prevent camera shake. You might want to set this up early and take photos before the event or at break time.

12 Early Photos of People
The advantage of the early photos is that you can get the early arrivals, people who arrive early and  who leave early. You might also have extra time, if your car / lift/ other transport is leaving early.

13 Early Photos of Places
The room or theatre where you meet may look better empty. Before the person with the large hat sits in front of you blocking your view of the stage. Before the sign goes up banning you from taking photos of the performers.

Before people strew their bags across the aisle. Before the banner of a rival or unknown organisation is set up at an angle.

14 Set Up
This also enables you to set up a table; before somebody shouts, 'come on - we have to go, because you have to clear the room and lock up, or the next event starts gathering outside or streaming into he room. Before a rival or official photographer gets their tripod in the best position and blocks your view.

15 Sending Photos
Get the names of people for captions. Ask them the spelling. Ask their phone number or email so you can send the photo. Send it straight away, to save hunting through all your photos later and to check the email they have given you is correct. (A great way to get somebody's email - send them a photo of themselves.)

16 Hiding Photos
If you have photos of children, don't put them up on social media such as Facebook, where the photo could be seen by predators, or parents, teachers, bystanders or others could object.

17 Photographer's Credit
Make sure your name appears as credit on good photos. This has at least three advantages:
1 You establish your reputation
2 You prove that you have copyright and it is not a stolen photo
3 People know who to contact to receive more photos or ask for persimmon or pay you.
4 You know which photos were taken by you and which were taken by somebody else.

18 Dating Photos
Modern cameras date photos. This is a mixed blessing. The advantages are that you can identify the venue by the date. You can compare this birthday with the last birthday. You can quickly find a photo of an event when somebody asks for a copy.

Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer.