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Showing posts with label how are you. Show all posts
Showing posts with label how are you. Show all posts

Sunday, March 8, 2020

Teaching Yourself And Your Family What To Say When Travelling: Greeting, Goodbye and Thank You


 In the UK as a child I was taught to say, 'How are you?' and to reply 'Very well thank you. How are you?'

When I was teaching, I was shocked to be visited by a Korean pupil who replied to, 'How are you?' with the one line reply, 'Fine.' 



To me that sounded American. Very casual.

He did not say thank you. Nor did he ask how I was.

I don't think I mentioned the correct form of greeting during the lesson. Now, if it were to happen again, I would certainly do so.

Teaching Children
Sometimes you learn by teaching others.

Childhood Spoken Thank You
I remember when I was a child leaving a jolly birthday party my mother would stand over me, shouting,
“Say ‘Thank you’.”

“Say, ‘Thank you for having me!’ ”

Children often copy their parents, relatives and teachers. When teaching children to be confident, you can train them to copy you.

For example, as a parent collecting a child at a party, you could say to the host/ess, “Thank you, Mrs Lee, for having Johnny. I am sure you enjoyed it, didn’t you Johnny?””

Johnny, on cue, can reply, copying your words (which you both practised earlier in the day), “Yes, thank you, Mrs Lee. I enjoyed it very much.”

I sometimes get out of car and think, “I said, See you next Saturday,” but I forgot to say thank you for the ride,”. I have two solutions. Firstly, thank the person when you get into the car. Instead of only leaving thank for the rushed goodbye.

Secondly, always say, “Goodbye and thank you.”

What if the other person asks, “Thank me for what?”
You can at least answer, “Thank you for being such good company, or, “For listening,” or, “For  waiting so patiently,” ‘For supporting us,” or, ‘For your lovely smile!”

Ideally, in advance of the day, rehearse saying your greeting and goodbye. 


Welcoming A Speaker

Make sure you list everything the audience would want to know. Don’t say, ‘This speaker needs no introduction.” Everybody deserves to hear praise to encourage them to start. There’s always somebody in the audience who does not know the speaker, or had forgotten. The speaker can be sent a form to fill in with their introduction. 

Thanking A Speaker
At Writers’ Summer School I used to watch the chairperson making notes throughout the speaker’s speech, preparing for a heartfelt and detailed thank you. I f you make notes throughout the speech, you can remind everybody of the salient points and find a positive adjective for every type of remark.

For example. Make notes like this, one word heading in capitals letters so it is easy to read, example underneath.

INFORMATION
For example:

Useful Information. Information on how to write a best-selling book. And start by outlining the synopsis.

PERSONAL STORY
For example, a general description and a specific story recalled.

Fascinating story about her challenging childhood. And life in Libya.

CALL TO ACTION
End with a call to action relating the speaker to the audience, such as: you can join her for coffee in the bar; buy her book at half price; get her email to you can write to her later with your queries, thank her personally. See her again this time next week/month/year.

Most problems can be solved in small chunks.
At Toastmasters many people were struggling with the new system of Pathways. Mr Pho said he spent five minutes a day on Pathways.

The same applies to learning the tube stations or streets in a new city.

The same applies to learning a new language.

The same applies to teaching children to adapt to a new country. Make a game of it. Make it a challenge. Make it fun. Who can learn more words from another language? Polite forms?

About the author
Angela Lansbury is a travel writer and photographer, author and speaker. She teaches English and other languages and trains speakers.




Wednesday, March 7, 2018

Starting To Speak Portuguese With Memrise

Problem
I get that tu is informal, the same as the French tu. However, when do you use es and when do you use estas?

One is temporary and one is permanent? What does that mean? Even after I learn that estas is temporary and es is permanent, I forget which one is which.

Then I realised that como estas is how are you. That means, how are you right now, or how are you today. Estas - at this moment in time.

'Es' is 'is'. He is a boy, permanently, unless he has a sex change. Therefore, to say you are a happy person, you use es.

To ask are you happy now you've had supper, you use estas.

As a memory aid for myself, I keep one alphabetical list of words from Portuguese to English, to recognize Portuguese when reading it. Then I create an English-Portuguese list, alphabetically, to help me think in English ten translate into Portuguese. I know you should not thin, in English and then translate, but learn to think in a foreign langauge, But I am nowhere near that level, yet.

I can use the free app, Memrise, to keep a record of my word associations and memory aids.



Portuguese - English
como - how / like / as
como estás? - how are you (right now)
és - are you  (situation in general)
tu - you (my friend/ you, dear) informal, familiar person

English - Portuguese
are you - és (situation in general)
how / like / as - como
how are you (right now) - como estás?
you (my friend/ you, dear) informal, familiar person - tu

I am learning the Portuguese spoken in Portugal. You can also learn Brazilian Portuguese using Memrise.
https://www.memrise.com/home/

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

Sunday, July 23, 2017

Welsh, Words, "Would Like" What to say in Welsh, Why Visit Wales and Ireland



View of Fishguard Bay, Wales. Photo by Angela Lansbury. Copyright.

Wedding at Fishguard Bay Hotel.
Problem
How do you say I would like in Welsh? This is a problem when translating from English into any other language.

Answer
I am learning Welsh from Duo Lingo. Their simple English-Welsh lessons often give alternative answers but they gave the Welsh which I translated as I would like which was not allowed. I wondered whether the Welsh had only one phrase, in which case my alternative should have been allowed. However, according to somebody who replied in the forum, the Welsh English goes like this.
  • Hoffwn i... - I would like...
  • Dw i eisiau... - I want...
If you want to hear how it is pronounced, go to www.Duolingo.

Story
Children of today speak simply and more directly.
For example:
How are you? to an elderly person requires the answer
Very well, thank you.
A young person says
Fine.
That sounds terribly rude to an older person.

Why Learn Welsh Words?
Why would anybody want, or need, or like, to speak or understand Welsh?
If you drive or take the train across Wales, you will see many signs in Welsh. Why not take a few free language lessons?

Why Go To Wales?
Writers' Holiday
Many of my friends are going to the Writers Holiday in Fishguard, Wales, this week. You can book for a week or be a day visitor.

History and Films
Fishguard is also the setting for many movies or films from the past such as Moby Dick and Dylan Thomas's Under Milk Wood, starring Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton.

You can read about the making of the films in the bar of the Fishguard Bay Hotel which is above the port where you catch the ferry to Ireland.

Ireland And Wales
Some people go through Wales because they need to in order to get the ferry to Ireland. You might do so deliberately in order to Enjoy and two destination trip to both Wales and Ireland.

Tourist Information
www.visitWales.com
www.wales.com
www.gofishguard.co.uk/
http://www.writersholiday.net
http://www.directferries.co.uk/fishguard_rosslare_ferry.
http://www.directferries.co.uk/ferries_from_wales_to_ireland. (Choosing which ferry route.)
http://www.irishtourist.com/wexford/towns/rosslare/
www.duolingo.com (Welsh, Gaelic, English for speakers of other languages, other languages)
I have several other posts on Wales and learning Welsh. Please share links to your favourite posts.

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



Friday, May 13, 2016

Learning Chinese Online - how to say good in Chinese

I've been hoping to find a free course on line for learning Chinese and at last I've found it.

This one gives the tones as well as the five classic pronunciations of the word ma which means different things according to how you say it. (Any Chinese person or teacher of Chinese will tell you there's a sentence consisting entirely of the word ma said in different tones.)

I always thought either the British, BBC, or the Chinese, or the Americans must eventually make a learn Chinese course for English speakers. I used to look online and on TV and not find one.

Maybe they didn't when I first looked. Today is a happy day.
 I learned at a bilingual (English and mandarin) toastmasters club in Bukit Panjang, Singapore, that a group of people asked Ni how ma (equivalent of how are you; literally you/ good/ (question word). the answer is the middle word, how, meaning good.

What is my dream? To start a multi-lingual toastmasters club in both London and Singapore. Or a multilingual speakers club. A multilingual toastmasters club would be easier.

I thought I would go straight to the children's lessons as I am a beginner and wanted the explanations kept simple.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/primarylanguages/mandarin/sounds/

Another guide to pronunciation, even shorter, is here.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/languages/chinese/real_chinese/start/

Angela Lansbury, B A Hons, ACG, CL,.