Bulgarian Language

 

They say it's the easiest of the Slavic languages and will help you to learn the others. I found it so when I visited Bulgaria.

Duolingo does not have Bulgarian. However, there is a handy Bulgarian phrase book in Wikivoyage. 

You can learn Bulgarian from Bulgaro which has flashcards and native speakers.

Duolingo has no Bulgarian in 2023.

Useful Websites

Memrise

https://app.memrise.com/courses/english/bulgarian/

Bulgaro

https://www.bulgaro.io/blog/bulgarian-on-duolingo

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

Please 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

How to learn and remember the Ukrainian, Bulgarian and Russian alphabets

Flag of Russia, bordered, from Wikimedia Commons.
 

For years I have been wanting to learn the Russian alphabet (along with Greek and Hebrew). Cyrillic is name after Cyril, a monk, who, together with his brother, devised the Cyrillic alphabet used by Russia and with variations by Bulgaria and Ukraine.

Here are my memory aids.

Tilda

The tilda or wavy line in Spanish turns the n into a ny as in a Spanish or Spanish American canyon. In Cyrillic the tilda goes a step further and means the sound is y.

The p becomes an r, but not just any r, a trilled or thrilled r as in Spanish and Italian and Indonesian.rted t

H

The H looks like the lower half of the H.

The l looks like you started to write the lower case l but got called away in the middle when a letter fell through the letterbox.

B and V

The b is a v. But a real b has a little line like a shelf over a radiator across the top, or the tiny tray on top of a half tester bed. B with a line for b as in bed.

Memory Aid Recall

If you want to record your own memory aids and go to see other people's there is a system called memrise. You records your memory aids and choose whether to share them.

Useful Websites

duolingo.com

https://duolinguists.wordpress.com/2022/03/01/ukrainian-alphabet-uk-grammar-portal/

https://app.memrise.com/signin?next=%2Fdashboard

Do you speak 100 words of Spanish?

 I was asked this by a language learning website. So I sat down to create a list. Some I got from memories of place names. I had to be careful not to include Italian. Here is my list.

Spanish -

English

1 sombrero - hat

2 manana - tomorrow (morning)

3 adios - goodbye

4 amigo(s) - friend (s)

5 los - the plural is in Los Angeles, and las as in Las Palmas?

6 angeles - angels

7 palmas - palms

8 villa - house

9 holla - hi/hello

10 hermosa- beautiful/sweet?

11 bella - beautiful (Spanish and Italian?)

12 bella - beautiful

13 vista - view

14 pequeno  - small

15 grande - large (as in Rio Grande)

16 rio - river

17 la - the

18 mare - sea

19 plaza - square

20 frontera - frontier

21 la - the

22 playa - beach

23 piscina - pool

24 gato - cat

25 perro - dog

26 pesce - fish (Italian)

27 via - way/road

28 uno

29 dos

30 tres

31 quatro

32 cinque

33 hoy - this/today

34 nero - black

35 hola - hello

36 verde green

37 rosa red

38 quinta corner

39 mia my

40 nos our

41 nino boy

42 nina girl

43 copa cup/vase?

44 sopa soup/soap?

45 esta this

46 es is

47 muy very

48 san saint as in San Francisco

49 tia aunt as in tia maria the drink

50 tio uncle

51 torre torres towers

52 lampa -lamp

53 bandera flag

54 acqua  water

55 nonos children

56 bebe baby

57 molinos windmills (torremolinos - windmill towers)

58 de of / del of the

59 frontera frontier

60 blanco white

61 vino wine

62 mas much more

63 bonita beautiful

64 senor sir

65 senora lady or madam

66 senorita - miss

67 argenta/argentina - silver

68 costa - coast (Costa del Sol sunny coast)

69 sol sun

70 la the

71 telefona telephone

72 azucar sugar

73 cafe coffee

74 es is

75 no - not

76 elefanta

77 elegante - elegant

78 infanta - daughter, infant

79 castille - castle (castello Italian?)

80 desayuno - breakfast

81 noches - night buenos noches good night

82 real royal

83 morte - dead

84 cava - cave as in cava wine from storage in caves

85 bodega - wine shop/cellar Mdeira ne bar

86 tinto dark red or tinted

87 barca boat

88 siete seven

89 ocho eight

90 nove nine

91 quiero I want

92 gracias thanks (muchas gracias many thanks)

93 jardin garden (the same as the French. Jardim is Portuguese - I learned in Madeira)

94 por - for

95 alto high (same as Italian?)

96 cielo sky

97 montana - mountain, as in the US state

98 bicycleta - bicycle

99 ronda/rondo? - round (as in the town of that name in southern Spain)

100 escola - school (same as Malay/Indonesian?)

The question was, do you know 1000 words of Spanish? So I must have 1001, with a couple of extras in case some of them are Italian.

1 capella cap (as in a capella singing without musical instruments) 

2 que what (the Italian song is Que sera sera, whatever will be, will be)

3 bluson blouse

4 la grande - the big one, the Xmas day lottery in Spain

5 felicitas - happy/good wishes/congrats

6 natale/navidad -birth xmas day

7 ave as in ave Maria, our - Italian?

8 chiesa church or cheese quiesa

9 flores flowers

10 vero real

11 cuio - leather (Italian on shoes)

12 citron - lemon 

13 balcon - balcony

lucky / good luck

Useful websites

duolingo (free, with ads) 

memrise.com (free)

helloChinese (free)

https://1000wordsapp.com/purchase

Spanish speaking Toastmasters International clubs

toastmasters international find a club

About the author

Angela Lansbury is Vice President Public Relations of Braddell Heights Advanced and Tampines Changkat Advancedgual,  speakers training club which are part of Toastmasters International. The USA has several Spanish speakings as well as the English speaking clubs. You can pick up Spanish from buying or reading online their Spanish cubs welcome pages and manuals. 

In The USA, UK, Singapore and worldwide there are many clubs which are English speaking, as well as Mandarin, Cantonese, Japanese, French, Tamil, Malay.

The inauguration of Tampines Changkat Advanced is today, Tuesday 29 2021, online on  zoom.

You can find the club through their facebook page  

https://www.facebook.com/tampineschangkatadvTMC

The meetings are free for visitors. Visitors can watch, and join in speaking by introducing themselves and volunteering to do a 2 minutes impromptu  speech in table topics.

If you wish to join for a year, it costs about 190 US dollars, to have monthly meetings online, a mentor, a magazine, and one of the 11  Pathways, consisting of 14 project. Each project starts with 3 speeches of your choice of subject, lasting 4 to 6 minutes, then 5 to 7 minutes. The Pathways include the most popular Presentation Mastery. I chose  humorous speaking as my second Pathway, costing 20 dollars. Then my third was a leadership course. Come and see for free.

The club also has meetings in person in Singapore

You can also contact my other club, smaller Braddell Heights Advanced, which is a cosy little club with more chances to speak.

Contact either of these or other clubs through Toastmasters International Find a Club.

more later

Learn Chinese Free With Busuu - and the alternatives or additions

I tried out a new (to me) language learning website, Busuu, for Chinese. Chinese for speakers of English.

Where is Chinese useful? In China, Hong Kong, Singapore, Taiwan, your local Chinese restaurant and supermarket.





You can choose which sort of language you want to learn. I chose conversation and reading newspapers. The course started with conversation.

Straight in with hello. What is your name.

Most of the options are only two choice, or three, which I prefer to websites, such as Duolingo, offering you four choices which I find time consuming, confusing and depressing.

My husband, who is a statistitican, and knows about surveys and multiple choice questions, told me that four is the standard number, because with only two choice you can guess. Yes, but it does mean that if you have no idea, you only make one mistake instead of three before the system lets you move on and come back to it again later.

Is there anything I dislike about Busuu. Any disadvantage? It does repeatedly ask you to upgrade.

Useful Websites

Here are the options I have looked at (in alphabetical order):
busuu.com
https://www.busuu.com/dashboard

Chineasy
I have the book and the flashcards.


Good for learning individual signs and how they link together.
No whole sentences, except the book ends with a short story,

duolingo.com
I have finished the German and started Spanish, Hebrew and Esperanto.

facebook polyglots page
https://www.facebook.com/groups/polygotcommunity/

mango

hellochinese
http://www.hellochinese.cc/
https://www.facebook.com/HelloChineseApp
Helloenglish


memrise.com
Lets you record your memory aids for each letter or word or phrase and lets you see if anybody else has shared a memory aid.

Lingua.ly
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lingua.ly

About the Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker

How well do you speak a language?

How well do you speak a language? You can take exams. Or you can rate yourself. Many people can read a language but not speak it. Others can speak it but not read it. Or you might be able to speak and read but not write with the correct accents and spelling.

This self-assessment is pretty easy, with no test to do. It just has columns covering the categories of reading writing speaking and so on down the left and across the top levels one to five describing how well you can speak.

I started by looking at the assessments for Spanish and German. But my language understanding was not enough to read all the columns.

 So I switched back to the English. Then I could see what it was all about. Not a piece of work to translate into past and present and future, but a description of how well you understood, ranging from giving simple instructions and ordering a meal, to writing a thesis.

If you want to learn languages, on Singapore Airlines I was able to use Berlitz and brush up my Greek and Chinese (Mandarin). Several other languages were offered. The usual European languages such as French, German, Spanish and Italian.

You can download duolingo onto your mobile phone to learn whilst travelling.

Useful Websites
duolingo.com

memrise.com

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

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

I have several other blog posts on learning languages including Chinese, Russian, Greek, and French and Italian words and Malay vocabulary. Please share links to your favourite posts.

About the Author

Angela Lansbury is a travel writer and photographer and teacher of languages. Please save links to your favourite posts.

If you know anybody who wants to practise English, send them to a toastmasters international speakers club.

I belong to several clubs including Braddell Heights Advanced. Find us through Facebook or 

toastmastersinternational.org/find-a-club

How Wikipedia and Duolingo can help you learn languages, Spanish and 300 other languages

Flag of the UK


Flat of the USA

Wikipedia
First read in the English Wikipedia about the language you want to learn. If you want to start with words you already know, look for the pages on loanwords.

Then read Wikipedia in that language. Yes, you can read an article in a foreign language. i discovered this when I started looking for Spanish.

Flag of Spain

Open any Wikipedia page and pick languages from the column on the left hand side. Just spin downwards to the heading languages. Astonishing.

You can read Wikipedia in more than 300 languages.

Wikimedia projects

• MediaWiki
   
• Meta-Wiki
   
• Wikibooks
   
• Wikidata
   
• Wikimedia Commons
   
• Wikinews
   
• Wikiquote
   
• Wikipedia
   
• Wikisource
   
• Wikispecies
   
• Wiktionary
   
• Wikiversity
   
• Wikivoyage

This page contains a list of all 309 languages for which official Wikipedias have been created under the auspices of the Wikimedia Foundation. This list includes 10 Wikipedias that were closed and moved to the Wikimedia Incubator for further development, so there are a current total of 299 active Wikipedias.

When you want to return to English, spin down the left hand side again and select English. Or another of your favourite languages.

the languages with the most articles and readers are (alphabetically): Arabic, Chinese, Dutch, English, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Portuguese, Russian, Polish, Spanish, Swedish and Vietnamese.

Let us just take Spanish as an example. You can find a Spanish Wiktionary, an article on Spanish, and books in the Spanish language such as the classic Don Quixote by Cervantes.

Wikiquote has sayings of Cervantes from the book in the original Spanish and in translation.

Spanish edition of Wiktionary

English Wikipedia has an article on:

Spanish

Duolingo
I am learning Spanish on Duolingo. In addition to the free language lessons, offering multiple choice, Duolingo has a series of stories to read.



Memrise is designed to store the memory aids you have created for words.



Now you know what to do and where to go to learn more.

Useful websites
duolingo.com
memrise.com
wikipedia.com
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/List_of_Wikipedias

About the Author
Angela Lansbury is a travel writer and photographer, author and speaker. She teaches English to adults at colleges and businesses as well as other languages. Please share links to your favourite posts.

Gold, silver, gold-plated and silver-plated in Chinese

How To Read The Sign In A Shop

English - Gold

Chinese sign for gold
金

It looks like a little roof over a house.

English Silver
Chinese sign for silver, has two signs pushed to fit the square of Chinese writing which makes it neat on the page. The left-hand sign you can see is gold, narrowed, so it is not gold but something else, silver.
銀
How can you recognize and remember this sign, which looks like gold but is silver?
I look at the gold sign with the roof over the house or treasury, then the sign, above right, like those wrought iron signs over the doors in the old shops in alleys of the old city, with the warning x underneath telling you it is not gold. Gold? Er, no, sign says silver.

Watch out for
Gold-plated
Looks more like the adjective comes first, plated gold. Gold with a cross, not solid gold, but it is gold, only plated.
鍍金

Silver-plated
鍍銀
Now you see the signs together. Gold but not gold on the right is silver. But the adjective is in front in Chinese. Gold but not gold the sign is plated. Plated silver meaning silver-plated. 

How to say it
Gold - Jīn
How to remember it? After drinking gin, I was keep to by the gold.

However, I could not afford the gold and yearned for something small in silver. Not gin but yin.
yín - silver

dùjīn - gold-plated

dù yín - silver-plated

How do remember the word for gold-plated. Do you mind gold-plated goods? dùjīn - gold-plated

More information from
Google translate

Learn Chinese with
Chineasy
Cards and a book.
Useful reviews on Goodreads. One recommended:
'Heisig, Matthews, Jing-Hua Yin and use Skritter'.

Duolingo
Memrise



Useful Websites
singaporeair.com



Singapore flag.

Travel to China, Singapore, and other countries using the same or similar signs, Hong Kong,  Singapore, Taiwan.

Travel Information Websites
Singapore Airlines
singaporeair.com

Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer. Teacher of English and other languages. I have many more posts on learning languages. Please share links to your favourite posts.

Where To See Vines growing in England and Visit Vineyards and distilleries

Gewurztraminer grapes growing in a garden in London October 2019.
Photo by Trevor Sharot, wine writer and photographer.

Six different grapes were planted on the sunny side of a back garden in England. Yes, England is growing grapes. Gewurztraminer is a German word meaning spicy, a dark skinned full flavoured grape.

England has many vineyards and wineries open to the public and producing wines which are sold in UK supermarkets and served in restaurants. Some are award winning wines. I immediately think of the Nyetimber brand and estate which means new wood.



My favourite visits include Denbies.




Wales also has wineries.
Scotland has whisky distilleries you can visit.

If you want to learn English as a second language, or Welsh or Irish, see Duolingo.


Useful Websites

Victoriana Nursery
https://www.victoriananursery.co.uk/Grape_Vines/
top vineyards around the USA
https://www.travelandleisure.com/food-drink/wine/best-vineyards-yelp
visittheusa.co.uk
visitbritain.com
visitengland.com
https://www.denbies.co.uk/tours-and-experiences/
https://www.denbies.co.uk/events/forthcoming-events/

https://www.denbies.co.uk/
duolingo.com
memrise.com

https://travelwithangelalansbury.blogspot.com/2019/07/the-best-vineyards-to-visit.html
https://travelwithangelalansbury.blogspot.com/2019/06/english-wine-white-sparkling-rose-and.html

About the Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker. Active in Toastmasters International speakers groups.

Her husband Trevor is a travel photographer, wine educator and writes about wines. See blog grapedeal.

Emergency 'help" requests At The Swimming Pool in Japanese

You may have read my earlier post about how a boy shouted for help when he drifted into the deep end of a pool in Singapore. He spoke either Japanese or Korean. The security staff spoke English and Mandarin or Hokkien or Tamil.

I shouted in English to him, "Are you Okay?" 

He did not reply but kept bobby up and down, shouting. 

I called loudly in English, "Help! Help - someone's drowning!"

The security guard came and looked. He was probably a non-swimmer. He stood in front of the lifebelt. 

I shouted to the security guard, "Throw the lifebelt!" 

When the boy got to the side, coughing, the guard wanted the boy's name to make a report. The guard could not understand the boy, or even whether he lived in our block or was trespassing. 

Later the boy's mother came down to the pool. The guard still could not communicate with her nor even understand what language she was speaking.

I realised I could say thank you, arigato, in Japanese, and goodbye, sayonara, but I could not call help.

Duolingo - This is where you can go to learn or brush up on your Japanese for free online.

The Japanese flag.

Swimming pool in Singapore where a boy got into difficulties. Photo by Angela Lansbury. Copyright.

I have written several sentences in English and added Japanese translations from Google.

In Google, on the column with the Japanese, first you see the symbols, which are the same in Chinese (like the no smoking signs in public in Europe show a cigarette crossed out for no smoking - understood by speakers of several languages, although they would say the words differently in their own language.)
Below you see the symbols first, then below that are the words as you would pronounce them written in our standard alphabet.

If you are learning Japanese, teaching Japanese, or operating a swimming pool, you might want to print out a copy of this and laminate it and keep it at the security desk by the swimming pool.

English
1 Hello / good day
2 Hello (person answering on the phone)

3 Help
4 Help me!

5 Someone is drowning!

6 Do you speak English?

Do you speak Mandarin?
Do you speak Japanese?
Do you speak Korean?

Do you speak Spanish?
Can you speak French?
Can you speak German?


20 Goodbye.

1 Hello / good day

2 Hello (person answering on the phone)

Help

Help me!

Someone is drowning!

Do you speak English?


Do you speak Mandarin?

Do you speak Japanese?

Do you speak Korean?


Do you speak Spanish?

Can you speak French?

Can you speak German?

Are you okay
throw the life belt
come to the shallow end
are you okay now?

Call an ambulance
/phone for an ambulance
somebody is drowning

I must make a report
What is your phone number
where do you live
write down your name
write down your address
please wait
thank you

1こんにちは/こんにちは

2こんにちは（電話で答える人）

3 助けて

4 助けて！

5 誰かが溺れています！

6 英語を話せますか？

7 あなたは北京語を話しますか？

日本語話せますか？

あなたは韓国語を話せますか？

あなたはスペイン語を話しますか？

フランス語を話せますか？

あなたはドイツ語を話せますか？

大丈夫ですか
ライフベルトを投げる
浅い端に来る
今、大丈夫？
救急車を呼んでくれ
/救急車のための電話
誰かが溺れています
報告しなければならない
あなたの電話番号は何番ですか
どこに住んでいますか
あなたの名前を書き留めてください
あなたの住所を書き留めてください
お待ちください
ありがとうございました

1 Kon'nichiwa/ kon'nichiwa 

2 kon'nichiwa (denwa de kotaeru hito) tasukete tasukete! Darekaga oborete imasu! Eigo o hanasemasu ka? 

Anata wa Pekin-go o hanashimasu ka? Nihongo hanasemasu ka? 

Anata wa Kankoku-go o hanasemasu ka? 

Anata wa Supeingo o hanashimasu ka? Furansugo o hanasemasu ka? 

Anata wa doitsugo o hanasemasu ka? Daijōbudesuka raifu beruto o nageru asai hashi ni kuru ima, daijōbu? Kyūkyūsha o yonde kure/ kyūkyūsha no tame no denwa darekaga oborete imasu hōkoku shinakereba naranai anata no tenwabangō wa nan-bandesu ka doko ni sunde imasu ka anata no namae o kakitomete kudasai anata no jūsho o kakitomete kudasai omachikudasai 

arigatōgo zaimashita

Japanese
1 konichi wa
2 mushee mushee

20 Sayonara

Useful Websites
Google translate
Duolingo
Memrise

See other posts on drowning and on Korean.

Author
Angela Lansbury.

Polyglots On Facebook Found Another Language Learning Website

I was on the Facebook polyglots website reading posts by others who like discussing and learning lots of languages.

Somebody mentioned livemocha.

I have plenty to do on Duolingo. You might like Memrise if you want to record all your memory aids and see those of other users.

Useful Websites (alphabetically)
DUOLINGO
duolingo.com

LIVEMOCHA
https://www.livemocha.co/

MEMRISE
memrise
https://www.memrise.com/apps/

Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker. Please share liks to your favourite posts.

Where can I learn Yiddish? Hear It? Sing It? And speak it?

You will find lots of polyglots on Duolingo, meyn fraynd, gut glik (my friend - good luck - with a little help from google translate). Try the forums on Duolingo and Memrise.

Yiddish books are in the Yiddish Book Centre in Massachusetts, USA.

Yiddish speakers include the Hassisdic groups and Yeshivas, and families who are in Canada, Israel, the USA and the UK.

You can take Yiddish courses in summer in Krakow (or Krakov), Poland.
Yiddish festivals and theatre can also be found.

Fewer than 100 Yiddish speakers are in the Jewish Russian oblav (region with city) set aside for Jews.
In Australia after visiting the Jewish Museum I was inspired to go to a nearby bookshop and record shop where i could hear and buy Yiddish songs from the USA.

For entertainment, you might enjoy:
The video of the song Romania by a cantor called Moshe Shulhof who mimes playing a violin - played by another alongside - highly amusing - on YouTube
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YeCALnm4ljo

The book about saving Yiddish books which my book group in London read.
https://www.amazon.com/Outwitting-History-Amazing-Adventures-Rescued/dp/1565125134

Useful Websites
https://www.memrise.com/course/1120518/modern-yiddish-complete-with-audio/

https://forum.duolingo.com/comment/18660169/Yiddish-course-is-here

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

https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/how-to-learn-yiddish/
Lists places in the USA and elsewhere which teach Yiddish.

Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker. Teacher and tutor of English and other languages.

How To Learn And Remember A Few Words of Basic Food In Portuguese

Flag of Portugal

Problem
I had another go at learning Korean on Duolingo and it doesn't work for me. Others on the forums recommend that learners should persist. But I feel my time is better spent on learning Korean from a dedicated Korean website. Duolingo, however, is just right for learning Portuguese. So what have I learned today in Portuguese?

Answer
The trick is to keep repeating words. Duolingo is good at this. The main site has a revision after every lesson. Today I was almost too tired to do the revision. Normally I go through it once or twice, until I can get all the answers right, fast. This time I just looked at the questions and then the answers.

However, I am going to write out what I have learned.

Portuguese - English
amango - bitter (this is so bitter, I'd rather have a sweet mango)
atum - tuna
a banana - the banana (note that the is a, and that the can be masculine o or feminine a)
bolo de chocolat - chocolate cake (yes, I would like a bowl of chocolate cake)
eles - they
eles comen - they eat
eu - I
eu gosto - I like
os homens  - the men (os is plural masculine)
o molho - the sauce (the Portuguese looks like the English word moisture)

English - Portuguese
the banana - a banana (four times letter a)
bitter - amango
chocolate cake - bolo de chocolat
I - eu
I like - eu gosto
The - o (masculine); a (feminine); os (masculine plural)
the sauce - o molho
they - eles
they eat - eles comen
tuna - atum

Useful websites
Free languages for beginners:
https://www.duolingo.com (Portuguese and several other languages)
English in Tinycards for speakers of Portuguese:
https://tinycards.duolingo.com/users/DuolingoPT
https://www.memrise.com/course/1121957/portuguese-portugal-1/

Paid for courses:
https://www.memrise.com/course/1121957/portuguese-portugal-1/
https://www.amazon.co.uk/s/?ie=UTF8&keywords=berlitz+portuguese&tag=googhydr-21&index=aps&hvadid=188201508211&hvpos=1t1&hvnetw=g&hvrand=16051061403562216167&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=e&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9045970&hvtargid=kwd-500446475&ref=pd_sl_4e6324zqs0_e
https://www.rosettastone.co.uk

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

Please share links to your favourite posts.

Flag of Brazil

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.

Who Teaches Which Language Free Online?

Problem
Where do I find which language?

Answer
I went onto the Memrise site looking for Portuguese as spoken in Portugal, rather than Brazil. I wrote down the list, alphabetically, so I could check faster and quickly see if I had missed out any language. I started making my list on scrap paper - I could type it up, then throw the paper away. But I don't throw away scraps of paper. I keep them in case I want them ten minutes later, or a day later, or a week later, or years later.

What a waste of effort. scraps of paper creating clutter and confusion. You can't store them or find them. I wrote the list down in a notebook.

Here's a handy list:

Memrise Languages

(Available in February 2018. More might be added later, so if you come back in ten years time, check with their website.)
Arabic
Chinese (Simplified)
Danish
Dutch
French
German
Icelandic
Italian
Japanese
Korean
Mongolian
Norwegian
Polish
Portuguese - Brazil
Portuguese - Portugal
Russian
Spanish - Spain
Spanish - Mexico
Swedish
Turkish

That's nineteen languages. I wondered, why Icelandic? Those who grow up in the country already know their language. How many people go to work there? On the other hand, Iceland is popular for short breaks. Poeple might want to know please and thank you and how to order food and drink.

Earworms:
(Disc you listen to with soothing music which supposedly helps you learn as well as overcoming the stress of learning a language.)
Arabic
Chinese
French
German
Greek
Italian
Japanese
Russian
Spanish


My motto: Learning while travelling. 
Waiting for a bus or train or plane, sitting on a bus or train or plane, is never wasted time - if you continue to learn whilst travelling.

Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker, learner and teacher of languages. I have many more posts on languages and destinations. Please bookmark and share links to your favourite posts.

Learn Languages Free with Duolingo, Duolingo's Tinycards, Memrise or Earworms - what you get

Problem
Where can I learn Portuguese for Portugal and Madeira? Or for Brazil? And Spanish for Spain. Or Mexico?

Answer
Portuguese Accent For Portugal or Brazil?
I was struggling with the pronunciation of Portuguese in Duolingo, which sounded all wrong. Then I dsocvered I was learnign Brazilian Portuguese. After many holidays in Portugal, although I hadn't realised it, I had absorbed the way the language should sound, and recognize that Brazilian Portuguese is different.

What Do You Need
An interesting test would be to try both courses, the Poruguese for Portugal as well as the Portuguese for Brazil. I imagine that most people would need only one of the other for holidays or work. If you are living in England or Europe you are likely to holiday in Portugal or Madeira. If you are in the USA, you are more likely to holiday in Brazil, or do business with and receive correspondpence from Brazil.

If you are just learning to add another language, you might find it easy to learn both.

The Learning Systems
The sytems of learning are different. Tiny cards starts with sets of reversing cards.

Duolingo
I found Duolingo very easy. It taught whole, simple sentence straight away.  The sentences are not much use. How often do you want to say, I am a woman? You follow the whole system through. You can go back and redo, but you cannot jump forward.

Tiny Cards
Pop over to the tinycards, and you could learn a group of words connected with food, or colours or numbers. You can make your own cards, using Duolingo lessons, your own knowledge of a langauge if you are bilingual, or as revision if you want to remember something, such as the months in another language.

Earworms
The Earworms system starts with sentences you would use sitting on a plane talking to a stranger, or speaking to the steward. I would like a coffee. Another one, please. My name is.

Memrise
Memrise  has little videos of a person saying one word. You match the word to a choice of four. This is surprisingly difficult. Imagine somebody saying 'Yeah' in English and you have to match it up to yes or year or ear? It exlains why you have such trouble understanding epople in any language - including your own. So many people don't speak distinctly, drop the ends of words, run two words together.

Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and phtographer, author and speaker, learner and teacher of English, French and other languages.

Useful websites

https://www.memrise.com/

duolingo.com

Please share links to your favourite posts.

Should I learn Brazilian or European Portuguese? Who teaches Which?

Problem
I have just discovered that Duolingo is teaching Brazilian Portuguese.

Answer
Not a problem for everyone. That is good news for my readers, as the Americans outnumber those in the UK. (The numbers arenot surprising, considering the relative sizes of populations.)

Flag of Portugal

However, if you are planning a holiday in Portugal or Madeira, take a look at memrise.

Useful Websites
Free
duolingo.com
memrise.com
https://www.memrise.com/course/1121957/portuguese-portugal-1/

Modest cost
You can buy Earworms new or second hand from Amazon and Ebay. I bought Portuguese vol 1 (as a disc and brochure) and was so pleased with it that before I had finished volume one I bought Portuguese vol 2. You can now buy the system as a download for both Brazilian or European Portuguese.
I am looking into signing up for an affiliate programme so that you can lick through and buy. One I have signed up and worked out the technicalities I shall add this to my posts.

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

How To Learn Languages Free - Which Languages Can I Learn? Memrise and Duolingo?

Problem
I am going to China, sending Chinese New Year cards - and need to know that they don't say Happy Birthday (which happened once when I bought a Chinese card in Singapore, assuming it would be seasonal!) or just a Chinese reaturant looking at a menu, or ingratiating myself with a waiter and creating goodwill so I get a good table - so I want To learn Chinese.

This requires special characters. So fewer websites offer it. Somebody must.

Learning a few words of another language for free is easy. I have been doing brilliantly with Duolingo learning German, Italian, Portuguese and Spanish. However, the Chinese course starts with sounds, not attached to words, so I don't remember.

Another learner had the same problem. (I thought of saying she and I were students, but that implies a school.) She said she was going back to Memrise.

I am very keen on Duolingo because it has pictures, encourages you with smiley faces, and you have short lessons. So if you are short of time, tired late at night, ought to be doing some other urgent task, you can still do the minimum every day. Duolingo teaches short sentences, such as the city is big. Or use their Tinycards, learning one word at a time, in groups such as fruits, flowers. You can create your own set on something you want to remember, for yourself and to help others. What about Memrise?

Answers
Memrise offers these free courses. I shall put them in alphabetical order so if you or I are looking for a particular course we can find it quickly.

Memrise gives you a button to click on which is for Babbel, which I think of as a paid for system.

Babbel
Danish
Dutch
English
French
German
Indonesian
Italian
Norwegain
Portuguese
Polish
Russian
Spanish
Swedish
Turkish.

Then I see signs which tell me some languages have free games 'practise'; others are in the PRO section (professional) which cost from $4.90 ((near enough $5) a month. The price is okay if you are a professional translator or need it for business and can  offset it against tax, or your employer is paying. However, I am wary about buying on the internet, unless I have seta out to do so. You could click on something interesting and buy it every five minutes and run up huge debts, a house full of clutter. Back to my search for Chinese and Memrise. I am still stranded on the Memrise search.

Another search shows me Wikipedia. Ah! Gotcha. I have looked at Wikipedia on languages a while back. This will lead me to a simple explanation, not an 'about' section which says we are wonderful, but who are they, who owns what and how long, how many hours does it take to learn a langauge using each system.

Learning Languages On Laptops or Phones?
By the way, why do I prefer the Duolingo version for a laptop? The phone ap works fine for two or three days. Then it fades in train tunnels when you can't get a connection. Finally it disappears altogether and asks me to log in or re-start my phone, which a laptop doesn't do, perhaps because I sit for a long period on a laptop but don't on a train so it keeps cutting out.

You get more features on the 'big' version.

Useful Websites
http://androidpride.com/memrise-learn-languages-free/
https://www.duolingo.com
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Memrise
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_language_self-study_programs

Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, learner and teacher of languages.I have several posts on learning words in different languages, with memory aids, and inforamtion and links to duolingo.

How Memrise Helps You Remember Words and Alphabets

How do you find memory aids for languages and alphabets in foreign languages and add your own?

Today Memrise sent me an email reminding me of the five Japanese words I learned yesterday. What a great idea. I am starting to warm to their website.

Yes, I do realise that they give you a beginner's course, then try to sell you their advanced course once you are hooked. It's brilliant that they get you started, all for free.

Memory Aids
One thing I really liked yesterday was the memory aid system. It took me an hour or so before I realised what was going on in the memory aid box at the lower half of the page. I didn't see any guide on how to use the system.

My MacBook screen is horizontal and I kept losing the lower half of the screen. I could see the memory aid somebody else had put in a box at the bottom of the screen. Sometimes it was useful. For example, such as the suggestion that square looking like a mouth was the letter M in Korean, which I mentioned in yesterday's blog post.

I initially thought there was just one memory aid, put there by whoever runs the site, or the officially approved contributors. On Duolingo you have to apply to help develop the next site which is in Beta (testing with guinea pig users, still under development). You must be bilingual and send them a text and translation to prove it. Comments and suggestions and corrections from people who are not yet approved or who have not applied appear on the forum sites.

However, in ' M e m r i s e'  (oops - spell checker is still turning it into memories), the person's name and photo appeared alongside their memory aid comment. Later a box popped up asking me if I wanted to record a memory aid. Mostly I didn't.

Then I tried recording my memory aid. My memory aid was a four letter word! I am glad I put in the dots. You have to be so careful on the internet. I don't want anything unsuitable upsetting any past, present or future potential pupils or their parents, or adults, nor to have to explain rude words to pupils, nor to be associated with anything inelegant.

Up pops my name and picture. Oh, I thought, this is just private, personal, like those messages which say Welcome Back and your name, they are just reminding me of my own comment.

Then I went back to check that page later. Oops. Up pops somebody else's comment, with their name and picture. I start clicking on every arrow and link on the page. The right arrow takes me on to other memory aids.  Mine was last. Click on the left arrow and I am back to somebody else's suggestion. Now I wonder if they can see mine. I'm pretty sure they can. So that's how the system works. Everybody using the site adds memory aids. What a great idea. A continually growing resource. This is a revolution in language learning.

I am glad I got in early. Maybe it's at the early stages. Maybe they will change it, or be bought out. Eventually you will have to pay. Or get annoying advertisements popping up everywhere. Or maybe useful advertisements for things I want, other websites, dictionaries, teachers, forums.

Meanwhile I am delighted to have not one but two websites teaching me languages. I am crossing the big barriers - learning the letters for Russian, Greek, Hebrew. I shall then move onto the more difficult ones, Korean (supposed too be easy), Arabic (which may be similar to Hebrew?).

I also hope one day to learn the Tamil writing which looks so pretty on signs in buses and trains Singapore. It has circles and loops and lines above or below neatly linking syllables or whole words or phrases - one day I shall find out.

Why did it take me so long to find out what was happening in the memory box on the "M e m r i s e" website. I normally don't click on links on language pages.

On Duolingo I discovered that you risk spending ten minutes on an exercise learning five words, click on a link which takes you to a forum page, then have to waste time loading up your exercise page again. Worst of all, you find you are back on page one of the exercises. Although you go through it faster now that you know the words, and its good revision, it seems a frustrating and distracting time waste.

To sum up, the "M e m r i s e" website, free for beginners, has a useful feature. It stores your own memory aid for later. The list of memory aids grows longer constantly. (Maybe at some stage they will have so many that they will pick the top ten. But you really only need to click on half a dozen, or even two or three, until you find one which works for you. However, if you need to click on all to reach the blank box to record your own, one day they might need to stop or put in a link to jump to a blank box.)

Languages you can start for free from "Memrise":

•  English, Arabic, Danish, Dutch, French, German, Gujarati, Hindi, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Malay, Norwegian Bokmål, Persian, Polish, Portuguese, Punjabi, Russian, Simplified Chinese, Spanish, Swedish, Traditional Chinese, Turkish, Vietnamese, Welsh, Zulu
• Seller: Memrise
•  
• The Duolingo site has Greek and Hebrew in preparation and I am down on their waiting list to be emailed when these courses start, probably around September 2016.

Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, English teacher and language teacher.
Please forward this to anybody who might find it useful. I have several more posts on languages in this blog and other blogs on English spelling and grammar. You can also write to me with suggestions, requests and comments. I teach individuals and workshops in the UK and Singapore in person and worldwide on Skype.

Translating Italian and Italian idioms when learning Italian

I am learning Italian with a free website, Duolingo. They email me every day. (I'm also learning Spanish and German daily and Russian sometimes.)

After you complete a few exercises you gain a bonus, a lesson translating idioms. Unfortunately they give you the literal translation but expect you to guess the English equivalent proverb or saying.

So I go onto the internet and look around. Up pop some other sites. For example:

Useful Websites
http://www.memrise.com/mem/2756688/its-always-the-same-old-soup/
https://missexpatria.wordpress.com/2008/07/25/how-to-say-it-in-italian-italian-idioms/

Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author researcher, language teacher, and public speaker.

Please share links to your favourite posts.