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.

Learn ten Portuguese words from famished to fish

Portuguese - English
x is pronounced sh as in the Chinese place name Xian
I think I shall go to Portugaal to teach English. In Portugal a teacher is called a professor. I shall feel really important.

aluno - student (a loony alumni)
artista - artist

credito - credit
professor - teacher

modelo - model
ovo - egg

peixe - fish
quarto - room (think of the word quarters)

rei - king (like reign)
secretario - secretary

English - Portuguese

artist - artista
credit - credito

egg - ovo (like ovulate)
fish - peixe

king - rei (first three letters the same as reign, the same first two letters as rex and regicide)
model - modelo

room - quarto
secretary - secretario

student - aluno
teacher - professor

Bonus word
hungry - (like famished) com fome / faminto

Useful Websites
https://www.visitportugal.com/en
http://www.visitmadeira.pt/en-gb/homepage
http://visitbrasil.com/en/
https://www.duolingo.com/course/pt/en/Learn-Portuguese-Online

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

Me A Model? At My Age? Maybe Yes. Maybe No. Agencies in Australia, UK, Singapore

Australian Model Agency 

I have a friend, William, who appears in TV serials in Australia. He is signed on with an agency. They got him work on TV. Great success.

UK Work
Film Extras
I once answered an ad for extras in a film in the UK. We sat around all day in a church as part of a crowd at a wedding. We had to come with a hat. Most of the time you did nothing except sit silently.

No Pay
We filled in a form at the beginning. Everybody was asking everybody else, 'How much are you getting paid?' People were reeling off lists of film shoots they had been in earlier that month. I was at first too embarrassed to admit I was not being paid.

Payment
However, when I finally said I was not being paid, one of the older men who I thought would sneer at me instead was very kind and protective. He was indignant on my behalf and told me to say I came from his agency because I would then be paid a small sum of about £20. That was not much for four hours (plus travel) but a lot better than nothing.

Spotlight
I was asked to join Spotlight after my late uncle died. I had phoned them to cancel his subscription and to explain that he had died and they asked if I would like to join. This would have been really right for me a couple of years earlier when I would have loved to be featured in a professional listing. Unfortunately, at the time when I was in touch with them it was not a sensible use of money because I was a full time, on call, carer for my late father and I did not want to work, to be away from home. 

You had to pay an annual fee for membership which included a listing in their directory. If I remember rightly, to be listed you had to supply a professional photo or two, ideally one face close up and one full body.

Now I'd like to fulfil my dream and be a character actress. My favourite actress was the little old lady in The Ladykillers. She was in the film with Peter Sellars, and Alec Guinness.

Singapore
I passed a sign for a model creation agency in Singapore. I thought I'd go in and find out if they had any opportunities for an English voice over.

I filled out a form and was told to come back for an appointment. Because I had other engagements that day, I made an appointment for the following day. Meanwhile, I checked them out online.

It then transpired that I had to pay about 600 Singapore dollars - the sums were quite complicated, so much for the photographer, plus the make up artist, and the hairdresser, and that included so many photos for them to send out, plus several for me to keep, but after the first mailing out another set of photos would have to be printed, but I would not have to pay for these, it would come out of my first salary.

What if I did not ever get a job? Would that be a debt? I was told I would not have to pay the second sum. However, nothing in writing. I can't prove to you what was said, and that was what put me off the whole deal.

Apart from the actual cost, I was concerned that they could not give me any written account of the sums involved, just wrote it out on a piece of paper. To me that did not seem professional. The sums might increase. I had no way to be sure of the total.

They admitted they had very little chance of finding work for a Caucasian of my age, except for occasional government ads which features people of all races when promoting services for the retired.

I asked why I could not use my own photographer and they said it was a question of copyright, as well as having suitable photos of the kind they needed.

I looked at reports online for scams. One website I looked at said that any agency which insisted that you use their photographer was a scam.

CV and Portfolio
I would still be interested in putting together a portfolio including professional photos. If you look at online agencies you can see what is required. 

Some charge a monthly fee to reveal job ads. The ones I looked at required one face photo and one full body shot. If you a modelling any other part of your body, such as hands for nail polish advertisements, you are advised to include those. Some sites have a minimum number of photos. Others have a maximum.

Another promotional activity is to have a showreel of yourself, demonstrating your skills such as accents or singing or clips from previous amateur or professional productions.

Your CV will include age, height, weight, vital statistics (bust, waist, hips), language, accent, race, maybe shoe size. So if you don't know your weight and hip size, you might want to find out.

First, the photo. You need a professional photo (with copyright, meaning permission to use it by printing it or online for self publicity without paying the photographer for every use). It should be in focus. Ideally several shots, serious, smiling, assorted expresions. Clear background. Also any unform you may have (with permission to wear it).  

Angela Lansbury, travel writer

Ted Hughes statuette in Barnsley, Yorkshire, England

Homage to Ted Hughes. Painting by Reginald Gray. Photo from Wikipedia Commons. Public domain. A stone carved with Ted Hughes dates is in Poets' Corner in Westminster Abbey.

A statue of poet Ted Hughes is in Barnsley where he used to live. The sculptor has included elements from the poets' life and poems.

You can follow the links back from national newspapers to local newspapers for details.

What do I remember of the poet? At school reading a rather nasty poem about a pike. Learning that he had had two wives or girlfriends who committed suicide. (Wife Sylvia Plath. I used to confuse her with Stevie Smith who wrote the poem about not waving but drowning.) The two facts about the vicious pike poem the and wife's suicide together rather put me off Ted Hughes poetry when I was at a younger and more sensitive age.I wasn't the only one. Or I was influenced by the others. The whole story is rather grim. After he left Sylvia she committed suicide. The women he left her for, Assia Gutmann Wevill also committed suicide. Eventually, so did Hughes' and Plath's son Nicholas.

Looking for negatives, I find the quotation from Ted Hughes: Nobody wanted your strange glitter, your floundering life and your efforts to save yourself.

In his defence it should be said that Sylvia had been suicidal before she met him. Their daughter has written in defence of her parents.

But then as soon as you discuss figures from the past, people you have not met, memory shuffles them altogether in a drawer.

I tend to feel the whilst somebody is alive to support them and their work is channeling money and attention and adulation (admiration and praise, worship) in their direction. I steer clear or being hurt by their actions, or by approving their actions.

Yet, what if you love their earlier work? What if you have been a fan for years? What do you feel about Woody Allen and Roman Polanski? What if their next of kin hate them? Or support them?

Does their work reflect their lifestyle and beliefs? Or is it totally separate? Does their work lead you into following their lifestyle? What about Wagner? What about Woody Allen's humorous comment on Wagner that whenever Woody hears Wagner he feels like invading Poland? That's a comment on Woody Allen, and a comment on Wagner.

However, after an artist has died, it is too late to have any influence on them. Their descendants are not to blame for anything and indeed may be victims.

Many artists, and indeed famous and successful people of any sort,  have private lives, or public works, which some people find distasteful. Take nude statues and paintings. Impressionists. Lady Caroline Lamb described Byron as: Mad, bad and dangerous to know.

Mad is mostly a matter of opinion. Except for those who were in mental asylums. Several cases of those exist. Van Gogh had what I instinctively and succinctly think of and describe as his 'ear trouble'. Was Sylvia more mad than her husband Ted Hughes? Does one have to take sides?

As for literature, Victorian era bowdlerised Shakespeare. Chaucer was bawdy. D H Lawrence was banned.

Activities go in and out of fashion. Even the leaders of great cultures, such as the Greeks and Romans, and major religions, have been accused of all kinds of immorality.

So now I am prepared to take another look at Ted Hughes' poetry, and admire the statue.

I'll be checking facts I half remember for accuracy or at least a source closer to the poet and other than myself and posting more later.I want to check his poems and find an out of copyright picture of the poet and the statue. Even if I have to wait six months until I have a chance to photograph the statue myself. In the old days I used to go back and update blog posts. Now that I have so many, and so much to say, I feel it would be more appropriate to give a link from one to another written at a later date.

Wikipedia neatly sums up his success and the controversy.

Edward James "Ted" Hughes, OM (17 August 1930 – 28 October 1998) was an English poet and children's writer. Critics routinely rank him as one of the best poets of his generation.^[1] He served as Poet Laureate from 1984 until his death.

Hughes was married to American poet Sylvia Plath from 1956 until her suicide in 1963 at the age of 30.^[2] His part in the relationship became controversial to some feminists and some American admirers of Plath. His last poetic work, Birthday Letters(1998), explored their complex relationship. These poems make reference to Plath's suicide, but none addresses directly the circumstances of her death. A poem discovered in October 2010, Last letter, describes what happened during the three days before her death.^[3]

In 2008 The Times ranked Hughes fourth on their list of "The 50 greatest British writers since 1945".^[4]

http://www.barnsley-chronicle.co.uk/news/article/11267/sculptor-unveils-memorial-for-poet
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Ted Hughes

by Angela Lansbury

The poet's statue stand and stares

He's gone and lost, with no more care

But left behind his leaping mind

But left us all steel words to share

From writer's block to solid rock

The poet, reader, sculptor find

All gain profit of a different kind

His ripe thoughts rippling everywhere

The weak and strong, the right and wrong

The endless fight, the day and night

Flowing but tight, both dressed and bare

As we gaze at his statue there

Too late to correct or condemn

We must just save, see good, in men.

Copyright Angela Lansbury Nov 24 2015.

If you wish to quote me, please quote up to but no more than four lines and refer the reader back to my post with a link. Thank you. For commercial use of the poem, please contact the author in writing.

In case you had not noticed, my poem follows a sonnet form of three four line verses ending with a couplet.

The writer's block is the block of stone which makes the sculpture, as well as the writer's hesitation before starting to write. Steel is also a pun on steal. Profit is financial and spiritual.

Flowing but tight can mean the construction of a poem. Dressed and bare, the statue or the thoughts. Correct and condemn applies to both the poet's actions in life and his verse. Men refers to both mankind and the tendency of men to dominate women and be the fighters.

Barnsley
Barnsley is in South Yorkshire. If you drive north from London and use Barnsley as a stopover, in addition to the Ted Hughes statue, you might also visit the town hall, a listed building containing a museum.The area is also known for the Bard of Barnsley, glass making, the former coal mining, brass bands, and the sign of the the Stork shop, which said it stocked everything except the baby.

Quotes from Ted Hughes
Nobody wants your ...
... the words look after themselves, like magic.

TED HUGHES MEMORIALS & PLACES TO VISIT
1  Westminster Abbey, London, England
Poets Corner. Stone.

2 White Bear Inn, Barnsley
The 16 inch maquette or model Ted Hughes is at The White Bear in the town centre and includes a pike, fox and crow.
The sculptor is local man, Graham Ibbeson.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barnsley
http://www.barnsley-chronicle.co.uk/news/article/11234/woman-who-ran-famous-shop-dies
http://www.wearinns.co.uk/our-pubs/51/The-White-Bear-Barnsley-South-Yorkshire
http://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Restaurant_Review-g528795-d4106647-Reviews-The_White_Bear_Pub-Barnsley_South_Yorkshire_England.html

3 Mexborough, Yorkshire (15 miles from Sheffield)
Birthplace of Ted Hughes
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mexborough (Lists Ted Hughes)

4 Gravestone of Sylvia Plath, Heptonstal, Yorkshire
Photo of grave in Wikiquote.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sylvia_Plath
http://www.thetedhughessociety.org

In the USA Ted Hughes and Sylvia Plath were in Massachusetts.

Made in Mexborough: Ted Hughes's South Yorkshire by Steve Ely.

Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer.