Introducing yourself in English, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese and Esperanto

I have translated into Spanish, Italian, Portuguese and Esperanto, from the English:
Hello
My name is ...




Spanish flag

SPANISH SELF INTRODUCTION
Mi nombre es (Sounds like my number is but it is my name is.)




Italian flag


ITALIAN SELF INTRODUCTION
Hello. My name is

Ciao (The c is pronounced like CH. How do you remember the vowels are IAO? Spelling memory aid: I say hello or I say Ho- ho, as Sant would say, I A O no e

Il mio nome è 

(Literally the my name is; the is il; il is the. I thought il might be it but I checked and the English word it is translated to the Italian word esso.)


Portuguese

Olá, meu nome é

Esperanto

Saluton. Mia nomo estas ...

Useful Websites
Google translate


French Dictionary

DUOLINGO AND MEMRISE
Duolingo.com

Spanish dictionary

ESPERANTO
Esperanto is taught in Hungary.
HUNGARY
https://kampany.hellomagyarorszag.hu/
https://www.visitacity.com/en/budapest?gclid=Cj0KCQj
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pasporta_Servo
ESPERANTO IN FINLAND AND CANADA
Annual convention changes country every year. In 2019 Finland, in 2020 in Canada.
Other languages useful for tourism and travel in Hungary, Hungarian, in Canada, English and French.
See earlier posts on French and German.

Travel
UK
visitbritain.com

Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker. Teacher of English and other languages. Trainer for business English in colleges and companies.
Please share links to your favourite posts.

Romanian language: clearing confusion with similar words: my mother, apples with honey

Problem
I see a romanian word which looks like something else. I get confused.

Answer
List all the similar looking words, look up translations and learn them. If either of the two pairs is easy to remember, this sorts you out. By process of elimination, of you know the word for a, the alternative must be b.

I confused the words for apple and honey and my and mother.

Romanian - English
cu - with (like the Latin cum)
mama - mother
m e l e - my
mere - apple (Angela's memory aid: a mere apple a day keeps the doctor away.)
m i e r e - honey
vin - wine (like the French vin ordinaire) Remember that Romanian simplified. No extra e. W condensed into a v.)
vino - come
vino cu - come with

English - Romanian
and - cu
apple - m e r e (a mere apple a day keeps the doctor away)
apple with honey - m e r e  cu  m i e r e (Add honey to apple, add the letter i)
come - vino
come with - vino cu
honey - miere
Mother - mama (like the Italian Mama Mia, but with a bowl over the second a)
my - mele
wine - vin

Tips
Pronunciation
It is easier to remember the accent if you recognize a short and often used word. Mama in Romanian has a short last vowel, as in murmur . Think MUH - MER. So the bowl on top of the a can mean an er sound.

Websites
www.duolingo.com
http://romaniatourism.com

Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, teacher of English and other languages. Please bookmark and share links to your favourite posts. 

More Malay Words from TV programme titles

Problem
How do you get interested in Malay? Just look at words around you and on line. the language structure is in some ways quite easy.
I and my are the same word. Here are some more words from the day's news programmes:

Malay - English
b e r i t a - news
c i l i k - young
Cina - China
d a t u k - grandfather
d e t i k - second
jalan - way / road
jalan d a t u k saya - the way of my grandfather / grandpa's road
kenegeri - the land
kenegeri cina - the land of China
m a s y a r a k a t - community
saya - I (or my)
skuad - squad / team ; skuad cilik - young squad / team

English - Malay
China - c i n a
community - m a s y a r a k a t
I / my - s a y a
grandfather - d a t u k (like Dad but older)
land - k e n e g e r i
news - b e r i t a
road / way - jalan
second - d e t i k (the letter d often starts two or second, as in duo, duet, dual, double)
squad / team - s k u a d (the sound is the same but a q is turned into a K)
Young - c i l i k

Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, teacher of English and other languages and public speaking.

Russian memory aids in my diary - my alphabet, my soup and my book

An easy phrase to remember is my soup - in phonetics or the way it sounds - moi sup.

I was having trouble remembering the word for book
then I saw that it begins with the last letter of book k
it is like the knowledge you get from a book
kn
the knowledge of a guru ah!
k n i g a

Even if I have trouble  translating from English and remembering the Russian for book, I can recognise the word when I see it (especially if it comes after the word for reading).

I now have enough words to recognize my soup and my book. But only in phonetics. What if the words are written in the Russian alphabet?

To help me remember the Russian letters, I have copied them out and stuck them at the back of my diary.

I cut a piece of lined paper the size of the back cover of my diary. I wrote the Russian letters in pen down two columns, starting at the top right. I wrote the English equivalents alongside in pencil. I am considering going over the Russian letters in black felt tip.

The paper is attached with see through sticky tape. I would have used double sided sticky tape on the back, but could not find it. (Yes, I know - a place for everything and everything in its place.)

I now have something to do on the plane or train when travelling, revise the Russian alphabet.

If I know the Russian alphabet at the end of the year, I shall do the same in next year's diary with either the Greek or Hebrew alphabet. 

Both Greek and Hebrew have similar letters to the Russian. The Hebrew letters which looks like W is S with a dot above the left, and SH with a dot above the right.

The next step is to recognise lower case letters and joined up writing by hand.

My dream is that I shall eventually also learn Arabic, Korean and Tamil.

Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and language teacher.

Russian words: my memory aids for Duolingo words

I'm struggling to remember the Russian words. Here are my hints to myself which I hope will help you. I learn the word on Duolingo then go back to test myself.

When you repeat the words several times you remember them. When you are just learning you need to be able to recognise the word - and to remember it when translating the other way, back from English into Russian.

Teaching somebody else reinforces your own memory.

I try to look for similar letters and associations.

Moi - my (m-i) M I
sestri - sisters S ST R revers the vowels in Russia e then i but in English i then e

Girls - devochki - DEV CH_K devoted to chicks - slang for girls in English.The chicks are devoted to chicks. Picture girls cuddling tiny newborn chickens.The chicks are small but the girls are big. The word devochki means girls.

U tebya est' koshki - do you have cats - (think do you take in kittens  T...A  K....I
est mens is in French - not the same but at least you know the middle of the sentence is a verb - I think you take in is it kittens = do you have cats

Plates - in Russian this word has the l and e reversed if you read the word backwards.

e d y a t  (no spaces - but spellcheck keeps changing the word) - eat
E d y A T - EAT

PLAN - PLAN same word in Russian and English

BRaT - BRoTher - (my brother is brat)

Angela Lansbury