Set 7 Handy Albanian words - Getting around, bills and payment

 

MAPS & SIGNPOSTS - Hartat dhe shenja

BEACH - plazhi

old city - qytet y vjeter

old - e vjetër

new - i ri

city/town - qytet

quarter - tremujori

village - fshati

street - rrugë

north - veriu

south - jug

east - lindja

Useful Websites

Why is North in the north on maps? Who decided? Is it always that way?

 

I researched left, right and centre, as the saying goes for the answer. North, South, East and West. I thought I read on Wikipedia or somewhere else about the man I had never heard of who established north on maps in Europe. My second search showed that Ptolemy has north on maps in ancient times, and European maps put north in all sorts of places until am copied the older system from elsewhere and much later his version was copied onto printed maps in Europe. 

Then I discovered something fascinating. Ptolemy, a Greek astronomer living in Egypt, put north at the top because he started writing at the top. But also from the top left. 

But why north? Because of the north star - but that was done by people living in the south, down under.  Maps were printed with the west at the top by another culture which made their city the most important place in the universe - but why put north at the top and not in the centre. 

China

The Chinese call their country centre, a square with a line through it. I learned that from looking at signposts in Hong Kong.

Sailors, North and South

Another theory goes that sailors were following the stars. 

Or South was at the top of the page, because in Egypt the Nile flows north to the Mediterranean sea.

Mecca and Jerusalem

Then the Arabs lived north of Mecca which was in the south. (But graves of Muslims and Jews in Europe face East towards the holy lands and places, Jerusalem and Mecca.)

Vienna, Austria

We drove around Vienna in Austria arguing about whether to go left or right because my husband was driving, watching the signposts, but I was reading the nap which had south at the bottom of the page following ...

The north pole is at the north. But ...

"You could turn the piece of paper round," my husband suggested. 

 I retorted, "But then the writing is upside down. I could stand on my hands and read it that way. Or place a book on a lazy Susan." 

It is a convention. Sometimes. But not always.

The English write North, South, East and West starting with capital letters. 

Swedish North is north

The Swedish language does not use capital letters. You just have to go with the flow.

Australia

And don't get me started on the way the water runs down the plughole in the bath in Australia. 

Or Christmas in June.

Useful Websites

https://www.geospatialworld.net/blogs/why-maps-point-north-on-top/

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

https://thepointsguy.com/2017/07/travel-myths-backwards-water/

MISSING INFORMATION ON MRT MAPS - NORTH AND YOU ARE HERE - FOUND!

Flag of Singapore

North

The missing north has always puzzled us. Because the MRT maps don't always show North at the top. (Years ago a wonderful forgotten man came up with the idea of putting north at the tops of maps. This makes life so much simpler.)  This has always puzzled us.

A station staff member on the opening day of the pre-run introduction day, November 11th, showed us the sign for North was outside the map, top right of the panel. The arrow was twisted like the hour pointer on a clock to indicate north. That has a certain logic. Not convention. But logic.

London UK underground's West on Circle Lines

(Another puzzle is the underground Central line maps in London, England. Most maps show west on the left and east on the right. But the central line has maps showing ... well, differently, depending which side of the carriage you are sitting.) 

You are Here

Look at the bottom left corner of the map under Legend and you will see the symbol. It looks like a red teardrop with a white circle. it represents an eye.

Have Your Say In London and the UK on transport

 It used to be the case that public meetings were at awkward times, but now you can attend planning meetings online, hear how decisions are made, who is making them, and have your say in chat boxes or by raising your hand and speaking or asking questions.

I received this email about the future of transport in London and the north, so if you are in the UK or from the UK, or planning to move your home or business to the UK you might be interested.

Don’t miss your last chance to sign up to Transport Planning Day 2022!

The Transport Planning Society are hosting their 5^th Annual Transport Planning Day on 14^th November at The Institution of Civil Engineers, One Great George Street, London, SW1P 3AA. The event will also be hybrid with the option to watch online.

The day will consist of two sessions with some fantastic speakers including Martin Tugwell, Chief Executive at Transport for the North, and Rhiannon Hardiman, Change Maker for the Future Generations Commissioner for Wales.

We would love to see you in attendance for both sessions and to join us in networking afterwards.

Don’t miss your last chance to sign up to Transport Planning Society’s Transport Planning Day 2022 For its fifth year running!

The theme for this year’s Transport Planning Day is Future Proofing Transport. The Covid-19 pandemic has shown how unprepared the transport industry, and the UK more generally, were for unforeseen events. We now need to start looking forward to see how we can make sure our transport systems are ready for the challenges which lie ahead.

Join us is person on Monday 14th November 2022 from 14:30 to 19:30 for an afternoon of talks and networking into the evening At: The Institution of Civil Engineers, 1 Great George Street, London, SW1P 3AA

Click here to register for the event in-person If you can’t join us in-person, you can register to watch the event online here

Transport Planning Day 2022 will provide discussion, solutions and different perspectives on how we can create a more resilient transport network. The afternoon will focus on what challenges we must be preparing for and how to ensure our transport systems will be around for future generations. A special thank you to Steer for platinum sponsorship of this event.

Session One 15:00-16:00 The session will start with a keynote speech from Martin Tugwell, Chief Executive of Transport for the North. This will be followed by a refresh of our State of Nations Report from Professor Stephen Joseph exploring how the different nations of the UK are preparing the future. Nicola Kane from Steer will speak on vision-led planning for an uncertain future and Emily Bobis from Compass IoT will talk on solving problems with connected vehicle data.

Session Two 16:40-17:40 An intergenerational panel discussion on future-proofing transport Chaired by Mark Frost. On the panel there will be a representative from the Office of the Future Generations Commissioner for Wales, academics, senior industry professionals, and youth representatives.   Keep an eye out on our social media for speaker announcements and check the Transport Planning Society Website for updates.

Book your place today! We look forward to welcoming you and celebrating together the achievements of the transport planning profession in creating an inclusive and fair design for the wider community. Click here to attend the event in-person If you can’t join us in-person, register to watch the event online here

A big thank you to our sponsors for making this event possible!

 

City Names - do you know China's Northern city, and America's The angels?

Names of places teach you languages, and geography.

USA - Learn some Spanish

 The angels is easy for most Americans. Los Angeles. Two words, plural the (I think of those), and angels.

Rio Grande in the USA is Spanish for big river.

What about China?

CHINA

I used to think that Beijing was in the South until I learned that its name means northern city or Northern capital. It is the most populous (people filled) capital in the world.

Easy to recognize the symbol for north. It looks like it ends with a letter t pointing upwards at the end. The second symbol is a square for centre.  Think of all the people rushing to the centre of China, the capital city.

 Shanghai means upon sea. Shang is upon. Hai is sea. The sign on the left is upon. The flagpole is upon the ground. The sign on the right is sea. The three little drops of water on the left, tiny lines, are the symbol for water.

(Chinese: 上海)

Flags with Suns and Stars and Moons and A Prayer For Faith ToThe Universe

Some countries' flags show the sun.

Other flag show the stars. (New Zealand and Australia.)
















My friend, Faith, who was ill, asked us for prayers. Here is my prayer for her and everybody. She fell sick and did not answer the phone, so people started sending her prayers through Facebook.

Prayer to the Universe (For Faith)

We thank the world for granting us another day, with eyes to see the universe, to see the sun at dawn, the heat of mid-day, with the clouds which blow past, revealing the blue sky beyond.

Into every life a little rain must fall. We thank the universe for the rain which waters the plants,

We thank the universe for he sunset which tells us to stop work and rest, to hear the patter of rain or the power of thunder. When we see happy families we share their joy. When we yearn for those who have gone before, we look at the happy families and know that we are part of the chain and more laughing children will bring us flowers and ask us to share our knowledge if we only smile welcome. aT NIGHT WE SEE A VAST BLACK SKY but within it for centuries the little white stars have been winking in their proper places to juide us and tell us north from south, to help us on our way.

A million men and women before us have helped, men who drew maps, men and women who grew our food and made our clothes, and built our roads, and built the planes and trains and cars and cicyles, the colles and toys, the photos and videos, the cleaners who protected us and the doctors who healed us and the communicators who passed on the knowledge.

We have been blessed by hearing the moments of joy and sadness, and questions and answers and the cuationary tales, and the folly and wisom, the mistakes and remedies, the sinesses and cures. We have been dealt blows and survived them. Yesterdys struggle, so many of them, are already forgotten, for we have passed on the greet new people, new places, new times and new challenges and new joys.

The universe is so complicated. Yes, yet it is so simple.  The sun comes up so we can se where we are going. The sun goes down so we can rest undisturbed. The water and sun gorw the plants. Even the weeds such as the stinging nettle can be made into soup, and the dock leaves frown near the nettles so that when we step carelessly without looking and get stung, if we look around carefully we can find the dock leaves which will sotthe us.

We have a universe of people who could be friends or enemies.. We can find friends or make friends. We pray for our friends who are tired and sick. We pray for our friends, we pray that our enemies will see the truth, AS WE ADMIT WE WERE WRONG AND SEE The truth, we will find Faith, again, and not simply pray, because God helps those who help themselves. For hope.


About the Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker.
I and my family have lived in the UK, Spain, the USA and Singapore. I am a trave writer and phtographer and teacher of English A level and English as a foreign language.

Please come to a Toastmasters International Club where the English clubs have a langauge evaluator or grammarian.  We also have French, German, Mandarin Chinese, Tamil and clubs based in Singapore and many more online around the world which because of Covid-19 are now meeting online.

I am President of Braddell Heights Advanced, meeting every Wednesday, on zoom the first Wednesday of the month but the other wednesdays are workshops on app learncool.sg
Or quicker, tinyurl.com/BHACOOL

Time Zones
In Singapore we are on the same time zone as Malaysia, Hong Kong, and China (Beijing and Shanghai).
Please share links to your favourite posts.

How To Remember City, Place and People Names with Magic Memory Aids - Vietnam, Saigon, Ho Chi Minh

CITY NAMES AND MAGIC LETTER MEMORY AIDS
I have just named this system Magic Letter Memory Aids. If you use this title please quote Angela Lansbury's Magic Letter Memory Aids. If I find that it is popular I shall add more city memory aids.
You can do the same trick with people names and place names letters to help remember place names of cities you are visiting or plan to visit.

Hanoi - Magic Memory aid
For example
HaNoi in the North of VietNam.

HA ha - HA-Noi in the North. NOrth.
Where? Oi - HanOI is in the nOrth. Last letter Is I.

Saigon / Ho Chi Minh city - Memory Aid
Saigon is in the South (of Vietnam). S for south and S for Saigon.

How do you remember which name was previous and which is current? The Saigon name has gone.

Saigon was renamed Ho Chi Minh city. (The c in city resembles the sound of the s in Saigon and the South. 

How do you remember Ho Chi Minh?  Ho ho ho, I'll check in a MINute, Ho ho ho. HO, ho, ho, not CHInese but VietnaMese in the south of Vietnam.

Ho Chi Minh - MINd How you treat Him with respect - remember the H at the end of min. His name starts and ends with H.  Ho Chi MinH! He is the national Hero.

See Ho Chi Minh sites in the north, in Hanoi, and in the South, in Ho Chi Minh city.
Ho Chi Minh was the northern revolutionary leader. The family name is Ho, a common name in the country. Chi means will, Chi - remember chI - in English is will wI - ll. Minh is translated into English as light, which also has a silent h. A minute of light or in a minute we will have light.

How do you remember the two major cities in Vietnam? Both start with the letter H. Hanoi in the North, Ho Chi Minh city in the south.

https://en.wikivoyage.org/wiki/Vietnam
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ho_Chi_Minh_City

Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker. See my posts on Vietnam. Please share links to your favourite posts.

Finding Chinese Symbols Matching English Station Names on the Singapore MRT map

Chineasy teaches you the symbols with pictures. See it on the internet. You can see king third along top row. Mountain or hill is far left of the lower row. Moon is below king.

Problem
What do the Chinese symbols on the Singapore stations mean?

NUMBERS 6 and 10
I learned the numbers first and identified six on the sign for Sixth Avenue station on the downtown line.
Later I found Ten Mile Junction station. then one-north.

Then I found the sign for mountain or hill in Hillview on the downtown line, station DT3.

The sign for king was in Downtown  station DT6, King Albert Park.

The sign for park or garden or enclosed space appears on the station signs and the MRT (mass transit) railway map.

The signs for sun and moon are not on the MRT map, but on signs about the dates and times of early closing of stations for maintenance work. The sun means day of the month, and the moon means month.



Next I was into the compass signs. One north.

I identified the sign for little in Little India.

Chinese was no longer something I shunned. I keenly scanned my map on every journey.

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

Learning Chinese From Mahjong Tiles

Problem
I was trying to learn and teach the Chinese characters for 1-10 and NSEW. I gave a talk on this to a mixed audience of Europeans and Asians and an American.

Answer
One of the audience suggested that you could learn or practise while playing mahjong. Also you need the characters to recognize the pieces in mahjong.


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

What Maps Hide And Reveal - north and south and distortions and country sizes

Problems
Maps can show north at the top or elsewhere, distort the globe to fit your page, and reveal that countries or states you don't know are huge - and take hours to drive or fly across.

NORTH AND SOUTH Problems
We drove around Vienna, driver and passenger arguing. The map said left; the signpost said right. Why?

Answer
North was at the bottom of the map.

One man established the convention of always having north at the top of the map.

If you drive north, then turn and drive south, you might want to reverse your map. Some navigation systems allow you to choose.

Photo by Angela Lansbury. Copyright.

TRAIN MAPS - UK
You have to be Sherlock Holmes looking at train maps, especially at maps of the London underground.

Most underground train maps show north at the top and west on the left and right on the east. However, on some London Underground trains, you will see different maps on each side of the train.

 MIRRORS - GLASS / WATER
When taking photographs which tee shirts which include lettering or maps,especially if photographing yourself in a mirror, be aware that the text may be reversed. The same applies to reflections on glass and in water. If you have the original as well as the reflection, it is easier to read and looks more interesting and deliberate.

GLOBES
If you look at a globe, you will see that some countries appear bigger when you show a map on the flat. Otherwise you would have to make petals to show the real size. to get a real picture of distance in your mind, check the measurements.

Also notice that distance as the crow flies are not the same as driving times. A z shape road up a mountain or along a coast is much slower than a motorway, not just because of the speed but because you are not going in a straight line.

Really big places

Look at size. The USA is not a country but a continent. The English or Spanish speaking population in the USA will usually be much bigger than a single country in Europe. My blog tends to get more readers in the USA than in the UK, because of the size of the population, and potential readers. Time of day is another effect. (More Americans if I publish in daytime in the USA and night time in the UK).

Size does not necessarily mean population density. Houses and room sizes are huge in the USA, tiny in Hong Kong, getting smaller in London and Singapore.

Driving and Flying Times
Ukraine is huge. Driving across or flying across takes hours. Don't even think of walking.

MOUNTAIN BARRIERS
Also note that mountains are great for hiking up and down, especially if you want to start and end at the same place, but can create barriers if you were thinking of driving or cycling.

FLIGHT MAPS AND FLAT MAPS
Flight maps are also distortions. Flights may be routed across land rather than sea for safety reasons.

Flights from the UK to East coast Canada are much shorter than you might expect. Look at the globe instead of a flat map and you will see why.

NAUTICAL MILES
What is a nautical mile? How does it differ from a land mile? Again, look at your globe.

FLIGHT TIMES
Flights are generally designed to take routes suited to the airline, not your breakfast time.time. If the flight took longer, it would cost more in terms of fuel.  However, the trains from London to Edinburgh shunt around and stop in the middle of the night, in order to arrive before breakfast and not in the middle of the night, which would be a nuisance for passengers and station staff.

Compare times of flights, trains and driving by car or on a public coach.

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

Help! Learn Chinese Translation Of Emergency Requests and the words North, south, east and west

Problem
My previous post was about why you need to know another language and the problem you might meet en route. I translated into several languages and it got so long I've added the Chinese (meaning Mandarin) here.

English Translation

Russian - English

I have lost my group

They speak English.

Where is my train?

Where is the restaurant?

Can you phone for me?

Can you make an announcement that I'm lost?

('Wo' is I or my.
English reverses 'you can' to make a question, 'can you...?'. However, Chinese question sentence structure is' You - can do / other verb, is that so?
'Ni' is you. 'Ma' is a Chinese question word, equivalent to: 'is that so,' or, 'is that right,' or, 'tell me'.)

Èyǔ - yīngyǔ
wǒ shīqùle wǒ de xiǎozǔ
tāmen huì shuō yīngyǔ.
Wǒ de huǒchē zài nǎlǐ?
Cānguǎn zài nǎlǐ?
Nǐ kěyǐ gěi wǒ dǎ diànhuà ma?
Nǐ néng xuānbù wǒ mílùle ma?
>>>
俄语 - 英语
我失去了我的小组
他们会说英语。
我的火车在哪里？
餐馆在哪里？
你可以给我打电话吗？

你能宣布我迷路了吗？


Jiékè yǔ - yīngyǔ
xǐshǒujiān zài nǎ?
Bówùguǎn ménpiào duōshǎo qián?
Rènhé jiǎnshǎo?
Yǒu jǐ gè bówùguǎn bǐjiào piányí ma?
Shénme shíhòu jiéshù?
Wǒmen kěyǐ zài zhèlǐ chī wǔcān ma?
Wǒmen kěyǐ mǎi piào, qù chī wǔfàn, huílái ma?
Cèsuǒ
piào
bówùguǎn
cāntīng
xièxiè (shay shay - thank you)
Fānyì chéng xībānyá wén - yīngwén
nǐ xiànzài bìxū líkāi chēzhàn. Shì jǐnjí zhuàngkuàng.
Gàosù wǒ zài nǎlǐ.
Gēnzhe wǒ.
Tīng.
Xièxiè.
Líkāi
jí
yǐncáng
pǎo
gàosù
bāng bāng wǒ
děngdài
méiguānxì
nǐ kěyǐ zǒule.
....

Zhōngwén hé mǎláiwén (Chinese and Malay)
dǎ diànhuà gěi jiùhù chē.
Bàojǐng.
Wǒ jíxū yīgè diànhuà.
Yǒurén zài lùshàng shòushāng
kuài.
Shì jǐnjí zhuàngkuàng.
Yǒurén shuō yīngyǔ ma?
Mǎ lái yǔ

zhōngwén (Chinese)
wǒ shīqùle wǒ de jiàoliàn - jiǎng yīngyǔ de rén.
Qǐng gàosù wǒ fāngshì.

俄语 - 英语
我失去了我的小组
他们会说英语。
我的火车在哪里？
餐馆在哪里？
你可以给我打电话吗？
你能宣布我迷路了吗？
>>>
捷克语 - 英语
洗手间在哪？
博物馆门票多少钱？
任何减少？
有几个博物馆比较便宜吗？
什么时候结束？
我们可以在这里吃午餐吗？
我们可以买票，去吃午饭，回来吗？
厕所
票
博物馆
餐厅
谢谢
......

......
翻译成西班牙文 - 英文
你现在必须离开车站。 是紧急状况。
告诉我在哪里。
跟着我。
听。
谢谢。
离开
急
隐藏
跑
告诉
帮帮我
等待
没关系
你可以走了。
....

中文和马来文
打电话给救护车。
报警。
我急需一个电话。
有人在路上受伤
快。
是紧急状况。
有人说英语吗？

马来语

中文
我失去了我的教练 - 讲英语的人。
请告诉我方式。

..............

>>>

Czech - English

Where is the toilet?

How much is a ticket for the museum?

Any reductions?

Is there a cheaper group for several museums?

What time will it close?

Can we eat lunch here?

Can we buy a ticket, go for lunch and come back?

Toilet

ticket

museum

restaurant

thank you

.....

Translate into Spanish - English

You must leave the station now. It's an emergency.

Show me where. 

Follow me.

Listen.

Thank you.

leave

emergency

hide

run

tell

help

wait

It's ok

You can go.

.....

Chinese and Malay

Phone for an ambulance.

Call the police.

I need a phone urgently.

Somebody's injured in the road.

Quick.

It's an emergency.

Does somebody speak English?

Malay

Chinese

I have lost my coach - English speaking people.

Show me the way, please.

............

You could do a similar translation of the words and phrases you are most likely to need on your trip, depending on whether you are walking, cycling, driving yourself, in a taxi, in a coach, on a bus or on a plane.

Most people in Singapore speak English as a first or second language or Singalist. However the bus drivers often don't speak English. They are introverts, and have to watch the road and keep to time. So if you have a question about the road or where to get off, you will proceed faster if you can speak to them in thier language, Mandarin, Tamil, or whetever they speak, or have a simple translation such as:

Can you help me, please?

I am going to this Community Club NORTH - SOUTH  - EAST - WEST .

Can you call me when we reach my stop.

.....

I want to get off at the nearest MRT station. 

Thank you - for helping me.

Goodbye.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Nǐ néng bāng wǒ ma.
Wǒ yào qù zhège shèqū jùlèbù běi - dōng - nán - xī.
Dāng wǒmen dàodá wǒ de zhàndiǎn shí, nǐ néng gěi wǒ dǎ diànhuà ma?
.....
Wǒ xiǎng zài zuìjìn dì dìtiě zhàn xià chē.
Gǎnxiè nǐmen duì wǒ de bāngzhù.
Zàijiàn.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

你能帮我吗。

我要去这个社区俱乐部北 - 东南 - 西。

当我们到达我的站点时，你能给我打电话吗？

.....

我想在最近的地铁站下车。

感谢你们对我的帮助。

再见。

Wo is me in Chinese. (Easy to remember, from the Shakespeare play expression: 'Woe is me!'

I suggest you get my translation checked. You must have seen some weird Chinese translation into English!

This website give you the Chinese characters for Beijing.

https://dictionary.hantrainerpro.com/chinese-english/translation-beijing_beijing.htm

You will also see the characters in the Wikipedia article on Beijing.

Bei-jing means northern capital.

The Chinese characters 北 ("north") and 京 ("capital") together mean the "Northern Capital". The name was first used during the reign of the Ming dynasty's Yongle Emperor, who made his northern estate a second capital along with Nanjing (南京, the "Southern Capital") .
The word for noth looks like parallel lines in the middle representing a road leading north. The word for capital looks like a little crown on the head of a king, controlling three areas below in three directions, three legs supporting the capital, or all roads lead up to the capital.

North

South

East

West

Běi
nán
dōng
xī

Remember Words For N S E W

北 - Bei - north as in the capital of China, Bei-jing (which used to be called Pe-king).

南 - south - Nan as in Nan-king

东 - east - dong (think of a bell in an oriental temple)

西 - west (she, being shy, she went home to the West)

Say these words four times, pointing your fingers up, down, right and left, remembering the mnemonics or memory aids.

In Singapore it is important to tell the bus or taxi driver or passenger or passer-by whether your Community Club is North or East or South or West, because often two Clubs are within walking distance of your destination bus stop.

How do I remember the symbols for north, south, east and west?

North Chinese Symbol
The Chinese symbol for North looks like it has the letter t on the right-hand side. (And the letter K reversed on the left.)

South Symbol in Chinese
South looks like a cross with a downward spike pointing south to the busy south, and three legs walking south.

East Symbol in Chinese
You might think the top line looks like the top of the letter E.

East - looks like a whirling Dervish dancer, pirouetting on a pole from West to East, skirt flying.

West Symbol in Chinese
West - looks like a window, a window on the west (alliterative) with curtains and a shady ledge above the window for flowerpots.

Author

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

Please share links to your favourite posts.

What To See In Vienna and Austria

Problem
What to see in Austria? In Vienna last time my focus was on the Freud Museum. What next?

Answer
The New Year's Day concert showed the Clock Museum. Not a place I would normally have put high on my list. But now I've seen it on video, I'm interested. The museum possesses a staggering 4,000 clocks.

The video shows, not just grandfather clocks, and small clocks, but clocks animated like the astronomical clocks you see in some European town squares, with little figures.

I watched: a clock face set in a figurine of a horse and rider, a clock on a character whose eyes moved; a procession of little monks; a character pushing a cart.

Other museums, according to the video, included those devoted to funerals, and esperanto.

Story
We drove around Salzburg trying to follow the map. I was passenger and guide. The driver kept seeing road signs pointing the opposite way to my map. After several arguments, goring increasingly heated. Lucky there wasn't a divorce, murder, or road accident as we changed direction. The driver pulled in and grabbed the map and discovered the problem. North was at the bottom of the map.

Tip
Learn one place in the north of the city, one on the south, one on the west and one on the east. That will help you to read a map and follow the road signs.
The satnav on many cars can be programmed by choosing one of two options either to show not at the top of the screen, or to show the direction in which you are heading in front of you at the top of the screen.
Useful websites:
Uhrenmuseum, Wien.

Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer.

Chinese words from maps for travellers

China - the exotic east, source of paper and gunpowder and lots of words you didn't realise you already know. A vast land where a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step, although nowadays, with most tourists having more money than time, best not to travel the continent by foot, especially if you don't speak the language(s). You would be advised to take a ship or plane from a city such as Shanghai to Beijing. Here are some handy words and translations.

Beijing - north capital -
Shanghai - shang means above; hai is sea. If you look up meaning of shanghai in a cautionary online you find it is a verb meaning to force somebody onto a ship. Shanghai is a huge port.
Canton - Portuguese pronunciation of Guang-dong
Guang - vast/expanse (huge!)
dong - east
xi - west
Guangdong - literally expanse east, or as we would say in colloquial English, Eastern area

Frankly, I learned all these years ago but they never stuck in my mind. So I have to type them out again to remind myself and you.

If you type in translation you are given links to translation services. The word you need is etymology meaning origin of words.

Some gems I found on the internet:
http://blogs.wsj.com/chinarealtime/2014/04/24/beijings-subway-stops-literally-translated/

Angela Lansbury, travel writer.