Learning German For English Speakers - easy and confusing words

 Where can you learn and practise speaking German? 

Flag of Germany

Flag of Austria

Flag of Switzerland

You can use German in Germany, Austria and German-speaking parts of Switzerland.  Also Luxembourg, Liechtenstein, and parts of Belgium and Italy.

Flag of Luxembourg.

Flag of Liechtenstein.

German - English Confusing words

The German word Chef is not a chef but a boss.

Chef - boss

das ist kein - that is not (not that is small which is klein)

klein - small

Strand - beach (not street, unlike The Strand street in London and La Strada which is street in Italy)

German - English Words With Similar Spelling or Similar Sounds

Remember that nouns start with a capital letter in German

(eine) Banane - (a) banana 

braun - brown

das Dokument - the document

frustriert - frustrated

hier - here

Idee - idea

kollegin - colleague

laut - loud

oft - often

das Projekt - the project

das Shampoo - the shampoo

schwer - difficult (makes you swear)

Spinat - spinach

suchen - to search for / look for

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English - German Words With Similar Spelling Or Similar Sound

a banana - eine banane (remember to change the final a to an e as in eat)

brown - braun 

colleague - Kollegin

difficult - schweg

the document - das Dokument

idea - idee

loud - laut (the letters t and d sound similar and involve the same movement of your tongue)

often - oft

the project - das Projekt

shampoo - das Shampoo

shoe - schuh (add the letter c like see, and other h, for a pair of shoes)

small - klein (If you know anybody with the name Kleinman, that means small man. Calvin Klein, fashion designer. Naomi Klein, psychoanalyst.)

spinach - Spinat

vegan - vegan

Useful English-German websites

duolingo.com

https://wikitravel.org/en/German_phrasebook

translate.google.com

-ends-

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I bet you didn't know you could read the Dutch language! Polyglots pages!

Flag of the Netherlands 

I didn't know I could read Dutch. Until I logged onto a Dutch newspaper article from a link in Wikipedia. I was asked to sign up to read more and recognized these words:

Dutch - English

account - account

automatisch - automatically

digitale - digital

e-mailadres - e-mail address

gratis - free

hier - here

inloggen - login

registreer - register

stopt - stopped

vergeten - forgotten

English - Dutch

account - account

automatically - automatisch

digital - digitale

email address - e-mailadres

forgotten - vergeten

free - gratis

here - hier

login -inloggen

register - registreer

stopped - stopt

Should I check some more words, one by one in Google translate? It would be quicker to grab several off a wikipedia page.

I went to the wikipedia page and found these similar sounding words:

Dutch - English

bakken - to bake

breken - to break

geven - to give 

klimmen - to climb

niet - not

u - you

wegen - to weigh

werken - works

zenden - to send

zitten - to sit

It's like easy German, or English with simplified spelling. This year I am learning Spanish. Next year I could learn Dutch. Not a very common language. But probably a reinforcement for my beginner's German. 

Also it will impress other people to say that I can speak English, French, German, Spanish and Dutch. If I count English as one of my languages, in two years time I could speak six languages, and genuinely call myself a polyglot. 

How about you? Isn't Dutch easy! https://www.facebook.com/Hyperglots/olyglot page

I just logged into Facebook to find the link to my favourite polyglot page, where people ask questions, so handy for me and for you, dear readers. I found another polyglot page, geared to learning languages. 

Why would you want to learn Dutch? Where can you use it? In the Netherlands of course. But why would you go there? To see Anne Frank's house, and the Jewish museum, Rembrandt's house, and the Rijsmuseum with more Rembrandts. Delft pottery, windmills. Tulips. The Wikivoyage page has updates on the Covid situation.

Useful Websites

https://translate.google.com/

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

https://www.knack.be/nieuws/belgie/twee-schepen-op-drift-in-windmolenparken/article-news-1836453.html?cookie_check=1645375421

https://www.facebook.com/polyglotclub.world/

https://www.facebook.com/Hyperglots/

Polyglot Poem by Angela Lansbury

Polyglot Poem by Angela Lansbury

I wish I were a polyglot
So many languages, a lot
I wish I'd learned two in my cot
It's best to start when you're a tot

I sit at home, I am a swot
I start a new one, keen and hot
Learned yes and no
But not yet not

I've learned each alphabet and dot
I learned a lot, but I forgot
Don't tell me I have lost the plot
One day I'll be a polyglot!

I really hope that you agree
It's good to know 'oui', and, 'Si, si!'
To roll an r, say three, not tree
Come, be a polyglot with me!

Copyright Angela Lansbury 2018

polyglot - speaker of many languages, from Greek poly - many; glot - tongue or language
see 
https://www.etymonline.com/search?q=polyglot

French - English
oui - yes

English - French
yes - oui (pronounced we)

Spanish

si - yes

Useful Websites

duolingo.com

memrise.com

Polyglot page on Facebook

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

I have many posts on learning other languages including French, Spanish, German, Chinese, Greek, Cyrillic (Russian).

Please bookmark and share links to your favourite posts.

This week's words in the Romanian Language: small, sweet, girls, not, bad

Problem
How do I remember words in another language?

Answer
Look for similarities.

Romanian - English
d u l c i - sweet (like dulcet tones, sweet tones)
mici - small (think of microscopic)
nu - not (letter n followed by a vowel)
fete - girls (like females, letter fe ...e; how do you remember the t? think of femme fatale)
rele - bad (like rascal, letter r....l, or really bad)

English - Romanian
bad - rele
female - fete
not - nu
small (think of microscopic, and mini) - mici
sweet - d u l c i (like the Italian film, La dolce vita, The Sweet Life).

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

Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, teacher or English and other languages.  Please bookmark and share links to my posts.

Two Tips on Pronouncing Romanian before your trip

Problem
You can recognize Romanian words on the page, but can't say them. Words such as not, which is nu, or good which is bun, like the French bon, look easy. But when Romanians speak, you can't catch what they are saying.

Answers
I
One reason is that lots of words end with the little I with pointed  hat,

which is the same as an a with the hat

Which is a silent vowel like the e ending the English word vase.

SH!
Sh - don't tell anybody. The letter s with the comma underneath is like the two letters in English, SH. Just think of the comma as the extra letter h which is not pronounced h but chances the s into SH!

I find the easiest way is to learn using Duolingo, the free language learning website. I play the sound of the word by tapping on the sound symbol. If I have time, I play it twice or three times and practise saying it. That's how Romanian children learn to speak their language, by hearing it and repeating it.

Tips
TOURISM & TRAVEL & FLIGHTS
http://romaniatourism.com
https://www.blueairweb.com/company/about-us (Romanian airline, page includes flight query box)
https://www.budgetair.co.uk/flights/europe (They go to Bulgaria, Romania, Latvia, Lithuania and many more
https://www.cheapflights.co.uk/find-flights/to-
http://www.lastminute.com/flights/
www.ryanair.com

When I log in from the UK I get companies based in the UK. When I log in from another country, such as Singapore, I get a host from that country. Similarly, you will find a host website in your country.

Sometimes it is cheaper to book flights from another country. This is easy, especially if you have a home of business in another country.  Or you might ask your host company to book the flights for you if they get better bargains and deals, rather than booking for yourself and then claiming back the money from them.

LANGUAGES
https://www.duolingo.com/

Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author, speaker and language teacher. I teach English, and other languages with a Latin or Cyrillic alphabet. Please share links to posts. 

Second Steps In Learning Norwegian

Problem
How do I tell male from female.

Answer
Look at the letters and match them with the English.

Norwegian - English
en - a / an

Gutt - boy (he's a good boy)
(en) kvinne - woman  (the v looks like a w, the letter n is an both k v i n e and woman I Know she is a woman)
en jente - a girl (a gentle little girl, j and g sound similar)
eple - apple (looks very similar, last three letters the same say e p l e and it sounds like apple)
er - is (pronounced like are!)
han - he (letter a like the word Man or Mann)
hun - she (pronounced like the word wOman)
ikke - not (looks like icky - not what I want)
Jeg - I (capital J looks like I)
og - and (but don't pronounce the g)

English - Norwegian
a/an - en
and - og
apple - e p l e
boy - gutt
girl - dente
I - Jeg
not - ikke

However, the words are not pronounced the way they are written. You must listen to the words on
duolingo.com

Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker, teacher of English and learner of other languages. Please share links to my posts.