Learn Americanisms + British English, or Ukrainian + Russian, Or Chinese + Japanese, pairs of languages, extra similar languages

American and British English are understandable except for a handful of words. For example. 

USA - UK

candies - sweets

check - bill

cookies - biscuits

diapers - nappies

Fall - autumn

faucet - tap

parking lot - car park

pharmacy - chemist

real estate - property

realtor - estate agent

semester - term

take out - take away

windshield - windscreen

Take away sign over shop in the UK. Photo by Angela Lansbury.

UK - USA

autumn - Fall

bill - check

biscuits - cookies

car park - parking lot

chemist - pharmacy

estate agent - realtor

nappies - diapers

property - real estate

sweets - candies

tap - faucet

term - semester

take away - take out

windscreen - wind shield

Many other languages have similarities. 

How to learn languages on holiday (alphabetical list of languages)

C

Chinese

Traditional in China. variations in Taiwan and Singapore. 

D

Dutch

Learn Dutch in the Netherland and if you speak French watch the bilingual French-Dutch signs in Belgium, as well as Sint Maarten on the south side of the island shared with St Martin in the Caribbean.

F

French

Learn French in bilingual places such as Canada's capital. Also France, Belgium, Switzerland. And St Martin in the Caribbean.

German

Learn German in Germany, Austria and Switzerland.

J

Japanese

Japanese used the same signs as Chinese for most words with the same meaning. (Think of washing symbols and no smoking signs.)

Portuguese

Learn Portuguese in Portugal and pick up some Portuguese in Madeira.

Spanish and Portuguese are so similar that I could read road signs and tourist signs in Madeira. For example, the word Jardim in Portuguese sounds and looks like Jardin in French and garden in English. Can you guess banco, and botanico? Remove the o and the ico.

Spanish

Spanish is spoken in Spain, Spanish islands, and most of central America, except Belize, and South America except Brazil.

Multi-Language Cities and Countries

Canada, Ottawa

The capital is bilingual.

Singapore

The four official languages are English, Chinese (Mandarin), Malay and Tamil.

Switzerland

Learn French or German or Italian if you speak any of these three languages in Switzerland.

Travel

Go on a language course in the destination country.

Stay Home and Host

Can't travel? Invite somebody from the other country to stay with you.

Currently Ukrainians are looking for homes overseas and the UK government is giving you a payment if you commit to providing a home for a Ukrainian for 6 months.

Ukrainian is similar to Russian.

Bulgarian and Russian use similar alphabets.

Japanese and Chinese use the same signs for their language of symbols, although the spoken words are different. Visit China, Taiwan, Hong Kong or Japan, Singapore, or Chinatown in your nearby city.

Wikipedia and Duolingo will tell you all the countries where you can learn and practise and keep up your languages.

Useful Websites on Where to get help

dictionary.com

quora

thesaurus

wikipedia

https://blog.duolingo.com/ukraine-language/#:~:text=Ukrainian%20and%20Russian%20are%20distinct%20languages%20that%20are%2C%20effectively%2C%20cousins,the%20Slavic%20languages%20spoken%20today.

https://www.gov.uk/guidance/homes-for-ukraine-guidance-for-matching-organisations#:~:text=The%20Homes%20for%20Ukraine%20scheme%20allows%20people%20who%20are%20fleeing,for%20at%20least%206%20months.

More variations on Americanisms and British translations for: it's a steal and it sucks and garage sale and yard sale

Thanks to my Facebook friends we have added a few ideas and translations:
I looked at a thesaurus to find some alternatives.

US flag.

It's a steal
It's a bargain.
Grab it while you can.
It's a no brainer.
It's a snip.


UK flag.

It sucks
(Depending on context.)
Bad luck. A bad show.
It's awful.
A bitter pill.
A calamity.
It's catch 22.
That's crap.
A disappointment. A real disappointment.
A disaster.
A drag.
That's dreadful.
It's dumb.
A fiasco.
It's just not right.
It's no go. A no-no.
It's not on.
Not good enough.
It's a fix.
That's mean. A mean trick.
That's nasty.
A setback.
What a shame.
Not suitable.
It's sick. It's sickening.
It stinks to high heaven.
That's terrible.
Out of place.
You can't win.
You've been robbed.

Yard sale

Possible translations

car boot sale -
commercial event in a field where each seller's car pays an entry fee, usually more for permission to set up a table stand to display wares. Famous for bargains and some say stolen goods from burglaries.

garage sale -
sale of goods from a private house in garage or displayed on driveway

Jumble sales -
fund-raising event to support a church or its charity, usually a jumbled pile of goods stacked on tables (goods previously collected by requests at church meeting or by boy scouts or volunteers going to houses and local streets asking for donations, or by leaflet drop around area asking for donations)

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

How to send a rhyming greeting or wish

Problem
No time to send a card for a birthday or even a greeting or wish you were here? Here are some options:

Answers
You have choice of: foreign card (photographed and emailed),
1 Facebook greeting - with added emoji (miniature funny face symbol)
2 Send a picture of the recipient on previous birthday or you are them with the greeting
3 Write a rhyme. and send a picture for someone special if you have time

How To  Improve A Rhyme
It's easy to improve a rhyme
All you need is a little time.

I just made that up. To find a thyme, pick a key word to end your opening and closing sentences.
From your own head, pick out some rhyming words, going though the alphabet.
You can do this with one word or two, eg
love: a/b above , d dove
love you
above you

Check rhyming dictionary and thesaurus for more.

Try changing rhyming couplets to alternating lines ie
instead of end rhymes aa bb
abab

Count syllables. The easiest is to make all lines end with the same number of syllables
eg 8 or 10.
Another popular scheme is second and alternating lines shorter eg 9797.

If your lines are different lengths, it is often easier to lengthen the shorter ones than to cut the longer ones.

Author
Angela Lansbury
zon See my books on writing poetry on Lulu.com and Amazon