How Singapore AIrlines Introduced Me To UTalk Language Learning Inflight and the Korean word for three

Back in 2005 Singapore Airlines had Berlitz language learning on the flights. With about 12 hours sitting metaphorically glued to a seat in front of a screen, seemed like a good time to pick up a new language. 

I did not make fast progress. However, I was disappointed when the system stopped.

Imagine my joy when I discovered language learning had come back. this time with a system I did not know, called UTalk. I had a choice of several languages. I started with the most challenging, Korean. Did I learn anything? Yes, only one word, but it was important. I now know that the word for three in Korean is Sam. The Chinese and Japanese share the same word for three, San. (I learned the Japanese, Ichi, Ni, San, Shi. Sam, like same, like uncle Sam. This was the first evidence that some, not all, of Japanese and Korean and Chinese words could be similar. 

The Chinese and Japanese signs are mostly the same. Think of the no smoking symbol, which is read by the English as no smoking. The French will look at the same sign and get the message, which they translate in their heads into French.

English - Korean

Three - sam

Korean - English

sam - three

Useful Websites

Airline Passenger Experience magazine

https://apex.aero/magazine/

https://apex.aero/articles/watch-learn-flight-language-lessons-put-words-passengers-mouths/

Duolingo

Memrise

My Language Exchange

https://www.mylanguageexchange.com/

UTalk /Eurotalk

https://utalk.com/news/tag/wikipedia/

https://utalk.com/news/helping-yourself-to-learn-a-language/

For Children

https://utalklanguagegames.com/

https://eurotalk.com/en/store/learn/french/talknow/cd

Some Singlish Sort Of English - to baffle Brits, amaze Americans and embarrass or enlighten English speakers

When I first arrived in Singapore I was often confused.

A lady on the Singapore airlines plane to Singapore told me, "I live in a house with a garden which is good because of have tree children." 

I wondered how many children she had, and if they were all tomboys who liked climbing trees. 

I asked, "Boys or girls?"

She replied, "Two boys, one girl."

I exclaimed, "Three children."

She agreed, "Yes. Tree children."

Then I understood. Three.

She told me, "My brother is in Australia. He has tree houses. He lives in one, rents out the other two."

For an instant I had visions of her brother building a tree house, very big, like Robinson Crusoe. Must be in construction. Building a tree house as a home or guest house. Then renting out two more. Interesting business developing. Then I realized he was the owner of three houses. He was probably well-to-do, but not the eccentric millionaire, the ecologically minded man I had imagined.

I phoned my other friend in Singapore and asked, "When can we meet?"  

He replied, "I'm having an off day." 

I said, "I'm a bit jet lagged, not feeling too good either, so we would only make each other miserable. Why don't we meet when you are feeling better. Tomorrow?"

I was really worried when he said, "I want to meet you to die."

He meant today.

I eventually heard, "I am not working to die. To die is my off die. I am working tomorrow."

 

Another friend met me at a shopping mall and called a taxi to take us elsewhere. She said to him, "Thank you, uncle."

Afterwards I said to her, "I didn't know your uncle was a taxi driver. Did you call him specially, or was it just luck that your uncle picked us up?"

She looked puzzled, "I don't have an uncle who is a taxi driver."

I said, "But you were chatting away to him and when we out, you said,'Thank you, uncle!"

She told me, "We say auntie or uncle to strangers of an older generation who are friendly."

"Ah," I answered, "In England we do that when we are children. But not from one adult to another."

Here are some phrases you may think you hear, and what the speaker means

Phrases and Pronunciation

Singlish - English

cannot = I can't / you can't / it can't be done / it's not possible/ no/ nope

drop off = drop out (of an online event)

even = even if

kampong = (Singapore) village (primitive - cleared by government upgrading, but friendly, remembered nostalgically by residents now living in modern skyscrapers)

Kiasu - competitive, getting ahead, pushy, fear of being left behind eg getting first into lift, overtaking and pulling ahead into your lane on the near empty motorway, determined to be first

la = (exclamation) yeah/ yup / really/ is that so/ definitely/aren't you/ isn't it/don't you think so/amazing/hilarious

loyal = royal

off day = day off

off the light = turn off the light

team = theme

tree = three

uncle = friendly person of an older generation, not related

English - Singlish

bad hair day = bad day

day off = off day

drop out = drop off

even if = even

I can't = cannot

off day = bad day

one-upmanship = kiasu

royal = loyal

team = theme

turn off the light = off the light

three = tree

uncle = brother of your mother or father

village = kampong

Useful Websites

https://singlishbible.fandom.com/wiki/Genesis_1

About the Author

Angela Lansbury is British and a Singapore Permanent Resident. 

About the Author

Angela Lansbury is Vice President Public Relations of Braddell Heights Advanced, and Tampines Changkat Advanced,  speakers training club which are part of Toastmasters International. The USA has several Spanish speaking as well as the English speaking clubs. You can pick up Spanish from buying or reading online their Spanish clubs welcome pages and manuals. 

In The USA, UK, Singapore and worldwide, there are many clubs which are English speaking, as well as Mandarin, Cantonese, Japanese, French, Tamil, Malay.

The inauguration of Tampines Changkat Advanced was Tuesday 29 2021, online on  zoom. Their meetings are on the fourth Tuesday evening of the month. They hope to hold meetings with a few people meeting physically, the others online, as soon as the Covid-19 conditions allow.

You can find the club through their facebook page as well as through Toastmasters International find a club. 

https://www.facebook.com/tampineschangkatadvTMC

The meetings are free for visitors. Visitors can watch, and join in speaking by introducing themselves and volunteering to do a 2 minutes impromptu  speech in table topics.

If you wish to join for a year, it costs about 190 US dollars, to have monthly meetings online, a mentor, a magazine, and one of the 11  Pathways, consisting of 14 projects. Each project starts with 3 speeches of your choice of subject, lasting 4 to 6 minutes, then 5 to 7 minutes. The Pathways include the most popular Presentation Mastery. I chose  humorous speaking as my second Pathway, costing 20 dollars. Then my third was a leadership course. Come and see for free.

The club also has meetings in person in Singapore

You can also contact my other club, smaller Braddell Heights Advanced, which is a cosy little club with more chances to speak.

Login through bha.learncool.sg/meet/bha 

That will link you through to Zoom or googlemeet. 2 pm to 5 pm.

BHA meets the first Wednesday evening each month, starting at 7 pm Singapore time. 

Then an extra meeting on the 3rd Saturday afternoon, starting at 2 pm Singapore time.

To check your time zone,  

https://24timezones.com/difference/singapore/ 

Meetings will be on Wed July 7th and  Saturday July 17th.

Contact either of these or other clubs through Toastmasters International Find a Club.

Why do you need to know Chinese?

 

Why do you need to recognize Chinese signs even if you cannot speak a word? So you can identify the correct sex of toilets in China, Hong, Kong, Taiwan, China (same writing symbols), or a rest room in a restaurant in Chinatown anywhere in the world.

I went into the Gents in China.

Chinese writing is easier than you might think. Do you know Roman numbers? One, two, and three. Uprights. Like holding up your fingers? What about Chinese?

Chinese is not the same as Roman writing. The exact opposite. The Roman numbers one to three  are vertical. The Chinese numbers one to three are horizontal.

Useful Websites

About the Author

Angela Lansbury teacher of English (advanced and English as a Second Language or English as a Foreign Language, French and other languages, aspiring polyglot.

Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker. Member of many toastmasters  speaker training clubs and speaking contest judge.

Angela Lansbury, the author of 20 books including Wedding Speeches & Toasts, and Quick Quotations, has lived in the USA, Spain and Singapore. 

She  has several blogs and writes daily on at least two of the following:

travelwithangelalansbury.blogspot.com

dressofthedayangela.blogspot.com

translateforfun.blogspot.com

 Please share links to your favourite posts.

Why and where to learn Malay and Indonesian - thirteen easy words to remember

Flag of Malaysia.

Bahasa means language. Bahasa Malaysia or Bahasa Indonesia means language of the country, as opposed to the people of the country. When I went into a bookshop in Malaysia and asked for a book about 'Malaysian', the assistant queried, 'Bahasa Malaysia?'. Not only that, the dictionary cover used the phrase 'Bahasa Malaysia'.

If you are looking for a phrasebook or dictionary, it helps to be familiar with the national flags.

Flag of Indonesia

The white does not show against a white background so I have added another picture.

Why would you want to learn the language, when you are there or plan to go there? Or even if you just what to know about about it for general knowledge?

Wikipedia explains (with my additions): 
Indonesian (bahasa Indonesia, [baˈha.sa in.doˈne.sja]) is the official language of Indonesia. It is a standardised variety of Malay, a language that has been used as the lingua franca (everyday spoken language) in the multilingual Indonesian archipelago (group of islands) for centuries. Indonesia is the fourth most populous (biggest population) nation in the world. Of its large population, the majority speak Indonesian, making it one of the most widely spoken languages in the world.

Flag of Singapore

Malay is one of the four languages of Singapore, so government leaflets have English, Malay, Chinese and Tamil. The tube (underground railway) station maps are also in four languages. So are the notices on the stations. So are the recorded announcements.

Malay and Indonesian are the same languages with variations in vocabulary, like British English and American English. Near enough for you to be understood in the capital cities of either.

This week, August 2020, my family in Singapore was posted seeds from the Singapore National Parks, seeds which I requested in June. The seeds were so popular that the numbers available to be sent out had to be increased, hence the delay.
The seeds arrived with four languages and I looked at the English and the Malay translations below.

Some words were immediately obvious. Others I had to look up. Here's a handy set of translations:

English - Malay (and Indonesian)
active - aktif
and - dan
bag - beg
centimetre - sentimeter
cm - sm
food - makanan
germination - germinasi
organic - organik
plastic - plastik
plastic bag - beg plastik
therapeutic - terapeutik
three - tiga
two - dua

Malay - English
aktif - active
beg - bag
beg plastik - plastic bag
dan - and
dua - two (looks like dual or duo)
germinasi - germination
makanan -food
matahari -
organic - organik
plastik - plastic
sm - cm (centimetres)
sentimeter - centimetre
terapeutik - therapeutic
tiga - three

You can get a good overview for free from Wikipedia including word endings, common phrases, numbers.

Incidentally, the Singapore national anthem is sung in Malay. Singapore National Day is every year August 9th.

Indonesian Independence day is August 17th.
Malaysian independence day is August 31st.

Useful Websites
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indonesian_language

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

How to remember Mandarin Days of the week and month

Flag of China

Flag of Singapore

The days of the week and month are easier to remember than you think.

Let's start with the numbers.

One to three are easy. One, two and three horizontal lines.

Look at a multi-lingual calendar. At the end of the word Monday is one horizontal line.
At the end of the word Tuesday you see two horizontal lines.
Wednesday is three.

Four is like a square or a window with curtains.

Useful Websites

Chineasy



Duolingo
Free on the internet and for your mobile phone

duolingo.com




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

Second set of Portuguese words - learn 15 easy to remember words

 Flag of Portugal

 Flag of Brazil

I can't stop learning Portuguese and Spanish.

English - Portuguese

taxi - taxi
hotel- hotel
bank - banco
port - puerto
blue - azul - (like azure which is a bright blue)

name - nome
first name - primeiro nome (like primary school)
family name/surname - sobrenome
table - mesa
room - quarto (like living quarters)

one - um (like French un and English one - remember: How many? Um - one.)
two - dois (like two dice)
three - três (tr as in triple, tricycle, trio; think of three trespassers)
four - quatro (like quadrangle in English and quarter and quatre in French)
ten - dez (sounds a bit like decimal)

Useful Websites
Languages
translate google
duolingo
duolingo.com

https://www.visitbrasil.com/key-information/language.html
memrise
memrise.com
https://www.mezzoguild.com/portuguese-and-brazilian/

Travel
https://www.visitportugal.com/en
https://www.visitbrasil.com/

About the Author
Angela Lansbury is a travel writer and photographer, speaker, author, and teacher of languages.
Latest book: An ebook  Improve Your English. Several books by different authors have that title. Make sure to add the name Angela Lansbury.
I have written a post about the Spanish restaurant in Melaka, called Salud which means cheers.
Please share links to your favourite pages.
Update
Contact Angela Lansbury by attending Braddell Heights Advanced Toastmasters Club online.

Learn To Read Chinese - First steps - one, two, three and ten

Problem
I ran around bookshops in Singapore, adult sections, children's sections, language sections, trying to find a children's book which would teach me a few signs in Chinese.

Solutions
The four solutions were
the internet
placemats
Chineasy
Duolingo and similar language course - harder.

Simplest signs - numbers
The numbers one, two, three, are like Roman numerals turned sideways. Roman numerals for one and two and three are parallel vertical lines.
I
II
III
Chinese signs for one, two and three are horizontal lines.

Look closely at the Chinese sign for two and you'll see the lowest line is wider, which is the same in many Chinese characters. the Chinese think a wide base line gives a pleasing sense of balance, like a building which won't fall over.

Look closely at the three and you'll see the middle line is slightly smaller, like the filling of a sandwich is hidden by the larger pieces above and below. But to recognize the signs, it's eough to remember the Roman numerals hint.

The Chinese make the sign for ten by placing their right index finger (fingernail showing) over  their left index finger (fingernail underneath).

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

Easy Bulgarian Words Similar to English, German, Spanish, or Russian

Problem
How to remember Bulgarian words? It is depressing when you read a lot and can't remember a thing.

Answer
You aim to learn 1 -10 words a day in a foreign language. At the end of the 365 days of the year, allowing for a few days off for sickness or holidays, you should have learned a minimum of 300 words to get by, maybe as many as 3000! That means quite a conversation.

Pick out a few words which are easy. That maintains achieving your daily target of five minutes a day. You keep up the confidence which gives you momentum.

Here are mine for today, at least ten:

English - Bulgarian

"Fir0002/Flagstaffotos". in Wikipedia under bananas.

bananas - banani

bus - autobus
nose - nos
passport - pasport
pullover / sweater (US) - poolovyer
son - sin (Sin also means blue. My son, for my sin, also makes me blue.)
student - stoodent
3 three - dri/tri 3
trousers - pantaloni (US pants)
taxi - taksi

Bulgarian-English

autobus - bus

"Fir0002/Flagstaffotos". in Wikipedia under bananas.

banani - bananas

3 dri/tri - three 3
nos - nose
pantaloni - trousers (US pants)
pasport - passport
poolover - pullover / sweater
sin - son / blue
stoodent - student
taksi - taxi

Words like German
English - Bulgarian
potatoes - kartofiWikipedia Photo by Renee Comet for Cancer Soc.

Words like Spanish
English - Bulgarian
table - masa (like mesa)

Words like Russian
brother - brat
sister - syestra

Useful Websites
http://ilanguages.org/bulgarian_grammar.php

Author
Angela Lansbury
Travel writer and photographer, author and speaker. See my other posts on learning Bulgarian, Russian, Spanish, German and other languages.

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.

TRANSLATING Dutch - how to start even if you don't know one word!

Problem
A Dutch sentence is on the screen in front of me. I do not know Dutch but I know about 100-200 common words of German. What does the sentence mean in English? Let's have a go, a try.

Een kind vraagt niet om het leven,en een kind kan zijn vader of moeder ook niet uitkiezen.
dat is ook de reden dat ik twee kinderen geadopteerd heb als mijn eigen kinderen.

At first glance it means nothing. Then I took it word by word looking for one word to see if I could identify the subject.

Een kind vraagt niet om het leven,en een kind kan zijn vader of moeder ook niet uitkiezen.
dat is ook de reden dat ik twee kinderen geadopteerd heb als mijn eigen kinderen.

The first two words are 'Een kind' . Ah! Kindergarten. Kind is German for child. German and Dutch are very similar. What is een? Either one child or a child. Now I know the general subject matter. It's about a child or children, or mankind.

As I read on the next word which makes any sense is kinderen. 

Een kind vraagt niet om het leven,en een kind kan zijn vader of moeder ook niet uitkiezen.
dat is ook de reden dat ik twee kinderen geadopteerd heb als mijn eigen kinderen.

That must be plural for kind, children. Twee kinderen. Twee sounds like twins and three. Either two children or three children. If the sense had been one, two, three, that would have been logical. My guess is that the logical jump is from one child to two children.

At this point, even that doesn't matter. I am gaining confidence. I have the subject of the first sentence and the subject of the second sentence.

Een kind vraagt niet om het leven,en een kind kan zijn vader of moeder ook niet uitkiezen.
dat is ook de reden dat ik twee kinderen geadopteerd heb als mijn eigen kinderen.

What is niet? It appears twice!

Een kind vraagt niet om het leven,en een kind kan zijn vader of moeder ook niet uitkiezen.
dat is ook de reden dat ik twee kinderen geadopteerd heb als mijn eigen kinderen.

Niet is Russian for no. Long ago I saw a film featuring Goldie Hawn with the song containing the phrase: "NIET. NIET. NIET - not any more!" Niet means no. "No, no, no - not any more." The German is nicht. The common element is the letter N starting: Negative, Null, Never, No, Niet, Nicht, Neither, Nor, Nil, None, Naught.

So sentence one is a child ... not

Sentence two is about two children ... not

Look again. The word kinderen is repeated at the end!

Een kind vraagt niet om het leven, en een kind kan zijn vader of moeder ook niet uitkiezen.
dat is ook de reden dat ik twee kinderen geadopteerd heb als mijn eigen kinderen.

A child is also repeated.

Een kind vraagt niet om het leven, en een kind kan zijn vader of moeder ook niet uitkiezen.
dat is ook de reden dat ik twee kinderen geadopteerd heb als mijn eigen kinderen.

I can't work out the start, a child vraagt, but een kind kan - sounds like a child can!

That's very common in many laguages from Europe, K for c. C is S.

Een kind vraagt niet om het leven, en een kind kan zijn vader of moeder ook niet uitkiezen.
dat is ook de reden dat ik twee kinderen geadopteerd heb als mijn eigen kinderen.

After the first comma, I see 'en'.  And or but? My guess is and.

We still don't have any idea what it's all about, but we are building up the sentence word by word, learning Dutch, growing in confidence.

If kan is can, and en is and, I guess that dat, which appears twice means that.

Een kind vraagt niet om het leven, en een kind kan zijn vader of moeder ook niet uitkiezen.
dat is ook de reden dat ik twee kinderen geadopteerd heb als mijn eigen kinderen.

What else sound familiar, related to family life and the world of a child and its father and mother?

vader of moeder ? Either murder or mother? My guess is mother.

Vader of moeder? Further of murder or father of/off/or mother?

Vader of moeder - obviously father or mother!

Een kind vraagt niet om het leven, en een kind kan zijn vader of moeder ook niet uitkiezen.
dat is ook de reden dat ik twee kinderen geadopteerd heb als mijn eigen kinderen.

Still no nearer the sense, but we are gathering a word with every re-reading.

Back to the start:

Een kind vraagt niet om het leven,

A child doesn't eat its leavened bread or a child doesn't live its life?

Leven - a noun, must be life.

Het must be his or its. Het leven, his life.

Om must be on or of.

two children 'geadopteerd' looks like adopted. 

Ge in German is the prefix, fixed ahead of the word, for the past tense. Ge-adopteerd means adopted.

Een kind vraagt niet om het leven, en een kind kan zijn vader of moeder ook niet uitkiezen.
dat is ook de reden dat ik twee kinderen geadopteerd heb als mijn eigen kinderen.

Mijn eigen kindered - my / mine own children, my / mine eye children?

I don't know eigen but I'm pretty sure mijn is mine.

Now I know that in Dutch ij is simply an i sound, so that confusing j can be ignored. IJ is simply their way of spelling i pronounced eye.

I have had enough. I am now willing to go to Google translate. Next time I see Dutch I will be able to recognize that it is Dutch, and will make an attempt at trying to get the gist of it before translating.

I'm taking a short break. Later I shall add the whole translation.

Author

Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, teacher of English and other languages.Take a look at my other travel blog:
http://luxurytravelforless.co.uk

Learning Afghan Languages: Pashto; Persian Dari; Numbers 1,2,3

Problem
How do you recognize another language? How do you understand what people are saying - at last the general subject matter?

The ladies in the gym's sauna are chatting away. I cannot understand a word they say. I cannot even tell which language they are speaking. Yesterday a pair of ladies from Morocco and Egypt were conversing in Arabic.

Today a pair born in Afghanistan were speaking in another language. I learned that Afghanistan has two major languages.

They speak enough English to speak to me. (I was speaking to one of them earlier in the swimming pool.)

My first question is:
How can I tell I identify a language from Afghanistant? Is it more sing-song than English, like Welsh and Italian? Is it more guttural like German?

Answers
They said, more gutteral, like German.

I was not convinced.

I asked which country's language are you speaking?

They are speaking the language of Afghanistan, the main language, officially called Dari (also commonly called by the old name, called Farsi or Persian), although they can get by in both, the other language being Pashtu (also spelled as Pushtu or Pushto).

Which of the two languages you are speaking?

I decide that they only way for me to identify which language is which, if not by pronunciation, is by vocabulary. That may reveal the different letters. So I start by asking for the numbers one to three in both languages.

English - official language one pashtu/ pashto - official language two dari (also called Dari Persian or Afghan Persian)
one - yak - yo
two - dua - du
three - dree - sree?

What is hallo and goodbye?
Salaam aleikum. (As in Arabic.)

Thank you

Translation Tips
Duolingo does not yet have Arabic or any of the Middle Eastern languages. I am learning the Hebrew, Russian and Greek alphabets on Duolingo. (The Japanese and Hindi are both being prepared but have not yet reached the draft or beta stage allowing you to try out and debate translations on the first version before it is finalised.

Google translate gives Pashto and Persian but translates both into cursive scripts which I cannot read. Dari language is not in their long list.
However, if you type into Google translate Pashto you are offered the link:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.gkapps.translate.psen

The Reverso dictionary gives Arabic and several European languages and Hebrew but not Pashto nor Persian.

Tips
http://www.wikiwand.com/en/Languages_of_Afghanistan
http://wikitravel.org/en/Dari_phrasebook

Dari is written with a version of the Perso-Arabic script.

Dari alphabet and pronunciation (الفباى دري)

ح (he) is also known as ی جیمی (ye-jimi), and ﻩ (he) is also known as ی دوچش (ye-docešma)

http://www.17-minute-world-languages.com/en/dari/
http://wikitravel.org/en/Dari_phrasebook

Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker. See later post on Afghan foods. Please share links to your favourite posts.

Albanian - learn ten more words, please, from one to three, thank you

Problem
How do you learn Albanian?

Answer
Just keep adding ten more words.

English - Albanian
one - n j ë
two - d y
three - t r e
petrol (UK); gas (USA) - b e n z i n ë
please - j u l u t e m
tea - ç a j (to type the letter c with the comma underneath, hold down the letter, tap the number 1) looks like a cup of cha
thanks / thank you - f a l e n d e r i m / f a l e m i n d e r i t
lake - l i q e n (like the Scottish word loch)
beer - b i r r ë
coffee - k a f e

Albanian - English
b e n z i n ë - gasoline (USA) petrol (UK)
b i r r ë - beer
ç a j - tea
d y - two
f a l e n d e r i m - thanks
j u l u t e m - please
k a f e - coffee
l i q e n - lake
n j ë - one
t r e - three


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

Learn Chinese with Duolingu Flashcards

Problem
How do you learn Chinese?
Answers
At last Duolingo, from which I have been learning German and Italian, has started Chinese. I just discovered the Duolingo flashcards.

Story
I've been living in Singapore on and off for twenty years but still can't put together a sentence. I really want to start.
What do I know? The easy first three numbers which I learned from a children's placemat. The numbers start like the Roman numerals but horizontal. One is a horizontal line. Two is two parallel hormonal lines. Three is three parallel horizontal lines.

Chinese Numbers
Chinese is similar to Roman numerals which have one as an upright line, two as two parallel upright lines, three as three parallel upright lines. Just imagine the Roman numerals are bowing to the East.

The number ten is also like the Roman ten. The Chinese ten is a cross with a horizontal and a vertical. (The Roman ten has turned the cross slightly clockwise into an X.)

Tips
https://tinycards.duolingo.com/decks/
https://tinycards.duolingo.com/decks/237da03b-f290-4d86-80ac-f50f5d37842d (the page with the Chinese numbers)

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

Instant Indonesian and Malay - numbers one to five

Problem
How do you remember the numbers in Malay and Indonesian languages?

Answer
Look for similarities to the English words.


English

1 One - Satu (S for Single on a Saturday night and Satu)
2 Dua - Two (DU for dual and duo and dua)
3 Tiga - Three (T for Three and Tiga)
4 Empat - empathy EMPAT a foursome with empathy, like the US TV series Friends
5 Lima - five l-I-m-a - second letter is I and first letter is an upright

Now look at the words again
Malay /Indonesian - English
satu
dua
tiga
e m p a t
lima

Read the reminders again

1 One - Satu (S for Single on a Saturday night and Satu)
2 Dua - Two (DU for dual and duo and dua)
3 Tiga - Three (T for Three and Tiga)
4 Empat - empathy EMPAT a foursome with empathy, like the US TV series Friends
5 Lima - five l-I-m-a - second letter is I and first letter is an upright

If you are in either Indonesia or Malaysia whenever you see or hear the numbers one to five you should be able to remember or work out what they mean.

0 - nol (Indonesian)
The Indonesian word for zero is easier to remember than Malay. The Indonesia number for one is NOL, looks like nul - nul and void, or nil (for example scoring in a tennis match 'another number-nil'). N O L starts with the letters NO - no number, nobody on the grassy knoll.

0 -

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