Start Albanian with ling app

Flag of Albania. Wikipedia.

The Ling app course on Albanian started with the alphabet, not too difficult. Then it progressed to pictures of a man, women, boy and girl. You matched them up with pictures and written words.

English - Albanian

you - ju

boy - djalë

he - ai

girl - vajze

man - njeri

she - ajo

Woman -- gruaja

please - ju letem (my memory aid is it is two words like por favor, in Spanish, ju is you, think if you let me,  or do you let me ju letem)

Now you can use translate google

and - dhe

thank you -faleminderit 

hello - Përshëndetje - (more challenging)

goodbye - mirupafshim

Albanian - English

you - ju ( similar to the French tu, but more like d'you, to remember the j, I think you juvenile)

Well, folks, that's all. faleminderit, dhe mirupafshim.

Useful Websites

 https://play.ling-app.com/learn/unit/1/lesson/1

https://en.wikivoyage.org/wiki/Albanian_phrasebook

A Museum of Inventions and Inventors, National Inventors Hall of Fame, in Virginia, USA near Washington DC

 I discovered this wonderful museum in a roundabout way. I found a shoe website which mentioned Rip-tape, and looked up the story of the invention of Velcro. The Wikiedia references led me to the Museum in the USA.

Some time back, I had a book on inventions such as the zip and the toaster. I visited a school in Singapore and found that panels on the corridor walls featured the history of popular inventions.

At Toastmasters International clubs (I belong to five clubs now since Covid-19 meeting online) we often cite Edison, who invented the light bulb - after as many as a thousand attempts to create a momentary spark and make a permanent light bulb. He is widely quoted as saying variations on: I didn't make a thousand mistakes. I discovered a thousand ways not to do it.

I looked at the website of the museum in the USA. I read about the 2022 recipients of awards, the people who had found solutions to health problems affecting many. Cataract and Covid-19. Then I checked on the article on women. Finally, for black history month, the man who invented the breadcrumb making machine.

Useful Websites

USA

Washington DC/Virginia

https://www.invent.org/museum

UK

Science Museum, London

https://shop.sciencemuseum.org.uk/products/science-museum-brilliant-book-of-inventions

About the Author

Angela Lansbury, is a semi-retired travel writer still researching bucket list countries and seeking out the special, unusual, people, places,  landmarks, hotels, museums and trails, fabulous foods, recipes, clothes and online souvenir shopping.

Angela Lansbury is a member of Toastmasters International.

About the Author Angela Lansbury

The Author - Quick Quotations

Angela Lansbury B A Hons  is the author of ten books by regular publishers plus another ten self-published books. 

About Angela The Speaker & Trainer

Angela Lansbury is a teacher of English and other languages to Toastmasters clubs and businesses.

Braddell Heights Advanced Toastmasters Speakers Vice President  Public Relations, Immediate Past President. VPPR

Former Area Director S3. Club Coach for Nee Soon South Toastmasters Club.

Also Member of: TCA Toastmasters Club; Singapore Online Dynamic; Harrovians UK

BHA

Past meetings have included Garen Tee on using story telling in business, on 

bha.learncool.sg/meet/bha . 

Recent meetings of BHA included an educational session on using Powerpoint for posters.

Next BHA meetings, always first Wednesday evening, 7 pm Singapore time. Next meeting is  the third Saturday afternoon, June 19th 2pm Singapore time.  Inauguration of the new committee was by the incoming Director of S, plus a lively speech on teamwork.

Next meetings will be on these dates (unless a national holiday in Singapore or worldwide)

Themes and word of the day are tentative

2021

JULY - JUBILANT JULY

Theme/WOD Jubilant

WORKSHOPS & EDUCATIONAL SESSIONS (based on level one of Pathways)

1 Your first speech or role EASY ENGLISH LANGUAGE (Articles A and The, Plurals, Tenses, Pronunciation, Singlish)

2 CHOOSE YOUR PATH

Wed July 7th 

Saturday 17th

July 4rh American Independence Day.

2021 AUGUST - AWESOME AUGUST

1 Pathway Level 1 Introductory Speeches

2 Evaluations

Wed 4th

Sat 21

2021 SEPT - SUPER SEPTEMBER

Wed 1st

Sat 18th SPEECH CONTESTS

Humorous Speech Contest

Table Topics Contest

2021 OCT - ODD OCTOBER

Wed 6th

Sat 16th

2021 NOV - NOVELTY NOVEMBER

Wed 3rd

Sat 20th Wed

Diwali Hindu Festival of lights Nov 4th.

Nov 25th American Thanksgiving.

Hanukah starts 28 Dec 8 days until Dec 6. Jewish Festival of lights, celebrated by Jesus.

2021 DEC - DARLING DECEMBER

Wed  1st (Hanukah if not previous month. Festival foods.)

Sat 18th

Speech on 

JAN 2022 - JOYFUL JANUARY

Wed Jan 5th New beginning - forget the past

Sat 15 Long-term plans = for the future/Chinese New Year (CNY for short)

2022 FEB FUN FEBRUARY

Theme Love and romance - Chinese New Year

Feb 1st and 2nd are holidays - do we move this Feb 2nd meeting date?)

Wed 2nd (Valentine's Day Mon Feb 14)

Sat 19th

2022 MAR - MARVELLOUS MARCH

Theme

Wed 2nd

Sat 19

March 1st is Christian Pancake day. 

2022 APR - APRIL'S AIMS

Wed 6th

Sat 16th

Muslim Ramadan 1-30 April.

Jewish Passover (Seder meal=Last supper) April

 16

2022 MAY - MODERNISING MAY

Wed 4th

Sat 21

2022 JUN - JUBILANT JUNE

Wed 1st

Sat 18th

Jul 6, Jul 16, Aug 3, Aug 20, Sept 7, Sept 17, Oct 5, Oct 15, Nov 2, Nov 19, Dec 7, Dec 17.

Angela The Blogger 

Angela has several blogs speeches, comedy and song writing and organizing, writing intermittently, but writes almost daily on these three:

travelwithangelalansbury.blogspot.com

dressofthedayangela.blogspot.com

translateforfun.blogspot.com

See many varied posts such as the post on sculptor Tom Harvey.

Please share links to your favourite posts. 

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.

Greetings and conversation in German (and other languages) at the airport

Problem
Next year I am taking a holiday with a group of ex-pats who speak English, Indonesian, German and Dutch. We will be in Bulgaria. So I need to brush up on the basics of sentences in four languages, enough to grasp what they are saying. I have chosen half a dozen vital sentence which I will learn in each of the three languages.

I shall start by spending ten minutes on the German, as I already know German. I need to practise saying these sentences so I can not only understand but speak.

Read the English, then the German / other language. Come back to the English and see if you can remember the German / other language.

ENGLISH
AIRPORT
Excuse me - do you speak English / German / Dutch / Indonesian / Malaysian?
No, sorry. / Yes, I do. I am English!
Only - a little. Slowly, please!
Can you write it down?
I have a dictionary - can you Google translate it?

1
Airport
Good morning / Good afternoon / Good evening
Welcome
Excuse me
Can you help me?

2
Where is the check-in? Where is the Lufthansa / KLM desk?
Where is the lounge?
Where is the toilet? The ladies / The gents /
Men / Women/ Boys / Girls/ male / female
And - What time is the shuttle bus?

3
It's due now /
in Five minutes, ten minutes, fifteen minutes,
in half an hour, every hour, on the hour
Sorry - it does not run on Sunday / the evening / bank holidays
If you can't wait, how about a taxi - over there

4
Where is the bus stop?
Where is the car park?
We are in a hurry. We are late!
You are late. You must hurry!
Calm down. You are in good time. You've plenty of time.

5
I don't know
I am also looking for it
No idea
I'm a stranger
Ask over there

6
Ask him / her / them
Come with me
I'll show you
Thanks
Bon voyage / have a safe journey

7
Take care
Look after yourself
See you soon
See you later
Goodbye

GERMAN
FLUGHAFEN
Entschuldigung - Sprechen Sie Englisch / Sprechen Sie Deutsch / Niederländisch / Indonesisch / Sprechen Sie Malaysisch?
Nein Entschuldigung. / Ja, mache ich. Ich bin Engländer! Ich bin Deutsche. Ich bin Indonesisch. Ich bin Niederländisch.
Nur ein bisschen. Langsam Bitte!
Kannst du es aufschreiben?
Ich habe ein Wörterbuch - kannst du Google übersetzen?

1
Flughafen
Guten Morgen / guten Nachmittag / guten Abend
Herzlich willkommen
Entschuldigen Sie mich
Kannst du mir helfen?

2
Wo ist der Check-in? Wo ist der Lufthansa / KLM Schalter?
Wo ist die Lounge?
Wo ist die Toilette? Die Damen / Die Herren /
Männer / Frauen / Jungen / Mädchen / männlich / weiblich
Und - Um wie viel Uhr ist der Shuttlebus?

3
Wo ist die Bushaltestelle?
Wo ist der Parkplatz?
Wir sind in Eile. Wir sind spät!
Du bist spät. Du musst dich beeilen!
Beruhigen. Du bist rechtzeitig da. Du hast viel Zeit.

4
Ich weiß es nicht
Ich suche auch danach
Keine Ahnung
Ich bin ein Fremder
Frag dort drüben

5
Frag ihn / sie / sie
Komm mit mir
Ich werde Ihnen zeigen
Vielen Dank
Gute Reise / sichere Reise

6
Pass auf
Sich selbst versorgen
Bis bald
Bis später
Auf Wiedersehen

***

English - German
AIRPORT
Airport
Good morning / afternoon / evening
Welcome
Excuse me
Can you help me?

I don't know
I am also looking for it
No idea
I'm a stranger
Ask over there

Where do I check in?
Here / Just there / Over there
On the right / left
Upstairs / downstairs
Up the stairs / up the escalator

Through the doors
At the far end
Where is the exit?
Where are the taxis?
Is there a cheap bus /shuttle bus?

Where does it go?
Does it go into the city / to my hotel
Where is the tourist office?
Can you point (to it)?
I see it!

I can't see it
Thank you
You're welcome
I need water
I would like a cup of coffee

We have black coffee
We only have tea
That's fine
No thanks, I'll leave it
Sorry, I haven't time

How much is it?
Is that the right money?
Do you take Euros?
Yes/no
Is that right?

Is that the right money?
Just right / That's it!
Nearly / almost
Another 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100

Where's my change?
Keep the change
Where's my change
The bill, please
Keep the change

What time is check in?
They are calling my flight!
I have to go!
Please hurry!
Can I get past?

You have time - plenty of time
Please sit down and wait
Can I sit down, somewhere?
Where can I sit?
I'll be over there

Hotel
Welcome to our hotel
Here is your key
Please fill in this form
We need your name
Write it here

We need a credit card?
Do you have another credit card?
We do not take American Express
That's fine / ok
Just a moment / minute!

We need a signature
You must sign it
Cash will do
Do you take credit cards?
I need a taxi

I need a toilet
Where are the toilets:
Over there
To the right
To the left

See the sign
You can't miss it
Is that everything?
Yes, we're finished
You may go

Later post - Restaurant

Later post - Friends

Earworms has recordings of sentences for these situations
You can buy from Berliz direct and through Amazon and ebay
Useful Websites
Berlitz / Earworms
Amazon
Ebay

Author
Angela

How to remember 23 Portuguese words - or any foreign language

Flag of Portugal. From Wikimedia Commons.

Problem
I am learning Portuguese. I need a working vocabulary of about 300 words, which I can do in a month if I learn ten a day. I need to practise every day or I will forget the words.

Answer
The simple solution is to keep the word list on a page in my diary. I write the foreign word first, then the English translation.

Alphabet Letters
I list the letters of the alphabet down the left hand side. How many lines do I have? I have 26, enough for one line per letter of the alphabet. (In theory if I know there are few words, an few I need to know, starting with x, y, z, or any letter that language does not use, I could drop that letter or put two on one line, leaving space for a each use letter, such as c in French or S in English.

I started with the letters of the alphabet at the beginning of the line, but I was short of space. So I wrote over the letters, making the initial letter in the margin. When I started the next page, for German, I had the system more condensed.

Margin
Now the initial letters are in the margin. I write as close as I can get to the edge of the page.

Saving Space
I started by repeating the letters, leaving the initial letter separate. However, now I use it to start the first word.  So instead of
A agua - water
b boa / bom - good
c carta - letter

I write
agua - water
boa / bom - good
carta - letter

Save Space With Dots
The hyphens between the Portuguese and the English were taking up too much space. I changed the line for a dot.

agua.water
boa.good
carta.letter

In this blog post I am not so short of space. I also want to make the words easier to read. Therefore here I am sticking to the hyphens.

If the word is the same in English I write the letter s in brackets.
pizza (s) 

Why Not Capitalise Initial Letters?
I could write
Agua
Boa
Carta

However, I have been trained as a sub-editor to use small letters to start words in dictionaries. That way the reader knows when a word always starts with a capital letter.

Folding
The page is narrow and I need all the space I can get. I fold the page in half vertically and then in half again. So I now have four columns.

Four across by 25 down makes space for 100 words on a page.

Here are my first 23 Portuguese words with my memory aids:
(Only 20 are listed in this blog post under labels because the limit is 20 labels)

agua - water (like aquaduct)
abacaxi - pineapple (P and B sound and look almost the same. AP - pineAPple - apple pine, pine apple, cut it down with an axe - ee! I might not remember translating from English to Portuguese, but I am well on the way to remembering it when I see it written on a menu in Portugal or Madeira)
boa / bom - good (As in Bombay. Good bay. How do I remember it's good and not beautiful. If it's beautiful it's good.)
carta - letter, a carta or uma carta is a letter. (How do I remember 'a carta', feminine? I visualise a lady writing a letter.)
com - with / to / by
de - of
é - is
ele - he / him / it
eles - they
eu - I
falamos - we speak
gosto - (I) like
jornal - newspaper (o / um jornal) (like the French journal but drop the u, just as the Americans drop the u from British English c o l o u r and make it c o l o r.)
lê - you read
leio - I read (I remember: Add i for I, + O for I as in Latin Amo amas amat meaning I read, you etc)
livro - book
menino - boy (I remember men, but little ones, o as in boy for masculine)
mulheres - women
nós - us / we
um - a / one / some
você - you (I remember vous with v in French. V looks like Y.) 

Other useful posts:
http://travelwithangelalansbury.blogspot.co.uk/2018/01/port-and-portuguese-wine-labels-and.
http://travelwithangelalansbury.blogspot.co.uk/2018/01/how-to-ask-for-food-and-drink-in.
http://travelwithangelalansbury.blogspot.co.uk/2018/01/learn-your-first-ten-words-in.
http://travelwithangelalansbury.blogspot.co.uk/2018/01/how-do-you-say-please-in-portuguese-is.

visitportugal.com

visitbrasil.com

http://www.visitmadeira.pt/en-gb/homepage

duolingo.com

earwormslearning.com

http://travelwithangelalansbury.blogspot.co.uk/2018/02/polyglot-poem-by-angela-lansbury.html

Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker, learner and speaker of many languages (a polyglot). Please bookmark and share links to your favourite posts. I have several more on Portuguese, Spanish, German, Chinese, Hebrew and other languages and countries.

Quotations about travel, food, wine and wine bottle labels

As you sip your coffee, you may recall:

APHRODISIACS
For women, the best aphrodisiacs are words.
Isabel Allende in Of Love and Shadows.
QQ

APPLES
An apple a day keeps the doctor away. An onion a day keeps everyone away.
QQ
The apple doesn't fall far from the tree.
QQ

BREAD
In the Lord's prayer, the first petition is for daily bread. Nobody can worship God (or one his neighbour) on an empty stomach.
Woodrow Wilson (28 Dec 1865-3 Feb 1924, 28th US President.)
WSWW

CHAMPAGNE
In victory you deserve it; in defeat you need it.
Napoleon Bonaparte
QQ

COOKS
Too many cooks spoil the broth.
QQ

COFFEE/TEA Quotations about coffee
As you sit researching your travels, sipping coffee or tea, you might recall:

If this is tea, bring me coffee. If this is coffee, bring me tea.
US President Abraham Lincoln.

You can have any colour, so long as it's black.
Henry Ford (about motor cars).
QQ

DENTISTS

If I'd known I was going to live so long, I'd have taken more care of me teeth.

Pam Ayres

QQ

DINING and DINNER
Show me another pleasure like dinner, which comes every day, and lasts an hour.
QQ

DIRT

A little dirt never hurt anyone.

QQ

Cleanliness is next to Godliness.

QQ

You'll eat a heap of muck before you die.

QQ

DRINK AND DRINKING
Eat, drink and be merry, for tomorrow you may die.
Eat, drink and be merry, for tomorrow you may diet.
QQ

Stop at two.
(Said of children and drink.)

I recall W C Fields:

When I read that drinking was bad for you, I gave up reading.

QQ

I drink therefore I am.

WC Fields

QQ
WSWW (WC Fields 29 Jan 1880-1946 Dec 25.)

One more drink and I'll be under the host.

Dorothy Parker/Frank Sinatra.

QQ

DOCTORS

An apple a day keeps the doctor away. An  onion a day keeps everyone away.

QQ

EAT AND EATING
Eat, drink and be merry, for tomorrow you may die.
Eat drink and be marry, for tomorrow you may diet.
QQ

One should live to eat, not eat to live.
Moliere
QQ

You are what you eat.
Brilliant-Savarin.
WSWW

FOOD / FEED/ MEALS / DINNER Quotations about food
I cook with wine; sometimes I even add it to the food.
W C Fields
QQ

Let food be thy medicine. Let thy medicine be food.
Hippocrates.
QQ

If you can't feed, don't breed.
QQ

KITCHEN
If you can't stand the heat, stay out of the kitchen.
QQ

MEAT
One man's meat is another man's poison.
QQ

OYSTERS
He was a bold man that first ate an Oyster.
Jonathan Swift 30 nov 1667-19 Oct 1745) Irish author of Gullivers travels. Died age 77.

TRAVEL Quotations about travel
It is better to travel in hope than to arrive.
R L Stevenson (Author of Treasure Island.)
QQ
(Many more in Quick Quotations for authors and speakers Page 92)

WATER
I never drink water. I am afraid it may become habit forming. Fish f... in it.
WC Fields
WSWW (29 Jan 1880-1946 Dec 25)

WINE Quotations about wine
A glass of wine and thou.
QQ
Good wine needs no bush.
QQ
Wine, women and song.
QQ
...
GLOSSARY
QQ quoted in my book Quick Quotations (Lulu.com)
WWSW quoted in my book Who Said What When (Lulu.com)

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