German Easy Everyday 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.

 English - German

I am learning German on Duolingo.

I listened to a BBC podcast about how apps can help, and whether you gain more by adding a conversation with a live person or doing that instead. For me, at home alone, or on public transport, the app is a start and a constant practice.

Apparently you can turn off the sounds at the ends of an exercise, which might annoy others at home or in public places such as on a bus or train.

 German - English

A capital letter at the start of a word indicates that it is a noun rather than a verb or adjective.

(Die )Jacke - (the ) jacket 

du - you singular, like tu in French

English - German

Remember to use a capital letter when writing nouns in German.

jacket - Jacke, the jacket is die Jacke, (both die and Jacke end in the letter e)

you singular - tu

(you singular) must - musst (You must use the double ss in German)

Useful English-German websites

duolingo.com

https://wikitravel.org/en/German_phrasebook

translate.google.com

-ends-

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Start Esperanto with a few easy words A-Z and some grammar rules

Dr Zamenhof created the language Esperanto (which means I hope). An easy language. 

I started this list from words I learned on Duolingo.

 I filled in the missing letters by checkling online and a paperback Teach yourself Esperanto Dictionary.

 Esperanto - English

al - to

avo - grandfather

bela - beautiful

blanka - white (adjectives end in a

blua - blue

bruna - brown

capo - cap

Dankon - thank you

estas - is/are 

estis was/were

flago - flag

griza - gray

havas - have

helpi - help

infano - child

januaro - January

kara - expensive kastelo - castle kisas - kisses

libro - book

Londono - London (all nouns end in the letter o)

Mi - I

Ni - we

oktobr - October

parko - park

q - NO WORDS quality - kvalito

restoracio - restaurant

Saluton - hello!

tago - day

unu - on ne urbo - city

Vi - you varma - warm

w NOT USED

x NOT USED Xmas - Kristnasko

y No y, use the letter j, pronounced y

zebro (nouns end in o) - zebra zipo - zip 

mi estas instruisto - I am a teacher (instructor)

Mi havas uno filon. - I have a son (add n for the object of a sentence)

Tips

1 See my other posts on Esperanto for inspiration and encouragement.

2 You see how easy it is to recognize vocabulary, which you can do on Esperanto websites. 

3 You can convert Wikipedia into an esperanto version. 

4 Or turn a short article into Esperanto after reading the English.

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Romanian Language your first ten easy words

Romanian Flag.

The name Romania comes from the word Roman.  Wikivoyage phrasebook romanian says that the language is more like Italian than French. I recognize plurals formed by adding the letter i as used in the Italian language. 

But I speak French so I recognize lots of Romanian words as being similar to French. For example, the Romanian word for thank you is mersi, like the French word merci. So to me, the Romanian language is more like French than Italian.

Where can you start to learn? It's easy to start for free on Duolingo. The system has several features which I like. Pictures are matched with everyday words. A simple grammar guide and list of phrases starts each set of exercises. 

Two words for you, several of which sound similar to French. 

English (alphabetically) - Romanian

are (they are) - sunt (like the french nous sommes in we are and elles sont in they are) 

cocoa - cacao (proounced cack - ow as in howl or owl. The English word has the letter o twice, but the Romanian has the letter a twice)

honey - miere (me air ay or me air er, like the French word miel)

I - eu (pronounced yo)

thanks -  mersi (like the French merci)

the - la (as in French)

two - doi (notice the letters d and o like the English word duo)

unt - butter (notice the letters u and t in the Romanian and the English)

You - tu, voi (the same as the French tu, and similar to the French vous, which also has the letters v and o)

we - noi (similar to the French nous which has the letters n and o)

Romanian (alphabetically) - English

butter - unt

cacao - cocoa

doil - two (like the English word duo)

eu (pronounced yo) - I

la - the

mersi - thanks

miere - honey

noi - we (like the French word nous)

sunt - are

tu - you

voi - you

Numbers[edit]

1

unu (OO-noo)

2

doi (doy)

3

trei (tray)

4

patru (PAH-troo)

5

cinci (cheench)

6

șase (SHAH-seh)

7

șapte (SHAHP-teh)

8

opt (ohpt)

9

nouă (NOH-uh)

10

zece (ZEH-cheh)

Useful Websites

Duolingo

https://www.duolingo.com/

Wikivoyage Romania phrasebook

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

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Easy Words In Spanish

SPANISH - ENGLISH

banco - bank

flor - flower (just add the letters we)

palacio - palace

rio - river

usted - you

villa - villa/house

vino - wine

ENGLISH - SPANISH

bank- banco

flower - flor (just drop the letters we, think of floral)

palace - palacio

river - rio

villa - villa

wine - vino

you - usted

Useful Websites

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Quick guide to Indonesian words - mostly the same as Malaysian

Flag of Malaysia, which is almost the same as Indonesian.

Starting Indonesian on Duolingo is easy.

Indonesian - English

air - water (pronounced aye er, as it is written in the Singaporean placename and MRT underground railway station, Telok Ayer)

apple/ apples - apel

dan - and (the same letters in a different order)

jeruk - orang/oranges (juicy oranges, letter er, then UK)

kamu - you (I think of 'come here, you')

makan - eat

minum - drink

punya - possess/have

saya - i/My (remember the letter y in both words)

susu - milk

English - Indonesian

and - dan

apple/apples - apel

drink - minum

eat - makan

I - saya

milk - susu

orange/oranges - jeruk (remember JEruk not juruk, je like the GE in orange)

possess/have - punya

water - air

you - kamu 

False Friends

air meaning water looks like air but it isn't air, it's water, unless you think of H2O

Useful Websites

duolingo.com

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More Albanian - needs on arrival and getting about

 

Flag of Albania.

I made lists of words I thought I would need to use or recognize when travelling, common words and useful words.

Words which are the same or nearly the same are hotel and farmaci.

Common words

and - dhe

danger - rreziku

the -të

or - ose

you - ju

warning -paralajmërim 

dhe - and të - the ju - you

ose - or paralajmërim - warning

rreziku- danger

You may need 

Linking words English - Albanian

at/beside - në/përkrah

from - nga

to - te

right/left - djathtas /majtas

yes/no po/jo

please/thank you - ju lutem/faleminderit

hello/goodbye - përshëndetje / mirupafshim

boy/girl - djale vajze

man/women - burrë/grua

Albanian - English (alphabetically) 

burrë/grua - man/woman

djale vajze - boy/girl

djathtas majtas - right/left

ju lutem/faleminderit - please/thank you

në/përkrah - at/beside
nga - from

përshëndetje / mirupafshim - hello/goodbye
po/jo - yes/no
te - to

Countries

Albania/Albanian

England/English

America/American

London/Londoner

Germany/German

Shqipëri/shqiptar
Angli/Anglisht
Amerikë/Amerikane
Londër/Londër
Gjermani/gjerman

Albanian - English

ajo - she

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

bar/snack bar/coffee shop/bistro/cheap restaurant/fine restaurant/local style restaurant/national food

From Maps

bridge - urë

cafe - kafene

car park - parkim makinash

city - qytet

drinking water

drug store - farmaci

entrance - hyrje

exit - dalje

free - falas

hotel - hotel

urë - BRIDGE
kafene- CAFE
parkim makinash - CAR PARK
qytet - CITY
ujë i pijshëm - DRINKING WATER
farmaci - pharmacy (UK) drug store (USA)
hyrje - entrance
dalje - exit
falas - free
hotel - hotel

Useful websites

wikivoyage

Spanish made simple

 I have been learning Spanish on Duolingo. 

Here are some easy words:

Spanish - English (Easy to recognize and remember)

come (verb) - eat (like the Enlish word, noun, comestible)

contento (m adjective) contenta (F adjective) - contented/happy

en - in

hombre - man (think of human, or homo sapiens, or the French word which is written the same but pronounced differently)

mucho - much

no - don't

oficina - office

siete - seven

usted - you (formal)

Yo - I

English - Spanish

contented/happy - contento/a

desk - escritorio (place where scribes sit to inscribe)

don't - no

eat (verb) - come (like the English word, noun, comestible)

I - yo

in - en

man - hombre

much - mucho

office - oficina

seven - siete

you - usted (formal)

Useful but harder or confusing words

Spanish - English

abrigo - coat

ella - she (not a girl's name, but you could think, 'Ella, she ....'

English - Spanish

coat - abrigo

Useful Websites

Duolingo

Wikipedia

translate google

Easy to recognize Malay and Indonesian words in Malaysia, Indonesia and Singapore

Flag of Malaysia.

In Malaysia and Indonesia and the Food Courts of Singapore you will see lots of Malay words for food and drink. Makan (verb) means eat and food for short, and makanan for food. Miniman means drink. Indonesian and Malay are similar with a few differences in vocabulary, with Portuguese words or derived words added in Indonesia. 

In Singapore you see signs and hear announcements on the MRT (Mass Rapid Transport) trains, in the four national languages, English, Chinese (Mandarin), Malay and Tamil. The easiest language to pick up quickly is Malay, because the script is one which English speakers recognize, and what you see is what you say. (Technical term, a phonetic language.)

I looked at the English language and Malay language versions of a health leaflet about vaccinations and found lots of similar words. You will easily recognize:

Malay - English

aktif - active

aktiviti - activity/activities

doktor - doctor

fizikal - physical

kronik - chronic

program - programme

serius - serious

sistem - system

sosial - social

vaksin - vaccine

vaksinasi - vaccination/vaccinated

Some common words (with my memory aid hints)

Malay - English

anda - you/your (I'm fine - and you?)

atas - above (at the top, like a hat)

atau - or

bagi - for

boleh - can

dan - and (same letters in a different order)

di - at

diri - self (direct it back to yourself)

ini - this (in, inside or on or is this, isn't it innit?)

orang (as in orang utan) person

orang-orang (plural is doubled) people

rumah - home (room at home, letter m in both languages)

selamat - safe (Letters s a a and e in both words)

wanita - woman/women (initial letter w in both words,  and the e in women is pronounced like i, it is a woman)

Malay is very similar to Indonesia.

Useful web sites

duolingo.com Indonesian

Facebook Polyglot groups

translate google

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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/

First words in Tamil

 

I have visited Singapore's bilingual Tamil and English club several times and having started the challenging task of learning to read and speak and write (Mandarin) Chinese, I thought it was time to tackle another one of Singapore's four official languages, Tamil.

I have used several approaches. 

The most useful for a jolly introduction, individual words and grammar is wikihow. The sentence structure usually has the verb at the end. The verb to be is not necessary. That explains why some Indian speakers create sentences without verbs. 

English - Tamil

I - nan

you -ninkal

he - avar

she - aval

it - atu

Tamil - English

atu - it

avar - he

aval - she

nan - I

ninkal - you

The Foreign Workers & Domestic Helpers language guide has Singapore's four official languages, English, Chinese, Tamil and Bahasa Indonesia, as well as Myanmar, and Bengali - the language of Bangladesh.

I didn't get on with the flashcards from livinglanguage.com/languagedemo/tamilflash

I could not work out the words from the sounds.  Good if you want to speak. I want to understand what I hear and to read. 

This flashcards would be good for me for Spanish and Italian and German where I can work out what they are saying and learn the accent. It worked well for me in Chinese.

Useful Websites

https://www.wikihow.com/Learn-Tamil

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

https://digitaldefynd.com/best-tamil-language-courses/

https://www.livinglanguage.com/languagedemo/tamilflash/11930/essential-saying-hello

duolingo in January 2021, The Tamil course is 75% complete.

Duolingo 

Languages available

Chinese, German, Hebrew, Russian, Spanish, Portuguese, Vietnamese, Welsh, Ukrainian

Memrise

Languages available

Chinese, French, German, Spanish, Turkish

Google Translate

memrise

https://www.memrise.com/

Foreign Workers & Domestic Helpers Language Guide

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.

Ten Easy to remember Chinese place names and words

Flag of China

Hi, I have some easy Chinese words for you. Hi means sea in Chinese (Mandarin). I think of the high sea.

Haiku, the poetry, is also the name of a city in China. 

Haikou

The hanzi characters comprising the city's name, 海口, mean ocean/sea and mouth/port, respectively. Therefore, the name "Haikou" is also a word for "seaport" - similar to 'Portsmouth', meaning port's mouth, in England. 

Shanghai

The two Chinese characters in the city's name are 上 (shàng/zan, "upon") and 海 (hǎi/hae, "sea"), together meaning "Upon the Sea".

Beijing

The name Beijing, means "Northern Capital" (from the Chi>nglishnese characters 北 for north and 京 for capital).

English - Chinese

capital - jing

east -东 Dōng

good - how

mountain - shan

mouth or port - kou

north - 北 Běi

sea - hai

south - 南 Nán

upon - shang/zan

You  - ni

Chinese 

bei - north

dong - east

hai - sea

how - good

jing - capital

kou - mouth or port

Nán - south

ni - you

shan - mountain

Shang/zan - upon

Useful Websites (alphabetically)

chineasy

Here are the signs for roof, moon, king, person, fire, mountain (Shan - a popular first name for girls in China and Singapore), horse (ma), sun, mouth, door. chineasy uses pictures. I bought their book and flashcards. 

person

https://translate.google.com/

wikipedia

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

About the Author Of This Post, Angela

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

Author of Wedding Speeches & Posts, Etiquette for Every Occasion, Quick Quotations, Who Said What When?

You can contact Angela through Facebook, LinkedIn, and Braddell Heights Advanced Toastmasters on Facebook or Toastmasters Interntional.com find a club . Angela is a member of four Toastmasters Clubs and BHA IPP, Immediate Past President, and VP PR (Vice President Public Relations) for 20202-2021

Please share links to your favourite posts in

travelwithangelalansbury.blogspot.com

dressofthedayAngela.blogspot.com

How to remember I, you, he, she and it in Indonesian

Problem
Indonesian is easier than other languages because he ahse and it are the same word, dia. However, how do you remember that dia is he, she or it?

Answer
I made up the memory aid: my dear friend (the man, the woman, the dog, the object - my favourite object such as a teddy bear. Dia is he, she or it.

Saya is I, so say I.

 u ending eith the letter u is you. If I see an Indonesian word ending with a u at the start of a sentence, and it isna't saya 0 I, nor dia, my dear friend, he, she or it, then ithe wor must be you.

But when translating from English how do I remember the first three letters? I have a friend called Kamlesh. Alternatively, think of the phrase: "Come here you!"

Indonesian - English
saya - I
kamu - you
dia - he, she or it

English - Indonesian
I - saya
you - kamu
he, she or it - dia

Author, Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker, teacher of languages. If you want an entertaining talk or workshop on learning languages, please contact me.

Learn some Malay-Indonesian and Understand and Remember Slang

Lots of Indonesian is easy. Ticket is tiket.
Tiket Harian Berjaminan, literally: Daily Ticket with Guarantee (a seven day ticket).
Jalan is street. You see this word all over the place, on street signs and maps.

However, after you learn to read Malay/Indonesian, you find that in Indoneisa they speak slang, a bit like the British shortening words, saying yeah for yes.
Wikivoyage gives a handy phrase list and I have added my own aide-memoire (French for memory aid):

How to speak prokem like a Betawi

The everyday speech of Jakartans (Betawi) is liberally laced with slang (prokem) expressions. Like any slang, words come in and out of fashion with bewildering rapidity, but some features can be distinguished:

• f becomes p
• z becomes j
• The prefix me- for verbs becomes ng-
• The suffixes -i and -kan turn into -in

A short glossary of common Jakartan expressions:

no 

tidak → nggak/kagak/gak/ogah/moh

I 

saya/aku → gua/gue

you 

kamu/anda → lu/lo ('A n d a' is you, which you see on signs in Singapore. For the written word, I think of 'and you'. I had to insert spaces because the spell checker thinks I have mistyped the word and. For the spoken word, think of you and lu.) 

sorry 

maaf → maap

to come up 

menaik → naek

to take 

mengambil → ngambil

to look 

melihat → ngeliat

to use 

memakai/menggunakan → pake/make/ngegunain

to visit 

mengunjungi → ngunjungin

what are you doing? 

kamu sedang apa? → ngapain?

to pay 

membayar → bayar/ngebayar (The shortened version is simpler and easier to remember. B a y a r for pay her. 'ow much am I gonna pay 'er, gebayar, meaning to pay.)

how much is it?

berapa harganya? → berapaan nih? (How do you learn this phrase? Think of pan as pay. Think of nih is you as in the Chinese greeting nih how - how are you.

Keep pointing at items on the table or in the room and asking, 'berapaan nih?'. Think of if as 'how much as you asking,' or 'how much would I pay you for this?' Think of it as: 'how much would I pay you for bread?' Berapaan nih? Berapaan nih? Berapaan nih? How much could I bear to pay you for bread? Berapaan nih?

If you have trouble saying it, don't say it. Ask somebody else (preferably somebody Indonesian) to say it. Just listen to them. Three times. Berapaan nih.

Glossary - means a short list of word explanations, like a short dictionary

Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer. Language teacher, English and other languages.

How to Remember Basic Brazilian Portuguese Words

Problem
It's easy enough to see that o menino is a boy and mulher is mother when I am reading, but how do I remember the Portuguese when I want to say something?

I learned these words six months ago. It's a lot quicker this time. But I still have to remind myself the first time I do the exercise and get it all wrong, or take ten second to think. When you are talking, you want the words to flow out automatically, not keep people waiting whilst you hunt for words and construct a sentence.

Answers
At first I had trouble remembering which endings went with which word, feminine and masculine. But it's pretty easy. The prepositions and adjective match the nouns. Think of it like matching colour on a string of beads. All the blues for boys on one side for one bracelet, all the pinks for girls on the other side for another bracelet. One you have got an o or a ending for the first word, the next word matches it.

o menino - boy , like the Buddy Holly song, "Oh, boy, oh boy ..."
a menina - girl

Oh - boy.
Ah - a girl. Girl may be written with the letter I, but the sound is a or er.

Portuguese - English
o homen - man ( I remember: Oh, ho, men. No just one man.)
a menina - girl
o menino - boy
a mulher - woman (looks like mother, every woman is a mother, but how do I remember U L? You love every woman?
voce - you (like the French vous which is you plural or you formal to a stranger)

English - Portuguese
boy - o menino
bread - o pao
girl - a menina
man - o homen
milk -
woman - mulher

you - voce

STOP - I haven't finished this post or put in the accents. I'll come back later. Go to next post!

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

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.

Learning Chinese Sounds and Shapes with Duolingo

Problems
I am finding learning Chinese very hard with Duolingo. No clues are given as to how to remember the written signs.

The sounds are also hard to recognize. Zh sounds like J-sh or Gsh. You hear GSh, then have to remember to write ZH.

The beta version translates into English with the Surnames second. This is nonsense. You say Lee Kuan Yew (former, now deceased, grand-daddy founder and minister of modern Singapore). His family name is Lee. You might call him Mister Lee. But using all the names you would keep the surname first, Chinese style.

Answers
Hover over the letters with the mouse and you see the answers to type in. They don't tell you or remind you.

It's easy to spot that ni haou, how are you, is longer with four signs, in the multiple choice. But later, reading in a page of signs, you would not recognize it.

Which words are I and you? I am and you are. I am Ming and you are Ming.

At first glance and listen I thought Mi or Ni must be me or I. No. Ni is you.

Now I have a memory aid.

'Ni how?' means 'how are you?' So Ni is you.

Wo is I. Although o is in the word you.

I asked my husband how to remember that wo is me or I. He quoted Shakespeare, "Woe is me!"

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

Starting to learn Chinese Greetings - words, translations, pictures, memory aids, reminders

Problem
What's the quickest, easiest way to learn Chinese, which costs little in case I drop it, but will keep me going?

Answer
Duolingo. Why? At the moment the beginners' courses are all free. It is on both a laptop and a mobile phone, although the phone version seems restricted, in terms of the languages available and functions available. The system sends you daily reminders. I might ignore them if I am busy for a day, or a week, but eventually, I will go back and there are many stretches of a week or more when I work solidly and consistently.

Even if after a lapse I have to start at the beginning again, the second time around goes quicker and more easily.

Chinese starters
If you take a tour in China your guide will often teach you one or two phrases, most commonly the greeting equivalent to hello, which is ni haou. (Pronounced 'knee how?' I think of it as greeting granny and asking her, 'how are your knees?')

I went to a bilingual Chinese-English Toastmasters international meeting where the Chinese speaking Toastmasters of the evening kept asking Ni haou and getting the reply haou. In the interval, I asked what that meant.

The answers were, 'You good?'
'Good!'

So far, so good!

Then the system asks you to pair up the Chinese characters with the spoken words.

Recognizing the written Chinese proved harder. You have to find your own memory aid and create an image or picture using one of more of the strokes.

Ni haou is a longer word in Chinese spoken and more characters.

Ni haou sign starts with what looks like a diagonal tray balanced on a stick lower leg or knee, a big like the letter t with a broad horizontal, diagonal.

I used to be a home tutor. Half the job is leading the pupil through the steps. Half the job is simply being a homework babysitter. The duolingo website does that for you. It breaks the lesson down into small steps. It reminds you daily (like a Herbalife coach or Slimming world weekly lesson).

So now we know three words:

Chinese - English
'how' (haou) - good
'knee' (ni) - you
knee how? - how are you?
'how!' - good (equivalent to 'Good', 'Great!' or 'Very well, thank you')

English - Chinese
you - ni (knee)
good? - how? (haou)
knee how / how are you - ni haou?
good (very well, thank you) - how (haou)

Useful Website
duolingo.com

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

Malay Words Made Easy - Yes!

Problem
How do you learn Malay?

Answer
Start with the easy words. I looked at a survey on SilkAir airline. The first word I saw was:
s u r v e i - survey!

I have inserted spaces mainly because the spell checker tries to change words into recognizable English words. The spaces provide the additional advantage of enabling you to spot which letters are the same and which have changed in Malay.

Note that plurals are made by doubling the word, connecting with a hyphen. Malay, like many other languages, uses a k where English would use c or CK. (Compare the English word Kick.)

Malay - English
anak-anak - children (my memory aid is children have a knack for being amusing/annoying)
anda - you (think of  'and - er you?')
bisnis - business
check-in - check-in
dan - and (same letters, initial letter the same, next two letters reverses)
efisien - efficient
ekonomi - economy
kabin - cabin
kelas - class
kiosk - kiosk
makanan - meal / food (think 'Ma, can you make me another meal?')
minuman - drink (think in Malaysia we drink the minimum, man)
p a k e t - package / packet
s u r v e i - survey!
terima kasi - thanks (think terribly grateful)
tiket - ticket

English - Malay
and - dan
business - bisnis
cabin - kabin
check-in - check-in
children - anak-anak
class - kelas
drink - minuman
economy - ekonomi
efficient - efisien
food / meal - makanan
kiosk - kiosk
no - tidak
package - p a k e t
survey - survei
thank you (terribly much) - terimah kasi
ticket - tiket
yes - ya
you - anda

Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker, teacher of English and other languages. See next post for more. Please share links to your favourite posts.

How to recognize and remember Welsh words for orange, lemonade, rice, home and more

Problem
Look at a map of Wales or take a train towards Wales or through Wales and you will see Welsh words on the train, the stations, the shops, and hear people speaking Welsh.
How do you recognize and remember Welsh words? They look different.

Answer
Look closely and you will see similarities. Or make up sentences to link Welsh and English words. English has such a large vocabulary, borrowed from languages all over the world, that you should be able to remember some links.

Welsh - English
adre - home or homewards (I think of he wants to go to his home address)
gwin - wine looks like g - win (memory aid sentence: Go and get me wine - the letter w in Welsh sounds a bit like oo) Say the English memory aid in a mock Welsh accent.
lemonêd - lemonade (you make the hat or circumflex on the e by holding the E key and tapping 3 key)
mae'r - there is
oren - orange (looks like a short form of orange)
reis - rice
wit ti eisiau - would you like / do you want (sounds like would you, eh? see - I! See it and love it. Ti for you is like French tu and old English thee as in the song 'I vow to thee my country'. Have you got your eye on it? I listen to it again and the s is more of a Sh sound, so I remember: Don't be shy.)
ydy - does (he)

English - Welsh
does (he) - ydy (pronounced iddy)
do you want / would you like - wit ti eisiau
home - adre
lemonade - lemonêd (think of sitting in a sunhat drinking lemonade; the first part of the word is the same, the hat is on the second e to turn it intothe sound' ay')
orange - oren (drop the letter a but keep the letter e)
rice - reis (Interestingly, the Welsh is written with an s, the English with c for s like Russian); think of the redundant e like the silent e used twice in the name George which changes the hard G sound into a J sound)
wine - gwin

Tips
duolingo.com (free on line learning website for many languages from English and from several languages to learn English)
google translate
http://mymemory.translated.net/en/Welsh/English/mae%27r

Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker, teacher of English and other languages. You will find several more posts on learning Welsh and other languages. Please share links to your favourite posts.

First Steps Learning Norwegian

Problem
What are those funny looking letters in Norwegian? How do you pronounce them?

Answer
Norwegian has three main unusual letters at the end of the alphabet.

The joined letters AE pushed together, are like the English words aeroport and Aesops fables, both of which were originally spelled with a joined pair of letters. Air and EE.
The technical term for the joined letters is a ligature.

The slashed O is another.

Wikipedia has pages of explanation and long words, very hard to follow. It's simpler to start learning on d u o l i n g o.

I immediately recognised one word from German, very similar to the English.

When I went onto duolingo everything became easier because you simply click on the speaker icon and hear the word.

Norwegian - English
mann - man

English - Norwegian
man - mann

One word already, and one you and I can't forget.

Next word

Norwegian - English
du - you

English - Norwegian
you - du

The last letter is the same in both words. Du is like the French tu.
my memory aid is
'How do you do?'
you - du
du - you

Tips
duolingo.com
https://www.duolingo.com/course/no-BO/en/Learn-Norwegian-(Bokmål)-Online
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Å

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