The Average Traveller Can Read Ten Languages

 ~ I've written before about language learning on this site, and pointed out some of the excellent free resources available online for anyone interested in learning a foreign language before they embark on international travel.

Today, I discovered the Easiest Foreign Languages site, which also provides free access to a wide range of information related to language learning. Easiest Foreign Languages, reveals that travellers have the potential to read 10 languages -- but most don’t realize it. This news is just in time for the upcoming travel season, and will enable tourists to read their way around Europe or Latin America in countries with these easiest languages.

The website has been developed to help more people begin foreign languages as easily as possible. It reveals that many foreign words are similar to English, especially in writing, and shows visitors how much they know about the ten easiest languages just because they know English. This free resource has been developed by Robert Masters, who previously served as a consultant developing Roget’s II Thesaurus.

The website explains that many foreign words are similar to English, especially in writing. So travellers can read a surprising amount in the following languages: Spanish, Italian, French, German, Portuguese, Dutch, Danish, Norwegian, Swedish, and even Romanian.

Each of these European languages has over 1,000 travel words similar to English, which are easier to read and remember than 10 foreign words unrelated to English. Being able read thousands of foreign words related to English will help tourists in Europe, even if they are unable to speak much in a foreign language, nor able to understand what foreigners say.

In each language, the words similar to English can be thought of as Easiest French, Easiest Spanish, Easiest Italian, and Easiest German.

Here’s an example of Easiest French, which to my surprise, I was able to translate without too much trouble – no small feat given that my knowledge of French is minimal at best: Mon nom est Paul. J’ai réservé un appartement. Je suis allergique à la pénicilline. Informez ma famille. Où sont des toilettes accessibles aux handicaps? [Spoiler Alert: My translation of these sentences appears at the end of this entry.]

Tourists can read foreign words related to English at their own pace, unlike being forced to keep up when trying to listen to a foreigner speak.

So now travellers can get ready for several or many European languages, with words similar to English and also similar to each other's words, making it even easier. The web site makes the grand claim that “for the first time ever, it is possible to be prepared for up to 10 languages in Europe, in only a few hours.”

Travellers can discover how much they know about easiest languages just because they know English. They will recognize more foreign words than they realize. This will make it easier for them to travel in any countries where these languages are spoken.

The ten languages easiest for English are not the only the easiest languages. In most cases, whatever someone’s native language may be, there are foreign languages which have many words similar to that language. For example, there are easiest languages for each of the five Germanic languages, and also for each of the five Romance languages. Also, foreign languages exist in other families of languages that share many of the same words.

Go to Easiest Foreign Languages to find out all about the 10 easiest languages for English-speakers -- or the 5 easiest languages each for speakers of any Romance Languages or Germanic languages.

My translation of French sentences into English: My name is Paul. I have reserved an apartment. I am allergic to penicillin. Inform my family. Are the toilets handicap accessible?

-o0o-

R.I.P Gil Scott-Heron

The inimitable Gil Scott-Heron

Incredibly sad to learn that Gil Scott-Heron passed away May 28, 2011 in a Manhattan hospital. He was just 62 year old.

I first heard Gil while travelling through France during the early 1970s. I was blessed to see him perform last year during one of New York City’s free open-air concerts that were held as part of the SummerStage series of performances.

You can read my review of that show here…

Brief news items can be found here... and here...

Gil Scott-Heron, one of the all time greats. A true original. One whose like we may never see again.

-o0o-

Gil released several classic albums during a long and difficult career, but returned to form with his latest album I'm New Here released earlier this year.

Gil Scott-Heron was a published author and poet, and several of his books can be purchased via Amazon.Com

  

Good Days And Better Days

George Lesses (January 4, 1941 – May 10, 2011)

“I only have two kinds of days – good days and better days.

And today is a better day.”

~ George Lesses (January 4, 1941 – May 10, 2011)

Blog posts have been a bit thin on the ground lately. That’s because most of my waking hours have been occupied by the extended illness, and recent death of my older brother, George.

While this may serve as an obituary of sorts for George, it is pretty much impossible to do justice to his 70 years in a few paragraphs. Family man and father, basketball player, coach and mentor, cabinet maker, carpenter and craftsman, athlete, grandfather (‘pop-pop’ to some, and ‘papou’ to others), brother, and lover of life. All these and so much more, sum up the many facets that were my brother and the life he lived.

I hope every family has a man like George in their lives. George was one of the pillars of our family. A man who always made sure to include everyone in celebrations - large or small. One of his personal motto’s was: We’re not here for a long time – we’re here for a good time. To that end, he loved organising family get-togethers, at which he presided over the bar-b-que or roasting spit, and it gave him no end of pleasure to see everyone eating, drinking, laughing and enjoying each others company.

George was the eternal optimist. The saying (and song), Always look on the bright side of life, could have been written for George. More to the point, he might as well have written the phrase himself, so much did he embody its spirit. But George lived by the quote at the start of this entry, which as far as I am aware, was original to him.

The story goes that George, who was a cabinet maker and master of anything involving the use of wood, was having a tough day with a couple of hard to please clients. At one point one of the clients, apologised – sort of – and suggested they were making his day harder than it needed to be, at which George said he replied to the effect: “Not at all. I only have two kinds of days – good days and better days. And today is a better day.”

And thus the phrase has made it into our family folklore.

In 2003, I wrote Good Days, Better Days, a song which adapted and incorporated part of the phrase, which pleased George no end. The song has always been a popular crowd pleaser whenever I performed it live, which you can see me doing in the clip below. George always enjoyed the song, and he was in the audience singing along on the chorus with everyone else when the clip was filmed.

It is a small but fitting tribute to a great man whose legacy survives in his two adult children, four grandchildren (with a fifth on the way), and in far more ways than I can hope to document here.

I’ll miss you bro’. This song’s for you…