Speaking in Tongues
Messages: 10,364 - Threads: 679
Travel guide design project
Hello everyone!
I am currently in my final year of high school, and undertaking a class called design and technology where you have to create a Major Design Project (MDP). For this large project, I generated the following design brief: "To design and create a personalised travel guide that is specific to a client’s personality, likes, dislikes and needs (both real and perceived)."
In this guide, I will include sections on Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos and Thailand. On the introductory pages for each country, I was wanting to include some phrases in the language that that country predominantly speaks. If anyone has advice for essential phrases or expressions that would be useful for one to know if they were travelling in any of these countries, then please let me know!
Thank you for your help, it is very much appreciated!
I'll have him ring you.
In the TLS of 3 May, Hugo Williams devotes a column to new words and phrases in British English, not too grumpily as these things go.
One paragraph starts:
"I'll have him ring you" isn't American, because we would say "call" or "phone", not "ring". But I imagine what he finds American in the phrase is "I'll have him (verb)" meaning "I will ask/cause him to (verb)." Don't they say that in Britain? How would they/you say it?
In Scots there used to be a verb gar with the same force as "have" there, and perhaps there still is. But what would the English say? more »
May 22, 2013 3:13 AM
kalpea_tuli
last reply
May 24, 2013 11:47 PM
tonieja
19 replies
410 views
Polish words of German origin
I remember that a long time ago I learnt that in Polish the German word "Feuerzeug" is used. How is it spelt correctly in Polish? Fojrzojg or something?
Since the two countries are neighbours, I expect there to be a lot of words from German in Polish and vice-versa.
What are some more examples?
May 21, 2013 12:40 PM
iaxestupidquest...
last reply
May 23, 2013 7:42 AM
MTL
3 replies
111 views
The Bosnian language
I noticed Google recently added Bosnian to the list of available translations and was wondering if it's closer to Serbian or Croatian? Would someone from the Republika Srpska part of Bosnia speak Bosnian or Serbian? Does Bosnian have more Turkish and/or Arabic loan words than Croatian or Serbian or is the vocabulary mostly all the same?
May 16, 2013 7:49 PM
nutraxfornerves
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May 22, 2013 10:05 PM
Myanmarbound
15 replies
560 views
I fear for the future
From a column in today's San Francisco Chronicle
Nutrax
The plural of anecdote is not data.
May 16, 2013 4:19 PM
NorthAmerican
last reply
May 17, 2013 8:32 AM
VinnyD
3 replies
237 views
How long is someone "the late" so-and-so?
I saw an obituary for Billy Sol Estes, a Texas "wheeler dealer" of some years back, that referred to his having friends in high places, including "the late President Lyndon B. Johnson."
Wouldn't it have been appropriate to write "including President Lyndon B. Johnson" ? Would any reader by unaware that Johnson is dead? I think that I would reserve the term "the late" for someone more recently deceased, like Ronald Reagan. What would your choice be?
Caluquier consejo sobre el DELE C1 o C2! Advice about the DELE
Hola a todos,
Me preguntaba si alguien ha tomado el DELE C1 o C2? Estoy pensando en tomar uno o el otro, el motivo principal una meta personal - mejorar mi español, y bueno cacho que la calificacion oficial seria util en el futuro.
Es posible que voy a estudiar en el extranjero en España o en América Latina y, por supuesto, si estudio en espanol, voy a querer tomar las mismas clases que los otros estudiantes nativos del pais, no como un estudiante de lengua española.
Hay alguien aquei que ha tomado la prueba? ¿Hay una gran diferencia en dificultad entre el C1 y C2? Alguien sabe si las universidades requieren el C2, o es solo necesario el C1?
Tome la Prueba de Nivel que el Instituto de Cervantes ofrece y me dio un C1.3, C1.4 - no es exhuastiva como el examen real, pero igual
Mi experiencia con el español - estudió durante toda la secundaria, estudió en el extranjer...
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Icelandic names
The other day I was at the library looking at books in the detective fiction section. Now that Scandinavian thrillers are popular, there were quite a few there. I noticed that two Icelandic authors were in the wrong place, under A for Arnaldur Indridason and Arni Thorarinsson.
I asked the librarian who told me that they had received a notice specifying that Icelandic names should be filed that way, and only Icelandic names, not any of the other Scandinavians.
Icelandic surnames seem to be formed by adding son or dottir to the father's name. Does anyone know why the first name comes first on a library shelf?
May 14, 2013 11:16 PM
Myanmarbound
last reply
May 16, 2013 12:08 AM
bjd
3 replies
162 views
Castellano, Paraiso Fiscal x Tax Haven
En Argentina Tax Haven es traducido como Paraiso Fiscal,
En otros Paises de habla hispana le dicen igual - Paraiso Fiscal - o tienen/usan una mejor/correcta traduccion ?
M Gracias
Tambien, en castellano heaven se pronuncia jeven en ingles haven como se pronuncia ?, javen como en el verbo have o distinto ?
Nuevamente M Gracias
May 13, 2013 5:41 PM
NorthAmerican
last reply
May 15, 2013 4:55 AM
NorthAmerican
23 replies
622 views
Too arcane for a quiz?
Some workers were to come to my apartment today "between 9 and 3," which I thought was a bit too generous in their favor, but once I finished the crossword puzzle in today's paper I had to look for something to occupy my time. Why not create a puzzle of my own? I came up with a literary quiz.
Many of us have read the same books and stories, and the first sentences of some of them identify them immediately; think "Happy families are all alike." I wanted something a little more arcane, so I looked at my books to see what I had on hand. It doesn't matter (except to you, perhaps) if you know any of the answers, and there are no prizes except the satisfaction you might derive from seeing again something you might have read. There is only one rule: Don't use a machine translator except for the Russian text.
All but one are by well known authors, and all but one are in the original lan...
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May 12, 2013 6:12 PM
Caballero
last reply
May 18, 2013 6:11 AM
CrazyEddie
7 replies
304 views
My hands
I've just read that my hands are chiral......all this time I thought I was right-handed
translate into Spanish please?
Could a Spanish speaker help me by translating this into Spanish please?
X was the perfect host, not obtrusive in any way but always responsive when needed. He even spent an afternoon with us showing us the vineyards around the town and sampling some of the Cava at a local vineyard. His apartment was just the place to return to after a long day of trekking or sightseeing. Highly recommended.
Many thanks!
Njáls saga
If you were referring to Njáls saga (being one way to refer to this work in modern Icelandic - Brennu-Njáls saga and Njála being a couple of other ways) in an English text, which of the following would you consider acceptable? (I tend to presume you will capitalise the Saga although the Icelander probably won't).
1) Njáls Saga
2) Njals Saga
3) Njáll's Saga
4) Njall's Saga
5) Njál's Saga
6) Njal's Saga
You may wish to take into account that in modern Icelandic Njáls is the genitive form of Njáll, ie Njáll is the correct modern Icelandic spelling, in non-inflected form of the name of the person in question. A modern Icelander would pronounced something like nyowtl, nothing like you will hear on Monty Python. However it might be written differently in Old Norse and other Scandinavian languages. For example in the wiki articles in other Scandinavian languages they write Njå...
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