Magical Paros Island!

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Δημοσιεύτηκε στις Παρασκευή, 04 Απριλίου 2014 22:04

Γράφτηκε από τον/την Elena Mall

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"

 Magical Paros Island

Do not visit Paros if...
...you don't want to come more than once! Paros has "the magic" that makes you addicted.

Paros is one of the largest islands of the Cyclades with approx. 120 km coastline, situated about halfway between Athens and Santorini.

Already in ancient history Paros was famous for its semi-transparent marble, which is still quarried today. Parikia, the capital, is one of the main harbours of the Cyclades with frequent connections to almost all other islands. The island lies within approx. 2,5 hours (with a high-speed boat) or 4 hours (normal ferry) distance from Piraeus.

Paros Island has a lot to offer its visitors! Whether you prefer a quiet, peaceful holiday enjoying the beautiful nature and traditional Greek atmosphere, an active or educational one, or you would just like to party, you'll definitely find what you are looking for! The infrastructure is very good, the main road around the island being about 72 km long and well sign-posted, which makes it ideal to go discovering the island by yourselves!

Paros has many beautiful sandy beaches for all tastes. Some are hidden, tiny little bays, enclosed by extraordinarily "sculptured" rocks ("Kolimbithres"), others are long and wide. The typical countryside with its gentle, terraced hills and magnificent rock formations, endless vineyards, olive groves and fruit trees is overwhelming. In the spring, the island is completely green, with flowers growing everywhere!

There is a large number of attractive villages in the traditional Cycladic style. Their glowing white houses along labyrinth like streets, decorated with arches, pretty balconies, Greek pottery, bright flowers and fragrant herbs will make you wander around and get lost, discovering one postcard theme after the other. Paros also has an incredible amount of picturesque churches, chapels and monasteries, likewise windmills, and you stumble across historical remains wherever you go, some of them of great significance in Greek History.

There are plenty of tasteful little shops offering Greek souvenirs, jewellery and other beautiful things, but not too many of them. As they are evenly spread out between grocery stores, little super markets, bakeries etc., you can experience every day Greek life and atmosphere at the same time. There are no "ghettos" or multi-story hotels destroying the its beauty and original character. Nor have the hospitality and friendliness of the local people diminished through rapid growth of tourism during the past years. You will still have those remarkable little experiences like Greeks inviting you into their homes for a coffee and telling you the most interesting stories...!

And don't forget, it's addictive!

9 easy languages for English speakers

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Δημοσιεύτηκε στις Τρίτη, 11 Φεβρουαρίου 2014 21:36

Γράφτηκε από τον/την Elena Mall

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Below are 9 of the easiest for English speakers to learn, as classed by the Foreign Service Institute.

1. Afrikaans and English both derive from the West Germanic language family. Phonetics and pronunciation are comfortable for English speakers; the one wee hurdle is the Afrikaans ?g?, pronounced like the ?ch in Bach. Unlike English though, the Afrikaans language is not inflective. This means that with some memorized vocabulary, you can build sentences as you would a Lego tower, stacking words without worry of conjugation. In Afrikaans, there is no conjugation of verbs (write, wrote, written), gender (think gato or gata in Spanish) or pronouns (my, mine; who, whose). In other words, you?ll hardly be a grammar slave if you take up this logical language.

2. As with most Scandinavian languages, the biggest hurdle with studying Danish is in being able to practice. English is spoken widely and fluently across northern European countries.Danish is said to be the hardest Scandinavian language to learn because of its speaking patterns. It is generally spoken more quickly and more softly than other Scandinavian languages. Danish is also flatter and more monotonous than English. Grammatically, though, it?s relatively easy. Danish has only nine verb forms, including the passive, which is peculiar to Scandinavian languages but familiar to English speakers. Danish has a lot of Germanic-based cognate vocabulary too: Monday Tuesday Wednesday, in Danish, are Mandag, Tirsdag, Onsdag.

3. Like all romance languages, French has a few difficulties for prospective speakers. There are more verb forms (17, compared to the English 12) and gendered nouns (le crayon, la table). Pronunciation is especially difficult in French, with vowel sounds and silent letters. The bright side? Like all Romance languages, French?s Latin derivations make much of the vocabulary familiar to English speakers (edifice, royal, village). Linguists debate the concrete number, but it?s said that French has influenced up to a third of English vocabulary, giving it more lexical common ground with English than any other romance language.

4. Another romance language, Italian has the great feature of readability. Italian is written as its spelled. For learners, reading comes fluidly once a few new phonemes are learned ( like ?ghi- or ?ci-). Italian words tend to end in vowels, which makes for really fun, flowing speaking, as you might hear in Italians speaking English (?that?s-a my-a house-a?). Grammatically, the language follows typical Romantic structure, with gendered nouns and similar word order. One perk: Italian has fewer verb forms than French or Spanish. Italian is widely seen as the language of gastronomy. Many English speakers like to ?study? by reading Italian restaurant menus and salivating.

5. The language is structurally similar to Danish, but with pronunciation more familiar to English speakers. Norwegian, like Swedish, uses a tonal ?pitch accent? to distinguish homonyms, stressing either the first or second syllable of the word. It?s an easy concept to grasp: think ?decent? and ?descent? in English. Verb forms are a relative breeze in Norwegian, with no conjugation according to person or number. The past tense is formed with a simple ?e suffix; the future is formed with the auxiliary vil; the conditional perfect with ville ha. The passive tense is formed by adding a simple ?s. It?s a walk in the park compared to English.

6. Grammatically, Portuguese is similar to other Romance languages. There are fewer prepositions in Portuguese than in English (easy to remember!) However, their uses don?t always have direct parallels in English (easy to mix up). One great element of the language is that interrogatives are beautifully easy, expressed by intonation alone (?You love me??) If you can say it in Portuguese, you can ask it. What?s more, in Brazilian Portuguese, there?s one catchall question tag form: n?o ?. Pronunciation is fairly comfortable for English speakers, though the more nasal vowel sounds take some practice

7. The geographic dark horse of the romance languages, Romanian is often assumed to be the most difficult of the bunch, with its Slavic influences. Not so fast. They say that Romanian is the closest living language to Latin, and has preserved a lot of Latin?s grammatical structure. Articles are a bit of a puzzle in Romanian, with definite articles attached as a suffix to the end of nouns (frate/ fratele, brother/the brother), while indefinite articles appear before nouns (copil/un copil, child/a child). Though the language has taken Slavic influences in its vocabulary, the language is still about 80% Latin-based, and full of cognates like sub (under) or obiect (object).

8. Spanish pronunciation is fairly easy for English speakers, with only ten vowel/dipthong sounds (English has 20), and the easy-to-master letter ?. Like Italian, the orthography is clear and simple; words are written as they?re pronounced, which makes reading easier. Grammatically, Spanish has fewer irregularities than other romance languages too. A slippery element of the language (and all the Romances) is in false cognates: word pairings that sound the same as an English word, but mean something different. Particular means ?private? in Spanish, and eventual means possible. See how that could get confusing? Still, there?s no shortage of people in the world to help you fix these slip-ups. With 330 million native speakers, it?s the most popular language on this list.

9. A fellow Germanic language, Swedish has some vocabulary common with English (mus for ?mouse?, kung for ?king?), and a similar syntax too. Pronunciation may be a struggle at first, with nine vowels (like ? or ?) and the sje- sound, which is unique to Swedish. Once you master it, though, the language is surprisingly melodic. Students of the language gripe about the complicated grammar system, but the syntax shouldn?t be unfamiliar to an English speaker. In Swedish, the Subject-Verb-Object pattern is standard word order. Also, verb formation uses many of the same patterns as English. The future tense, for example, is described with komma att + infinitive (will), or ska + infinitive (going to). And verb forms are normally constant, even if the person changes. I am, you are, he/she is would be Jag ?r, du ?r, han/hon ?r.

Honorable Mention: Frisian

 Never heard of it? It?s spoken by less than half a million people in the province of Friesland in the Netherlands. It wasn?t included on the list because Frisian is rarely studied as a second language, so finding a textbook or tutor outside the North Sea would be nigh impossible.

Linguistically it is the closest language to English, stemming from the same subfamily of West Germanic languages. There?s a catchy saying: ?Good butter and good cheese? (Goed b?ter en goed tsiis) is good English and good Fries. Phonetically, the phrases are almost identical. Uncanny.

By Anne Merritt

Tips for speaking English abroad

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Δημοσιεύτηκε στις Τρίτη, 11 Φεβρουαρίου 2014 21:30

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?YOU SEE, WHAT WE NEED here is some cleaning-up liquid, some disinfectant. Would it be possible for you to bring me some??

The hostel receptionist, a petrified-looking Chinese woman in her twenties, nodded openmouthed and started typing something, anything, into the computer at her desk. It was so palpably uncomfortable, I started blushing for her.

The complainer, a British backpacker who had spilled heaven-knows-what in her room, looked at me in confusion.

?She understood that, right? I mean, I was pretty clear. I mean, she works in a hotel. She should understand what I?m asking, right??

The next year, in an expat pub with my Korean coworker Flora, a Canadian friend of mine approached the table. I introduced him to my pretty colleague.

?Hiiiii Flora,? he said slowly, waving his hand back and forth. ?My. Name. Jacob.? She nodded her hello, and he beamed a big children?s TV host grin.

?Can? (palms up)
?I? (points to self)
?buy? (holds up money)
?you? (points to Flora)
?a drink?? (mimes swigging from a bottle)

Flora volleyed back in her fluent English. ?Actually, we just bought some drinks, so maybe another time.?

Jacob smiled again.

?Your? (points to her)
?English? (talking motion with his hands)
?very goooood!? (two thumbs up)

Most travelers have witnessed these awkward English exchanges. In the former example, the woman seemed to assume that anyone working at a hotel must speak fluent (rambling) English. In the latter, the man?s simplified language and charades were so over-the-top, he came across as patronizing. Doesn?t every traveler have a story like this? A glad-I?m-not-like-that-jerk tale?

It?s easy to roll one?s eyes at these obvious gaffes and grumble about ignorance, but it?s not easy to navigate a language barrier. Is it presumptuous to try and communicate in fluid English when abroad? Is it condescending to simplify your speech when talking to a non-native English speaker?

The ?issue? here is hard to pin down. Some travelers believe it?s their responsibility to learn the local language when they go to a foreign place. Some believe that, with English being learned all over the world, it?s realistic to assume they will meet English speakers anywhere. Some folks feel deeply awkward in these exchanges, worried about imposition or offense. Some feel the opposite, that tourism is what it is, there?s a lot of economic good coming from the industry, and no one should feel guilty about not speaking the local language.

Mostly, the awkwardness arises in knowing (or not knowing) how to modify one?s speech when talking to someone who isn?t fluent in your language.

There are no cut-and-dried methods for easy communication, as so many factors are at play (fluency, shyness, cultural beliefs and behaviors, to name a few). I have though, in my travels, picked up a few tips that can make a difference.

1. Breaking the ice

Most of us know the ugly stereotype of the tourist shouting in mockingly slow English at a hapless waiter or concierge. We know that embarrassment from hearing ?DOES ANYONE UNDERSTAND ENGLISH?? yelled from the impatient mouth of a fellow traveler.

I?d call that the ?wrong way? to figure out if the person you?re addressing speaks English.

So is there a right way to open a conversation?

In my experience, when traveling to a foreign country, learning how to say ?do you speak English? in the local language can help a lot. Approaching someone with English, especially outside a touristy locale, puts them on the spot to respond in English. In travel, I?ve unwittingly forced a lot of uncomfortable people to stammer out ?umm?.English?no? before scooting off. I?ve learned that it?s a lot less awkward to use their native tongue, even for one basic phrase, so the person you?ve approached has the option to simply shake their head.

2. Speaking vs. listening

A fact to bear in mind is that for most language learners, their comprehension is stronger than their output. This means that while a non-native English speaker may communicate in basic phrases, they can hear and follow spoken English better than you think. When conversing, you don?t need to pare down your thoughts into Tarzan-speak just because your buddy uses very simple sentences.

This doesn?t mean you can speak as breezily as you would back home. Your communication should be comprehensive enough if you are speaking clearly and phrasing your thoughts in a simple way (?can you?? instead of ?well, if you could possibly arrange??).

3. Pride and language

Living and traveling in East Asia, almost every encounter I?ve had with a local person involves some humility. ?I don?t speak English well,? is a phrase that foreigners hear constantly, from the English Language PhD candidate in Guangzhou to the mother raising bicultural kids with an Australian dad in Korea.

Their English is usually far more advanced than they claim, and this humility is more cultural than literal. What?s more, in cultures where saving face is important, people are incredibly worried about making a language slip-up, and will sometimes hesitate to speak for that reason.

When speaking to someone in English, don?t give up if the conversation is choppy at first. Often, shyness is the culprit, and they will loosen up in the company of a friendly conversation partner. Sometimes, they haven?t spoken English in a while, and it takes a few minutes to get back into the rhythm of fluid speaking. If someone is trying to converse, even if they?re struggling a bit, I?ll give them my time and patience as much as possible.

By Anne Merritt On July 5, 2011