A Flat White please!

(menu courtesy of Thirty-Nine Cafe in Ponsonby, Auckland)

I haven’t been back to NZ in 8 years and I had forgotten how great their café culture is. I had forgotten how great their boutique coffee shops are, forgotten how great their different delicious caramel, chocolate or lolly cake slices are… and forgotten how to ask for a decent cup of coffee after being ‘Starbucks’ brainwashed!

What I need to forget is my daily double shot skinny tall latte and just go back to the basics – a flat white or a short black, Italian style. If you are traveling to the antipodean islands or find yourself in an antipodean coffee shop in London here is a helping hand to help you place an order for a REAL coffee (Thanks to this blogger)

Espresso: 30 ml of black coffee produced from 7g of ground beans.

Long Black: 60ml of espresso with 120ml of hot water added after brewing.

Latte: 60 ml of espresso, steamed milk, little froth

Cappuccino: 60 ml of espresso, 1/3 cup steamed milk, 1/3 cup froth

Macchiato: 60 ml of espresso, 5 ml milk on top, dollop of froth.

Mochaccino: 60 ml of espresso, 1 teaspoon drinking chocolate, steamed milk

Flat White: 60 ml of espresso, in regular cup, steamed milk

If you are looking for a flat white in London head to Flat White on Berwick Street )

For more flat white chat click here.

JAM English Flashcards: Fruit and Vegetables available online at jam.shop now!

新年快乐!

Kung Hei Fat Choi! Today is the first day of the Chinese New Year and we are coming into the Year of the Metal Tiger. I have just been to my Poh Poh (Granny’s) house for dinner and to collect our lai see… but now that I am married I have to also give lai see!

Chinese New Year is the most important Chinese holiday. It runs over the course of 15 days which is spent visiting and paying respect to your elders, collecting ‘lai see’ which are red packets with money inside to represent good luck and wealth. In addition to lai see, small gifts of food and sweets are given when visiting family and friends; usually fruits or cakes, i.e. small mandarin orange trees which symbolise wealth (gold).

The period around CNY is also the period of the largest human migration where migrant Chinese workers, overseas Chinese travel home to have reunion dinners with their families.

Another important tradition is the wearing of red. According to tales and legends, in a remote Chinese village the beginning of Chinese New Year started with the fight against a mythical beast called ‘Nian’. Nian would come on the first day of New Year to devour livestock, crops, and even villagers, especially children. To protect themselves, the villagers would put food in front of their doors. But one day people saw that the Nian was scared away instead by a little child wearing the colour red. The villagers then began to hang red lanterns and red spring scrolls on windows and doors at the start of the New Year. People would also use firecrackers to frighten away the Nian. From then on, Nian never came to the village again.

If you were born in 1914, 1926, 1938, 1950, 1962, 1974, 1986 or 1998 then this is your year as a Tiger. What is in store for you?

According to Chinese, the animal Tiger is said to be lucky, vivid, lively and engaging. Another attribute of the Tiger is his incredible bravery, evidenced in his willingness to engage in battle or his undying courage. The Chinese say having a Tiger in the house is the very best protection against the evils of fire.

(http://www.showbizgossips.com/chinese-new-year-2010-year-of-the-metal-tiger-2010/6095)

Have a prosperous Chinese New Year!

JAM Share It & Spread It xoxox

Miami Ghosts

During a recent stop in Miami, I had the chance to spend some quality time with my lovely friend and song writer/singer Juliet Dibenedetto, whom I’ve known since I was 14! We met up in a local dive bar/restaurant in Coconut Grove and we found ourselves talking to the charming bartender who began to tell us about the ghosts in the place. Yes, indeed he proceeded to tell us about the ghosts, whom he had managed to befriend by leaving them glasses of rum every night. Apparently, there had been a murder on site. A woman was having an affair and her husband had intended to kill her lover but in the midst of their argument he shot his wife instead. Distraught he then killed himself. Its said the couple’s spirits still reside there and they make their presence known by turning lights and music off and on, flushing the toilets and breaking glasses. As he was telling me this story mostly in English with a dash of Spanish and the occasional "Spanglish", I wondered if the ghosts were listening in on our conversation. But more importantly I began to ask myself if they could understand us. As a ghost perk do you get unlimited linguistics abilities? :)

Enjoy the SNEAK (sssh) Juliet Sample.... Copyright Juliet Dibenedetto. All rights reserved.

JAM Share It & Spread It xoxox

Chinglish: Follow-up

My mother fell sick the last couple of days of our stay in HK but I still managed to get a few examples of Chinglish around HK!

JAM English Flashcards: Fruit and Vegetables available online at jam.shop now!

The Delicate Business of Translating

Fabulous friend, founder of Amazing Women Rock and life coach Susan Macaulay, had been contacted by a feminist organization in Mexico. In an effort to collaborate across the Atlantic, she asked if I would translate some content they wanted to share on her Amazing Women Rock website from Spanish to English. I immediately agreed as I had never done anything like it before and really how difficult could it be?

That’s what I thought until I found myself staring at my computer screen trying to figure out if the author meant to use the word “predio” for property, estate, building or farm. The definition is ALL of these. Since unfortunately, I was translating a story about a 17 year student which had been brutally murdered and “predio” was being used to describe the location of the crime scene, it was certainly an important detail. This was my first stumble but there was more. I came across more complex details which when translated verbatim to English would have sounded ridiculous or totally inappropriate. And that’s when I found myself just retelling the story in English in my own words. The key here being in my own words manipulating, deleting and adding. Keeping to the story as much as possible just in English . . . in my own words English :)

And so I leave you to wonder, the next time you pick up a book by Brazilian author (Portuguese speaking) Paulo Coelho in English or any other language (67 languages to be exact) how much of it is it really his words and not those of his translator?

JAM English Flash Cards: Fruit & Vegetables

Chinglish

We have started our around-the-world journey to live in Brazil… first stop: Hong Kong. A melting pot of people with differing languages, cultures, colours and religion - sandwiched into tiny apartments, busy restaurants, glass covered offices - means that effective communication is very important. Cantonese, Mandarin and English are the most abundant of the dozens of languages and dialects spoken here.

English…or Chinglish… is one of my favourite past times here. As you walk around this city you can’t miss advertising hoardings, signs, notices and shop names that can make you laugh outright or are completely inappropriate or just plain wrong! I’ll collect some examples to post here by the end of our stay in Hong Kong. Check out some other examples here.

JAM English Flashcards: Fruit and Vegetables available online at jam.shop now!

World Citizen At 2.5 years old

During my stay at El Venado, a family run estancia in Argentina owned by professional polo player Federico Cendoya, I also met ‘Juli’ as we affectionately call him in Spanish or rather Jules-Henri in Flemish and French. At almost 3 years of age Juli can be considered a world citizen thanks to his jetsetter Yummy Mummy Stefanie Verduyn. Their home base is in Belgium but they spend 2 to 3 months a year at El Venado enjoying the estancia, horse riding and playing polo. Additionally, Stefanie travels frequently in search of fashionable accessories and shoes for her chain of boutiques in Belgium. Consequently, Juli has already traveled to Argentina, Morocco, Italy and France.

While JAM’s motto is ‘Never Too Late to Learn’, we concur that it is definitely never too early! From the time that Juli was in his mother’s belly, he listened to Language CDs. Growing up in Belgium, he is exposed to Dutch at home. As a baby, he also had a friend ‘Nelly’ who spoke to him in Russian and read to him Russian Fairy Tales. Most recently, he has started French lessons once a week. During his holidays at El Venado, he is exposed to Spanish and English and consequently, now back in his homeland only speaks to the dog in Spanish :) Having spent time with Juli at El Venado, it was amazing to see how quickly he picked up new Spanish and English vocabulary. His mother Stefanie prioritizes her child’s education and saids “I try to expose Juli as much as I can to other languages and cultures”.

Juli is pictured above in traditional 'Gaucho' attire.

JAM Share it & Spread It!

JAM English Flashcards; Fruit & Vegetables