Travel Tips

I've been interested in everything that is connected with language for a long time. Tongue-twisters are a particular favourite of mine so that I want to provide some for your individual language training (*lol*):

1. Theophilus Thissaliss, the little thistle-sifter, while sifting a sackful of unsifted thistles, thrust three thorny thistles through the thick of his thumb (thanx glenn57!) (Canada)
2. Ibsens ripsbusker og andre buskvekster (thanx FletteMette!) (Norway)
3. Petar plet plete, prez pet pleta pet paty pleta preplita (thanx Nhiki) (Bulgaria)
4. Knap, de knappe kapper, kapt knap, maar de knecht van Knap, de knappe kapper, kapt knapper dan Knap, de knappe kapper, kappen kan! (thanx RoyJava) (The Netherlands)
5. Chrzaszcz brzmi w trczcinie w Szczebrzeszynie. (Poland)
6. Sarah shara shir sameach, shir sameah Sarah shara (thanx Trillian2005) (Israel)
7. Shi shi shi, si shi si, shi si shi shi si, si shi shi si shi! (China; the trouble with this one is the correct intonation... btw, it means 10 is 10, 4 is 4, 14 is 14, 40 is 40!) (thanx Xin Di)
8. Vesihiisi sihisi hississä! (A waterdemon hissed in an elevator) (Finland) (thanx haiamisa)
9. Red lorry, yellow lorry (thanx lukluk_wal_marjan)
10. Mit sutsz, kis szűcs, sos hust sutsz, kis szűcs? (Hungary) (thanx csutiluca)

11. "Kokko kokko kokko!" - "Koko kokkoko?" - "Koko kokko!" (Finland) (thanx hartti)
12. "Kuku kaki kakekku kaku" (Indonesia) (thanx aalayaa)
13. Chichkovite chervenotikvenichkovcheta (Bulgaria) (thanx childish)
14. Na dvore trava, na trave drova (Russia) (thanx once more childish)
15. Sheshios zhasys su sheshiais zhasychiais (Lithuania; pronounced like that, but spelt differently... thanx eve.lt) It means: Six geese with six baby geese
16. Sase sasi in sase saci! (Romania) (thanx RadaSonea) It means: Six Saxons in six bags.
17. Un chasseur sachant chasser sait chasser sans son chien de chasse (France) (thanx VanessaDB)
18. Sju sjösjuka sjömäns skepp sjönk (Sweden) (thanx Pixiekatten)
19. Geri vyrai gerą gyrą gėrė (Lithuania) (thanx Raimix)
20. Ess ich Essig, ess ich Essig mit Salat! (Germany) (thanx Tabea)

21. Palakang Kabkab, kumakalabukab, kaka-kalabukab pa lamang, kumakalabukab na naman. (Phillipines) (thanx nixca316) - it's about a croaking frog... don't ask me more!
22. Ä chääs chuächä chläbt am chuchichäschtli! (a great one from Switzerland) (thanx barbskie)
23. Ganan geedel dagan bagan (A gardener grew wheat in the garden) (thanx gilabrand

(to be continued... )
In case you have a tongue-twister that is really really inexpressable, send it to me! I'll add it to this collection. I'm sorry that accents and umlauts and stuff like that are not always displayed correctly on this page. Best to ask a local, how the tongue-twisters are written (and pronounced) correctly!)

For all of you who cannot get enough of tongue-twisters...

Now, here's something really cool: Mixing the letters within a word so that they become new words making sense. The result is called "anagram". Anagrams used to be a favourite of mine back in 6th grade when we had a teacher called Rolf Hobbach who anagrammed his name to Bob Lachfroh (i.e. laugh happily). My name becomes something very special, too: Ochs mit Gold (i.e. Ox with gold) - now you can anagramm it yourself so long until you've found out my real name...

Here are some more of my favourites:
*Angela Merkel, the German chancellor, becomes the following: "klare Maengel" (i.e. clear weaknesses), "Karamelengel" (i.e. caramel angel), "Alarm! Ekel-Gen!" (i.e. Watch out! Disgusting gene!), "Naegel am Kerl" (i.e. nails on the guy), "General Kamel" (i.e. general camel) and a hell lot of things more!
*George Bush turns to be "Buh! Seegrog!" (i.e. Boo! Sea grog!), but apparently his name is not quite useful for building anagrams...
*Virtual Tourist now means "Ravioli tut stur" (i.e. ravioli does obstinate), "Ultra Tito Virus", "Autor litt Virus" (i.e. author suffered virus)

Here's a great machine which turns words into anagrams in German language.

Palindromes are yet another language phenomenon which I cannot get enough of. A palindrome is a word that can be read forward and backward - such as Anna or Otto. However, this phenomenon is not limited to words only, you can also build palindrome sentences. Here's a small collection of palindromes from several countries:

* saippuakauppias (meaning soap vendor in Finnish; thanx haiamisa!)
*innostunut sonni (meaning excited bull in Finnish; thanx Elina!)
* Lagerregal and Regallager (both from Germany, meaning storage rack and storage rack store)
* "Na Fakir, Paprikafan?" (Germany; "Well, fakir, are you a fan of bell peppers?")
* Anni roch Corinna (i.e. Anni smelt Corinna; similarly from Germany)
*A pain - a blast - ah, that's Albania, Pa! :)
* Was it Eliot's toilet I saw?
* Do geese see God? (interesting philosophical question, by the way!)
* Csak a mama makasc (Hungary; "Only the mother is stubborn") (thanx csutiluca!)
* Indul a kutya s a tyúk aludni (Hungary; "The dog and the hen going to sleep" (thanx once more csutiluca!)

Does anyone know more palindromes? Please send them to me, I'll add them to this collection!

Ambigrams are pictures of words. Words as pictures? Readable pictures? Drawn words? Whatever... Wikipedia sure knows better how to explain that phenomenon.

See for yourself what a friend of mine made with the anagramm of my name...

Poetry is in my opinion one of the best ways of mankind to express itself. Great poets have enriched literature for centuries - just think of Hesse, Frost, Goethe, Gibran, Eichendorff... to name but a few!
Although I've written several poems myself, I won't bother you with them. In any case they are nothing against what this poem generator can produce! It's amazing, I've already spent more than an hour laughing my head off about poems like the following:

Gewitterstimmung für immer

Für immer ist galaktisch die Plage!
Welch fröhliches Zieren!
Papst
Bekämpfe die Glut!
Für immer!
Ja Gewitterstimmung, raufen und hoffen
Ist erotisch,
So furchtbar und galaktisch!

(Incredible to translate, but here's my try:

Forever stormy atmosphere

Forever, the scourge is galactic!
What a happy adorning!
Pope
Fight the glow!
Forever!
Yes, stormy atmosphere, scuffling and hoping,
It's erotic
So dreadful and galactic!)

*lol*

As simple as creating poetry online is creating an advertising slogan. The same genius who founded the poetry generator founded the sloganizer. Check it out, it's really hilarious!

Here are some new slogans for VT:
* "Virtual Tourist - verbissen und großartig!" (i.e. VT - determined and great)
* "Virtual Tourist - großartig und begehrlich!" (i.e. VT - great and desirous)
* "Virtual Tourist - so unglaublich wie die See!" (i.e. VT - as unbelievable as the sea)

Here's a great website if you want to enjoy more language fun stuff!