Germany airlines - News

The airlines restarting flights to and from Germany after CORONAVIRUS

As Germany prepares to allow travel to more countries, we looked at what flights are available or coming up.

Air traffic across the world came to a near-standstill due to the coronavirus pandemic. But gradually and slowly, countries are opening up to tourists again, and airlines are planning to increase their flight operations.
From June 15th, the warning against tourist travel put in place by the German government to stall the spread of coronavirus will be lifted for EU countries. However, the warning is expected to stay in place for countries outside the EU until August 31st.
READ ALSO: These are the countries where Germany is planning to lift the travel warning
Here's a look at some of the airlines slowly getting their timetables back on track.
Lufthansa and subsidiaries
Lufthansa restarted many flights from early June, with a focus on connecting major German and European cities, as well as tourist destinations.
From June 15th, Lufthansa will be resuming around 20 German and European destinations from Frankfurt and as many as 34 from Munich – supplementing the airline's flight schedule, which has been growing steadily for a few weeks.
These include holiday destinations as Dubrovnik, Faro, Venice, Ibiza and Malaga from Frankfurt, as well as Porto, Split, Cyprus, Biarritz and Agadir and more from Munich.

See also on The Local:

READ ALSO: How Germany's Lufthansa is lifting off again as lockdowns ease
Meanwhile, services to highly demanded destinations, such as Mallorca or Sylt, will be gradually increased. As a result, Lufthansa's flight schedule will grow from around 500 to almost 900 weekly connections at the Frankfurt and Munich hubs over the course of June.
In addition, 34 long-haul destinations are now also available again in the Lufthansa Group airlines' flight schedules. In total the airlines now offer around 112 weekly connections to destinations outside Europe.
On short- and medium-haul routes, Lufthansa will offer a total of 1,800 weekly connections from September onwards. There will be 102 destinations from Frankfurt and 88 from Munich, including Malaga, Alicante, Valencia, Naples, Rhodes, Palermo, Faro, Madeira, Olbia, Dubrovnik, Reykjavik and many other summer destinations from Frankfurt.
From June 15th Austrian Airlines will resume regular flights after a break of almost 90 days. The airline will take off to 37 destinations in the first two weeks of the new start.
From July, Austrian Airlines will take off on regular long-haul flights for the first time since mid-March. Bangkok, Chicago, New York (Newark) and Washington will be available with up to three weekly flights. The European network offer will also be expanded to include various routes from July onwards – including flights to Greece.
If you need to take any legal translated documents for your business meeting to Germany or anywhere else, you can contact the translation agency Littera.

Source: https://www.thelocal.de/20200610/travel-these-are-the-airlines-restarting-flights-to-and-from-germany

Spanish people in Coronavirus

CORONAVIRUS in SPAIN – latest Health Ministry figures

The latest official figures* released by the Spanish Health Ministry on Saturday 6 June show a total of 27,135 deaths from Coronavirus in Spain – an increase of 1 in the past 24 hours. The figures also state there have been 67 deaths in the past 7 days.

Friday’s figures had shown an increase of 1 death in 24 hours and 52 deaths over 7 days. Thursday had shown an increase of 5 deaths in 24 hours, and 56 deaths over 7 days.

The current peak of recorded deaths related to Coronavirus in a 24-hour period in Spain was on 2 April, when 950 deaths were registered.

The official figure released by the Health Ministry on Saturday 6 June for the total number of people who have tested positive for Coronavirus only through a PCR test is now 241,310 – an increase of 164 over Friday.

Out of the 164 new confirmed cases, 86 are in Madrid.

Friday’s figures for the increase of infections only through PCR testing had been 177 over Thursday. Thursday’s figure had been 195 over Wednesday. Wednesday had been 219.

The current peak of recorded infections for a 24-hour period in Spain was on 31 March, when 9,222 new cases were registered (including from PCR and antibody).

A full breakdown in Spanish of the data per region, together with age group statistics can be found by clicking here.

*Confusion and discrepancies

There has been recent confusion regarding the Coronavirus mortality figures released by Spain’s central Health Ministry, as well as on-going discrepancies with the data released by some of the country’s regional health authorities.

ALSO READ: Spain’s ‘excess mortality’ during Coronavirus pandemic is over 43,000

This week Spain’s National Statistics Institute (INE) published figures showing that the number of deaths for the first 21 weeks of 2020 have been 24% higher than for the same period in 2019 – based on information received from the country’s civil registries (1 January to 24 May). The number of deaths during this period for 2020 is 43,945 higher than in 2019.

The INE report of its latest statistics also states that the week between 30 March and 5 April saw the highest number of deaths in the year, ‘with 20,575 deaths, 154.6% higher than the same week in 2019′. During the week of 18 May – the last week included in the study – an estimated 7,470 people died, which is ‘a similar figure to the 7,429 from the same week in 2019′, the INE stated.

The Health Ministry figures are normally presented by Fernando Simón, director of the Coordination Centre for Health Alerts and Emergencies, and who reports to the Health Minister Salvador Illa.

Salvador Illa has perviously said that, ‘Spain is following a very strict definition of cases [both for deaths and infections of Coronavirus] in line with international authorities, including the World Health Organization (WHO) and the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC). Anyone who tests positive for Covid-19 and then dies is considered a Coronavirus fatality.’

Source: https://www.spainenglish.com/2020/06/06/coronavirus-spain-6-june/

Arabic - Are Duolingo’s Arabic lessons useful for learners?

Are Duolingo’s Arabic lessons useful for learners?

DUBAI: Duolingo, an online language-learning portal with over 300 million users, recently added Arabic to its course offerings. Luis von Ahn, a Carnegie Mellon University professor, launched the app along with Severin Hacker with the aim of creating a free language-learning platform in 2012.

But with Arabic categorized as one of the “super hard” languages by the US Foreign Service Institute due to its complex grammar, varied dialects and rich lexicon, are the app’s “game-like lessons” enough - or even useful - for a learner?

Hope Wilson, a learning scientist at Duolingo, wrote in an essay on the official website on June 26, 2019, that just because a language is difficult to learn doesn’t make it “un-learnable,” “After all, babies can learn to speak any language on earth - and so can adults, given enough time and effort,” he said. In theory, Wilson sounds right.

But as Muhamed Al-Khalil, director of Arabic studies and associate professor of practice of Arabic language at New York University Abu Dhabi, points out, Arabic presents a more complex system than many other languages.

But Russian, for example, shares with Arabic certain characteristics that make it relatively easy for a Russian speaker to learn Arabic, Al-Khalil told Arab News. But the same cannot be said about native English speakers.

Likewise, May Zaki, associate professor in the department of Arabic and translation studies at the American University of Sharjah, said Arabic is not very difficult to learn for native speakers of Farsi or Urdu. “Arabic can be easier to learn also for a Spanish speaker than an English speaker because of similarities in grammar and even some vocabulary,” she told Arab News.

Zaki said there are complexities in Arabic in matters of script, root and pattern system compared with most European languages. So, it takes longer for a learner to make progress in learning Arabic as opposed to learning, say, French or Spanish, she said.

She commended Duolingo for including Arabic to its menu of language offerings. “I have personally tried it to see how it feels from a teacher's perspective,” she said. “It would be a great addition at a later stage if Duolingo offers the option of learning one colloquial variety as well. Egyptian Arabic and Shami (Syrian) Arabic could be the most popular options,” Zaki said.

Duolingo’s Arabic language course takes the learner through the teaching process in steps. It introduces the Arabic alphabet with sound exercises. In his essay, Wilson said: “The challenge level of these exercises will ensure that our learners are forced to engage their brains to internalize the new alphabet.”

Yomna Taha, a native Arabic speaker, tried out a few Arabic lessons on Duolingo and was impressed. “I was curious to check it out and, from my experience, it was pretty good,” she told Arab News. “Not many language teaching apps work that well.”

The verdict of Mariam Hammad, another native Arabic speaker who tried out Duolingo, was mixed. “The app is easy to use but I don’t believe it will have a big impact on teaching Arabic,” she said.

She said the only time she would use the app would be during emergencies or when in need of immediate translation while in a foreign country. “Arabic language is very nuance rich and probably needs an actual tutor, preferable of an Arab origin,” she said.

Al-Khalil, of NYU Abu Dhabi, said Duolingo has created possibilities for practice and provided an opportunity not only to learn the Arabic vocabulary but also build sentences.

At the same time, he pointed out one limitation of Duolingo: language is a social activity whereas the app lacks human interaction in terms of body language and facial expressions. Thus, the platform by itself may not be sufficient for a learner to master Arabic.

Linnette Schoeman, who is trying to learn Arabic, found the Duolingo lessons unhelpful. She said she would rather learn the language through YouTube videos or take one-to-one classes. “Also, the Arabic lessons lack visuals unlike the Spanish lessons, which provide them from the start,” Schoeman said.

Baris Dur, who completed the Duolingo Arabic course, found the lessons useful and the app easy to use. But the problem he faces is all too common in the Middle East: none of his friends speak standard Arabic. “It is difficult for me to understand their different dialects,” he told Arab News.

Zaki said the differences between the formal and colloquial forms no doubt add to an Arabic learner’s challenges. Under the circumstance, she said, the solution is this: “A learner who wants to be fully proficient in Arabic should learn both varieties and master the skill of using the right varieties in the appropriate situation.”

Source: https://www.arabnews.com/node/1531136/media