If time and money aren't issues for you and say a fun travel companion then I suggest booking a first-class ticket over to the tiny tear-drop shaped island of Sri Lanka for Deepavali happening on October 21, 2006. Deepavali also known as Diwali is the 'Festival of Lights' which symbolizes the victory of good over evil. Lamps are lit as a sign of celebration and hope for mankind. The event lands on a Saturday this month.

Today's word is a Sinhala word used in Sri Lanka:

Senasuraa da - Saturday

English is spoken by ten percent of the population and Sinhala is the official and national language of the country. I've actually never tried to learn this one much, but judging from the alphabet it looks like a challenge. Omniglot has a great starter page on learning all the characters and use of this English to Sinhala dictionary could slowly help in distinguishing common travel words. Let's Speak Sinhala offers lessons at a very small and reasonable fee. They appear to be one of the better Sinhala language-learning websites.

Past Sinhala words: hari shook, a da, ga ma, ida netu, purusha, sthree

Filed under: Learning, Asia, Sri Lanka