-
“What have you done lately?”
How often do you find yourself interested in what someone has done recently rather than a long time ago? In the spirit of that, I have done these things in the past couple months: Trained engineers on how to write technical documentation using DITA (Darwin Information Typing Architecture), which is an open standard that promotes topic-based authoring. Paired on an integration between DITA source code and a Zendesk knowledge base. Ported technical documentation from Sphinx and reStructuredText to DITA. Communicated in English and German with engineers. Created a kanban board for myself to make the most use of my time. I am currently learning Python.
-
Accent reduction
For a given language, I return to pronunciation practice time and time again as I progress with a language. This is especially important when starting to learn a new language with new sounds that can temporarily interfer with other languages, even one’s native language. In part, the sounds that you find problematic in a non-native language depends on your native language, your level of knowledge in the foreign language, how much you have worked on your accent until now, and other factors. Using my training as a violinist and my advanced TEFL certificate, I analyze sound patterns and create practice exercises that target individual sounds and (more importantly) their connections to each to other.
-
Translation
For a new Berlin resident, I translated at the immigration office (Ausländerbehörde) from German to English and English to German. I have also vetted translations from German to English, and Finnish to English. When I learn languages, I translate from a given target language into English, and vice versa. Another technique that I use is to read bilingual material so that I can see how ideas have been translated. It can be quite enjoyable to see what flexibility of expression a translator has used to keep within the sentiment of a particular story line.