Since I’m on a language kick today, and I’m leaving for another trip to Ireland (for the IEEE ProComm in Limerick, Ireland) in a few days, this seemed appropriate. Gaelige still eludes me phonetically. I always feel like once I get the phonetics down, then the rest becomes easier. I guess someday I might figure it out.
This is an interesting article about how Irish language has influenced English language.
My father often clained that he spoke the "King’s English" with his strong South (New) Jersey accent that still makes me cringe now and then. Perhaps he’s right! But this time, he’s backed with science!
What do you think? I’ve often thought that the American accent was softened also by Irish, Scottish and Welsh brogues. When I went to Ireland, I felt that the average Irish person’s accent was much closer to my American accent than a British accent (and that was me in the West of Ireland, where the Gaelige brogue is stronger).
In this short documentary, linguist David Crystal and his son, actor Ben Crystal, look at the differences between English pronunciation now and how it was spoken 400 years ago. They answer the most basic question you probably have right now — How do you…
This is something that I’ve been meaning to post for a while, but it slipped away. I think today is English localization day for me. Anyway, David Crystal is THE man you want to read or learn from if you want to learn about linguistics, especially English language linguistics. I’ve never read a resource that didn’t reference him in some way. Even reading his works directly yield great insights.
Check out this fantastic video that shows how pronunciation alone can change how language is perceived. After that, think about how English (or any other language that has multiple dialects) sounds today in various countries. It’s incredible that we all still understand each other at all! I also find it fascinating that perception of the dialect can change the meaning. Listen to what Ben Crystal says towards the end of how one speech changed meaning and how the actors perceived the "OD" dialects.
(I think I missed out on a career in linguistics…fascinating stuff to me…)
I know I try to be funny or inject my sense of humor with my own posts whenever I can. I remember someone referring to me as a tech comm humorist at one time, which surprised, but pleased me. Life is too short to take everything so seriously, If you can’t find some humor in what you do for a living, or at least see what some of the ironies are, what’s the point of doing it? This article supports that notion. We can’t all be comedians, but a little humor does go a long way.
What do you think? Does humor have a place in social media? Add your commentary below.
I’ve mentioned on a few occasions that with the completion of my contract at BASF, I would have to figure out what my next move would be. Job hunting is something that I dread, especially since the region where I live doesn’t have much opportunity unless I go out of my way to travel far to the cities. I’m in a position where I can’t move due to my son’s education for now, so I had to figure out what the best move for me would be. Thanks to my husband’s support, and my mom setting the example for me when I was younger, I decided that perhaps I’d make a go of it on my own. I’m tired of working through agencies or “the man”.
Let’s celebrate!
So, on July 4th, 2015, I officially launched my own business. I figured that it would be appropriate to declare my status as an independent contractor on (American) Independence Day. While many of you have read on LinkedIn that I’m working as a Content Marketing Strategist for Information Development World, that is my first contract, which started a big before my official launch.
My company is called Dair Communications, and it already has a barebones website that needs a little tweaking (my husband is helping me set the website up, as he’s a developer and wanted to help, as he should). I chose “Dair” because it’s Gaelic for “Oak“, and I’ll leave it to your imagination what words are evoked when using that description. There are also sentimental reasons for the use of “dair” stemming from my heritage, so it seemed appropriate. The other connotaction is that the word “dair” sounds like the English word, “dare”, so I’d like to think that I’m doing something daring by breaking out on my own, and that I would dare to try new and creative solutions for my clients. Hence–do you DAIR? 😉
Many of my readers have asked me to blog about being an independent contractor. I will do my best! I know that I will be doing a lot to help out with The Content Wrangler blog and Information Development World for the next several months, and I will share some of those projects and observations with you. You might not see quite as many TechCommGeekMom entries as before as I transition into this new adventure, but I’m not going away anytime soon.
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