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Flashcard Game for Learning Vocab

Productivity YouTube Channels

As a freelance translator, productivity and self-motivation are super important to being successful. I don’t always feel super motivated and work hard at my work-life balance, but I thought I would share some of my favourite productivity YouTube channels that give great tips on being productive with you!

Learning Tifinagh | The World’s Writing Systems

In my post on Writing Systems of the World, I mentioned that I want to learn all the world’s writing systems. I mean, secretly, I’d love to learn all the world’s languages, but that is a pretty unrealistic goal, with over 3000 languages spoken across the globe. While it’s difficult to find an accurate estimate of how many writing systems there are, there appear to be a couple hundred, which is much more manageable. With the UK still being in lockdown, I thought learning a few new writing systems would be an exciting hobby to get me through.

5 Books in Translation I Want to Read in 2021

Top 5 Best Translation Podcasts

I love listening to podcasts. I love them so much that I have a hierarchy of podcasts. At the bottom are the ones that I’m interested in, but don’t mind if I don’t fully follow, so I stick them on to babble while I’m working. The top tier is those that I save to listen to on my walks, while I’m doing the washing up or during other less taxing tasks so that I can give them the full attention they deserve. The final category is translation podcasts! I use these as CPD to further my understanding of the translation industry. I know I find it so helpful when people recommend new podcasts to me, so here are my five favourite translation podcasts.

Language Learning Goals for 2021

Other Work Routines

Back in January, I introduced you to my morning routine. One thing I should say about it is that it’s constantly evolving and changing as I try to work out what’s right for me. A few of you expressed an interest on my Twitter for hearing about my other routines, so I’m back this week to do exactly that!

Writing Systems of the World

This week, I’ve got a slightly different post for you. As I’ve mentioned on my Instagram, I’m fascinated by how we write languages down. This fascination is what led me to take a GCSE in Russian and learn Arabic at university because I loved the idea of ‘decoding’ a different alphabet. I found that the ‘alphabets’ (we’ll explore why that term does not apply to all languages later) were actually fairly easy to learn and wondered if I could learn more. Fast forward to last week. I just randomly posited to my husband that I would like to learn all the writing systems of the world. He laughed and said that he thought that would be very difficult and I thought ‘challenge accepted’. So I have set myself the task of learning as many writing systems as I can across my life. I already know the Latin alphabet, the Cyrillic alphabet and the Arabic abjad and last weekend, I started learning the Tifinagh abjad, which is used for the Berber languages of Northern Africa. I decided I wanted to share my journey with you all (I secretly wish someone would pick up on this and commission me to write an accessible book on writing systems haha). So you can expect more posts like this in the future!

Continue reading “Writing Systems of the World”

My Work Morning Routine

In my post on my 2021 work goals, I talked about wanting to keep up with the work routines that I implemented at the end of 2020. A few of you requested to hear about them, so I thought I would share them with you. However, I have a number of routines I follow, so I thought I’d start by introducing you to my morning routine.

Review of 2020 Work Goals

As we are fast approaching the end of the year, I thought it was high time to address how I’ve done with my work goals this year. I love setting myself goals each year, but I don’t stick rigidly to them, as my priorities can change over the year. However, they act as a guide for how I want my year to go. Without further ado, here is my review of how my work goals went this year!