Archive: April 2008
"Limerence: The Experience of Being 'in Love'"
A Special Feature Article
Monday, 28th April 2008, 18:33 GMT
"One of the most potent forces in human existence": the experience of being in love. During my time abroad, I’ve had chance to reflect on broader emotions that define human existence. In fact, I’ve personally experienced one that I can honestly say has completely clarified my outlook on life as a whole.
Read the full special feature article, "Limerence: The Experience of Being 'in Love'", here.
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"Lost in Translation"
Wednesday, 23rd April 2008, 19:59 GMT
andyholland.co.uk wird bilingual. Or in English... andyholland.co.uk is becoming bilingual. In my new year's message for the website, I recall promising to deliver more content to the website as well as some new features. As I sat writing content articles for work, a brainwave of an idea came to me... why not translate my whole website into German.
And that's exactly what my last week and a half has revolved around.
Technicalities of the Bilingual Feature
You may have noticed that the site has undergone a few updates. In promising myself that I could deliver a bilingual website, I didn't really realise the work I'd challenged myself to complete. Not only did I need to translate the content from my native language into a foreign one, but I had to also change the entire structure of the website so that bilingual shared menus could be created as well - not to mentioned graphics!
This is easier said than done; especially when taking into consideration the fact that this website is built on the foundations of an outdated FrontPage-developed code. I've stripped the whole site down however and have now hopefully fixed all the issues that come hand in hand with doing so.
The Translation Process
Translating into a foreign language is said to be the most difficult. Indeed I found it was. My style of writing is quite quirky. As such, it is extremely hard to capture the nuances when translating. Take for example my homepage:
"Welcome to the Virtual Abode of Andy Holland"
In German, I'm not sure if the nuance that comes with abode can be used in the context of a website and to be honest I'm not sure if it now sounds right in English (or if it ever did?). The problem with translating from a native language into the foreign, is that nuances often get lost, your personal writing style can become confused in the complicated and unfamiliar grammatical structure, not to mention the actual vocabulary range that I find I use.
Whilst I utilise my time translating the website and trying to get the new feature up and running, I take my hat off to those who translate professionally; especially literature. Literary translators have an overwhelming job. The nuances of the language that must be first understood in the foreign language and then captured in the native is like trying to get up at 6:30 every morning. I'm sure some people manage it (literary translating that is), as novels are continually translated. It's certainly a skill I've yet to fully develop.
Hopefully this practise I'm getting now will help me develop that skill further. Skills that I find interesting are ones that I tend to strive for with the largest motivation. Unfortunately some of them fall by the way-side as life takes over. Nevertheless, this one is certainly one I'm going to continue developing for a little while yet.
Watch this space...
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"Always forgive your enemies..."
Monday, 14th April 2008, 19:32 GMT
"...but never forget their names!" Having had an absolutely thrilling day at work with my new colleagues, I hopped onboard the U2 at 6pm on the way to the supermarket to organise tonight's evening meal, which I hoped would involve some form of chicken.
WARNING: All characters contained within this entry are references to real persons, now living or dead, it is not purely coincidental.
A quick look down the refrigerated aisle revealed that Germany does indeed have a chicken shortage, at least of the breasted variety: plenty of legs, but all the breasts had been ferreted from the shelves. This was the first minor thing that began to add a sour edge to what was previously a very good day.
The second item, which slightly annoyed and made for a more stressful shopping trip, was the lack of biscuits, of the chocolate covered rich tea variety. Not only that but there was also no fresh semi-skimmed milk to dip them in.
real,- Supermarkets - 'einmal hin, gar nichts drin!' - ©2008 andyholland.co.uk
Finally, having queued at a checkout for near-on 20 minutes, I felt the rather rare stab of someone's unblinking stare in the arch of my back. Upon turning around, a dishevelled man asked (in German of course) if he was correct in thinking that I'd joined the checkout queue at an inappropriate place. I replied (in German), that I believed that his wife and I had joined the queue at around the same time and as such didn't believe I was in the wrong. Unfortunately for me, upon hearing the English accent filtering through my panicked tone, an even more dishevelled, wrinkly goat of a man, who was clearly just in need of his twelfth coffee of the day decided to join in on the quarrel.
Paraphrasing on the translation here of course, "Yes my son, you were in the wrong, the queue started way back here! Get to the back of the line!" Upon apologising nicely and stating that I was unaware of any wrong doing, the ridged horns of the goat-faced man's head became erect and the sweaty hairs lunging from his ear lobes began to vibrate. I offered to allow both the goat and Wayne and Waynetta slob to go before me in the queue. (Fair enough wouldn't you say?)
Not for the lovely friendly Germans it wasn't. The goat croakily retorted that because I had violated a fundamental law of grocery shopping queuing, I must re-join the line at the very back-end. This would have meant that I would now be looking at a 50 minute trip into the supermarket. 50 minutes for a chicken breast that wasn't available anyway! I politely asked the rhino of a gentleman behind the goat whether or not it would be okay to let the goat and the slobs through and I slot in just in-front of him...
"...not by the hair of my chinny-chin-chin", he snored as he spat putrid sputum from his already foaming mouth, "I've been waiting in this queue for an eternity too!" he added. So off I walked, as the polite English do, to the very end of the queue, to begin my 20 minute wait all over again.
Wayne and Waynetta Slob - ©2008 BBC Productions
Enraged as I was at the obviously National Socialistic thinking of this collection of old g*ts I encountered today at the supermarket (which incidentally, will not open a new checkout if you are waiting in line more than 2 minutes), I still maintain that the majority of Germans are extremely friendly. It's a pity therefore that these sad few "people", who get themselves in a frenzy about something and nothing, are feeding the stereotypical view that all Germans have no sense of humour, walk around all day with their stern frowns never turning up-side-down and are generally arrogant in nature.
I very nearly stooped to their level and said something I would probably have regretted. Now I feel like the more mature person. They can hold onto their bureaucratic queuing system... I have the power of the English accent (however much regionalised) and customer service at its best at my disposal!
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"Today is the Yesterday You Worried About Tomorrow"
Sunday, 13th April 2008, 21:02 GMT
"No wise man ever wished to be younger". Or so I kept telling myself as the next birthday rolled by. With a crazily busy month over with, I've finally got around to blogging the last months events and publishing an unpublished entry for march (see March).
As I sit here at 21:26pm wondering what to do for the next one and a half hours before I must hit the hay, I reflect on the month that has gone by and smile as the happy events flick through my head, like the pages of a feel-good novel.
Birthday Celebrations
I've reached that age now, however, at which birthdays are no longer something to wish for and look forward to, without the feeling of dread filtering through the stomach. In fact the prospect of the next one is affecting my ability to type. Thank the lord it is nearly a year away. Having said that however, it was a pleasure and has been an absolutely fantastic, birthday-celebrating couple of weeks. The family have been great, visiting me abroad (despite the horrific weather conditions) sending me lovely, generous birthday wishes and gifts. Friends have wished me well whilst in Germany and people I didn't even know beforehand have sung Happy Birthday. Overall it has been a month of general frivolity and happiness - and one which I have gobbled up like a 500g bar of Cadbury's dairy milk.
Nina Häse and Andy Holland at his 21st Birthday Meal - ©2008 andyholland.co.uk
Getting Down in Dhaun
For my actual birthday, I was in a castle in the south west of Germany, Schloss Dhaun, with Warwick university lecturers and course friends. Although at first, the prospect of studying Kafka and analysing texts in detail wasn't exactly a great one, the actual day turned out to be spectacularly exciting and enjoyable. Kafka, having not studied it in too much detail before was surprisingly pleasant and actually was the source of many a laughing fit. The evening was then spent with a variety of sweeties from the equally sweet Ms. Taylor and plenty of Weissbier.
'A little Bohemian Rhapsody gentlemen?'
Hannah Schmitz vocal coaches the crowd - 29th March 2008 - ©2008 andyholland.co.uk
The Saturday evening (29th March 2008) was simply stunning. A live band from 9pm till the wee hours of the morning was great. Even better however were the lecturers (later named "The Faculty") showing off their musical talents with an assortment of classic tracks. Live piano, bass guitar, drums and singing was a pleasure and especially as they had only previously played together for an hour's practise session beforehand! Superb! I have so much respect for these guys! A certain person's rendition (in German) of 'Mack the Knife' will not be forgotten. Just as enjoyable was hijacking the piano and forcing the course mates to sing bohemian rhapsody at the tops of their voices (see picture above).
Without going into too much detail, naked sauna experiences ("when in Rome...") finished off the frivolities in the Schloss and I heartily thank all for helping make my birthday so memorable. It was a delight!
The real work begins...
I'm now back to real life after the month of celebrations and probably the closest I've been to living in the "real world". I'm completing an internship at an online marketing and e-business consultancy firm. As suspected the work is a little "limited" to start off with, but hopefully I will soon be utilising a bit more German language knowledge and furthering my computing skills. The colleagues are super friendly and already have welcomed me on a few nights out...
From left to right (my fellow Monetos colleagues): Lucy Percival, Lucy Upton,
Isabel Cruz Espíldora, Stephen Dormont and Shaké Kalemkaryan
The Hamburger Dom - 11th March 2008 - ©2008 andyholland.co.uk
Although it's certainly sad to say goodbye to day-to-day life in Kiel, especially some of the amazing friends I've made there......here's to the next five exciting and enjoyable months...
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