About Evomend
Methods change.
Jobs change.
People change.
Evomend is offering timeless resources for personal development.
«Timeless»? A blog? Are you serious?
Yes, I am.
To me, Personal Development isn't about learning the Top 200 keyboard shortcuts. That's why I'll never list any of them here.
By Timeless Resources, I don't mean religions. That's why you'll never find any higher being mentioned here.
In between there are a lot of things we can share and be enthusiastic about. This is what you will find here. I'm posting something new about every two weeks.
If you'd like to stay tuned,
simply subscribe to my newsfeed
Welcome to Evomend!
Rolf F. Katzenberger
Where to start?
Let me introduce a couple of typical postings here at Evomend:
- I enjoy writing series like Protect your inbox, on how to handle your email, RSS newsfeeds, telephone, …
- Topics like Getting Things Done (GTD) raise a lot of questions, also for experienced users. I try to answer them in an application-oriented manner, like in What is (not) a GTD context?
- Last but not least: sometimes, the usual style of book reviews feels a bit superficial - having read such a review, I couldn't even tell what the book was all about. I'm writing the book reviews I'd like to read myself, for instance in Tim Ferriss's The 4-Hour Workweek or Stephen R. Coveys «The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People».
Why is this blog bilingual?
Because I feel comfortable about expressing my thoughts in both languages. Depending on the topic, either English or German words pop up in my mind at first. I complete the article in that language and later translate it into the other one.
Translating, by the way, isn't as easy as I sometimes want it to be. A URL, for instance, needs to be replaced by a link to an equivalent site in the respective other language. Sometimes, I just can't find them. Writing styles are completely different, too. Translate an English text verbatim into German, and your German-speaking readers may mistake you for affected and over the top. Translate a German text verbatim into English, and your English-speaking readers may mistake you for dull and pessimistic. Fascinating!
Who are you?
So you really want to know who I am.
Fine. I'm a happily married, seasoned system analyst and coach, working as a freelancer. Before, I've been a software developer, trainer, consultant, team lead, director of software development, director IT & organization.
Maybe one day I'll figure out a really cool way of lolling in my easy chair, sipping at a cup of coffee. Then I'll ask my wife to quickly take a photograph of me. Until then, I wish you a fairly good laugh every day, about something else…
Thanks & Credits
My biggest Thank You goes to my friends Frank Westphal for tirelessly triggering kaizen cycles and to Michael Schürig for persistently questioning the sense and meaning of Evomend. My blogging pals Stephen Smith and James helped me a lot providing excellent advice on content and layout: Thanks!
Evomend uses a modified version of the Blue Zinfandel Theme, designed originally by Brian Gardner and ported to Drupal by webchick.
The header image is a detail from «Brokenness» by col_adamson.
The RSS feed icon is copyright GoSquared.
Contact
Rolf F. Katzenberger
Thumenberger Weg 21
D-90491 Nuernberg
Germany
Disclaimer
Although I'm checking and taking care, I'm not responsible for the content of the sites I link to. Please refer to the respective site owners.
Comments
“Translate an English text
“Translate an English text verbatim into German, and your German-speaking readers may mistake you for affected and over the top. Translate a German text verbatim into English, and your English-speaking readers may mistake you for dull and pessimistic. Fascinating!”
Indeed =) They’re logical opposites as far as psychology is concerned. As for the styles themselves - it’s a direct reflection of culture and basic linguistic differences.
Correct me if I’m wrong, but I do believe English has more words in total than German. We borrow words. We mangle and mash words. We enforce our words and acronyms upon the world.
Whereas German doesn’t seem to be quite so hell-bent on world lingual domination =P
Although, what I’m most interested in is how you became so fluent in both English and German…
Words...
You’re right, it is estimated that English has about 1.5 times more words than German. Actually, English is so “popular”, in a way, that Germans sometimes repurpose English (!) words for everyday things, in a ridiculous fashion. E.g., a cell phone is called “handy” over here…
Most Germans learn English in school. In my case, it was for 7 years. Ever since, I needed to read lots of books in English (or wait 2-3 years for a translation, which isn’t really an option), for professional reasons.
However, I guess it shows that I’m not a native speaker, my sentences are often too long and complicated (hey, I’m German ;-)), I lack many idioms and don’t always manage to get the word order right, especially with adverbs. Well, as long as people understand what I’m trying to say… :D
I wish I was so lucky ^.^ I
I wish I was so lucky ^.^ I did get to learn Spanish from my friends (born and raised in what amounts to New Cuba - south Florida) and in school, but after so many years of not using it, I’m a bit rusty.
I speak bits and pieces of about 7 languages. Sadly, German is my third strongest, and is limited to phrases like “ein junga unter einem flugzeug” and “sheizacompf” (I know my spelling is awful - but what a wonderful combination, eh?)
Cool :)
“ein Junge unter einem Flugzeug” = “a boy under an airplane”. I guess you’ve been using Rosetta Stone to learn German, right? Great tool!
“sheizacompf” is a bit tricky, I can’t imagine what it means. Anyway, you’re trying to be able to talk a little to others, I cherish people like that a lot.
Actually, I was paid $50 to
Actually, I was paid $50 to “peer test” some software once - I was testing their competitor, and yes, it was Rosetta Stone.
However, most of my German knowledge comes from a childhood neighbor - a married couple, the wife was French and barely spoke English much less German, the husband was German, and barely spoke English much less French.
Mostly I ended up being the argument translator…
=)
Post new comment