Blog challenge – anything you didn’t know about me – now you know it!

This is a kind of a chain blog post in which one blogger tags you on their blog and challenges you to answer some questions and then pass the ball to eleven more bloggers! Thanks to Marisa Constantinides for nominating me. This feels like a great holiday blog idea.

So here is the task!

1. Acknowledge the nominating blogger- in this case it would be me…
2. Share 11 random facts about yourself.
3. Answer the 11 questions the nominating blogger has created for you.
4. List 11 bloggers.
5. Post 11 questions for the bloggers you nominate to answer, and let all the bloggers know they have been nominated. Don’t nominate a blogger who has nominated you.

11 Random facts about myself

1. My name means “he who wins.”
2. My surname is shared by one famous Polish archeologist and one well-known heavy metal singer.
3. I was born in the same hospital as Stanisław Sojka, a Polish jazz and pop singer.
4. I was sailing before I was cycling (first time on a boat when I was four…)
5. I lose hats. It is impossible for me to hold on to a hat for more than a month. Many lovely hats have ridden on trains without me – or were left in restaurants – or ended up on parking lots.
6. Good coffee and marzipan are very likely to bring tears of joy to my eyes. (This is knowledge I’m not willing to share with people who may try to bribe me later, but you lot are OK).
7. There were two people with perfect scores on my University entry exam. I was one of them. The other person became my wife nine years later.
8. I was part of the team which started the first 100% English-speaking internet radio station in my town. I still have the T-shirts to prove it.
9. My job involves about three hundred meetings and twenty thousand miles per year.
10. Languages became my passion when I discovered Irish and Welsh – when preparing for university.
11. I translated two complicated ethics/animal rights books into Polish.

Here are the questions Marisa asked us (in bold) and my answers (italics).

1. How long does it usually take you to draft and finalise a blog post? – I write quickly but research is always on a slow burn. Sometimes I’m not prepared to write until another thing happens, one more language learning project is launched – and the dots are connected. Once the ideas are ready, though, it’s rarely more than 30 minutes.
2. Which ICT tools do you actually use with your classes? – When I taught, Keynote was essential for translator training – and occasionally I used Skype for distance training.
3. What is your absolute dream job? – Pirate. I’m serious.
4. Which classroom activity do you absolutely enjoy using with your students? One is all I need – “What if…?” – Starting with some assumptions about reality and then questioning them. For language learners, good conditional practice. For my translator trainees, frequently an introduction to brainstorming different ways of working.
5. How many of your current friendships were started through a social network? – I have a few blog friends, but my friends are mostly people I’ve known IRL before.
6. Which household chore do you hate the most and which one do you love the best? – I hate ironing and enjoy cleaning up the kitchen. “Love” is a strong word here 🙂
7. Name your 10 desert island CD’s – wow, really? Beatles’ “White Album” – any Led Zeppelin – Pink Floyd’s “Echoes” – Kate Bush’s “Sensual World” – any Tori Amos (early stuff) – Zero 7’s “Simple Things” – Benjamin Britten, all of it, sorry – Pat Metheny’s “One Quiet Night” – Pearl Jam’s “Vs.” – Keith Jarrett’s “Koln Concert.” And dozens more. I’d just take Spotify.
8. Do you wish you had studied something other than what you did study? Do say what, if the answer is yes – I was well under way to joining a navy academy, I think. But the answer is “no” – I loved every bit of my studies and the curiosity it gave me.
9. Describe the naughtiest thing you have ever done – within reason, of course – A photograph of me appeared once in an exhibition in Poland. And in the exhibition catalogue. I’m describing all this within reason, as instructed, so this will have to do. No, I haven’t got the photograph any more.
10. What artistic aspirations or skills do you have? – I write a lot and translate poems / songs that most people would consider untranslatable.
11. Which TV series or film do you keep watching again and again? – “Battlestar Galactica” has been the latest discovery. And I know almost every line of “Fight Club,” “The Big Lebowski” and “Withnail and I.”

4. List 11 bloggers

Ha – do I even know 11 of them? Let’s see.
1. @womenlearnthai
2. @Stuffedmice
3. @kantanda
4. @5minutelanguage
5. @AnnLoseva
6. @naomishema
7. @lauraahaha
8. @MrChrisJWilson
9. @LanguageBoat
10. @JoshSRound
11. @RebuffetBroadus

5. 11 questions for the bloggers:

I. Name the most beautiful foreign language word/phrase you can think of. Provide translation.
II. Describe your favourite smell.
III. Tell us what made you start a blog – and what’s been making it worth writing recently.
IV. Tell us about the language you would still like to learn, and give us a compelling reason.
V. Describe your death row meal.
VI. Imagine your doctor tells you that you’re only allowed 5 hours of work per week. What do you keep doing – what do you let go?
VII. Tell us a lifehack/trick that you came up with yourself and are quite proud of.
VIII. What would be an ideal place for you to live – and what makes you think so?
IX. Name a non-English book that you think everyone should read.
X. Can you write us a story in six words? (Here’s how to do it)
XI. What would your tattoo look like? (If you have one: what is it?)

There we go. Hope you enjoyed this – you can post links to your replies below!
Have a happy break, if you’re taking one – I’ll be back in the New Year with something big.

Vic Kostrzewski

Wiktor (Vic) Kostrzewski (MA, DELTA) is an author, translator, editor and project manage based in London. When he works, he thinks about languages, education, books, EdTech and teachers. When he doesn’t work, he probably trains for his next triathlon or drinks his next coffee.

BRAVE Learning (formerly known as 16 Kinds) is a lifelong learning and productivity blog. If you enjoy these posts, please check out one of my books and courses.

My recent publications, and my archive, is now all available on my new project: PUNK LEARNING. Hope to see you there!