About the author
Jesse "Kay" Karjalainen is a writer, journalist, sub-editor and fashion photographer. He studied journalism in Edinburgh and has worked for several national newspapers. He currently lives in Bristol and works for a science publisher as a print and web editor. The Joy of English is his first published book.
Jesse also runs the whichenglish.com website. He does freelance fashion photography in his spare time between writing and editing his way through his various projects.
5 interesting things about the author
I recently re-read Liza Marklund's Exposed and discovered at the back of her book that she included an interesting biography that featured '5 interesting facts about the author'. I thought that this was a great idea, so here are my five interesting facts:
1. Born in Sweden to Finnish parents, the author grew up in Australia. As a child he travelled throughout much of Europe and SE Asia. By the age of 13 he had been to 32 countries, including visiting the Soviet Union and travelling on the Transiberian Railway (not long after the Chernobyl disaster), and living on a yacht at marinas in Cyprus, Turkey and Greece. He currently lives in Bristol, UK.
2. He has always "suffered" from looking younger than he really is. He is sick of being told, "you'll be thankful when you are older". He stopped being asked for ID at the age of 26, although he was recently challenged (at the age of 37) at a Waitrose supermarket in London when buying a bottle of champagne with his groceries.
3. Prior to "finding his vocation" and getting a "real job", the author has had many varied jobs. As a young man he was an assistant manager of a wine shop (often being told, "surely you are too young to know about wine?"). His first career was in the travel industry, where he has worked as a travel consultant and as a flight attendant on Boeing 757s. While at university in Edinburgh he worked briefly as a postman during one summer break, an experience that he describes as a "surreal way of seeing the city". He was once the editor of the official Edinburgh Tattoo magazine, Salute, despite knowing nothing about the subject. He currently works in publishing and journalism.
4. He considers himself to be an archetypal Generation-Xer of the Laptop &Latte ilk: uncertain and sceptical when it comes to the economic outlook; a member of the hip-hop generation; welcomes and thrives on change; loves technology and gadgets; is accepting of all peoples and sub-cultures; and believes that hard work, innovation and investing are the only roads to success (other than having rich parents).
5. Like typical nerds, he is not a big sports fan (although he does like to watch F1, America's Cup racing and World Cup football). If anything, his "sport" is business and global economics. And he loves books and film. Unlike typical nerds, he also loves design, fashion photography, hip hop and working out at the gym.
How do you say "Karjalainen"?
Yes, its long and foreign but how on Earth do you pronounce it?
I have come up with a few methods over the years of explaining how to say my surname:
First, "Carry your lion in" – said quickly. If you can say this simple phrase then, essentially, you have it nailed.
Second, If you are able to roll your Rs – which many were able to do when I lived in Scotland but few can seem to do here in England – then you can say, "CaRR-ya-lion-in", which is a lot closer to the actual sound.
Last, I used to explain it as similar to Carolina (as in, North and South Carolina) plus "nen", which gives you "Caroline-nen". But this ended up with people calling me Caroline...
If you are really stuck, then Jesse K is fine.
Photography
For those of you who are interested, the other great passion of mine is photography, particularly commercial and fashion photography.
Here are a few samples:
If you want to see more, why not explore the Jürgen Jochim site
for the latest images?
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