The Monday Byte

Welcome to the Monday Byte where I send you 5 things each week to help you speak English like a native speaker.

📖 Word/Phrase - PTO/OOO

I'm sure you've seen these. But do you know what they stand for? I'll tell ya:

• PTO - paid time off

• OOO - out of office

It's funny because even natives like myself mess this up. "I'm on PTO" is a common phrase you'll here but if you were to spell out the acronym, that wouldn't make sense.

Instead, the grammatically correct way would be "I'm taking PTO" but don't worry. Nobody cares which you use.

I'm mentioning OOO as well because at most of my remote jobs, we have a shared calendar for vacation. So if Sarah is out on Tuesday, you might see "Sarah H. - OOO" on the calendar.

So when you land your remote job and take PTO, now you'll be ready to use both of these like the natives.

💬 Pronunciation - How would Kobe do it?

When was the last time you studied the fundamentals of English pronunciation?

I’m reminded of this because of Kobe Bryant. I listened to a podcast episode about him and how what set him apart (from the beginning) was fundamentals. He mastered the fundamentals.

And so I have to imagine, if he were born in South America and learning English with the same rigor he had with basketball, how would he do it?

He’d start with the fundamentals.

Listen to the 1h20m episode.

🗣️ Real World Conversation - How do you navigate large codebases?

Have you learned this formally? Didn’t think so. Me neither.

And we both know it’s such a valuable skill because you’ll use it:

• on a new project

• on a new team

• fixing something in a third-party package

So I decided to investigate this topic and come up with a formula. I gave this talk back at Phoenix React.js last year. Tons of people came up to me afterwards saying they enjoyed it.

I think you will too. And, it’s going to prep you for your next remote job.

🔗 Content - Honeypot

Honey Pot is the NatGeo (National Geographic) of developer content. They've made some amazing documentaries, including the story of React.

I was browsing their YouTube channel yesterday and they have a lot of other really high-quality content. It'll give your Netflix subscription a run for it's money.

💪🏼 Exercise - Copy this email

You ever heard of copywork? Well, it's a technique I learned from copywriting (studying it right now). And it's where you copy someone else's writing as a way to learn.

To prep you for your conversations when you're interviewing for your remote role, I want you to copy this email (literally type it out in your email client).

This is the email I used to land my first remote dev job after teaching myself how to code on freeCodeCamp.

Here's why:

1. You'll practice your English

2. You'll start to get a feel for tone/style of "business email"

Let me know how it goes!

Bonus: I’m thinking about doing free resume reviews. Would you be interested in that?

Enjoy the week, we’ll talk again soon. And hey, remember, if you want a specific topic covered or need help, hit reply and let me know!

- Joe