Sidd Twinkle

I am a native Swahili speaker, raised in Mombasa — a coastal city where Swahili is not just a national language but the primary language of daily life, community, and culture. This gives me a deep familiarity with the Coastal Swahili dialect, its phonological patterns, and how it differs from the Standard Swahili spoken in Nairobi or the varieties heard in Tanzania and Uganda. I hold a Bachelor's degree in Linguistics in French from Maseno University and am currently completing a Master's in Translation Studies.

My academic training in linguistics — covering phonology, accent analysis, and discourse — translates directly into the kind of careful, structured listening this role requires.

Audio & Translation Quality Evaluator at Freelance / Remote (2021-03 – Present)

• Listened to and evaluated audio content in Swahili and other languages, assessing naturalness, clarity, and accent accuracy against defined rubric criteria.
• Compared multiple audio recordings to identify which sounded most natural for a given target accent, providing written justifications for each judgement.
• Identified regional accent features — including Coastal, Nairobi, and Tanzanian Swahili — and distinguished subtle phonetic variations between speakers.
• Applied evaluation guidelines consistently across large batches of audio tasks, maintaining accuracy and throughput under flexible remote schedules.
• Transcribed short audio clips in Swahili, ensuring accurate representation of spoken content including hesitations, fillers, and dialect-specific forms.
• Flagged audio samples with background noise, unclear pronunciation, or accent mismatches that did not meet quality thresholds.

Freelance Translator & Language Reviewer (SW / FR / EN) at Independent / Direct Clients (2020-06 – 2021-02)

• Reviewed written and audio-derived Swahili content for linguistic accuracy, regional appropriateness, and consistency with style guidelines.
• Translated between Swahili, French, and English across general and professional domains.
• Post-edited machine-generated Swahili text, correcting unnatural phrasing, wrong register, and dialect-inappropriate word choices.

Language Tutor — Swahili, French & English at Self-Employed, Mombasa (2020-01 – 2020-05)

• Taught Swahili to non-native learners, focusing on pronunciation, accent patterns, and natural speech production.
• Corrected student audio recordings and provided detailed feedback on accent, intonation, and fluency — directly relevant to audio evaluation work.
• Designed listening exercises that trained learners to distinguish between regional Swahili varieties and standard forms.

Master of Arts in Translation Studies – Maseno University (2018)

Bachelor of Arts in Linguistics in French – Maseno University (2016 – 2020)