I am originally from Latvia where all female names have to end with “a” or “e” (and all male names with “s”, so for example Albert Einstein would be Alberts Einsteins). So the name is my passport is Estere Šeinkmane. Š is a [sh] sound, but to avoid problems with online forms etc, I’m used to writing and saying Seinkmane. My parents speak Russian (though they are not Russian), so what they actually meant to name me is Эстер Шейнкман, more accurately transliterated to English as Esther Sheynkman. In English I often introduce myself “Esther” when speaking, but also like French-style Estère version and pronunciation. In Russian you can put the stress on either syllable, though my parents do it on the 2nd, like in French.

Ester, which is possibly an even more direct transliteration of my actual name (so “t” instead of “th” like in the English name) is a name of a class of organic compounds in English. This class is related to ethers, which in Russian is translated as “‘эфир”, and esters in organic chemistry as “сложный эфир”. Сложный is complex, so esters = complex ethers. Эфир on the other hand has another meaning, unrelated – it is also how you say “broadcast”, e.g. “live broadcast on TV” (“прямой эфир по телевизору”). Therefore, complex broadcast.

I try to do those too. Over the years, I’ve volunteered with various humanitarian organisations, mostly in Europe on refugee issues – in Northern Greece in 2017, in Northern France in 2018-2022, and in Western Ukraine in 2025.

I also love travelling, have done it extensively in Europe and also a couple of longer trips to South-East Asia and Central America. I’ve never written it up so if you’re interested in my take on a travel blog, definitely encourage me to do it sooner rather than later.

In school, I was really into linguistics, and participated in Linguistics olympiads – these are fun because they don’t actually require any knowledge of neither linguistics nor languages, it is pure problem-solving. For a while I was also involved in organising the Latvian linguistics olympiads. I do like learning languages too though: apart from English, Russian and Latvian, I speak passable French, basic Spanish and know some German (forgot how to speak mostly, but can understand).

I try to do yoga semi-regularly, and my guilty pleasure is Zumba. I try to play the piano occasionally (used to much more in school), and sing with other people in informal choirs when there are opportunities to do so. I enjoy reading fiction and non-fiction, but like most adults these days (or is it an excuse?) don’t have time to read much. TV series, films, board games, and most other classic activities are also on the list to varying degrees.