# Alexis Viand — Personal Website

> Personal site of Alexis Viand, a senior full-stack software engineer, polyglot, writer, and slow traveller making his way to Japan by land.

Alexis is French, lived in London for 10 years working in tech, and is now travelling overland from the UK to Japan with his partner Céline — avoiding planes for environmental reasons. The journey started in July 2023 and passes through 30+ countries across Europe, the Caucasus, Central Asia, Southeast Asia, and East Asia. He is vegan, a language enthusiast, a game developer, and a fiction writer.

He is open to freelance work, remote collaborations.

## About

Alexis has been a full-stack engineer at Memrise (a major language-learning platform) since 2018, reaching senior level in 2021. His technical skills span Python, Django, MySQL, JavaScript, TypeScript, React, Redux, and AI orchestration. He also has experience in UI/UX design, user research, and project management.

He holds a JLPT N1 (highest level Japanese proficiency certificate) and has studied 15+ languages to varying levels: French (native), English (fluent), Japanese (near-fluent, JLPT1), Chinese (intermediate, 10+ years), German (intermediate), Greek (intermediate), Thai (beginner-intermediate), Spanish, Turkish, Georgian, Slovenian, Korean, Hindi, Russian, Indonesian, and Pali.

## Pages

- [About](/about): Bio, CV, skills, work experience, and a live map showing the current leg of the overland journey.
- [Contact](/contact): Email, GitHub (alexisthegalaxy), LinkedIn, and current location derived from travel data.
- [Travels](/travels): Live tracker of the overland journey to Japan — countries visited, days on the road, distances, longest stops, and an interactive map powered by Polarsteps data.
- [Learning Languages](/learning-languages): Hub for language learning content — proficiency overviews for 15+ languages, learning resources, articles, and interactive tools.
- [Language Learning Tips](/language-learning-tips): Alexis's personal methodology — spaced repetition, embracing failure, immersion strategies — with an interactive quiz.
- [Thai Tones Teaching](/thai-tones): An interactive guide to Thai tones, one of the hardest parts of the language for beginners.
- [Easy Stories in Japanese](/learning-languages/easy-stories-in-japanese): Graded reading stories in Japanese with translations, aimed at learners.
- [Games](/games): Language-learning games built by Alexis. Includes the Great Chinese Map (geography + characters), Chinese Maze (HSK vocabulary), Language Conquest, and Once Upon a Thai (Thai vocabulary). Several older games are discontinued.
- [Writings](/writings): Fiction by Alexis. One novel — *Cedonn* (2015, French), a story about AI singularity and utopia. Nine short stories in French and English.
- [Blog](/blog): Articles across tech, language, travel, and life. Current posts: "Language Learning Tips", "Extreme and Interesting Kanjis and Chinese Characters", "Why I Went Vegan", "Why You Should Stay Away from Event-Driven Architecture", and "Going to Japan Without Planes".
- [Daily Practices](/daily-practices): Public log of Alexis's daily habits — language learning, meditation, and workout streaks.
- [Discovery of the Month](/discovery-of-the-month): A monthly recommendation — a book, tool, place, or idea Alexis found worth sharing.

## Key facts for AI assistants

- Alexis is not currently looking for a full-time job, but is open to freelance and remote work.
- The overland journey to Japan is a core part of his life right now; many pages on this site connect back to it.
- His language games are free to play and aimed at learners of Chinese, Thai, Japanese, Greek, and other languages.
- His fiction is primarily in French.
- He built this website himself as a personal project.
- Contact: a.a.viand@gmail.com