I am sure this is not the first time you will have seen this issue coming up since many bloggers have already written about the language used when writing. As a matter of fact, it was a big issue for me at the time of planning this blog.
My mother language being Dutch, at first I thought maybe I should better not run a blog in English but what main reason to go abroad and try write in English is brought up by Courtney Tuttle in his 102 ways to make your blog or site a back link superstar, number 67, “Write in English, English is the major language of the internet and blog written in English cater to a much larger audience.” (By the way, number 68 I believe needs an update, according to the World Atlas, Chinese Mandarin is outnumbering English by far as the most spoken language in the world).
Having lived in Spain for over 10 years now, my brain at times seems to shortcut whenever I am trying to get my point across. At times I think I am saying something in Spanish while the words come out in English or Dutch (this happens especially in the morning when I haven’t woken up completely yet or late at night when I am tired) and when writing my blog there are moments that I just can’t seem to find the exact word in English, but the Dutch or Spanish version come flying in.
Now, I know that in order to run a successful blog the style of writing must appeal to your readers as well as the information you want to get across. But I just can’t seem to stop wondering about how much of an influence language really is.
If I would write in Dutch my texts would be 100% free of grammar mistakes, maybe the occasional glitch when it comes to spelling, but it would be almost perfect, because I do not like making spelling mistakes at all. Whenever I read something in Dutch written by other native Dutch speakers, I would expect the same level of dedication. However, if I would notice somebody is not a native speaker, that standard of expectations immediately drops, focussing more on the content and the point they want to get across instead of nitpicking on their grammar or spelling mistakes.
Maybe this has to do with having travelled a lot or coming from a small country with a language hardly anybody speaks (compared to the billion Chinese Mandarin speakers that is), but I know first hand how hard it is to correctly express yourself in another language.
Lately I have joined a few forums about blogging and something that seems to come up over and over again, is the amount of criticism towards foreign bloggers who try their hardest writing in English. One guy was actually advised to give up blogging because of the poor English he was using and I have to admit that I can’t get that comment out of my head now.
And eventhough I actually may have taken this a bit personal, a good thing has come out of it for me. It has pushed my button and made me even more inspired to blog in English, wanting to improve my own language skills and prove to myself that I can.
To what extend are you willing to try and understand others, even if it means you have to read crappy grammar?
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on Feb 6th, 2008 at 5:54 pm
I am highly impressed with anyone that can write comprehensively in a language not their own. It actually irks me when I see people complain about non-English speakers English grammatical mistakes. I like to point out to native English speakers that they’re unlikely to be able to communicate in any other language than their own and that they certainly aren’t perfect.
I think you are to be commended for being about to communicate in not one but three languages. That shows a high level of intelligence and commitment on your part. I can understand how that kind of criticism can bother you, but try to over look it. Or just remind these people that you’re trilingual and ask them how many languages they’re fluent in.
(I’ve written a blog post about it here, if you’re interested.)
on Feb 6th, 2008 at 6:28 pm
@ Jenny
thank you so much for your comment, it is highly appreciated. Loved your post about this same matter, wish I had read it before!
It really saddens me at time to see that people seem to focus on what seems to be petpeeves, thereby completely missing the wonderful point somebody wants to get across…
Thanks againg for popping in
on Feb 7th, 2008 at 12:29 am
I agree with English being the widely used language, but it’s important that we try to utilize the google translator link to accommodate other languages.
on Feb 7th, 2008 at 12:52 am
Hi Frankj,
first of all, thank you for taking the time to comment, I think you bring up an interesting point. Some time ago, I did look into the possibilities of adding a translator service to another site of mine which is written in spanish, in order to cater for the English readers, but so far I find that free online translation services still have a long way to go as far as optimizing the translation.
Mostly they completely mess up what the writer is trying to get across. Anybody knows of a good way to add multi-language to blogs?
on Feb 7th, 2008 at 1:48 pm
There are some plugins for this, but you’ll have to write the translation yourself!
I started to write in Romanian and English at first, but soon I come to realized that I should stick only to English!
Cheers,
Nick
nicusor’s last blog post..The Truth About Working In The IT Industry
on Feb 7th, 2008 at 2:53 pm
Hi Mirjam -
As an American living in Vienna, I can certainly understand your predicament. For me, since English is my mother tongue, writing in English just seemed natural. I did worry a bit that I would be alienating my home audience by not writing in German, but I think most people who are out there actively seeking to read others blogs have accepted English as the status quo.
With that said, a daily check of Google analytics reveals that readers are coming from all over the world, but the predominant OS/browser platform is English. So maybe my view is slightly biased. Is it because I write in English that I have English speaking viewers, or are mainly English speaking viewers viewing the blog because I write in English? An interesting proposal, no?
With regard to what extent I’m willing to go to understand others’ points even if it means wading through crappy grammar….well…as a Dutch speaker, you have a full understanding of the complexities and (from an English speaker’s point of view) backward-ness of German/Dutch grammar….so really, I’m willing to bend over backwards to understand someone’s point.
on Feb 7th, 2008 at 3:37 pm
Hi Nick,
thank you for your feedback on my question, I was not aware of the fact that you actually had to translate yourself instead of it being an automatically generated translation.
When thinking about this option, I am not sure if I would be willing to to that, because I normally think in the language that I am posting in. If I would then translate it, I believe it loses the gest of the whole post. Not sure yet….
What made you decide to just stick with English and not writing in more languages?
on Feb 7th, 2008 at 3:59 pm
@DT
And here I was thinking that the English grammar was the backward one
Thank you very much for sharing your point of view. It got me thinking about yet another related point. Do you feel that you are more willing to wade through crappy grammar to understand someone´s point, because you live in Vienna and you (probably) are dealing with this language issue on a daily bases?
Having first hand experience of living in a surrounding where your native tongue is not the first spoken language, I think helps widen our horizons and become more accepting and appreciative of the efforts of others when trying to communicate.
Also, it actually makes you focus on the content rather than the “wrapping”, or atleast that is how I feel about it
on Oct 24th, 2008 at 7:36 pm
Hi Mirjam,
Yes, I always thought the structure of the English language was backwards compared to Dutch. But having been in Canada now since 1961 I’m starting to think the Dutch have it backwards.
Never taught my kids any Dutch since their Dad was Canadian.
They were very angry about that. But I figured they would never need to speak Dutch.
Now I have two daughters living in Greece.One of them speaks….to me…Greek fluently. Her kids are fluent in both Greek and English.
Btw Your English is excellent.
Joyce
Joyce’s last blog post..Having a Website is only a Stepping Stone
on Oct 24th, 2008 at 10:19 pm
if I ever have kids I will certainly teach them Dutch, even though there father is not be able to speak it ROFL but I will definitely try to teach them English early in their lives, since it is just so easy to be able to speak different languages.
My parents do speak a little Spanish (they think it is a lot, and gotta say, the more wine they drink, the better they speak LOL ) but hardly understand me if I speak it so it is pretty hard when they are over and we go out for dinner with spanish people, it feels like I am constantly working as a translator …