Writing in a Foreign Language Can be a Rewarding Challenge

My first goal was economical: English is the most read and most understood on line language. This means more potential readers and earnings than in Dutch. Do I look down on Dutch? Surely not.

Writing in English is also a way to distract myself of my topics. My writings in English are actually better than those in Dutch, since I feel more challenge in writing.

Also many publishing sites have English as their publishing languag and put standards to it. Yes, I got articles declined and my English might not have been so great when I started four months ago. It still needs a lot of polishing.

I did wrote some poems in English as a teenager and there are also much non native English speaking artists that do write and perform in English. Take music for example: English is the most common language in which song lyrics are written and spread.

Read and learn. I figured out that my Dutch writings are also getting better, since writing in a foreign language makes me more aware of the grammar and editorial facts while writing.

I do mind my language better since I started writing in English. I might be harder on myself and less easy pleased like I was in Dutch. I did not understand that my language was bad, since I was easily pleased, writing in my native language.

Writing in a foreign language can make a statement. I think of Hendrik Conscience who was raised in French but wrote the first novel in Dutch, or Flemish to be exactly. In those days people downgraded my native language and French was for the reading elite.

Now I do not say you cannot write great novels in Dutch. But it is less likely you can distribute them on a large scale, since there are not that many native Dutch speakers worldwide.

Writing in native language is great for the local market, but not so for international on line sites like Triond, Helium, Associated Content, …

Many of them only accept articles in English and I started to learn.

I discovered that writing can be a great therapy. I have been through a lot of tragedy and sharing this in another language helps me to distract myself from it and to not only have to share the stories with friends, relatives and therapists.

Shared grief becomes lighter and I agree on that. If it is too big to share with a few, share it with the world.

So learning a foreign language and maintaining it is surely a bonus to train writing skills and to increase your audience. It will make you more alert on spelling and grammar while you are working and this skill you pass on while working in your native language.

I believe there are many non native English on line writers out there that write in English and I believe it is best that we keep the Esperanto spirit: if one language can unite us, we might benefit from that. It is better to make one prominent language to spread art and knowledge, than having to learn several to get the full picture.

But I never stated I will never write in Dutch again. You should not give up your native language, but consider it more special, since this is what you keep for people close to you.