tag(s): #random-thoughts #useless-facts #español A while ago I read this post by Kev Quirk about how his blog (as is the one he quotes/links to) is written in en-GB. No need to pander to a """global audience""", instead he makes a conscious choice to keep his native voice. Because those mannerism are more than a different turn on a sentence, or a spelling oddity. They are an important part of their culture. The post make me nod initially, and later wonder... The nod part is about Spanish. When I write a post in my native language, I certainly write in Argentinian Spanish. Heck, I write in a very marked rioplatense Spanish voice (wiki) because that's what naturally comes to me. But most of my posts are in English, which is not my native language. A lot of times I feel it is because I "think" about the topic at hand in English. And I don't have a hard rule for what is written in which language - a few times I felt something had to be in Spanish, and so it was published. But numbers don't lie, the default in here is English. And then, I wonder: Am I subconsciously using English because it has the most "reach"? I had a Spanish tag on the website day 1, yet the first post in Spanish took quite a while to appear. I honestly don't think so, after all, I didn't even think about this until I read the post shared above.... ...but I doubt myself nonetheless. Am I really, truly, naturally bilingual, just like that? Or is that an excuse to use English because it is the most common thing on the web? en-IM (IMMIGRANT) The other thing I am curious about is how my English sounds to natives. I know there are some spellings where I consciously go for the British version, because that's how that word sounds "more correct" to me. One of the best examples is behaviour. There are a few others. And I expect there is little choices here and there that make it obvious to a reader that I am not a native speaker. A lot of my flavor is probably closer to American English, not only because I live here, but also from the amount of US-made media consumed while growing up and learning English. Could we say that my blog is in en-IM? Maybe. But! Probably not OK to lump all immigrants together, as the brush we use to paint our version of English will differ. The way I destroy English pronunciation :) and the words and phrases I tend to turn to, are dictated in part from being a Spanish speaker, being Argentinian, and being a porteño. Most likely in that order of influence. Adding one more to the mix I've tried Portuguese, in the past. I learned a few key words on a short work trip, and got excited about it, but never made real progress after going back home. In the last couple years I tried Esperanto, because it is said to be easy and a good foundation to learn more languages, but I never got too far into it. I gave up on Duolingo and online courses, got a self-study book as a last attempt...and it's been sitting on the shelf since I received it. I had the intention, but not the determination, to learn Japanese when I was 16/17 and in deep into my weeaboo phase. I moved on from that, but never stopped consuming anime and videogames from Japan, and some music. There's a band I really like, and recently I figured that could be an excuse to study the language. With a nudge from my wife and a few other serendipitous happenings, I finally decided to sign up for classes. Online, for the time being. Time will tell. I wonder if I will ever become fluent enough to write a post in Japanese, and how that will read to a native, too... Share your thoughts (via email) Back to top Back to homepage