Multilingual blogging?

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by aelle on October 22, 2009 at 9:28am

I'll talk about my experience first. The big advantage is of course to be able to reach a larger public. This was the main reason for my decision: even among my close friends (and readers) there are people who can only read one of my languages.

However, not only does translating more than double the time required to blog, I find it's a hindrance to the fluidity of the writing. Whichever language I write the original post in, it always feels more fluid than the translation. I also discovered that my tone is very different in French and in English, which I find hilarious!

Permalink Reply by Anne-Sophie Redisch on October 22, 2009 at 9:30am

Yeah - I've been thinking about this as well (English and Norwegian, in my case), but decided aginst it, at least for the time being - mostly because it'd be a lot of work. I would probably keep two separate blogs, though.

I'm not surprised about your tone being different. I've a few friends who seem to take on a different personality depending on whether they speak their native language or Norw. An American friend of mine is simply a much nicer person when he speaks Norwegian.

Permalink Reply by aelle on October 22, 2009 at 9:55am

That's funny about your friend being nicer in Norwegian. I know I'm more polite and girly in Japanese, partly because I emulate the women around me, partly because I'm limited when it comes to cruder vocabulary!

Permalink Reply by Christine on October 22, 2009 at 9:33am

Bonjour Aelle,

I have recently started to blog in 3 languages (English, French, Spanish) on Polyglot Travel. I think that the main advantages are that you reach more people than if you just blogged in one language and that it's a great way to keep up your language skills. The drawbacks are that it takes more time and it's more difficult to write in several languages and, especially if you write in a language that is not your mother tongue, you are more likely to make mistakes and unintentionally say something funny or strange. I always make my Mexican husband read what I write in Spanish to make sure it makes sense.

Permalink Reply by aelle on October 22, 2009 at 9:52am

You have all your posts proofread? Wow, that shows so much commitment! And you're right, it's a great language learning tool. I'll think about it for the languages in which I'm not yet fluent.

Permalink Reply by Benny Lewis on October 22, 2009 at 10:00am

Hi guys. I gave myself the monstrous task of having a blog in 7 languages. It's SO MUCH WORK!!! Luckily the administration and maintenance isn't that bad; you can keep it on one site thanks to a Wordpress plugin called gengo - it has lots of cool features like automatically redirecting people to their browser's default language if available. It means that the entire site is in the chosen language and it's completely transparent to the user.
But the actual work of translating so many times was a huge task. I only update it a few times a year now because of that, and am focussing on my blog in English about learning languages. Luckily, I don't actually write so much; it's just to present videos, but it's still a large amount of work that has discouraged me from doing it so often.
The rewards include reaching a much wider audience. Some for less obvious reasons; the Esperanto and Irish versions of my blog get a proportionally higher number of hits, even though a lot less people speak these languages, simply because it's one of the few blogs in those languages.
You can also focus on different markets etc. While getting on the front page of Digg may be a pipedream for many people, I actually achieved it on Menéame, the Spanish equivalent! It brought over 4,000 hits to my site in just 2 hours!
After blogging in 7 languages, doing in in just 2 would seem like a breeze, lol :P Even so, it would be too unnatural to write regularly in a non-native language for the moment.

Permalink Reply by Melissa on March 17, 2010 at 12:19am

Ciao! Sono Melissa. I write a blog in Italian called ""Diario di una Studentessa Matta". (translated: Diary of a Crazy Student) I am a graphic designer that lives in San Francisco and this is my way of using the language every day. It allows me to express my thoughts about the Italian culture, current events, movies, films and music while I explore the language. I include language learning tips, as well as vocabulary lists that I share to enhance the reading experience. I also include lots of links to articles in Italian newspapers, YouTube videos and links to songs and other Italian blogs. I encourage participation. Not only do I want to encourage a lively exchange of ideas but I want to receive feedback when I make errors, so that I may continue improving. This is also my way of feeling connected to Italy and friends who live there. I am an American but becoming Italian through the language! Venite a trovarmi al mio blog "Diario di una Studentessa Matta" http://melissamuldoon.wordpress.com