During today’s lunch hour Maria João started a conversation on the advantages and disadvantages of writing my blog in English and not in Portuguese.
Even if I don’t agree with her (almost fundamentalist) view that, as a Portuguese I should contribute to the Portuguese speaking community, the conversation raised a few good arguments that I would like to write down and comment.
(cartoon by Cox and Forkum)
Disadvantages of writing in English
- makes me loose a bit of contact with the Portuguese community (the non English-speaking one)
- many Portuguese (even English-speaking) tend not to comment posts or comment in Portuguese.
- makes me think of not writing about something that (I think) might only matter to Portuguese-speaking.
- I don’t contribute to the Portuguese speaking community with my views and ideas.
Advantages of writing in English
- allows everyone that speaks English to know about what is happening in the (relatively small) Internet Portuguese community (when I decide to write about it).
- makes it possible for people I’m related to (from conferences, travel, work) to follow what I might have to say.
- allows me to connect with the people that might be interested in Adegga.com.
- makes sense when I have to comment a post by another English-speaking blogger (because I read more English blogs this makes sense).
- allows my work-related pals to understand what I have to say, since most of them speak English.
Some thoughts
I feel that I write in English because I want to connect with other people with whom I like to share opinions or ideas. The same people with whom I want to maintain an ongoing conversation. These are the conversations that really make me look ahead, challenge me and make me learn more each day.
I believe that the best way to do this is to have this conversation with a broad range of people with very different views from a different range of work-fields. Closing the scope to the Portuguese speaking World would very much limit that goal.
Nevertheless, I would like to share some of my ideas in Portuguese with the Portuguese-speaking community. I would probably do it in a different way (more like help-the-others-understand-how-the-Web-can-help-them).
Many people search in Portuguese and I feel that the opportunity to write in Portuguese could be a good one not only from a learning point of view but also as a way to contribute.
What do you think ? Should I keep writing in English, should I start a Portuguese blog or should I do both ?
ps: ok, only English speaking will understand this post, nevertheless I would like opinions from those.
I guess the only two real considerations one should have about whether posting in English or Portuguese is your blog’s goal and target audience.
In my blog I post in English because:
- My blog’s vague goal is to have content that is related with corporate life, business and technology. My posts don’t relate particularly (or directly) with any country or language (there are, however, situations when Portugal or other country is specifically targeted, but that’s the exception).
- I really want to reach as many people as possible. I really like to see my pageviews and visits increasing. I’d only write in Portuguese if I just wanted Portuguese (and probably Brazilian people) as visitors.
As a side-reason, I write in English to practice
I sort of have two separate blogs (it really is the same blog, but with diferent sections for each language). One English, one Portuguese. That makes sense to me, because this way I can reach both communities, and make content specific for them.
What I think is a bad idea is to write in one language, and translate to the other one.
Eu defendo que se deve sempre escrever em Português, excepto quando o público alvo não for nitidamente o Português. Parece-me tão simples quanto isso …
Hi,
I share your views on the subject and have exactly the same dilemma as you do and often, I feel that a certain article would be better if it would be written in portuguese.
I also share your pros and cons and in the end, I’m still writing in english to reach a broader audience. From time to time, I get responses to my articles in english from all over the world.
For me, making a dual languaged blog it’s not an option. Blogging should be about aesthetics too and language-dualling it would only cause mish-mash and confuse non portuguese readers.
I think that if you are comfortable in writing good english, and you are, (as i do, I’m not modest. The amount of poor english written blogs are bigger than life. It’s awful.), and feel (as i do) that ideas flow better in this language, then, carry on.
That’s what I’m (still) doing.
Cheers.
Thank you all for your feedback.
Interesting to note that so far the 4 comments where made by Portuguese people (all English speaking).
The only reason I blog in English has been said before: broader audience, and the fact that this way you practice your English (if you don’t use it anywhere else). I guess it makes me feel more international, but it has it’s downside, I have refrained myself of blogging about national subjects only because it’s not interesting for the international audience.
I believe that for the type of blog you author, it is better to write in English.
I totally understand your doubts and I agree with the advantages and disadvantages that you present.
I think you should keep writing in english, and maybe start a new blog in portuguese, or even, make this blog, bilingue, like i did.
Well, my choice is portuguese, but in the end its up to you…
However, I think you should ask yourself this:
“allows everyone that speaks English to know about what is happening in the (relatively small) Internet Portuguese community (when I decide to write about it).”
Do they actually care about that? And if they care, will they be reading blogs to know?
My problem with portuguese people writing their blogs in english is that they mostly write stuff that means absolute zero to non-portuguese people, and end up pushing away the people that _do care_ about what’s being written.
I can read english just fine, however I don’t pay close attention to english-written portuguese blogs that often… Without that “close to home” feeling provided by the mother tongue, most articles are just not interesting enough for me to care. [No, really, most people aren't pulitzer/nobel prize material.]
The problem is: most bloggers have too much of an ego to stop and think that what they have to say may be just one more bit of noise to the world.
Even when writing technical stuff, there’s a divide between what a “blurb” and what’s “documentation”. The latter is a perfect fit for english, the former not that much.
I believe the “think global, act local” mantra applies to blogging. If your “local” means “english” then that’s fine.
All English speaking, but… o Rui escreveu o comentário em português.. e eu também o vou fazer.
Eu pessoalmente não gosto de blogs que não se conseguem definir na língua. Há uns quantos que eu acabo por seguir, apesar de tudo, mas é estranho.
Acho que deves ver a quem se destinam os teus artigos. Eu, quando comecei o meu blogue pessoal, também tive esse dilema e acabei por criar dois blogs, 6 meses depois o blog em inglês está assim meio morto e o português vai muito bem obrigado.
O que eu vejo na maioria dos blogs de portugueses em inglês é que os leitores são na sua maioria portugueses que também falam inglês. Se assim é, não faz sentido.
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Tendo em conta que a fundamentalista sou eu, gostava só de um bocadinho de tempo de antena
O meu ponto é:
Queixamo-nos, genericamente que há poucos conteúdos em língua portuguesa.
Custa-me que conteúdos pertinentes, produzidos em Portugal, por um português, consumidos por muitos portugueses (como se nota pelos comentários) sejam escritos exclusivamente em inglês, e a palavra-chave aqui é “exclusivamente”. Em escrevendo em inglês E em português, chegarias a MAIS audiência (sim, Pedro Pais?).
Há muito tempo que não digo isto, mas há cerca de 200 milhões de falantes da língua portuguesa. Não chegam?
As minhas razões, na realidade, têm a ver com a questão cultural. Não acho que o principal factor que me torna portuguesa seja a geografia da coisa, mas muito mais a língua que uso para comunicar e para me exprimir. E a nossa língua, é uma herança que recebemos, e que transmitimos. Ao estar a usar outras línguas (quando não tenho de o fazer), estou a empobrecer e a fragilizar a minha língua e consequentemente, a minha (nossa?) cultura.
E depois há a questão estética. Só se consegue achar bela uma língua que se domine MUITO bem. E o meu inglês (bem como o meu francês e o meu castelhano) são razoáveis, mas andam longe do grau de intimidade que eu acho necessário para se amar uma língua. Amor, só mesmo pela portuguesa.
Agora, imaginem a dualidade da coisa, tendo em conta que os meus projectos são os Blogs e as Homepages
Eu sou inglesa e tenho a mesma problema. Quando é para escrever em Português e quando é para escrever em inglês?
As vezes lembro de usar o tag “blingualblogging” para gravar as minhas reflexões sobre o assunto:
http://www.technorati.com/search/bilingualblogging
As someone who is interested in what’s going in the web community in Portugal and with limited Portuguese skills, I appreciate this blog and it being in written in English.
If you have subject matter that is more relevant to the immediate community over there, I don’t see why you shouldn’t post in Portuguese, there’s nothing wrong with a bi-lingual blog.
I decide which language to use based on pleasure. I take great pleasure from writing in both Portuguese and English. I enjoy both languages and their particularities and I just wish I could read, speak and write more languages, like Italian, German, French and Mandarin (basically, everything except that disgusting thing the Spaniards speak).
Regarding the defense of cultural heritage and language and all that jazz… that just sounds a bit “salazarento”, to me.
See there? There’s a completely untranslatable word
Why don’t you write in English when you’re in the mood, da mesma forma que podias escrever em português quando te apetecesse?
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persanly i think you shoul do a blog in both english and portuges, it might take a bit off extra time but it will be worth it from what i read of it it was pretty cool