BootsnAll Travel Community

I'm an aspiring writer and although I love my native language (Dutch), there are a lot of drawbacks to writing in Dutch. There are only about 22 million native speakers of Dutch so you just don't get the same exposure (especially on the internet). What's more is that I am a huge anglophile. English has an infinitely richer vocabulary than any other European language and many of my favourite books were originally written in English. Are there any other writers out there whose first language isn't English yet who feel it should be? Any tips to improve my writing in English? Or do you think a foreigner can never equal a native speaker's command of the language? Any feedback is greatly appreciated.

Well, I certainly can't speak for writing in other languages (unless you count flirting on Spanish dating web sites; "Que color es tu tonga?"), but as far as English goes I'd never go as far as to say that a foreigner could never equal a native English speaker's fluency, particularly you damn Dutch who not only speak English better that 75% of Americans, but you also speak German, French, Spanish, whatever just as well. I'd be super pissed off and jealous if I weren't so impressed.

Judging from you posts, I'd say you're ready to hit the English market. Hell, if it weren't for the work of a few patient editors, my grammar failings would still have me working for free. At this stage it's not whether you'll be limited by English being your second language, you just need to worry about the heroic tenacity that it takes to get someone to notice and then publish you. Good luck!

Thanks for the advice. I kind of gathered writing isn't the steadiest of career choices but it's what I do best (yeah well writing and pissing people off but I don't think I have enough patience to go into politics).

Still it's good to hear that there actually is a market (even if it is harder to break into than Maude Flanders' panties). So far the only offer of payment I've received was a LP guidebook of my choice. Better than nothing right...

Let me just nip one rumour in the bud here: I am not Dutch, I'm from Antwerp (in the Flemish part of Belgium, we speak Dutch though). Languagewise the Dutch are no match for us - we just don't brag about it as much as they do ;-)

Hi

I also was also thinking the same thing 2 months ago and ened up writing my travel diary in english. I wanted to help other people to travel and not just share my experiences with my friends and that was the reason to go with english altough it's not my native language. Still, I miss writing in finnish.

t. Topi

Your English is pretty good

I'm not a native English speaker as well. What helped me in learning English (aside from 15 years of English courses in school) is reading. Be it a comic book, a novel, a blog, a business magazine, read it! It's a way of familiarizing yourself with different ways of writing to different audiences.

Other things that helped me:

• Participating in forums where the main language is English
  
• Chatting online (okay, not all of the chatters out there have the best grammar and spelling, but at least it helps you in carrying a conversation in English)
  
• Dictionary.com and Thesaurus.com
  
• Watching English tv shows and movies
  
• Blogging

Hope that helps

quote:

English has an infinitely richer vocabulary than any other European language and many of my favourite books were originally written in English.

This can't be true. Good writing is created by the use of the language, not the language itself. The limits are in the writer, not the language. There are truckloads of crappy writing in English, too. Exposure, however, is another story.

With the help of a good editor, having English as you second language should be no problem. Leif said it very well here:

quote:

..you just need to worry about the heroic tenacity that it takes to get someone to notice and then publish you.

It has been a long time since anyone commented on this thread, but I just had to add: I'm an editor, and I frequently work with writers whose first language is not English. It is possible to write very, very well in a language that you have adopted. (cf, of course, Nabokov.) It's just not as easy as it is for a native speaker. For native speakers, there is one bit of infallible advice: Trust your ear. For non-native speakers, it is more difficult. You need to involve your ears, your eyes and whatever else there is in your brain. You also need to involve your friends and your editor. Allow me this pitch: Your editor is your friend. Your editor wants your ideas. She can fix your grammar. There's a balancing act here, though. If your grammar is as good as the original poster's, the minimal amount of work involved to fix it is definitely worth it for the editor. Let her know more or less up front that you are not a native speaker. It can make a big difference in how she perceives your submission. I know I give people a bit of a break on idiom, etc., if they are not native speakers. Assuming, of course, that their ideas are worth my effort. There's a corollary: If your grammar, etc., are really, really off-tune, I may not be able to fight my way through to your ideas.