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Maybe this is not the main point of the article, but English as a foreign language can be felt differently based on your main language. Writing clearly is hard

Maybe this is not the main point of the article, but English as a foreign language can be felt differently based on your main language. Writing clearly is hard but possible, but writing interesting stories is desperately hard and intimidating, if your main language is far from English in its nature. My main language is Japanese. As far as I know, there is no English-writing Japanese tech blogger who is even modestly recognized. I have never seen a tech article written by Japanese here in HN - with a few exceptions. (I think I can probably spot it if I see it - The tech community is much smaller there.) On the other hand, there are several OSS projects or developers which/who are based on Japan but still somehow popular. I agree that the writing ability is very nice to have, but sometimes, it can be more effective to invest the time to purely technical skills. They are often less biased by the natural language skills. The Japan-based authors of a few exceptional posts are exceptional programmers: Their articles are mere by-products of their primary contributions, which are the great code they've written.

CogitoCogito 5y ago
I lived in Sweden until I was 7, but then lived most of my life in the US and never got any formal Swedish education. I still talk Swedish with a slight American accident and my Swedish writing is definitely very American styled. Regardless of that, I've been told at work that I may be one of the best writers in the company. My only strategy is to keep it rewrite it a couple times and keep it clear and to the point and think about what I'm actually trying to convey. The result is apparently that my writing is basically the best despite the periodic funny (and noticeable) weirdness that I throw in there. So I totally agree with your last paragraph. In my case (as apparently in this one), I'm not writing just for writing sake. As such, the most important thing might just be to get out of the way and the let the subject matter speak for itself.
- type0 5y ago
  Swedish is so simple in style and so close to English that knowing it might actually help your English writing. English is my third foreign language, it is almost given that I won't be proficient in it unless I devote all my time communicating only in English, which I can't see being feasible.
  - CogitoCogito 5y ago
    I mean it is and it isn't. The main larger points of style are definitely extremely similar. But the smaller tail of tiny stylistic elements are basically never ending (just as with every language). My my English writing is not at the level of fine literature, but it is certainly much closer than my Swedish writing is. But at the same time, if I read well-written Swedish I can identify basically all the finer stylistic points. Overall it's just certainly an issue of practice. Even if I live in Sweden, I still write mostly in English.
tkgally 5y ago
The same thing applies to other fields. Fifteen years ago, I was helping to develop an English-language scientific writing program for undergraduates at a Japanese university, and for a year I read nearly every issue of Science and Nature to familiarize myself with scientific writing. I noticed many research papers by Japanese scientists but no essays or journalistic articles. I myself am a native speaker of English who, after decades of reading and speaking Japanese, started occasionally to write essays in the language. Though some publishers have been kind enough to print them, the writing process has always been a struggle, I am never confident about my choice of words or expressions, and I am always grateful for the corrections and improvements made by the editors.

CogitoCogito 5y ago

I lived in Sweden until I was 7, but then lived most of my life in the US and never got any formal Swedish education. I still talk Swedish with a slight American accident and my Swedish writing is definitely very American styled. Regardless of that, I've been told at work that I may be one of the best writers in the company. My only strategy is to keep it rewrite it a couple times and keep it clear and to the point and think about what I'm actually trying to convey. The result is apparently that my writing is basically the best despite the periodic funny (and noticeable) weirdness that I throw in there. So I totally agree with your last paragraph. In my case (as apparently in this one), I'm not writing just for writing sake. As such, the most important thing might just be to get out of the way and the let the subject matter speak for itself.

type0 5y ago
Swedish is so simple in style and so close to English that knowing it might actually help your English writing. English is my third foreign language, it is almost given that I won't be proficient in it unless I devote all my time communicating only in English, which I can't see being feasible.
- CogitoCogito 5y ago
  I mean it is and it isn't. The main larger points of style are definitely extremely similar. But the smaller tail of tiny stylistic elements are basically never ending (just as with every language). My my English writing is not at the level of fine literature, but it is certainly much closer than my Swedish writing is. But at the same time, if I read well-written Swedish I can identify basically all the finer stylistic points. Overall it's just certainly an issue of practice. Even if I live in Sweden, I still write mostly in English.

tkgally 5y ago

The same thing applies to other fields. Fifteen years ago, I was helping to develop an English-language scientific writing program for undergraduates at a Japanese university, and for a year I read nearly every issue of Science and Nature to familiarize myself with scientific writing. I noticed many research papers by Japanese scientists but no essays or journalistic articles. I myself am a native speaker of English who, after decades of reading and speaking Japanese, started occasionally to write essays in the language. Though some publishers have been kind enough to print them, the writing process has always been a struggle, I am never confident about my choice of words or expressions, and I am always grateful for the corrections and improvements made by the editors.