Dutch vs English - the epic battle of my blog
24 December 2007
No CommentMark Dykeman wrote an excellent guest article on SEO 2.0 which inspired me to explain why I have decided to blog in English, even though I am from Holland.
There are several reasons, which I will all explain in a bit more detail later on
- Reach
- Interaction
- Stronger communication
- More creativity
Reach:
Holland has approximately 16 million inhabitants. About 700,000 of them participate in blogs, half of them read only and the other half actively engage in blogging. This seems like a rather large number, but this includes all blogs and is not limited to online marketing blogs.
Using an outdates article from Blog Herald shows that in May 2005 there were over 60 million blogs worldwide. This figure has most likely risen explosively since and thus shows that the number of bloggers in Holland is comparatively very small.
Taking this one step further, there are 1.6 billion people walking around who have an understanding of the English language. Compare this to the measly 27 million Dutch speaking people and you’ll see the difference in reach for both languages.
Interaction
I started this blog to experiment, to try and get a better understanding of blogging and the blogosphere. When I say blogging I mean the more technical site, thus setting up Wordpress, getting the right plugins and so on. By the blogosphere I mean trying to understand how it works, what makes people write certain posts, what do they want to read, what makes them submit an article to various sites.
I’ve only started reading blogs about two months ago and have already got over 20 I follow regularly. All of them are written in English, most by native speakers. As I am hoping to interactive with some of these people and exchange thoughts and ideas the only way forward was to write in English.
Although social media and online marketing are discussed on a few Dutch blogs, most of the information and inspiration comes from English (as in written in English, rather than originating from England) blogs.
Stronger communication
I’ve never been a master of the Dutch language. In fact, I’ve never really been a fan of it either. From a young age I watched channels on the BBC and English has always been my favourite subject at school. In my opinion I’m a stronger communicator in English. Maybe I am because I want to be. Whatever the reason, I feel more comfortable speaking English. And the same goes for writing. Writing an academic piece for university in English is far less of a chore than it would be in Dutch.
More creativity
Building on from the point in the previous paragraph, as I am more comfortable expressing myself in English it’s only logical to assume the creative process comes easier too. My choice of words varies more and the style is somehow different too. These are personal observations and somebody else may completely disagree with it, although comparing my grades for Dutch and English in high school seem to back up this hypothesis.
On top of this, I am a very ambitious person who loves to go abroad. Studying in England has been a brilliant experience (and I will be going back next fall to complete my course) and I would not hesitate to work in another country if it attracts me. Plus, I’ve never had much affinity with Holland and don’t feel in the slightest bit feel attached to it.
Holland is great, but certainly not the end station!
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