Posting in multiple languagessteemCreated with Sketch.

in #nl7 years ago (edited)

There are a lot of people who can speak/write in more than one language. But how do you decide on the language of your Steemit posts? What do you take into account and how do you go about it?

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The important ones

I am Dutch, born in the Netherlands. In school I was educated in multiple foreign languages, English, French and German. These are important languages in Europe and the native tongues of our neighbors (The Dutch) and important for our trade.
The world has changed since I was taught foreign languages in school, Spanish and Chinese are becoming more important to master.

If only I had been able to trade French for Spanish

Of all these languages English has served me the best. I can read English novels and watch English Movies/TV shows without subtitles. English also comes in handy when conversing with other nationalities, even if you don't speak their native language, you can always use English to have a conversation.

In my work (IT) I find that most information is in English, so having an understanding of the language helps me a great deal.

The best meetings are those with people who are not native English speakers conversing in English. No one cares about mistakes or proper grammar but we all understand each other.

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Why post in English?

English is an important language. 865 million people in the world speak English, it is the 2nd most spoken language (Chinese being no1). If we look at non native English speakers vs Native Speakers we see that English is also the most non native spoken language in the world (505 million).
Simply put, by posting in English, I can reach a larger audience that can understand my posts and comment on the things that I am trying to convey.

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Why not in your native tongue?

Truth be told, I find it hard to post in Dutch. I have been putting it off for some time now. It's not about the payouts but more about the way I should go about it. I have seen different approaches to multi lingual posting.

  • The double post
    One post in the native tongue and the same post in English.

  • The translation
    One part of the post in the native tongue and the translation in the second part.

Both seem to have their advantages and disadvantages but my main concern is that with both you are doing twice the work and I wonder if it is really worth it.
I also wonder if with posting in another language will cause me to lose English speaking followers.

The Dutch community is not as big as the Spanish, Korean or Chinese, which makes it harder to really gather a large following on Steemit by posting in my native tongue.

On the other hand

Posting in you native tongue is important. It can help the growth of the community here on Steemit. It is also easier to write in your native tongue (sure wouldn't need to do so much spell corrections).

My fellow non native English speakers: Do you write in your native tongue or only in English? How do you go about it? Let me know in the comment section.

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Er zijn veel mensen die meerdere talen kunnen spreken en schrijven maar hoe besluit je in welke taal je Steemit blogs moet schrijven? Waar hou je rekening mee en hoe ga je hiermee om?

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De belangrijkste talen

Ik ben een Nederlander, geboren in Rotterdam. Op school heb ik meerdere buitenlandse talen geleerd, Engels, Frans en Duits. Deze talen zijn belangrijk in Europa, het zijn de talen van onze buren en belangrijk voor de handel.
De wereld is veel veranderd sinds ik op school zat, Spaans en Chinees worden steeds belangrijker als taal om te leren.

Had ik toendertijd maar Spaans kunnen leren in plaats van Frans

Van al deze talen heb ik het meest gehad aan Engels, Ik kan Engels boeken lezen en Engelse films en TV series zonder ondertiteling kijken. Engels is ook handig bij het communiceren met andere nationaliteiten, zelfs als je hun taal niet spreekt dan kun je altijd Engels gebruiken om een gesprek te voeren.

In mijn werk (ICT) merk ik dat de meeste informatie in het Engels is, het is dus zeer handig om de Engelse taal te beheersen.

De leukste vergaderingen in het Engels zijn die met mensen die niet van huis uit Engels spreken. Niemand maakt zich druk om taal fouten, het belangrijkste is dat we elkaar goed begrijpen.

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Waarom in het Engels?

Engels is een belangrijke taal. 865 miljoen mensen spreken Engels, het is de op een na meest gesproken taal (Chinees is de nummer 1).
Als we kijken naar Engelse sprekers en dit vergelijken met het aantal mensen die niet van huis uit Engelse sprekers zijn dan zien we dat Engels de meest gesproken taal is door anderstaligen (505 miljoen).
Lang verhaal kort, door in het Engels te bloggen kan ik een groter publiek bereiken, meer mensen die mijn blogs kunnen begrijpen en commentaar kunnen geven op de zaken waarover ik schrijf.

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Waarom niet in het Nederlands?

Om eerlijk te zijn vind ik het moelijk om in het Nederlands te bloggen. Ik ben het al een tijdje voor mezelf aan het vooruitschuiven. Het gaat niet om het geld dat ik voor de blogs kan krijgen maar meer om de manier hoe ik het moet aanvliegen.

Ik heb meerdere manieren gezien waarop je tweetalig kan bloggen.

  • De dubbele post
    Een blog in het Engels en een andere in het Nederlands

  • De vertaling
    Een deel van de post in het Engels en het tweede deel in het Nederlands.

Beide manieren hebben hun voor -en nadelen maar mijn grootste zorg is dat je voor beide dubbel werk moet doen en ik vraag me af of het de moeite waard is.
Ik vraag me tevens af of je met het posten in een andere taal dan Engels, de kans loopt om Engels sprekende volgers kwijt te raken.

De Nederlandse gemeenschap op Steemit is niet zo groot als de Spaanse, Koreaanse of Chinese waardoor het niet mogelijk is om een grote aanhang te krijgen als ik alleen in het Nederlands zou bloggen.

Aan de andere kant

Bloggen in je eigen taal is belangrijk. Het kan helpen bij de groei van de Nederlandse Steemit gemeenschap. Het is ook makkelijker om in het Nederlands te bloggen ( het scheelt in ieder geval bij het corrigeren van de spelling).

Schrijf je alleen in het Nederlands of ook in het Engels? Hoe ga jij hier mee om? Laat mij het hieronder weten bij de opmerkingen.

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Hey @Xervantes, I am having the same thoughts. My native tongue is German and I started doint double posts like you (but with a two-column layout). It worked but didn't feel right. Besides the fact that two-column designs looks rubbish on mobile phones it just felt like I am annoying readers from both languages.

I think the right approach could be to have two accounts and write about two completely different things. Or translate your English posts and run them on the second. This way you keep your account in just one language and attract different people without cluttering their home walls with posts they cannot understand.

Hi @flauwy, I like your solution about having two accounts... but how would you manage the same post in a different language on different accounts. People who understands both languages will think you translated a post from someone else... while in fact it is yours (but from another account)

Just make clear that this is the translated post below it and link to the original. That way you are cross-promoting both accounts for bilingual readers.

Now i'm a new user so might not be allowed, but can you just repost the same article on the exact same account but in another language for example say Chinese and just retag for the china market but in a completely separate post?
I know you need to leave a certain amount of time between posts like 5 minutes or so!
Can anyone clarify if this is allowed?

Hey @flauwy, Setting up an alternative account sounds like the best way to go about it. I hadn't taken that option into consideration. Thank you, brilliant suggestion.

Great. Thanks for sharing. I'm starting to follow you.

Thank you. Always nice to be noticed

wow, great post and great topic. my daughter is learning some mandarin. great chart! i fancy myself an international type person so seeing the growth of Steemit around the world is fascinating. upvote / resteem

Hey @clumsysilverdad, Thank you. Talk about coincidences, my daughter is learning mandarin too :).

Am dutch also. Write almost all my posts only in English for the same reason as yours; reaching a larger audience and because of that, more followers. Which to my opinion is the main goal if you want to grow.

Yeah, I feel you. But on the other hand I felt guilty for never written anything in Dutch (until now). I must say I actually takes a lot more time to do a post in English and Dutch.

Congratulations! This post has been upvoted from the communal account, @minnowsupport, by sherryblossom from the Minnow Support Project. It's a witness project run by aggroed, ausbitbank, teamsteem, theprophet0, someguy123, neoxian, followbtcnews/crimsonclad, and netuoso. The goal is to help Steemit grow by supporting Minnows and creating a social network. Please find us in the Peace, Abundance, and Liberty Network (PALnet) Discord Channel. It's a completely public and open space to all members of the Steemit community who voluntarily choose to be there.

I know this Probleme I speak 3 languages German French and Englisch. I first did my post with 2 columns the most time German/English rather then French/Englisch because the German community is much bigger then the French one. But latly I tested the Version with to post in 2 different languages with in each post a link to the other version and asked the German People reading the post if they found it better and they answerd yes. Also the payout was much better.

I joined steemit today and it was really hard to select in which language I should post. Still haven´t decided but because of your post I think its a little easier now.

Glad to help. English seems to be the way to go if you want a large following and larger payouts (depends on where you are from though). You can always experimente of course since you just joined to see what has the best results.

As a native french speaker, I have thought about creating another account for my french posts but since I already started posting in two languages from the beginning, I kinda forgot about it. However, if you haven't posted in anything else than english yet, I'd suggest doing that. I make one post per language and it doesn't seem to scare away my followers. However, it may be impacting the number of followers I gain but it's impossible to really know.

Since this is my first post with 2 languages I am more inclined to setup an account for Dutch Posts. I can also tackle some Dutch related subjects.

De laatste tijd post ik in het Engels en Nederlands, ik gebruik dan ook #nl tag.

Ja, heb ik met deze post ook gedaan. Als je in Engels en Nederlands post gebruik je 2 posts (1 in NL en 1 in Engels) of NL en Engels in 1 post?

Plaats in 1 post 2 talen.
Heb een en ander uitgeprobeerd maar dat werkt voor mij het beste.
Ik post ook wel alleen in het Nederlands.
:-)

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