Can you be a successful blogger if your native language is not English?

India
June 28, 2009 12:25pm CST
I am an Indian and my own language is Tamil, one of the ancient languages of the world.I had my school studies in Tamil. I had my college studies in English.Then I took up business where I did not need much English.When I started to blog last year I found my English was very poor. Then I gradually improved and I am now writing with out much mistakes. Can you be a successful blogger if you are a non English speaking person?
5 people like this
22 responses
@tonyllenium (6252)
• Italy
28 Jun 09
i think you can be a successful blogger even if your langauge is not english as well..so you must consider that if your blog is just in one langauge different from the most international english so your blog should be visitated just from a little part of people around the world but this cna be ok for some topics which they are really related to some countries or group of people living in yourregion and country too!! I think normally people will choose english because it is a language that more or few everybody around the world shoul be understand and so keep activitis and visitors around the world as net conception..but also in regional or different langauges you can hav a good repsonses and activities on your blog too i guess..in many cases blog are much affected by topics and arguments they are writing to..
1 person likes this
• India
28 Jun 09
I think non English speaking bloggers can do well if they could write good English. I have seen many Indian writers creating top selling English novels. So language is not a barrier for blogging.
• Bangladesh
4 Oct 09
yes i agree
@jellymonty (2352)
28 Jun 09
It really does depend on who your target audience is. Although language should not be a barrier but English is the most used language on the internet so they are greater chances of you being a successful blogger using English than any other language. In your case I believe your language is mainly spoken in India and that language is not spoken widely anywhere else outside of India so chances are that only a few people will get to read your blogs. I personally can speak and write 8 languages fluently but I will not pay attention to any blog that is not in English, although English is technically my second language but I always do everything online in English. So think of the many amounts of people who in the same shoes as me... So to answer your question.. you can be successful blogger in any language but English will get you higher and better results.
1 person likes this
• India
28 Jun 09
I believe content also plays a big role in getting traffic to your site. If you write good English but it is so dry means who would visit your blogs? I think we should learn to write interestingly, that is more important. In other words content is the king.
@Pigglies (9329)
• United States
28 Jun 09
I think a lot of people for whom English is their second language are actually very fluent in English. So I don't see any reason why you couldn't be a blogger. Even bloggers who only speak, read, and write English often have their blogs sprinkled with grammatical errors.
1 person likes this
• India
28 Jun 09
Very well said pigglies. I have seen some English native persons writing poor English with grammatical errors. I have also seen non English speaking Indians write flawless English with high standards.
• United States
28 Jun 09
I think you can be a successful blogger if your native language is not English. If the blog is in English I would say it would be more successful if the person knows English well. I think more people, native English readers, would be turned off if the blog post were filled with lots of broken English, unless it was known that the person was working on their English. For you, I don't think it would be hard at all, as from your post, your English is quite good. I am sure there are many successful non-native English bloggers. I wish you luck on being one of them!
1 person likes this
• India
28 Jun 09
I fully agree with you Onedaysoon. Nice to note my English is fairly good.I do know I have to go a long way to write perfect English. I would certainly make it one day. I will learn many things until such time. Thanks for your wishes. You are so kind.
• Philippines
28 Jun 09
I can testify to that. It does not mean that your major language would be English just to succeed. And being a blogger takes time and effort on the articles you write. When we do speak our second language, we also need practice and Mylot is a very good platform for us to start using English. The more we converse here, the better we can practice our English language and I am sure that writing an article would not be difficult anymore because you can be confident of what you wanted to express in that certain blog. English is part of our curriculum in school from Elementary to College. So it will always be taught and we are to use it even if it is our second language.
1 person likes this
@hanah87 (1835)
• Malaysia
28 Jun 09
Yes, i think you can be a successful blogger and everyone can also do it even your native language is not English.English is an easy language.To be a successful blogger it is not only about language but also about how you manage and the content of your blog.Use an easy language of English and have an interesting content will make many people around the world come to read your blog.I hope you will be successful as a blogger.Good luck!Have a nice day.
1 person likes this
• India
28 Jun 09
Yes hanah, content is the king. I think one should know to write interestingly. I have seen some bloggers who have command over English but don't know to write interestingly. They have better stuff in their blogs than mine but their traffic is much less than my blogs.
@rymebristol (1808)
• Philippines
29 Jun 09
I am a Filipino and my native tongue is well Pilipino. we had English subjects from elementary to college but still it's not enough to be a English conversationalist or writer in that manner. Being a wide reader and a keen observer is what it takes to be good in English and making blogs as well. I myself has a lot of room to improve myself on the English language.
@EliteUser (3964)
• Australia
4 Oct 09
Hey, Well I think that you must just practice your English as much as you can, and you will hopefully get better after about a year. But I think that you need to learn english very well, in order to be a successful blogger. Make sure you have a good day, God bless and Happy Lotting!!
• China
29 Jun 09
yes i think even if english is not our native language we can be successful in blog because for any blog if the matter is interesting then no one cares about the mistakes you make in it......
@prinzcy (32322)
• Malaysia
29 Jun 09
Of course you can. However, need I remind you, since the language you use isn't widely use, you may have limited readers. There are bloggers that blog in my language, Malay and they have been successful enough to be known throughout the Net. If you have trouble to write in English but still want to try, I suggest that you keep it on. Practice makes perfect and eventually you'll be better. Try checking for grammar errors via any grammar checking software before publishing to minimize error. If you're being criticize for your error in writing, let them criticize all they want. People can speak, not like they're any better.
• United States
29 Jun 09
Of course you can, there is software you can use to translate your content with. Depending on your target audience you should be able to build a following. Publish some of your work in the directories. Finding out how well your work is being receive will give you great insight as to how you can move forward with your blog sphere. Get into forum on your topic to start letting reader know where they can find your content. The more channels you work with the easier it will be to get your blog traffic increased.
@tundeemma (894)
• South Africa
29 Jun 09
i can not lie to you, it will be extremely hard for you to be a successful english blogger if you can't copnstruct good grammatical sentences, there are several blogs being written in other languages such as spanish, german, russian and french, if you can speak any of those ones, you can successful as well
@check23 (448)
• Philippines
29 Jun 09
Why yes. Success is not in the nationality of a person butt it is in the self of the person. If a person love what he/she does and pursuing to succeed then he/she can be successful. =D
• Canada
29 Jun 09
Seriously, nothing is impossible, reading your message makes me think you're a better writer than me and I studied english for like 5 years now since my primary language is French. Don't get discouraged, writing style comes with practice!
@mateors (14)
• Bangladesh
4 Oct 09
i am a bangladeshi and my own language is Bangoli, this is also one of the ancient language of the world. but i think any one become a successful blogger if he try himself again and again with patience and practise english regularly with his dily life. Evrything depends on practise and hard labor, there is no hidden thing between practise and success. Thank you
@jpso138 (7851)
• Philippines
29 Jun 09
I do not see any reason why you will not be successful. You can always use your language if ever you wish to make a blog. I am sure that if you make a good promotion, you will certainly have followers of your own with respect to your language. The importance of any blog or website for that matter is traffic. So make your blog and tell your friends about it. Join forum site and social sites and put the link of your blog. These are just some of the ways to promote your blog. Best to you and good luck.
• Malaysia
29 Jun 09
I think you can be a successful blogger if you write in your native language because obviously your country has the 2nd largest population in the world so the market is definitely humongous in your country. I think the content is more important. If you can write what most Indians find appealing then there's definitely a chance that you can be a successful blogger.
• Malaysia
29 Jun 09
You can still be a successful blogger though you're English is not that good.You can concentrate on the topics that people will look for and also make it worth the time by uploading lots of interesting photos as this will also attract people who loves to see photo than reading.Some people visits blog to see photos and not to read because they are quite lazy to do so.
• China
29 Jun 09
No, i can't. I am a chinese... Though i wrote blog in English, but my friends will not read it due to lack of enough reading ability in English..meanwhile. i am not good at wrtting in English...
• China
29 Jun 09
Yes,my situation is same as you,my native language is not English,but I need English work,so I am studying English in English class,because our company have many agents in the world,the agents will come our company accepting training of tester every year.So I must study English very well.
• Philippines
29 Jun 09
it is possible. what is important is the content and you are able to reach out with your audience