Despite my blunt tweet, (that I don’t really mean completely) I understand where the question comes from. I do. Dutch girl. Born and raised in the Netherlands. Dutch native speaker. Associated with Dutch bloggers, talks about them, mentions them, links them, talk to them – often in Dutch. But writes in English. Always. Yes. I can understand it’s a little peculiar. Allow me to explain why I do it.

First of all, English has always been super-fun and important to me. I have been madly in love with this language ever since I was little. I taught myself and when I was 20 years old (you can read all about that here) I did the necessary course and exam to become an official bilingual. Through writing, I get to play with one of my favorite things in the world every single day: the English language. I love Dutch blogs, but it’s just not for me.

It really isn’t for me. There is a huge discrepancy between my writing skills in Dutch and my writing skills in English.I mean, Grande Canyon Gap.

Which makes total sense if you think about it. Due to my infatuation with all English words, I’ve been practicing almost every day, let’s say on average of 2 hours a day (this is low-ballin’), for almost 7 years  – that’s when I started my first English blog. It was adorable and riddled with faults and my own drama, but it was a start.

Let’s turn that into a little calculation now, shall we? 340 days (I wrote almost every day but you don’t always have the time, you know?) x 2 hours a day x 7 years. That’s 4760 hours. Not even including anything I wrote in English before I turned 18.

My Dutch writing skills are reasonable enough, but compared to how I write in English it takes me twice the time, triple the effort and the results are not even half as satisfying.

And there is another thing that became more important to me over the years. A reason for writing in English bigger than funnier jokes, prettier words and a hobby gone wild is the fact that English is so nice and global!

Everyone* can understand this language. I mean, I know the majority of my readers is Dutch, but I also have readers in other corners of the world. People from California and Australia and Canada. This guy I know sends his articles to his Portuguese family members and can be like “hey, read this, it’s cool” and with some basic understanding of the English language, they are actually able to read it!

More people can read English and I just love that idea. I write in a language most people know. And I am not deluding myself into thinking I can help everyone on the planet with the articles I write. I just want is that the majority of people have the option to read my stuff. You know, just in case.

So in conclusion, I write in English because I love the language as well as love the idea that anyone, anywhere can read it. And you know…because I can.

*Okay, not everyone. But pretty much everyone.

Most of you know I’m Dutch, but I’ve been on-line posing as an English writer for years now. But I wasn’t raised by bilingual parents. I didn’t come into contact with the English language until I was four years old: I didn’t even meet my  (distant) Canadian family until I was eight.

But put me in an English speaking country and I am able to get by as easily as the next American, Brit, Aussie or Englishman. Except that I have a hint of a Dutch accent and a few rarities in my spoken English that I picked up during my time in Canada. It all happened kind of naturally, but I became a native speaker. And my English is the result of a pure autodidacticism. So how does that happen?

My first tip to you would be to be passionately curious. In this case, you have got to want to know everything about a language. In my case it helped that I was a really dorky child. I would actually read the English-Dutch dictionary (to answer your question ‘no, I didn’t have any friends’). I wrote down the words I really liked and tried to make sentences with them. I translated English video-game walkthroughs of games I liked into Dutch so I could play them. I watched English television shows and tried to put the spoken words with the subtitles. I started reading English books from my parents’ library as I became better at it. Over time, English became very easy.

(And sure, English in Middle School and High School helped. A little. But if that is all I had done in terms of homework you’d probably wouldn’t be reading this and I wouldn’t be a bilingual. At least not in this language.) 

When I was 18, I started writing in English. I wrote every day. About everything. That daily, all-including practice might have made the real difference. It made me even more curious. My thesaurus and synonym-guides became my favorite possessions. I made friends on-line and learnt from them.

At 19, I enrolled in the Cambridge English Advanced class to get my CAE certificate, which states you’re a native speaker. My dad stimulated me to do this with the comment: “Make it official. It’s good you’re great in English; it is better to have evidence of this.” So I enrolled, did the exams and passed all of them royally. I was now a native speaker. You’d be surprised how much this helps in job interviews and opportunities. Everyone says they’re fluent in a language, but few can actually prove it.

Next thing you do is you hold onto that unsatiable need for knowledge, practice and expertise, and you put it to good use. Because if you want to keep up and keep getting better, you never stop learning. So I’m not done. I still write in English, every single day. Not just for the blog, but also grocery list, journal entries, texts and e-mails. I only read English books and I will talk in English if you give me an opening (or an American). When I read an English book, especially a well-written one, I have a pencil in one hand and a dictionary nearby.  I still look up words in dictionaries. I make conversation with the adorable expats who wait with me in line for coffee, I talk to exchange students. Learning is still a part of my routine.

You can apply this to English, to another language, But this also goes for any other skill you’d like to pick up over your life. It takes practice, perseverance and you’ve got to be devoted to your topic. Trust me. You’ve gotta love your subject so much you never want to stop learning, that it doesn’t feel like an obligation or a chore to do it. It has to fill you with love and enthusiasm. That’s the key to auto didacticism.