As many of you may know by now, I’m a bilingual reader and blogger. This comes with advantages and disadvantages. Struggling with writing yet another review made me think about those (dis)advantages again. I could have waited for a Let’s Talk Bookish freebie, but I felt the urge to write this discussion post and just publish it. With further ado, let’s get into this luxury and nightmare at the same time!

What made me a bilingual reader and blogger

So, I live in the Netherlands, was born here. My mother tongue therefore is Dutch. As a child, I only read Dutch books, with the occasional English ones when in high school. In primary school (we don’t have middle school here), we just didn’t read English books. Also didn’t have access to them. Everything was really Dutch orientated, which of course is pretty logic. I can’t remember if the local library had English books by then. Good to keep in mind that my youth spans from the 90s to the late 00s, so that was a whole different time. Internet wasn’t as accessible as it is now, and neither were the English books. Fast forward to 2015 or so, when I was slowly overcoming the notorious yet famous high school reading slump. I was in college and my degree was for like 99% in English. I even had to write my thesis in English. Once I was bored and I started a book series that consist of multiple books but only half of them were translated into Dutch. So, the bilingual reader in me was born. And the bilingual blogger automatically with that.

The advantages of being a bilingual reader and blogger

One of the greatest advantages of the ability to read in multiple languages is the access to books. I have so many more books at my disposal than I would have if I only read in Dutch. With that comes the ability of reading more diverse. The Dutch publishing industry is doing better in showcasing diverse voices than it was like five years ago, but it’s still not at the same level as the English publishing industry. Many books that sound interesting to me are only available in English. And sometimes, they get a Dutch translation a (long) while later, but I already have acquired an English copy by then. Or maybe even read said copy. Furthermore, I can keep my fluency in English at bay, as I nearly solely use Dutch for work. I have to speak English occasionally, but all correspondence has to be in Dutch. So, reading in English in my spare time helps me to maintain my language skills as well as to diversify my reading. I mainly stick to contemporary novels though as these are a bit easier to grasp. Within fantasy, you don’t just have to translate anything in your head, but you also have to navigate an entire new world.

Back when I started blogging, I did so in Dutch. Later on, I switched to something bilingual, only to completely switch to English after a while. I found myself finding more community within the English blogosphere and it also improved my writing. I graduated from college in 2017 and barely used my English writing skills ever since. The main audience for the English books I discuss are English speaking folks, so reviewing these particular books in English would make more sense. Furthermore, there are lots of fun memes floating around which we don’t have in the Dutch blogosphere. There used to be a great community, but nearly everyone has moved over to social media instead. Still, I prefer blogs and writing them in English also helps in keeping my fluency in the language. But whereas there are many advantages, there of course are some disadvantages to being a bilingual reader and blogger.

The disadvantages of being a bilingual reader and blogger

Whereas I see maintaining my language skills by reading and blogging in English as an advantage, they can be a real disadvantage too. As I use Dutch on a daily basis as it’s my first language, my understanding of the language is better than in English. Don’t get me wrong, it is sufficient otherwise I wouldn’t have been able to graduate from college, read books and write all these blog posts, but it’s not on the same level as my native language. I therefore struggle with several books and genres in English. Nonfiction in particular is hard as these books often make use of lots of data and such. An excellent example off my language skills falling short is when reading Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You by Jason Reynolds and Ibram X. Kendi back in 2020 right after the killing of George Floyd and the Black Lives Matter movement taking the world by storm once again. There were lots of protests and many people were educating themselves on the subject of racism. I wanted to do this as well, so I decided to take the plunge and read this book. Well, I only understood a small portion of it and certainly not everything. The usage of a lot of data made it even harder. Unfortunately, this book isn’t available in Dutch, so I wasn’t able to educate myself properly the way I wanted to. I’ve tried some more titles on this subject, but these were also hard to understand. I therefore avoid nonfiction as much as possible. Fiction is a lot easier for me in terms of reading in a second language, or some memoirs. But still, it’s tough. I already mentioned fantasy, that’s also a hit or miss genre for me as I sometimes do struggle with understanding the plot. I therefore often choose the Dutch version if it’s available.

And now we come to the actual reason for me analysing this whole thing, the blogging part. And especially the reviewing part. As you can see, my English is sufficient, and I am able to write quite wordy blog posts. But are they of good quality and is the grammar always correctly used? Probably not. I find myself struggling when writing book reviews. I have a certain review style which works pretty well for me in Dutch. The reviews keep flowing easily and are off good quality if I may say myself. I want to maintain the same quality I my English reviews, but I notice my language skills falling short once again. Back in college, the toughest part of writing my thesis – and where I was actually graded low on – was my English. In Dutch, I know exactly what I want to say. But somehow I find it hard to translate it to English. I just don’t have the right vocabulary to express myself properly it seems. So, Google Translate has been a realiable source for me. I only put a full review it in just once because I was so stuck, but I often have to translate words and phrases in order to write the particular review. Which sucks, because it sucks the fun out of it. And I don’t want to give up on reviewing and on this English blog as it’s doing so great in numbers. Nevertheless, imposter syndrome kicks in when comparing the two blogs and noticing a big difference in the quality of my reviews. Which leads to me falling behind and such. It’s actually a circle, an annoying vicious circle. I know I should just accept it, but it’s tough!

Okay, this is quite of a long post. Congratulations if you made it to the end haha! I just needed to get this out of my way LOL.

Are you a bilingual reader? What advantages and disadvantages do you notice for yourself?