[English] Blogging in English, Why not?

Having been blogging for some years, I believe it's time for me to leave the comfort zone of blogging in Bahasa Indonesia.  I have known English since I was in Junior High School, but I always hasitate to write in English.  I always afraid of making gramatical mistakes in writing because it can be recognized easily, especially by expert.  But, now I realized it was wrong, very wrong indeed.  

Blogging in English involves two kinds of expertise: Writing itself and English, including, of course, English Grammar.  In speaking, people still sometimes even if we use gramatically incorrect sentences.  But in writing, things are quite different.  Here are some tips of blog writing in English:

1.  Just do it.  We can use free writing technique to brainstorm ideas.  Free writing is a great way to start writing an article because it allows us to freely express ourselves and release our ideas from our head.  Just write till you are running out of ideas.  You can edit it latter.  The Free writing technique is included in a free writing newsletter titled in Webmerdeka.com

2. Involve your readers to correct your writing. Let them correct and criticize written posts in our blog.  Their comments indicates that they understand and enjoying our blog.  After all, they wouldn't comment if they don't understand your would they?

3. Tell your English Classmates to read your English written blog.  You will get a lot of wonderful comments and useful insights from your friends.  It is also possible to bring your printed blog post in English to your teacher and classmates.     

4. Don't rely on Google Translate or other means of mechanical translation.  Yes, they are quite useful to find the meaning of certain words your are not sure about.  But they are not human being who has emotion and feeling.  Language is not just a set of words and grammatical rules.  Language is also about culture, habits, way of life and, of course, emotion and feeling.  

5. Don't be afraid of making mistakes.  It is better you make mistakes in your own blog rather than your company website.  Yes, it is in writing, so people especially language experts can easily recognize our mistakes.  So, make it a part of learning.  Don't get discourage if somebody criticize your English writing.

6.  Practice, practice, practice.  The more we practice our English writing, the more expertise we become.  

We will never know who will read our blog because the Internet has become a borderless world. a great way to share knowledge and information.  We can use blog to share our thoughts, feeling and opinions to the world.  And by writing our blog in English, we will be able to reach even wider audiences and readers.  Maybe they will offer us business opportunities or any other interaction.  Who knows?