Writing in English with poor English
With a “D” grade in English in public exam, I think I should share with you some thoughts about writing English contents as a startup cofounder.
Most people here in Hong Kong are afraid of writing in English. They are lacking the ability and confidence to use English. My English is also poor. So, where can I find the confidence?
This is not a matter of confidence. This is not even a matter of ability. I write in English just because I have no choice. This is it. If you think you have the choice, then you may have missed the point.
It seems like there is only 360 million native English users in the world. Why don’t I write in Chinese for the 1.4 billion native Chinese users? Let’s do some maths. If I write in English, the 360 million native users may understand 80%. Yes, 80%. Not bad. It’s because they can spot the grammatical mistakes I have made. These mistakes will not obstruct their understanding of my contents. To the rest of the world, there may be 1 billion non-native English users can read and understand 60% of my contents, and 140 million of them may be the native Chinese users. So there are nearly 1.4 billion people who can understand at least 60% of my contents from all over the world.
If I write in Chinese, the 1.4 billion native Chinese users may understand 90% (not 100% as the Chinese language we are using here in Hong Kong is different from that in mainland China). But I am quite sure not many people from the rest of the world will understand Chinese language, especially written Chinese.
In both cases, the numbers of audiences are similar. But in terms of the numbers of regions, civilizations, ideologies, and ethnic groups, the two scenarios are completely different. At this stage, I have chosen diversity.
Why don’t I write in both languages? I have tried, and this was far more time-consuming than I have expected. I think this is better to leave the translation works to the community in the future which can also boost more contributors engagements.
After all, why do I need to afraid of writing in poor English? No one is reading.
Originally published at www.forbole.com on December 30, 2018.
