7 reasons why I continue writing the same blog contents in multiple languages

One of the amazing (and possibly foolish) features of my blog is that I've been writing the same contents in multiple languages - so far in English and in Japanese.

I continued this blogging for about two years and the number of the posts are over 500. And now, I would like to summarize why I continue writing the same contents in multiple languages.

1. I can keep my language skills

If I write at least one post in different languages every day, I can keep using these languages in my daily lives. This will let me keep my language skills, and often let me improve them.

2. I can improve my translation skill

When I write the same content in different languages, I first write down the content in one language, and then, I translate it to another language. This gives me a very rare opportunity of translation everyday.

3. I can be skillful in using technical terms in other languages

Even if you can speak foreign languages, it is usually quite hard to use technical terms in foreign languages without special practice. My blog talks about photography and local revitalization, and both themes have technical terms which Japanese people do not often hear in English. But thanks to this blog, I can talk about such issues even in English.

4. I can reframe my ideas by different languages

When I translate my content, I always re-understand what I wanted to mean and try to replace the concept directly by another language. I never translate the words literally. This enables me to re-construct my ideas based on the different way of thinking. Thus, I can reframe my ideas by different languages.

5. I can review my posts at least once, and sometimes modify them

This is a by-product. When I translate my content, I am forced to read it once. Sometimes there are spell mistakes, sometimes I hit upon better phrases to explain my ideas. The translation give me a chance to create a little better contents.

6. I can share my thoughts to almost everybody

This is a crucial merit for a Japanese guy who has been communicating with people around the world for about 10 years. Most of my friends do not understand Japanese, but many understand English. Because I am writing my blog in English, I can share it to them. Of course, they are not bothered by the stupid quality of Google Translate. Well, many of my Japanese friends do understand only Japanese, but I can share my blog in Japanese to them. Thus, I can share my thoughts to almost everybody.

7. You can understand that I can work in multi-language projects

This is another crucial merit in this global era. This blog works as a big self-introduction page for strangers to me. The visitors will realize that this blog is written in English and Japanese, and they can understand that I can work in multi-language projects. This will widen the opportunities to join various interesting projects.

As you see the above, there are many positive points here. But please remember that there are lots of negative points like (1) I need to write twice, (2) I must care about the web design so that it works well in multiple languages, (3) I'm still not sure how I can share each post in SNS effectively, and (4) some people think that I'm a weirdie. lol

As I am one of the extremely rare multi-language bloggers in the world who write the same contents in multiple languages, I will write more about the multi-language blogging here!

Sequel : Another great motivation to recommend multi-language blogging was revealed on November 16, 2015. My article to praise Kent Shiraishi was shared by him because I wrote it in English! You must note that multi-language blogging sometimes doubles the power of promotion by articles.