Cordillera, Panama
I read a blog a few moments ago.
The individual asked for feedback on their post.
After reading the post I felt that the person did a solid job. But I immediately realized that the individual was an ESL blogger because certain phrases and wording flowed awkwardly.
Of course I do not offer this feedback to judge or condemn the individual. I applaud them for having the courage to blog in any language other than their native tongue. But the reason why most ESL bloggers dive into the English language is to appeal to a wide, global audience, many of whom speak English as their first language.
If you ever want to be credible to native speakers you need to practice reading and writing in English daily. Otherwise, your posts will not cut the mustard and most native speakers will look past your blog.
Practice Writing Daily
I suggest that all bloggers write 500 to 1000 words daily offline to gain confidence and clarity. Open a Word document every morning. Go wild.
ESL bloggers need to practice writing; native speakers spot errors with precision and bounce from error-laden blogs. No one gets a free pass in a world of certain expectations. Sorry.
Not only is this concept not unfair, you and I do it all the time in various areas of our lives. We follow guidance from those we trust and look past those we distrust. Rather than play the victim role to the hilt just practice writing to become trustworthy. Own the truth that you do the same judging that native ESL speakers do when one reads your blog.
ESL bloggers need to read as much as they write because hearing words offered by native speakers influences you to mimic them in some way, shape or form.
For example, the post I reviewed earlier today promoted a specific company. The ESL blogger mentioned the company 6 times in the opening 5 paragraphs. Native English speakers spot this awkward usage and most close the blog out after the second paragraph. Native speakers do not communicate in such fashion. Forget the concept of spamming via keyword stuffing; no genuine human converses in such fashion unless trying to sell the company desperately which makes one look like a douche bag.
Reading work published by native English speakers conditions you to spot and avoid making this error.
The blogger also engineered a few awkward-sounding errors. None sounded right to this native speaker. Voracious English speakers look past making awkward-sounding errors by exposing themselves to writers who grew up in countries like the United States, Australia and England. Small variations pepper our respective forms of English but we typically sound similar in terms of overall language structure.
Read Native English Speakers
Read native speakers and you will begin to write like them. Write often to create posts with economy. Reading and writing on a daily basis positions you to become a successful ESL blogger who gains credibility in the eyes of native speakers.
You have to really work at it in order to succeed. Nobody will follow you and flatter you out of a deep sense of guilt for very long.
With that being said, I admire anyone who blogs in a language outside of their native tongue because I know what it feels like to speak Spanish here in Panama and in other Central and South American countries.
I judge myself to be fairly fluent. But when native speakers fire off Spanish in machine gun fashion I’m virtually lost. Never mind the fact that garbled speakers completely confuse me.
Speaking Spanish is still outside of my comfort zone although I can follow most conversations in order to maintain some form of communication.
At the end of the day though, when you try to communicate with someone outside of your native tongue it involves leaving your comfort zone. I applaud anyone who makes this uncomfortable decision both for speaking and writing.
English seems to be a challenging language to learn because the language of money involves many confusing rules. No ESL blogger needs to be fully adept grammatically but informal, conversational writing still requires many thousands of hours of writing practice to weed out the awkwardness or other red flags which turn off native English speakers.
If you practice reading and writing in English for months then years you will be fine. If you only write whenever you sit down to publish a post you will be in trouble. If you do not read English you will be in trouble. You cannot trick someone who’s spoken this language since they were a baby because fellow native English speakers spot folks who don’t write or read consistently with alarming ease. I guarantee you it’s the same way with you, when you spot someone who is not fluent in your native tongue.
AI has added a motivator to write and read in English, AI blogging forces ESL bloggers to tighten up their game because most native English speakers will instantly look past the blogger who has not on some level mastered the English language since most assume AI and not a human generated an awkward sounding post.
I did a double take a few moments ago after reading the ESL blog because some wording appeared to be AI generated. This is a big red flag that all ESL bloggers need to be aware of. Practice to prove your humanity. Practice to distance yourself from AI. Leave no doubt in the minds of native English speakers. Prove that a person wrote your blog post to step away from AI-induced doubts.
Real Time Example of Writing Practice
I originally dictated this blog post.
But certain sections did not flow.
I trashed the choppy portions and replaced with my written words because typing with the little sausages – lean ones, of course – taps into my 15 year’s worth of writing practice.
Writing gives bloggers:
- confidence
- clarity
- power
which readers feel emanating from blog posts.
But you need to write your ass off for years to reach that point.
I know that you’re up to it.
