There are at least top ten reasons on why an Indonesian blogger should blog in English. If you run a Bahasa Indonesia blog, like I do, you should have an English speaking blog as well. Here’s why:
1. My English writing skill is not good. I’d like to improve it by writing regularly in a medium where editorial barrier does not exist.
2. English is undoubtedly understood –though not necessarily spoken or written–by many, if not by most, influential people in the world. Hence larger audience, more visibility and influence of some sort.
3. Most internet-literate Indonesians understand English. Using English in my blog, therefore, does not hinder Indonesian readers to appreciate what I’d intend to convey to them, my primary audience.
4. Indonesian voices very much under-represented in the outside world simply because hardly any books, academic publication and conventional media are written in English. Indonesia — a country with more than 240 million population– has a very few English newspapers / magazines / portals and none of existing Indonesian magazines are in English. And hardly any best seller Indonesian books written by prominent intellectuals are written in or translated into English.
5. Among 10 percent of Indonesian internet users, only about 0.4 percent of them are blogging which means if you blog in Bahasa Indonesia you have to be satisfied with that of 0.4 percent readers who does not necessarily read your blog. Less potential readers will lead to less blogging courages.
6. It gives non-Indonesian a chance to know you and Indonesia: the mindset, culture, faith, etc. And it gives you more chance to interact with them. Hence, more understanding of multi-polar world and broaden your vista and horizon of thinking.
7. Depending on your blogging influence, but at the least it’ll give you more self-esteem by making more friends from various cultures across the continents.
8. There are many people outthere with good intention to make an interfaith and intercultural dialogue; every now and then they need a person from a particular country, say Indonesia, to talk to. Let them know that you are the person they want.
9. If your blog content is good, the possibility of being published and then reviewed by prominent international book reviewer is not far away.
10. Blogging in English, like blogging in any other languages including Bahasa Indonesia, is basically history in the making. The difference is by blogging in English you are making history in front of many faces and backgrounds from many countries and therefore it adds more to your credibility.
I definitely agree with you, I, myself have been trying to blog in English. Even though my English isn’t good at all, but, I always push myself harder and harder everyday for a better improvement and achievement.
Everyone is welcome to visit my blog at http://www.indodaily.net, I would really appreciate any feedbacks and critiques.
Thank you for this inspiring article
Sometime I want to do as you do, but my english not very well.
Maybe I must learn more and more from you..Thank …
my english isn’t good.. but i will keep practice and try to build blog with english language.. ^_^
for practising english, writing blog with english language is good.
bener ga iku susunane? hehehe
bahasa inggris saya nol besar mas fatih.. saya belajar banyak lewat site anda, saya rasa mulai sekarang saya mencoba menulis blog lewat bahasa inggris, mencoba memahami realita. keep blogging
I guess blogging in English is one thing and nationalism is another. Using English doesn’t necessarily mean someone lacks proud of his/her own national language. Language is just a tool. Speaking Indonesian all the time with foreigners is as ridiculous as using English all the time with our fellow Indonesians. In a nutshell, use English to get wider scope of audience..
btw,Google translate isn’t reliable enough, but it’s better than nothing…
love this blog
yah pengen sih….
tapi bahasa inggris ku kacau sekali…. TT
Salam kenal mas…
Nice article
A good motivation for young bloggers like me who are still new in this world so may be useful for other colleagues, because now not only a media blog written for us but also as an enhancer of our funds yes … ngak mas
Well done. Keep moving on your creativity. I’ll follow you and read your blog. It’s just nice and very useful. Of course I’ll learn a lot from the Blog. Just like you are all, my friend, I my self am beginning to learn to write and to manage some website and blog. I found it difficult, I mean, it need our courage and creativity, patient and endurance. It’s really not an easy job, so I’d like very much appreciate what have all Indonesian Blogers done for their creativity and great efforts. Again, although English is not our language, it’s such a great language ever created by God for human global community perusal. Take every positive side from it. For those who want to discuss about Writing in English with me, may visit my site here, register and begin discussing directly with me. But we will focus our topic on Baduy, its people, land and mind. God Luck!