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Old 02-Feb-2010, 20:52
Amoxcalli Amoxcalli is offline
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Join Date: Jan 2010
Location: The Netherlands
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Default Re: On writing in a foreign language

Quote:
Originally Posted by Loki View Post
If you were a writer (maybe some of you are) why would you choose to write in a different language from your native one?
Although I'm only a hobbyist, I prefer writing in English over writing in Dutch (which is my native language) for two reasons. Firstly, anything written in English has a much wider potential audience than anything written in Dutch. Not just because there's many more native speakers of the English language, but also because every educated Dutch person speaks English at least to decent level.

Secondly, I find that the language lends itself much better to puns, allusions, allegories and other "between the lines" writing. Dutch is just less subtle, I find.

I probably wouldn't have written anything in English if I hadn't been fluent in it though. I can't imagine someone writing in a language he/she barely masters either.
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