Published 2026-09-22
tag(s): #random-thoughts #useless-facts #español
A while ago I read this post by
Kev Quirk about how his blog (as is the one he quotes/links to) is written
in en-GB. No need to pander to a """global audience""",
instead he makes a conscious choice to keep his native voice. Because those mannerism are
more than a different turn on a sentence, or a spelling oddity. They are an important part of
their culture.
The post make me nod initially, and later wonder...
The nod part is about Spanish. When I write a post in my native language, I certainly write in Argentinian Spanish. Heck, I write in a very marked rioplatense Spanish voice (wiki) because that's what naturally comes to me.
But most of my posts are in English, which is not my native language. A lot
of times I feel it is because I "think" about the topic at hand in English.
And I don't have a hard rule for what is written in which language - a few times I felt
something had to be in Spanish, and so it was published. But numbers don't lie, the default in
here is English.
And then, I wonder: Am I subconsciously using English because it has the most "reach"?
I had a Spanish tag on the website day 1, yet the first post in Spanish took quite a while to
appear.
I honestly don't think so, after all, I didn't even think about this until I read the post
shared above....
...but I doubt myself nonetheless. Am I really, truly, naturally bilingual, just like that? Or
is that an excuse to use English because it is the most common thing on the web?
The other thing I am curious about is how my English sounds to natives. I know there are some
spellings where I consciously go for the British version, because that's how that word sounds
"more correct" to me. One of the best examples is behaviour. There are a few
others.
And I expect there is little choices here and there that make it obvious to a reader that I am
not a native speaker. A lot of my flavor is probably closer to American English, not
only because I live here, but also from the amount of US-made media consumed while growing up
and learning English.
Could we say that my blog is in en-IM? Maybe. But! Probably not OK to lump all
immigrants together, as the brush we use to paint our version of English will differ.
The way I destroy English pronunciation :) and the words and phrases I tend to turn to, are
dictated in part from being a Spanish speaker, being Argentinian, and being
a porteño. Most likely in that order of influence.
I've tried Portuguese, in the past. I learned a few key words on a short work trip, and got
excited about it, but never made real progress after going back home.
In the last couple years I tried Esperanto, because it is said to be easy and a good
foundation to learn more languages, but I never got too far into it. I gave up on Duolingo and
online courses, got a self-study book as a last attempt...and it's been sitting on the shelf
since I received it.
I had the intention, but not the determination, to learn Japanese when I was 16/17 and in
deep into my weeaboo phase.
I moved on from that, but never stopped consuming anime and videogames from Japan, and some
music. There's a band I really like, and recently I figured that could be an excuse to study
the language. With a nudge from my wife and a few other serendipitous happenings, I finally
decided to sign up for classes. Online, for the time being. Time will tell.
I wonder if I will ever become fluent enough to write a post in Japanese, and how that will read to a native, too...