In this post, I want to go over my “6 Best Tips for Blogging in English as a non-native English speaker”, which I have learned over the past few years.
It’s a challenge for anyone to decide to start blogging in a different language. For me as a native German speaker, obviously, I am making mistakes. Some of them, I am not even aware of!
However, I have decided for myself, that I want to connect to people all over the world and give them the opportunity to understand the content I am creating.
[bctt tweet=”In this post, I want to share a little bit of my experience and the 6 best tips for blogging in English as a non-native English speaker I use to keep myself motivated and how I handle negative feedback.” username=””]
If you are a blogger non-native / or native English speaker, I would love to hear your thoughts on this topic in the comments below!
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6 Best Tips for Blogging in English as a non-native English Speaker
1. Aim for connection rather than perfection!
Now, this might be a controversial start, but there was this one article I read which really got under my skin.
The author of the blog post was seriously ranting about these people who were putting out content containing spelling and grammar mistakes! He simply could not understand why people would dare to post articles which were so imperfect!
He would go on and on about why these people would not get help or hire someone to read through their stuff before publishing and that it was so unprofessional of them.
Well, I was honestly shocked!
Imagine me having to pay someone else to proofread every single piece, email, freebie, course, etc. I put out into the world!?
My online business is seven months old and sure I could invest the money I am making in letting everything I write proofread. But then I could also hire someone with perfect English to write my entire blog in the first place. This would free up so much time for me to work on something I am actually good at! (I hope you hear the sarcasm)!
Seriously, if I would fixate so much on creating the perfect blog post, the perfect Instagram live, the perfect freebie, I would never get anything done! Nor would I ever achieve anything!
Don’t get me wrong, I am all about improving your skills which we will discuss later on. However, setting unrealistic goals will end up sucking the joy out of what you do and love, which is creating content, blogging and connecting with other people online all over the world!
[bctt tweet=”I am creating content to the best of my ability! I continuously work on my skills! But I will never stop writing and providing value to other people because I am making spelling and grammar mistakes.” username=””]
If your audience gets upset with you over grammar and spelling mistakes and misses the value you are trying to provide to them, I recommend just let them go.
2. Don’t get discouraged by emails and people’s corrections
Tip No. 2 for blogging in English as a non-native English speaker is to not get discouraged by people’s corrections!
Now, this is a regular occurrence in my inbox and comment section and you know what? I am thankful for every single person who has taken the time to help me out and let me know “Hey there Katie, you know, I found this mistake here or there, just wanted to let you know…”!
Thank you!
You are amazing and I am absolutely grateful for your help. Now, the audience here on the blog is absolutely great and we are supporting each other rather than bringing us down.
Every single email I get correcting me comes from a place of support rather than a place of malicious joy (and yes I had to Google the word “malicious joy” and no I don’t know if this is something someone would ever say in real life, and still, here we are)!
However, of course, there will be people who are just waiting for you to make a mistake and bring you down and the only thing I can say to that is “ignore the haters” and “other people’s opinion is none of your business* if you don’t listen to me listen to the brilliance of Rachel Hollis!
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3. Ask for help
[bctt tweet=”If you have a friend who is a native English speaker you could go ahead and ask them for help proofreading your blog content. This could be a friend, a teacher or a neighbor.” username=””]
Maybe you have a native English speaking friend who always admired what you were doing and would love to blog as well but does not yet know how. You could collaborate with this person on your blog or teach them the more technical things about blogging in return.
When I moved my blog to a new host and changed my banding a couple of weeks back, I sent out an email newsletter to my audience asking them to help me out! I knew there were mistakes and problems I just simply did not see them anymore and I am so stinking grateful for the help I got!
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4. Hire Someone
Of course, this is amazing.
I wish at one point in my blogging career, I could hire someone who goes through each and every single blog post and Freebie I write. We are talking tens of thousands of words and sorry at this point this is just not feasible for me.
However, there are amazing people on platforms like Fiverr who are native-English speakers and would love to have a look at your content. They start at very reasonable rates and if you have a piece of content which is super important to you, why not hire someone on an individual basis?
5. Use Tools
Another great tip for blogging in English as a non-native English is to use little helper tools.
I always use Grammarly to check every single blog posts I publish. It’s a free online grammar checking and spelling checking tool you can download and it’s literally a life-saver! If you think I am making a lot of mistakes now, THINK AGAIN!
Additionally, whenever I am writing content in English I have Google, as well as Linguee or LEO open.
LEO is especially helpful if you are looking for a word and your brain simply won’t produce it and it gives you a great selection of translated words which could match your context.
I also love Linguee because below the dictionary section, there are text excerpts of how the different words are used in context. You might think the translated word matches but in fact, within the context, you are writing about, native English speakers would use a completely different word or phrase.
6. Improve your Skills
I have a notes app on my phone, where I write down “sayings” and “phrases” I either have never heard before or have heard before but they are not present in my mind at all times and I would love to use them more often.
Especially when I am writing, I can go back to my notes and review them and see if I could implement one of them into my content.
I have a separate set of notes where I just write down funny phrases I hear other people use in live shows or podcasts. Stuff regular Americans or British people would actually say in their everyday life or phrases which are just simply hilarious:
Examples I noted down are:
- Fancy meeting you here!
- Cahoots
- Brag-worthy
- Holy Macaroni
- This is bananas
- Shut the front door
Honestly, I cant 🙂
I have made it a habit of listening to my favorite English podcasts, whenever I am driving somewhere in my car, going on walks with my dog or when taking public transport. I love to absorb how people are actually talking in real life.
We also barely watch movies in German anymore, and I do have to say this has been the case for years now. Nowadays, I get super frustrated listening to German translations of English movies. First of all, I can read the actors lips and see what they are actually saying in English. Plus after watching thousands of movies in English, I now know the sound of the voice of this actual human being. It’s super weird.
[bctt tweet=”While watching and hearing movies in English is great for improving your speaking skills, I believe reading to be great for improving your writing skills as a non-native English speaking Blogger.” username=””]
As you may have noticed, I do love to write the way I speak, however, if I am writing about a more technical topic I also love to use a more professional or neutral tone. I believe reading all kinds of books helps you figure out your own writing style a lot faster.
Well, there we go!
I hope you found 6 Best Tips for blogging in English as a non-native English speaker interesting and useful. Let me know in the comments and I would love to hear your thoughts on this topic.
Talk to you soon
Xoxo Katie
Other articles which could interest you:
My Morning Routine as a professional Blogger working from Home
Most effective Productivity Tips for Bloggers
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