Level Up

Should I Write in English?

by Silvio Gulizia

Should I write in English? When my friend Luca asked me that, I gave him the wrong answer: “It depends on.”

I told him: “Can you write in English as well as you do in Italian?” But soon it was clearer: “For who are you writing?”

Each one of us writes essentially for two targets: himself and the others. So, when writing, you have to ask yourself which is the better way to speak with you and the people you want to reach.

I have been writing for almost 20 years now. I wrote for newspapers, blogs and social networks. I wrote, I taught to write, and I worked with journalists and bloggers who wrote articles following my indications. All this in Italian for probably more than 90%. But then, when Luca asked me if he should write in English, something happened.

I’ve been writing on my personal blog for three years now. It started off as “Comunità Digitali” and it was a blog about digital communications. You can read posts about this topic on silviogulizia.com. A little at a time, I changed the focus. Now I write about creativity, productivity, how to make dreams happen, how to improve your life and how to live like a startup. My readers are (well, at least were) all Italians, part of them living in other countries, and I know I will lose some of them by switching to English. Nevertheless, I think that writing about this themes I could help even more people to improve their lives.

I am a writer of the net. I realized it while decluttering my RSS feed. I discovered I am reading more English blogs than Italians. Immediately, I realized I am now reading in English, both online and offline, for the most of my reading time. It was then natural to embrace the change.

“Can you write in English as well as you do in Italian?” No, I can’t. But I can improve my English, and since I took that decision, I discovered a lot of apps and tools that help you write better in English.

You will forgive me for any grammar orror or for writing a very simple English. I will improve it with time and writing. (This is a joke we usually do in Italy. I am not sure that it is the same in English. Here “orror” is used for “horror”, the English for the Italian word “orrore”, which has just one different letter from “errore”, error in English).

I am a little bit scared by this decision, but it is when you are scared to do something, when things become difficult to accomplish, when you are taking a risk that you are on the right way. To use author Doris Lessing words, “Whatever you are meant to do, do it now. The conditions are always impossible”.