🇬🇧 English isn’t my first language. Anyone else?
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I’m active here, and English isn’t my first language.
It’s actually interesting that the whole global community of builders, makers, and founders has basically one common language: English.
And sometimes I wonder: how good does your English actually need to be?
I definitely overthink it sometimes:
Is this sentence natural? Is my grammar okay? Will people understand what I mean?
Maybe it doesn’t matter that much if you have something worth sharing.
So, if English isn’t your first language:
Do you ever feel insecure about your English when posting or commenting here? - and I’m not even talking about actual conversations, calls or meetings =D
And do you use AI to help you write, or just write and hit “post”?
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Very active, Adana! I am Italian, but the applications and platforms I develop use English as the primary language. I always look for a taxonomy of terms, even if it is basic, when working with AI. In my view, it is also necessary to draw a distinction between written and spoken English! :)
Yes, I use AI for coaching, but with a grain of salt! :p
@fabriziodegni Grazie per aver condiviso la tua esperienza =D
And you’re absolutely right about the distinction between written and spoken English. I think that’s a really important point, especially because speaking naturally is a whole different challenge =/
I am on the same boat, but using primarily Google Translate (call me old school) and Grammarly. Have to say that somehow with Grammarly, I am learning better :)
@busmark_w_nika I myself am either from your school =) By the way, I just downloaded Grammarly.
I liked the interactive correction, but I guess rephrasing to a better way needs a pro plan.
English is my second language and I write marketing copy in it for a living, which sounded absurd to me for about two years. What helped was giving up on sounding clever, because short plain sentences are easier for me and better copy anyway. We went live with something today and the shortest lines on the page are the ones I trust most.
@yelyzaveta_kibets And what’s your first language?
@adana Ukrainian. It is the one I think in and English is the one I work in, which still feels like an odd split after all this time.
Very interesting indeed, English has become the default world language. It's not my first language also but I have communicated in English for almost my entire life that my native language is struggling to compete. :-). I don't feel insure at all about English language communication and it depends if it's professional email or document, thanks to AI, I can improve the grammar and vocabs.
@richatsealedvault What’s your first language?
@adana Hahaha !! my first language is called Ashanti also known as Twi. How about you?
@richatsealedvault Mine is Armenian =) one of the world’s oldest living languages.
@adana Nice! That's a treasure to keep. Don't become like me who can't speak my native language fluently anymore and don't ask about writing it.
Not my first either. I come from Africa and I've been living in Germany for almost 10 years now, so English is somewhere down the list of daily languages. Insecurity is real, especially in writing. What helps me is DeepL Write for structure and syntax check, not for translation. I write in my own words first, then let it flag where a native would rephrase. Keeps my voice, drops the grammar landmines. Full disclosure: this comment went through exactly that pass.
@joesimms23Â Haha =D Thanks for sharing your experience! I haven't heard of DeepL Write before. I just tried it while composing this answer ))
Right, “good English” is such a complex idea in the first place! English is spread all over, so what sounds good to one English speaker might sound unusual to another.
I do use AI sometimes to check my writing - not a native speaker too. But I am also tired of super-polished, AI-sounding text that doesn’t sound like me anymore. I think it is important to be understood as you intended while still keeping your own voice.
@maria_telegina Keeping your own voice is the key. That’s why I write everything in my own words first, and then just correct the mistakes.
What's your first language?
As a 16 yr old, I think I still have a lot of things to improve in my English but I just write it down and hit send or post or anything. I think that writing with AI is unprofessional even if you don't know the language. It takes away something personal about the message or the post.
@herkaba But what’s your first language? I feel like for 16 yo around the world, Eng is basically the first language these days =D
hindi first, english from school, and the insecurity never fully goes away. what surprised me is where it actually shows up. its not grammar, its tone. in hindi a lot of the softening sits in how the sentence ends, and in english you have to add whole extra words to get the same warmth, so my drafts come out colder than i mean them and i only notice after someone replies a bit stiffly. on the ai question, the thing that changed my mind is that polish is what kills it. the versions i tidied up read like nobody in particular, and the ones where a strange phrase survived are the ones people actually answered. so now i fix the meaning and leave the rest alone.
@rabnoor_s I can definitely say that the way you express your thoughts is really unique.
I read a lot of comments every day, and I can definitely say I remember yours because of how you express them.
So I agree - AI is great for making some corrections, but keeping yourself in the text is the key =)