As you may have recognized, I’m not a native speaker and if you’re reading this blog, you most likely know that I’m German. A recent comment on Facebook made me realize that an explanation why I write in English can’t hurt. Plus: I plan to address the way I recognize language in general and the implications an English-dominated media and news consumption has for me in more articles, so this is a good one to begin with anyway.

• No. First of all: I don’t write in English because I spent a year in the US (I didn’t) and suddenly became too cool to express myself in German (yeah, maybe I would’ve).
• Exercise. In school, they taught us English. That was fine, but after the 5-6th year absolutely redundant. I wouldn’t know any English today if it hadn’t been for all the TV Series and movies I’ve watched since. I remember starting by watching some ‘Knight Rider’, even with noting some vocabulary that I liked. It was fun, no kidding! But professionally and in general: as a person living in the 21st century, I want to, nay: feel like it’s a duty to be able to express myself in English. Especially because my language skills beyond German and English aren’t worth mentioning. But television only covers listening comprehension and maybe some talking, the rest of my English skills aren’t kept up by that. So the writing part needs some exercise, and here we are.
• Accessibility. I’m far away from an international readership, I realize that. But writing in German certainly keeps more people out than writing in English. And all the German people I know can understand English, so this is an easy one.
• It’s English anyway. I don’t cover topics that only make sense to be written about in German, like politics or local topics. On the contrary: especially the tech stuff forces me to adapt many English terms anyway. But I have to admit: Sometimes I miss writing/ranting about wrong usage of language in general or certain words by my fellow Germans.
• Iven did it. I never even considered writing in English before ivenwinkelmann.com existed and worked very well in English. I honestly had thought I couldn’t pull it off, but seeing it going very well made me try.