I was asked recently in a comment about my experiences of bilingual blogging. It seemed like a pretty decent topic, and the result is this…

It’s *bloody* difficult.

The more eagle-eyed (or bored) amongst you may have noticed that the Welsh and English content isn’t exactly the same, and that’s becasue I don’t really think “translating” blogposts works terribly well. Phrases work in one language that don’t make sense in the other (or that there isn’t an equivalent phrase in the other language), so it becomes necessary at times to re-write passages to get the same content across.

I feel also it may be time for a confession, much to my dismay, I do tend to write this in English first, and then work on the Welsh version. I think I’ve spoken before about the difficulties I’ve had in writing again in Welsh (mostly because I wasn’t amazing at it in School, and until I’d re-started the blog, I’d not written in a few years). There is an intangible fear at times of the “Language Snobs” in Welsh, the people who sneer if you don’t use a mutation correctly, or ridicule you in a public forum for using informal language where they thought formal language was more appropriate. It’s a bit of a confidence knock, and it makes you a little gun-shy. I don’t think it exists in the same way in English, maybe because the concept of an ‘English’ web has been around for more, and all the pedants have given up and gone back to writing surly letters to the Times or the Telegraph. Or maybe it’s just me…

I suppose that practice makes master, and the more I keep writing, the better I’ll get at it and eventually I’ll learn to ignore mean-spirited criticism. Until then, you’ll all have to put up with my stilted Welsh posts, and my meager attempts at posts in English.

Until next time.

B