Bilingual blogging

An interesting post by Ethan Zuckerman's blog about "the plight of the bilingual blogger" who comments on Loïc LeMeur's posting "The world goes beyond English speaking blogs".

As Loïc says, your strategies are:

- Write only in English, since English has become a lingua franca for the blogosphere, and alienate your local readers.

- Write only in your native language, though comment on blogs in English and other languages, sometimes translating them for your readers. Accept that this means your input into global conversations will be limited.

- Translate every post so that it appears in English and your local language. While this maximizes readership and inclusion in the conversation, it’s an enormous effort.

- Maintain different weblogs in English and your local language. Occasionally translate between the two, but cover some topics in one and others in the other.

I appreciated the first comment to Ethan's blog by Boris which echoed some of my own feelings:

“English has become a lingua franca for the blogosphere”
I am flat out shocked to hear you say this Ethan. The truth is more along the lines of “english is the lingua franca of the english blogosphere, just as french is the lingua franca of the french blogosphère, und so weiter…”