Viktor Bijlenga

How I feel about making the switch to write in English

A few weeks back I had a short, but still very interesting discussion with my colleague Li. We talked about Twitter, and the impact that it had on our network of people which we talk to, do business with, get inspired by and so on.

As usual (when talking to someone about Twitter) I told her about that I always thought of switching to English instead if Swedish. After a few minutes I was convinced that I finally should make the switch.

I’ve previous made the switch of language and every time I’ve felt silly. This time I convinced myself that I need to give it time. I need to be patient and slowly build new relations with people around the world.

I also decided that I had to switch my blog/site to English too, since this is the main place for sharing/thinking about stuff I care about. I want to contribute to the conversation, with my own words and thoughts.

It’s hard. I still feel silly and like a newbie. But I feel that is gonna be worth the struggle. My writing in English will get better, I hopefully will learn to know more great people and it will probably change things in more ways I can think of.

A few weeks back Federico Viticci posted I tweet that I constantly have in the back of my mind these days:

I need to remember that learning new things takes time, it’s a process. I write and share because that I’m interested in learning more. It will get easier, and I’ll probably feel less silly over time. I have to commit. I have to show up, practice and feel frustrated, solve problems, look up things. Just like when I write code or design something. Just like life.

I checked the stats for the blog for the first time since making the switch yesterday. That got me inspired to write this post. Suddenly there is activity from all over the world, not just Sweden. Someone on the other side of the world visited this blog. That’s magic.

Hello World, I’m Viktor. Say hi to me on @viktorbijlenga.