As you may have noticed (Although, I hope it wasn’t that obvious) English is not my native language. I learned it at a Language institute in my home country. Then, I had the opportunity to make post-graduate studies in the UK. But although I lived in Glasgow, Scotland for one year, I didn’t have enough time to master the language, especially considering the Scottish accent. And no, I don’t speak English with a Scottish accent; even imitating it can be hard enough 🙂 .
Luckily, I have the opportunity to practice the language every single day. My job is in English, and I’ve gotten used to it as my research, reading, and writing tool. But when I first started writing fiction in English, I thought it was only one of my crazy, impulsive episodes. I gave it a trial, just to see how it went, and I was surprised to find that I felt comfortable enough to start this blog in English. I believe that some of this comfort came from the fact that I read more books in English than in Spanish – my native language. Without noticing it, my list of favorite authors had been filled by English speaking authors.
So when I realized that writing fiction in English was not impossible, I knew that if I wanted to pull this off well, I had to work very hard on it. I had to be sure that not only what I wrote was correctly from the grammar point of view, but also that I didn’t sound like a five year-old. Deep work on building a better vocabulary began. And books about style, writing, grammar and others started to flood my bookshelves and e-reader. But believe it or not, I found I had the following advantages for being a non-native English speaker:
- I’m not familiar with jargon and idioms (they don’t teach you that when you learn a language.) As a result, I don’t misuse or rely on them when writing in a formal approach.
- The way I learned English is by hard grammar (the methodology they used at the language institute). Therefore, I haven’t picked up the wrong way from my upbringing, daily life, family, friends, etc.
- Since my native language is Spanish, I find myself surprised by the many similar words between both languages, allowing me to have an extra set of vocabulary from words that have a Latin origin. The following list shows what I mean. The words on the right are very common for me since they’re widely used in Spanish. This doesn’t mean that when writing in English I use the ones on the right more, but I didn’t have to make an extra effort in order to learn them.
| Commonly used word | My little help as Spanish speaker |
| Increase | Augment |
| Strengthen | Invigorate |
| Refresh | Rejuvenate |
| Hoard | Agglomerate |
| Verify | Corroborate |
| Check up | Scrutinize |
| Hang onto | Adhere |
| Spill over, flood, swamp | Inundate |
| Run through, exhaust | Dissipate |
| Shorten | Condense |
| Temper | Alleviate |
| Stir up | Infuriate |
| Make up for | Rectify |
| Whip up | Instigate |
| Prompt | Stimulate |
This is just a random list; there are many other words out there that could be added.
So for anybody who’s learning the language and struggling tons with it, try to see the good side 😉 Nothing is impossible, it’s just a matter of perspective, how you face and tackle things.
And you, do you think learning a language from scratch could have advantages over its native speakers?
The diaries of the happy writer 
You make some good points. I think your motivation is also a factor and that you have a brain which can learn other languages well. Not everyone is hard wired for that, I think.
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I believe everybody can learn other languages 🙂 but it might be more difficult for some people. Although, it’s all about hard work and perseverance, I believe “memory,” in general, is the key for learning foreign languages. But memory can also be developed 😉 so… nothing is impossible.
Anyway, thanks for stopping by!
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Good points. Hard work and perseverance are sometimes in short supply!
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Most people in the U.S. know just the one language, English. We do butcher it all the time and don’t know it. I took two years of Spanish in grade school. At the time, it was required. Living in a state, Colorado, where the population of Spanish-speaking people is better than most, I was more than willing to give it a shot. Yet, I was foolish. I didn’t continue the classes in high school and I remember very little of the language now. Nevertheless, because of the brief period of learning, I’ve always been aware of the words I hear, read, and use myself that are based on the Spanish language. I wish I had kept my studies up.
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It’s never too late 🙂 I bet you can still continue studying Spanish. At least, you’ll have plenty of people to practice with 😉
Anyway, thanks for stopping by
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