What is language to you? Do you live, work, dream in one, two, or even more languages? Is it important to you?
Language is very dear to me. I think it can have many different forms, applications and usage. I love playing with language and between languages. I would love to be more playful with my Dutch and English. When I was in India a couple of years ago, I loved how people would use Hindi and English within the same conversation, even within one sentence. It had a kind of poetic slant to it.
I published my most recent blog post in Dutch. It made sense to write that particular post in Dutch (however, since then I have also published it in English). I reflected back on the National Congress for Public Communications, where I had been the conference chairperson. Just over two years ago I set up my own consultancy, with my own website, working on my own methodology. So far, most of my clients have mainly been international. It made sense for me to do everything in English. For over two decades, it had also been my working language. Furthermore, my love for the English language grew during the many years I lived in London, combined with the fact that my children were born there and raised bilingual.
And now, here I am. Many years have passed by, many jobs and functions. In addition to serving my clients and writing blog posts, I have started writing a book, a novel. I have also begun experimenting with poetry. I have always loved reading, but had not imagined how much I would enjoy writing. I am surprised how I enjoy playing with my writing, editing, and revising of my written work. Now comes the ‘confession’, but probably not a surprise, I am writing in English.
Though my novel is currently around 50.000 words, I have just started another one, in Dutch. I am not sure why, but I feel torn about what language to choose. The novel that I just started writing needs to be in Dutch. The story is set here in The Netherlands, and has to do with my family’s history. It will have bits and pieces in English, I think. I am going to experiment. What do you think? Let me know.
