English first

I’d like to share some thoughts about writing in English, my experiences over the last 13-14 months, and why I’ll stop writing about UX and Webdesign in German.

It turned out that English is the language I prefer over German when it comes to my profession. There are three main reasons for this.

First, I really read a lot. Mainly about topics that are connected to my job – UX & Webdesign. For over a decade now, it’s about 90% of articles and blogs that are in English. I understand everything and I read as fluent as in German, which is my mother tongue. So why shouldn’t I type more English texts myself?

Second, when talking with English colleagues, or those not German but speaking the world language English, I always felt a bit uncomfortable. Although it worked somehow. But if you’re not talking a foreign language fluently, you often get stuck even over the easiest words. That’s something that not only interrupts your speaking, it even inhibits your thinking.

Third, about one year ago a somehow major change happened at my work. A growing company, that’s expanding internationally. Acquisitions of other firms brought a lot of new colleagues to the set. Which I’m still very much appreciating. All that organizational changes, including a shift to agile with SCRUM, where also accompanied by a cultural change – finally 😉

So there where a lot more reasons added, to improve my English skills. To speak English fluently, you have to speak English. It’s that easy. That’s what we did a lot more in the past months, when working on a major rebranding project. Several interdisciplinary teams, including native English speaking copywriters, headed towards Project One. Working side by side with the copywriters helped me a lot.

I also identified another important space for improvement. I had to expand my active vocabulary. For me, that’s the second pillar when it comes to effectively improve your skills in another language.

Then in November 2017, I decided to start this blog – UXygenic – where I wanted to write in English. Two main goals: expand my active vocabulary, learn more alternative expressions, and integrate them in my active English vocabulary. Not only to write and speak faultlessly but also to write and speak better and in a more engaging way.

Still, after 12 months, I’m regularly adding content to this blog. And will continue to do so. This also means to maybe retire my German blog Webzeugkoffer, or at least give it an even longer rest.

If you already followed my blog there, just update your feed reader and join me under a new feed address on UXygenic. I for sure will keep you posted.


p.s.: I would very much appreciate every piece of feedback on my English writing. That will help a lot, and also help to improve your reading experience 😉


One response to “English first”

  1. […] Warum das so ist, habe ich hier beschrieben: English first […]

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