ThatDutchGirl's survival guide: native or another language?

Hello my friends!

It's time for another survival guide lesson. Today's class will be about languages to blog in. This is a dilemma a lot of bloggers face, whether they just started blogging, want to start blogging of have been blogging for quite a while. In this survival guide topic I try to list some of the pro's and con's of blogging in your own language or another language.

As my native language is Dutch and I blog in English, English will be the language I'll use as the "other" language, so if you're native language is English this blog might not be of much use for you. (I'm sorry.)
One last thing, these are all my points of view so it's not really a steady standard or something, you're all allowed to agree or disagree with me and share your own thoughts on this topic!

Why blog in English?
This is a decision that, at first, was very easy to me, I just prefer writing in English. Furthermore when you blog in English you can reach a much bigger audience as a lot of people on this planet have English as their first or second language. Then there is the challenge I liked about it, as English is my second language, I'm not as good at it than I am at Dutch. However this made blogging a bit more exciting and challenging for me. Also, blogging in English allows me to write about more global issues or topics. 

Why blog in your native language?
Then there is blogging in your native language. You might find this easier and feel more confident to write blogs in your own language. Besides you can blog about local things, like local Dutch elections or a national holiday the rest of the world knows nothing about (like Sinterklaas). Blogging in your native language can make you feel more connected to your readers as it's mostly a smaller community than the big English speaking community. Blogging in your native language might also depend on what you want to blog about. When you want to blog about books and your country has a big or small book blog community it might be easier or more difficult to join them but that's just up to you to decide. Blogging in your native language might also make it easier to get a deal with certain companies however the Dutch blogging community has become rather big over the years so I don't know if you're chances are still that high nowadays. This should not be a reason to start blogging though!

Will I always keep blogging in English, probably. Do I know for sure, definitely not. Sometimes these things happen in Holland and I really feel like I should write a blog about it but then again it won't come across as good in English as it will in Dutch. This mostly leads to me discarding the blog and forgetting all about it. I don't know why, I could definitely post a blog in Dutch every once in a while because why not this is MY blog and I can post whatever I want on it. Maybe one day. Who knows.

Anyhow. If you don't feel comfortable writing in English or feel like you can connect more with your followers in your native language please blog in your native language. Do what you feel is the right thing to do. And if you just like the English language, want to improve your English or when English is just the language you're better at than feel free to blog in English! The language you blog in is something that can't be decided by somebody else than you! This is a choice you have to make!

If you have other reasons to write in English or your native language or something completely different, feel free to share your opinion in the comment section below!

Lots of love,
ThatDutchGirl96

A chick on a mission.

Hello!

A week ago I attended the Diabeter College Tour. This is an initiative of Diabeter, a Dutch organisation that offers suiting health care to young diabetics. Diabeter offers this health care outside the 'standard' hospital health care. Besides offering health care services they also have a shop, the diabshop, where you can order all your medical supplies. On their website www.diabeter.nl, you'll find more information about Diabeter, who they are, what they stand for and how they work. Their website also translates to English!

Back to the College Tour, this was basically an evening where lot's of different companies that are related to Diabetes supplies or just patient associations presented themselves. This was also an evening where different experts gave lectures on different subjects regarding Diabetes. For example, one was about Diabeter and another one was about Diabetes and the latest innovations.

Before the official lectures started "(angry) chick on a mission" Izaira Kersten gave us a theatrical performances about her and her Diabetes. Izaira has Type 1 Diabetes, like me, and her performance gave the audience a very comical view of how she handles her Diabetes. She started with the way she does the groceries. "Butter, 0gr carbs. Light jam, 8,5 gr carbs per 15 gr. Whole wheat bread, 14 gr carbs per slice." Then she continued on how she deals with hypoglycaemias. I found it ridiculously funny, not only because it just was really funny but also                                                          because it was so relate-able.

The moral of her story was something, maybe even more relate-able. In the beginning she called herself an "angry chick on a mission". A young woman who suddenly got diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes. Her life turned upside down, young women don't want to inject themselves with insulin, they don't want to look like a mathematician every time they go out to eat somewhere else or go grocery shopping. She told us she felt very alone, alone and angry. "Why me?!" was what she kept asking herself. She was angry at herself, at the doctors, at her Diabetes and at the world. The world had no idea how to handle her diabetes, or what it actually is so how could she understand it?

At the end of her performance she learned to deal with her Diabetes more and to keep the complications that might come with it in mind. Now she's just a "chick on a mission". Trying to inform people without Diabetes what it's all about and that you don't have to be old or fat to get it. She wants to inform people, especially young people, with Diabetes that they aren't as different as they think they are. That they're not alone. That there are thousands like them, young people and old people, all with the diagnosis Type 1 Diabetes. All with their own stories, struggles and dilemmas. She wants to rid the world of rumours about Diabetes and unite Diabetics.

A chick on a mission. That chick on her mission definitely spoke to me, made me realise that I share her goal and maybe that's one of the things I want to use this platform for. To inform diabetics and non-diabetics on what diabetes actually is, what you need to keep in mind everyday, how it affects my life. However most of all, I want to inspire. I want to inspire the world that even though I have diabetes, even though I have to wear an insulin pump on my body 24/7, I can do everything I want. I can do whatever I want and whenever I want it. My diabetes isn't so much a bad thing. I can live with it and everyday I learn something new about it, about my diabetes, about diabetes in general and someday I hope I live to see diabetics being cured. 

Until that day I hope to inspire and inform people about what I have, how I deal with it and the endless amount of options I still have in life!

Lots of love,
ThatDutchGirl96, a diabetic chick on a mission!