I have mentioned in my older post about reading in your second language.
Once you can enjoy reading in your second language, you would want to write in your second language too! The best is to write a diary. When you first started, it would be hard and you will soon run out of topics to write. This is because you can only write as much as your vocabulary stock.
But don’t worry. If you persist on reading in your second language, and laborously search for the words you want in the dictionary, you will see your diary flourishing day by day.
Getting Started
My first diary was a physical diary book, I started writing in English there. When I landed in Tokyo the first time, I started a digital diary book at Blogger, and wrote in English. I only started to write in Bahasa Indonesia when I got married and started settling in Tokyo. My “real” diary in Japanese only started last year, and this year I started writing my Arabic Notes.
Below is my first try writing in Arabic.
As you may already know, a language has different faces. You may see it different when it is acting as a spoken language, and even more so when it was acting as a written language. Like the frustration you have when you finally visit that country to try its language you have been learning for sometime, the first time you write in your second language, you will be alarmed of how little you know about your language acquisition despite the time you spent learning it!
Step 1: Gather Your Courage
If it were the colloquial that you desperately needed to talk fluently to people on the street, then it is the writing skill that you need when you started writing in your second language. If it were a private diary you are writing, then it would not be such a problem. But when you started to write it online, or on your social media, you would want yourself to be understood and your reader to understand or even enjoy reading it. So then, it would take more than correct grammar and rich vocabulary, you will to have a standard writing skill, or even a perfect style to be able to both deliver your voice and engage with your readers.
But I am not going to write about writing skill, which I am still trying to acquire. I will write about the first thing you need to have the courage to start writing!
The courage to write may come from two sources; your confidence and your motivation to write. If you are confident enough in your ability to write in your new acquired language, then you can start writing at once. But, even if you don’t have confidence in your language skill, your still can start writing sooner once you have the right motivation.
In fact, I started writing my first post in Japanese because I suddenly have that motivation, which is to convey an idea that can only be delivered in Japanese. I still remember it was a post with a title; 育児は育自. It reads ikuji wa ikuji, a sentence of two words with the same reading but different meaning. The first ikuji means raising a child, and the second ikuji means raise oneself. So, I was conveying the idea that when you raise a child, you are actually raising yourself to be a more grown versin of you; a parent.
I learned later on that I was not an inventor of this word riddle, it was actually quite common phrase. But, it was still something that I found on my learning journey, which I can call my own, and I wanted to share it so badly!
Step 2: Read “How To Write” Books in Your Second Language
While your strong motivation could get you started, you need your writing skill to keep going. And that is when you will need to learn the “How To Write” in your second language.
The best way to start is to find books on how to write in the language for its language learners. There are many books written for foreign students in Japan. Of course it also depends on what type of writing being taught. Some books are about general writing, other books are about writing more specialized topics such as for research report, business article, a translation, etc.
I chose these two books, one on general writing expression, and the other one is on writing logically to provide convincing argument in an academic writing.
留学生のためのここが大切文章表現ルール
by Kei Ishiguro & Chie Tsutsui
©2009 3A Corporation
This book aims to provide a tool for checking whether your writing in Japanese sounds natural, and if not so, how to correct them.
It contains 20 chapters. The first 16 chapters show common mistakes Japanese learners make when they write in Japanese.
The last 4 chapters gives guidance to practice writing, from a simple email to your professor, to an academic paper in Japanese.
Every chapter consists of simple passages containing mistakes to correct, explanation of the grammar and expression involved, followed by two excersises and one challenging task to check your comprehension.
留学生のための論理的な文章の書き方
by Nobuko Nitsu and Fujiko Sato
©2000 3A Corporation
This book contains 16 chapters, devided into 5 chapters on the basic of grammar and writing rule, and 11 chapters on how to write each topic applied to research report writing.
The basic grammar and writing rule part teaches the standards like how to differentiate when to use the particle “ha” and “ga”.
The report writing part gives you direction on how to tackle a certain subject, like how to write a definition of a term, to classify and to make comparioson, and so on.
In each chapter your will be asked to write a 200-charachter-essay about a predetermined topic, handwritten on the Japanese traditional manuscript paper “The Genkoyoushi“!
Genkouyoushi
is a type of Japanese paper used for writing. It is printed with squares, typically 200 or 400 per sheet, each square designed to accommodate a single Japanese character or punctuation mark.
Here are the rules for writing on genkoyoushi
Step 3: Prepare A Long list of Topics to Write
So your writing is up and running. The next thing you need is to keep them up and running! Because by this time you may experience a “writer’s block” problem like a real writer has.
It happens to a real writer, as it also happens to anybody who writes. Any tips on dealing with a writer’s block will work for you. But in my experience, what I only need is a list, a long list if possible, on topics to write about.
Why a long list? As I will mention in the next step, you will need time to write. You may not be writing your masterpiece at your first try, especially when your time is short! So I found it was wiser to set to write on topics you can write easily. When you sit to write it, you may find it is not as easy as you thought it was, so instead of pondering over the thing or staring at the ceiling wasting your time, it is better to simply cross it out and move on to the next topic.
Of course you can pick up on the topic again anytime when you think you can finish it!
Step 4: Get the Time to Write!
Another difficult problem is when you have no time to write!
It is not easy to juggle your daily life that is already full of your professional, social, and family life activities. But once you get your writing pace settled, you actually don’t need so much time to write.
The most important thing is to fix on the right form and the right size to precisely express your idea. For a standard blog post (say 1000-1500 words), it may take an hour or two for some, but also there are bloggers who need less than an hour to write!
It may also depend on your style of working on your writing, some people have to write on one sitting, some can split it into few sittings. If you belong to the latter, you can find tome to write easily between your tight schedule, like on your breaks, or even when you are commuting. Nowadays handy note apps are available, so that you can write anytime anywhere.
But if you belong to the “write in one sitting” type, you may need your writing time alloted into your schedule. The best tips I found was to write at the same time and the same place everyday. Keep in mind that the alloted time to write is the time to actually write, not to include time to develop an idea or even to prepare stuffs before writing!
Step 5: Reread Your Writing
Lastly, make time to reread your writing.
You will be surprised at how you have grown from the first day of your writing challenge. After writing consistently for some time, you will find that you have this certain style, of that certain voice. You may find that you don’t feel the same anymore about something you wrote in the past. It is always like that with a diary, right? You would laugh at yourself, pity yourserlf, mad at yourself, or even admire yourself!
That is proof that you are growing, your are getting better, and getting closer to what you are aiming for. But even if it is not, it only means that it is time you need to adjust your goal, or set a new one.
But all these require you to write and reread your writing regularly.
This is exactly what I am facing now. I am dealing with my reluctance to write on a paper, all because I have difficulty remembering my kanjis, which is fine when I type! Wish me luck, and perseverence!
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