Does Speaking A Second Language Help With Your Freelance Writing Career?

By Dan Smith

At the end of 2011, I put together a post called ‘What’s Your Plan For 2011?’, where I listed a number of my goals for 2011.

One of those goals was to start speaking a second language. I love languages in general, can speak a fair bit of French and a little of a few other languages, but I want to be able to hold a conversation competently in at least one other language by the end of the year.

Although I haven’t properly started yet (although I have been reading a French dictionary in bed recently to make sure some of the words I’m a bit unsure of do mean what I think they do, something that my Better Half enjoys laughing at, saying I’m the only person she knows who reads not just a dictionary, but a French dictionary, in bed), I started thinking the other day about whether I could utilize a second language for more than just my personal pleasure.

With learning to speak a second language obviously comes the ability to write it and so my normal train of thought took me down the route of whether I could use my new found language knowledge to benefit me financially, writing in that language for clients.

This post is, to all intents and purposes, me thinking out loud. It was only the other day that I started to wonder whether there could be a possibility of earning money through writing in a second language and although I like to think I’ve got a good understanding of a variety of different writing avenues, writing in a language that isn’t English is not something I know a lot about.

One of the points that makes me wonder whether there is a real possibility here is the fact that I see so many writers who don’t speak English as their first language who are trying their hardest to master the language so that they can write in English on a commercial basis.

To me, this seems as though there isn’t a great deal of opportunity for writing in their native tongue, which makes me wonder whether there’s an opportunity there for someone who’s wanting to speak and write in a language that isn’t English.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not under the illusion that every single writing gig in the world is in English and there’s obviously the need for writers in every language. One of my main thoughts at the minute, however, is why would someone choose an English writer speaking, for instance, French as a second language over a writer who speaks French natively?

I’d really love to hear your thoughts on the topic, especially if any of you have any personal experiences with writing in a second language.

Image: Cyril Plapied