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Ksenia Anske

February 8, 2014

My journey as a non-native English speaker & writer

by Ksenia Anske


Photo by Ksenia Anske

Photo by Ksenia Anske

Photo by Ksenia Anske

Photo by Ksenia Anske

A non-native English speaker (like me) and my blog reader asked this question: "Hello Ksenia!! I was visiting your blog and I was thinking why not sharing your journey as a non-native speaker writer! I don't know if you have already written something similar but I think it would be very interesting and useful to share some tips! I mean the ways that helped you to encounter the difficulties of writing in English which is not your first language."

Yes, for those of you who didn't know, English is not my first language. Russian is. I came to America in 1998, knowing a few phrases from Beatles songs like "Hello", "Goodbye", "I love you", "Help", and such. I did know German though, from living for 4 years in Berlin in my teens, so since both languages belong to the Anglo-Saxon language group, it was perhaps easier for me to grasp? Not sure. Anyway. I had to learn English fast, because, number one, those annoying newspapers kept calling and asking for a subscription, and I couldn't properly tell them to piss off, and, number two, I left Moscow in the middle of college (studying architecture) and I had to transfer my credits and learn English (pass TOEFL and all that jazz) to be accepted by the local college and graduate with some sort of a degree. Or sit home and go crazy. So I learned it.

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TAGS: non-native speaker, English, writing, tips, how to, writing tips