🇫🇷🇪🇸🇩🇪🇮🇹🇯🇵 What if we made DEV.to polyglot ?
Tags: french, german, spanish, portuguese
Published: 2024-03-28 12:00:00

English is the [lingua franca](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lingua_franca#See_also) of programming **but** the DEV community is polyglot

## Should I write in English or in my mother tongue ?

I think many of us here have asked us this question.

But the answer is actually obvious

![](https://i.imgur.com/rVurGH9.png)


## Writing is its own reward

Social Media and its vanity metrics everywhere taught us the wrong lessons. 

Writing, even just for yourself, on paper or on your computer, is always a useful exercice. 

Writing in english is a great idea for your career, for too many reasons to write down.

Writing in your mother tongue is also super positive, because at playing with mother tongue is actually a very big deal in life. 

Also don't worry about the DRY principle here. You write for a different audience, with different references, a different mindset. 

Translating is a creative act.

## No one will be mad at you for writing in a language they don't understand

Most people will ignore you, but that's what we already do most of the time. 
It's absolutely fine.

## Cross posting is good

> Editor Note: I will now cross-post all my english and french content on DEV.to and on my website https://desviesdedevs.jmfayard.dev/

That's how I now start all my posts on DEV.to
I do that to get the best of both world. 
On my substack, I have a small but great audience that likes my posts and receive them by email. 
Even if nobody interacted with my content on DEV.to, the platform has a SEO strength that I will absolutely never have. 

## But people do interact on DEV.to

Here are some proof that you can have readers in your mother tongue 

A bilingual brazilian portuguese - english interview 

{% embed https://dev.to/devteam/featured-org-of-the-month-feministech-39bb %}

A read who has read [4 ways to judo mansplaining](https://dev.to/jmfayard/4-ways-to-judo-mansplaining-43j2) and then went on to read [🇫🇷 4 prises de judo contre le mansplaining](https://dev.to/jmfayard/4-prises-de-judo-contre-le-mansplaining-aec)

{% embed https://dev.to/drazendotlic/comment/2dlnl %}

A cool comment in esperanto

{% embed https://dev.to/axel584/comment/2dk4o %}

A german reader who take the time and effort to answer me in french

{% embed https://dev.to/ingosteinke/comment/2dpep %}


**I rest my case : write in all your languages**

## The emoji convention

I suggest to follow my convention to start the title with the "language emoji" (actually country emoji) to make us all visible

![](https://i.imgur.com/u1qlX5a.png)



## And follow your language tags

In no particular order

{% tag french %}
{% tag spanish %}
{% tag german %}
{% tag italian %}
{% tag japanese %}
{% tag portuguese %}

Merci beaucoup - muchas gracias - grazie - danke sehr - obrigado - arigatou gozaimasou

In particular to @ingosteinke @michaeltharrington @lelepg @morgannadev @pachicodes @axel584 

## What Should You Do Next ?

A thousand miles journey begins with a single step.

🇫🇷 Prends un article que tu as déjà écrit. Publie le sur DEV.to avec l'emoji qui va bien. Fais en la pub dans les commentaires ci-dessous. Comme ça tu peux être sûrε qu'au moins une personne va le lire.

🇩🇪 Ich vermute, du hast bestimmt irgendwann in deinem Leben, etwas interesantes auf Deutsch geschrieben ? Nimm den text und veröffentlicht es auf DEV.to. Dann mach mal ein bisschen Werbung in die Kommentare

🇪🇸 Busca **un** articulo bueno qué ya has escrito en otro lugar. Publicalo aqui en DEV.to. Y después mandame el enlace en los comentarios. Asi qué pudedes estar seguro qué almenos una persona lo lee.