From now on I will interfile my blogposts. This means I will write some posts in English and others in Somali. In that way, I can reach out to two audiences. I have got some feedback asking me to write articles in Somali so that audiences that only understand their mother tongue can have their fair share of my blogposts and articles’ messages. I think this is good feedback and a fine step in the right direction.
Both Somali and English are written in the same way. Both use Latin alphabets, which are written from left to right. Knowing how to type one of them simplifies the other. So I will not need to adjust my current keyboard or buy a new one. I will use the same keyboard for the two languages. Isn’t that great? Sure it is.
Please do not get confused, though. When you come to the BLOG page, scan posted articles and read the blogposts that you are most comfortable with. Titles of articles simply tell you about the language they are written in. And you go from there. If you can read both languages, then pat yourself on the back, so to speak. You are a bilingual person.
Is Somali harder than English? I do not think so. By the way, Somali is my mother tongue and no other language serves me better than it does. Words just come naturally and from all directions without paying effort or looking for them. That is the beauty of one’s native language. Simple. Effortless. Generous.
However, writing in Somali can be a bit cumbersome. It has its grammatical rules and writing style. But nobody is perfect. Two letters challenge me the most (A, E), which are among the language’s vowels. For example, do we say Tagay or Tagey? At times writing Somali can be as hard as that.
But English is foreign to me. Yes, I can convey concrete messages in this language, but it is my second language. So it sometimes bewilders me, and that is when I do not use words in their proper contexts. Hence, I look for words, I look for definitions, and I beg not to flounder.
To reiterate, my blogposts will be interfiled. Some will be written in English, while others will be in Somali.