To Translate or Not to Translate

I have finished translating my latest article (which is about Code Ownership). I translated it from Dutch to English, which, as I explained earlier, is a terrible job. My respect for translators has increased tenfold.

After this ordeal I am left wondering whether I will write my following articles in Dutch or in English. When I use Google Translate to (partially) translate a Dutch text to English, and spending some time on rewriting the nonsense and gibberish, improving some of the grammar and polishing the results, I get the feeling that the end result is better than what I would have achieved if I had written the article in English straight away. After all, despite all its shortcomings, the Google translator suggests words and sentences that I myself never would have thought of. By writing directly in English I am subjecting my texts to my limited English vocabulary. Another benefit of the Dutch-and-English approach is that it enables me to publish my articles both in Dutch and in British/American magazines. And the more my work gets published, the bigger the smile will be on the face in the upper left corner of this blog.

On the other hand, writing articles is taking me more time this way, because with the translations added to the writing I am spending 50% more time on the same article. And time is quite valuable to me now. Given the fact that I still want to read about a couple of thousand books and a zillion articles in the next six months, I might have to force myself to cut some corners and get my own time management in order.

Now, some people know me for a guy who is not often willing to compromise. But this time I think I will choose the middle road, by writing most stuff in English directly, while sometimes taking the longer approach, beginning in Dutch and translating to English afterwards. I will let you know when I changed my mind, again.