Why an English blog?

If you're wondering the same thing, you're not alone. Plenty have, myself included, asked me the exact same question as well. I'll address that somewhere in this entry. But first, let me briefly explain to you why blogging, something you may think is trivial, means a lot to me.

Who even blogs anymore?

I do, duh.

So why a blog in the first place? The thought of starting and maintaining a blog had been in my mind since high school. I like writing, but not the "tập làm văn" (academic essays, sort of, for those who don't speak Vietnamese) kind of writing in which you beat around the bush for 10+ pages about something that can be described adequately in one paragraph.

Okay that might be a bit exaggerated, but you get the idea. I prefer to get straight to the point in my writing, except when I decide that deliberately hiding bits of information initially would improve the quality of the piece as a whole. But that's generally not the case in essay-writing. Your professor and his mother know exactly what you're gonna write, so why not just get straight to it?

Anyway, that's probably enough ranting for this post. Back to my original point, I've always wanted to have a venue in which I can share my thoughts in letters and words. I don't speak that much, sometimes too little, as many of my friends/acquaintances can attest, as I always sought to keep personal feelings to myself. But there are certain things that I don't mind giving my take on.  

What about diaries you ask? Well, um... let's just say I hate diaries. My apologies for using such a strong word but honestly I feel diary-writing is just a bit too... narcissistic. To be clear, I'm not trying to say narcissism is necessarily a bad thing, and I'm sure there are plenty of heart-warming diary entries out there somewhere, but I just don't see the point of writing to an audience consisting of me, myself and I. To me, writing is more about the reader than the writer. If you feel it's the other way around, you're wrong we can agree to disagree.

Some have even suggested vlogging (video-blogging) instead of blogging, as they feel the former would be more entertaining. In fact, a few close friends of mine have made a name for themselves talking alone in front of a camera. For me, though, vlogging simply doesn't fit my personality. Neither does it meet my need of a venue for writing.
  
In short, a blog pretty much fits everything I want to a T.  

Choosing the language
When I started Musings of an Introvert in 2012, I was debating between a Vietnamese and an English blog. So which one did you guys think I picked?

Sorry that was lame. Anyway, I was confident in my writing skills, Vietnamese or English, but I went with the latter for a variety of reasons.

- My friends can either speak Vietnamese or English. But those who can only speak English far outnumber those who communicate exclusively in Vietnamese. Using the Venn diagram, an English blog would be accessible to a larger audience.
- Since Vietnamese is my mother tongue, it's harder for my Vietnamese writing skill to deteriorate than my English writing skill. So not only does blogging help me express my thoughts, it simultaneously gives me an opportunity to maintain, practice, and improve my writing ability in a second language as well. Two birds with one stone. I love efficiency. Who doesn't?
- English is a global language. If a stranger somehow ends up on my blog, chances are he/she will understand what I'm rambling about. The odds would be significantly lower if my rants are in Vietnamese.

Did that answer your question? Yes? Awesome. No? Please specify in the comments.