Losing words, gaining inspiration

As a non-native English speaker who has been given the task to write in English, I come across one problem: the lack of inspiration. Leaving aside the English level, which in all of us is good otherwise we wouldn't be here, I found it hard to open a blog and write freely about what I want, but in English.

Somehow, we are used to teachers who tell us what to write and how, which number of words they want and even which type of letter to use. One teacher even told me one time to choose dark blue when typing because it was softer for his sight.

So here I am now, with so much freedom but not many ideas, free but blocked, and it was interestingly this mental blank which gave me the idea to write about inspiration. Pablo Picasso used to say, “Inspiration exists, but it has to find you working”. The problem is when inspiration and me speak different languages... Some time ago, I read one writer's interview saying she would write in different languages depending on her mood. When writing on melancholy or romanticism, she would choose French. When her mind was more logical, she would write in English, or in German when an agressive speech. Unfortunately, not all of us are able to communicate in more than three languages, but her case makes me think if language is related with inspiration or the lack of it.

When writing in a second language, we are certainly losing some vocabulary, and when our vocabulary shrinks, our imagination shrinks, and the way we are thinking shrinks as well. Nevertheless, some studies state that, when thinking in a second language, our decisions are less risky and more analytical. If this is true, we might be more analytical and less emotional in our blogs, but this has its positive side too. When it comes to a good piece of writing, just inspiration is not enough.

Whatever the case, it is true that when we choose to think in another language we feel different, but still this can bring us new ideas we never thought we would have, and therefore new inspiration.

“A different language is a different vision of life”

(Federico Fellini, Italian director)