Blogging in English or Indonesian?

Firstly, I would like to thank Fatih for choosing this blog as one of his version of Indonesian Bloggers of the Week. What a nice and pleasant surprise, if I may say. Thanks Fatih for the compliments. :)

Secondly, I'm quite interested in reading Fatih's article regarding ten reasons on why he blogs in English, followed by Firman's article regarding ten reasons on why he blogs in Indonesian language. Interestingly, both articles were written on the same day, and I'm not quite sure who wrote first (and who debunked who). Nevertheless, that is not important. :)

The most important thing is that I think both have valid points. Fatih is right when he says that blogging in English is important. And Firman is also right when he says that blogging in Indonesian is also important. For me, both are equally important, actually. It depends on what is the topic of the articles we are writing, and who are the target audiences.

I write articles in both English and Indonesian. I even have different blogs for different languages, and have an aggregate site, Planet Indra, to aggregate all the articles in one single site. The reason is because I want to reach out to different audiences, both Indonesians and non-Indonesians.

Let me give you an example. According to Google Analytics, one of my popular articles in Minda Indra is the tips and trick of going from Jakarta to Singapore via Batam (part 1 and part 2). As you might have known, these articles contain some guides (tips and tricks) on how to go from Jakarta to Singapore via Batam. Which means, these articles are useful mostly to Indonesians, especially those living in Jakarta, who wants to come to Singapore cheaply, which is via Batam. That's why I wrote those articles in Bahasa Indonesia, and didn't create the English version of the articles.

Another example, is my opinion regarding the war in Lebanon which has been going on since last month, and hopefully would end soon after the UN Security Council resolution took effect. Those articles are meant for both Indonesians and non-Indonesians, that's why I wrote those articles in both English and Indonesian.

So, if you ask my opinion on whether we should blog in English or Indonesian, my answer will be: both. Again, it depends on the target audiences. :)

[Indonesian version]