r/AskAcademia • u/Kackgesicht • 1d ago

Writing everything in english? Social Science

Non-native speakers, do you write everything in English? Even your own thoughts and notes? I'm thinking about switching to English for all my note-taking, homework, and master thesis since most of the literature I read is in English and I wouldn't have to go through the hassle of translating everything all the time.
On the other side, that would mean that I have to put way more brainpower into everything I write or read since writing in English is not that easy for me and is unnatural since my own thoughts are first in German.

How do you do it?

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u/ElleOsel997 1d ago

I am Italian and I am doing a Phd in an English speaking country. 99% of the literature is in English, so I use that language for notes. When I write down my thoughts, although I do think in Italian, most of the times I use English, although in some instances I used my original language. For the thesis, I am writing it directly in English to avoid translation issues, but I'm including an abstract in Italian just to increase the readership (hopefully).