Meet Suite101's Dual Citizens

Posted by Lima Al-Azzeh May 20, 2009

You don’t need a passport to become a Suite101 dual citizen, just the ability to write for two popular content sites in two different languages!

Meet Monika Fuchs, Renate Oetjens and Simone Preuss – three writers who relish the challenge of writing for Suite101.com and its German counterpart Suite101.de. Apart from balancing a heavier workload, these writers share some interesting insights on the cultural differences between writing for European and North American audiences.

Fuchs and her colleagues maintain that there is "a difference in subjects that interest the readers."

Preuss explains that a large reason for this is the difference in acceptable social norms and behaviors in each region. Sensitive issues such as sexuality are discussed more openly among European audiences than in North America.

“What might be considered okay in the German context may be deemed completely inappropriate in North America.”

Likewise, travel writer Fuchs faces similar challenges in her efforts to research topics that will provide both audiences with the detailed, specific information they are searching for.

“It is hard to find subjects for both .com and .de that all my readers are familiar enough with to search for. The readers of the English version are clearly much more familiar with subjects concerning American and Canadian travel and thus these articles get a much higher click rate on .com. On the other hand, articles on European travel destinations are much more familiar to European readers.”

So what’s the solution to writing for two vastly different cultural audiences? Oetjens simply takes a moment to assess her topic and ask: “is it good for .de or .com or for both? Using it for both means making the most of your knowledge and research. But you have to come to terms with the fact that some topics are not of universal interest.”

Oetjens points out that Suite101’s dual citizens are not dealing with a simple matter of translating texts; rather, if there happens to be a topic that works well on both sites, they must take the added step of rewriting the articles “possibly emphasizing different aspects.”

Indeed, these writers must take additional care in their writing to assess not only the differences in languages but also the differing needs and concerns of each cultural background. So, while no passports have been issued, these three writers certainly deserve to hold the title of Suite101 Dual Citizens.