By Paula Sifredi
When it comes to languages, there are many things one can turn to. Either you are familiar only with your native tongue, or multilingual, knowing the concepts of grammar and coherence in each language it's not an easy task.
When you study a language you definitely have to study its grammar and vocabulary but knowing the local dialects and ways of speaking are also of help, even if they're not grammatically correct.
Three of the main areas in which you could specialize yourself are content writing, online marketing, and translation. Some people may think these three areas are related and some may think they are the same, but they are not. They are related on a deep level. All of them are written texts which use one or more languages. But each has a different aim. As multilinguist, you can embark into the three, but you should recognize the differences before you make a huge mistake.
Content writing: This area focuses on the writing texts related to a specific subject, but with the main aim to inform, entertain or any other purposes not related to commerce. When you work in content writing, there's a LOT you need to know, not just a language. Being multilingual only means that you can write content in all the languages you are fluent in, but sometimes that's not enough. For content writing, you have to know a lot of vocabulary, specific to the certain subject you are currently writing about. This said, you probably need to know huge amounts of vocabulary about every single subject on the planet if you want to write content about several things. If you do not, you'll have to restrain yourself to your field of expertise. Also, you will have to have a perfect grammar and coherent knowledge, as this type of text is specifically to inform and teach so it has to be perfectly readable. If you do not have all the vocabulary knowledge needed, you can always do research, but that will take you twice the time.
Online marketing: This area focuses on commerce. You NEED to sell a product or service to someone. So you can make the text informative, but that's not the aim of the text. The main goal is to sell, so obviously, you need sales and marketing knowledge. Of course, in this type of text, the language related issue is besides being able to write in more than language, is to be able to redirect the text towards the right audience. So, in this case, instead of vocabulary, you need to know a lot about the cultures and customs of the countries your language skills come from, as you will have to not only write in their language for them to get it but call their attention for them to buy it. In this case, you can also investigate, but that does not compare to being familiar with a country's culture and customs.
Translation: This area focuses on any type of writing, including the two types above, the main difference is that instead of you writing original content in any language, you "copy and adapt" the text that is in one language, to another. Of course, in this area, you need everything you needed for both of the previous ones, as you will be covering every type of subject, including commerce, and sometimes you need to adapt the text to comply the target audience's culture.
I have only worked with translation so far, but as related as these areas seem to be, I might jump into the other two.
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