Written by Ken Ho

Libarah, thank you so much for having nominated us for the Blogger Recognition Award. We feel so honoured to receive the nomination! And here you go with a short but powerful narration of how our blog got started.

How our blog started?

Our blog had its first entry written as far back as in 2016, which was also the year when our language project Operation X officially began. The blog is meant to be an online archive with up-to-date information communicated in various big and small languages. In other words, it forms an important part of Operation X in order to preserve and promote minority languages.

The idea of our blog is to achieve a balance between (i) raising public awareness about minority languages and (ii) using them actively on a regular basis. Articles in big languages (e.g. English, German, Dutch, Chinese, etc.) are meant to be a medium to share interesting facts about small languages, the survival of which depends on a heightened public awareness and interest about them. Meanwhile, articles in small languages (e.g. Standard Frisian, Aasters, Schiermonnikoogs, Hindeloopers, etc.) are meant to encourage their active use in both writing and reading (and eventually speaking and listening). After all, small languages can only survive when they are still used as vectors of information and thus have relevance to us in the modern time.

Advice for any new bloggers

Ask yourself, “What do you want to achieve with your blog?”

It is great to have a general idea of what your blog is going to achieve. It will help you work through those difficult times when you feel like you want to give up! Stay focused, keep going and it will be alright!
Remember that “you have nothing to lose”!

Another important thing to keep in mind is to know that you have nothing to lose in the process. The first blogpost will only lead to more ideas for the second blogpost and so forth. A flow of inspiration will ensue, which makes the goal of your blog even clearer to yourself! So, just do it!

This is it! We hope that you have enjoyed it!

(Click here to see our nomation.)