Copywriting 101: Can You Become a Copywriter If English Isn’t Your First Language?

Watch on YouTube! If English isn’t your first language, this will explain everything you need to know about becoming a copywriter.

Can you actually be a copywriter if English isn’t your first language?

It’s a question we get often, especially on our Discord server and YouTube live streams.

Here’s the quick answer- yes, it is entirely possible.

But (and it’s a BIG but), there is a catch.

The Catch

If you’ve been following the content we put out here at Copy That!, or if you’ve done basic research on the subject, then you’ll know that being able to write in English is essential.

There is no way around that fact - decent English skills are vital to becoming a successful copywriter.

But that doesn’t mean you need to be born a native English speaker - far from it.

It just means you need to understand English at a level that allows you to write simply and coherently.

It does not matter how you acquire it or when you acquire it.

If you learn English by attending lessons, that’s cool. If you learn secondhand by living in an English speaking country, that works too.

And age does not matter either. Learning at a young age certainly helps, but it’s not unrealistic to learn at a later age.

In fact, Joseph Conrad (Polish-British) and Vladimir Naba (Russian-American) - two English authors among the best selling of all time - didn’t learn English until later in their lives.

There is one person in particular whose book you have almost certainly been told to read (and if you haven’t, you should).

His name is Evaldo Albuquerque. You may have heard that name before in the copywriting industry.

There’s a reason for that - he is considered to be one of the world’s best copywriters.

And English is not his native language.

Sean was at a conference with him once, and somebody asked him:

“You’re from Brazil - English isn’t even your first language. What is your secret?”

His reply was simple:

“Well, it forces me to write simply and I think people like that”.

That’s it.

That reply is great because it so straightforwardly describes what makes a piece of copy good - simplicity.

You don't need to be an incredibly sophisticated English speaker - you just need to be able to understand the basics.

So if English isn’t your first language, don’t let that stop you from learning or growing - it’s a self imposed obstacle that you can overcome.

But we want to be very clear - if you CANNOT write a coherent English sentence, you aren’t going to get hired as a copywriter.

So though it is possible for anyone to become a copywriter, you HAVE to learn the basics of writing and speaking English.

That is a point we here at Copy That! cannot stress enough.

We get a lot of messages from people who don’t speak English as their first language and aren’t native speakers asking about how to start copywriting.

And we can tell by the way these aspiring copywriters approach us that they will not get hired by someone who is English.

So, that is one of the most important pieces of advice we can offer you - bring your English up to native standard first.

We understand that’s really hard to hear, and we don’t like saying it.

But it is the harsh truth, and a fact any copywriting hopeful has to accept.

We hear so often about non-English speakers being told they can make it as a very successful copywriter without any English skills at all, and are sold these lies for a quick buck.

Whilst it’s true that English doesn’t need to be your native language, you must be able to speak and understand it at a basic level.

That may sound scary, but there are a lot of methods you can practise to raise your basic English skills up to an acceptable level.

Ways to Learn English

Something we suggest you do is consume a lot of western media. Everything from advertisements to political campaigns - media that is designed to be simple and convince people to do something.

Handwriting sales copy and advertisements and studying them word by word is also an effective method of raising your standard of English.

Breaking down pieces of copy and asking yourself…

“Why is this in this order? What does this communicate that is different from what I would try to write if it were in English?”

…is a huge step towards improving your skills in both English and copywriting.

If you’re a part of the Copywriting Collective Discord group that we have, you may have seen our 30 Day Copywriting Challenge, where you handwrite a piece of copy once a day for 30 days.

This can be a very effective method for non-English speakers looking to improve their English speaking and writing skills, as it helps you learn the fundamentals.

Really studying the language, copying it and then trying to replicate it on your own by creating templates and scaffolds for yourself can all be very helpful.

And we have plenty of resources for you to use completely free of charge.

One such resource is Sean taking you through his own method for deconstructing and reverse engineering sales letters, which is a great way of learning why and how copy is written in certain ways.

(You can find that video on our YouTube channel here and the blog post here).

So what should you do if English isn’t your first language but you want to be a copywriter?

Studying the sorts of things mentioned above will teach you that speaking English in a simple way is the key, and not professionally - just like Evaldo Albuquerque said.

But just to reiterate - if English isn’t your first language, then you will be playing on hard mode.

And so you have to have a very tough conversation with yourself and ask..

“Do I want to continue playing on hard mode in a business that is extremely competitive?”

…and that is something only you can answer.

If you do decide this is what you want to do, then check out all of our other resources on the Copy That! website and YouTube channel, including the complete Copywriting 101 Series in both video and blog forms.

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