Randomness

Foreign Languages: What Happens When You Don't Speak Them Yourself?

Written April 2, 2022.

This was originally going to be a how-to section, then I read more posts online, and decided to sort of go in the opposite direction with this one.

I'm not a professional in this department when it comes to what you should do, but I've seen a lot of things that you shouldn't do.

Some of these are among the reasons that Wattpad books get a bad reputation. Some of them pop up in published books as well.

Do not rely on Google translate as your only method of translation.

This one should be obvious, but it's not for a lot of folks.

If you don't know anything about the language, and you try to  include some Googled translations, those who do speak the language can call you out.

This method is highly unreliable as a sole means of translation.

I took four years of Spanish in school, and studied the language structure extensively on my own. I'm not a native speaker, and write it better than I speak it, but I'm able to catch a lot of others' Google Translate initiated mistakes.

If I, as a non-native speaker, can pick up on this, native speakers will also be able to take note.

While these noticeable mistakes can be seen as innocent errors, they might also come across as offensive. If the mistake is massive, or if the issues are systemic in a book, it might seem as though an author hasn't taken the time to consider or respect the language.

Don't skip out on the research.

If you're going to include a lot of words in another language, understand how that language works. Don't go into the situation, for example, assuming that the word order will be the same as it is in your language.

For example, in English we might say that there's a White House. In Spanish, the adjective tends to proceed the noun, and Spanish noun endings influence their adjective's ending. The word "house" in Spanish is "casa", so the adjective that goes in front has to also end in an A.

Because of this, "white house" in English becomes "casa blanca" in Spanish. If you were to swap the words or confuse the endings, this particular mistake would be obvious to anyone who's studied the language.

If you have found reliable translators, don't leave readers in the dark.

While some readers might like to figure it out for themselves, there are ways of making sure that your audience can keep pace with your story's dialogue.

If a character is speaking in a different language, don't assume that the reader can figure it out. The reader may default to Google Translate, which is notorious for its errors.

Many authors provide clues for the context within the story. Or, they may leave a footnote at the end of the chapter.

Whenever I write spells in my stories, and the magic is derived from Latin roots, I try to have someone restate it in English. If I ever get them translated by someone else, I will ask that the translator provide this same reiteration in the new version.

Some people prefer the footnote method over this restatement. Here, the most important point is that readers are included as fully as they can be.