Young Writers Society

Are you put off by people speaking other languages in books? Or the reader showing/not showing them speaking with an accent. I'm trying to show alienation in a country where you don't speak the language very well, but I'm worried I may just confuse people because they don't understand. I know that books like the Davinci Code (bleh!) and Agatha Christie's Poirot books use French in dialogue without explanation. It is wrong to assume a very basic knowledge of French? Or should I write a French accent into the dialogue. Or scrap that all together? I really want to balance what I want to make the reader feel with what they will understand/be annoyed by.
Help?

I think using other languages in the text (in moderation) really helps readers to hear your characters in their head--if you write about two Greek characters in Greece and they automatically assume that they're speaking English with Australian accents, it's not being very true to the characters. With that being said, there's a limit to what you can do. I have absolutely no experience with the French language, so it really bothers me when people use whole sentences in complex French grammar without explaining what they mean.

This is if the writer writes in a very concrete style where the significance is on what the characters are saying, rather than the sound of it. For example, in Junot Díaz's The Brief Wondrous of Existence of Oscar Wao, there are entire conversation exchanges in Spanish (which I don't speak, either), but it works very well because the emphasis is placed on trying to capture the atmosphere of a certain group of people, not what they are saying.

Full Sentences, Obnoxious

He grabbed Farid's shoulders. "Did you kill him?"

"Balé, man bez'hekar hastam."

Full Sentences, Not Obnoxious

All around her, she was drenched in it--the smooth tones, the breathy consonants. "Hon o' kaiteimasu kara, watashi wa isogashii desu..."

[This same sentence would be rendered obnoxious if it were written: あら、本を書いてますから、私はいそがしいです。 because it's defeating the purpose of hearing the language in your head.]

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Usually, when faced with characters who don't speak the language that most of the audience will speak, I try to limit things unless there's a word that you just can't translate, or it's a word that's being used constantly and the reader can figure out by themselves.

From my NaNo:

A Word Used Constantly That is Easy to Figure Out

"Mamajoon, have you seen my shoes?"
"Na. Are they on your feet?."

After nearly fifteen occurrences, I had better hope for your salience that you can figure out, at least, that 'balé' means 'yes' in Persian, and 'na' means 'no'.

A Word With Connotations That Cannot Be Translated

Khaddi sneered. "She's kaffir."
"What? How do you know?"
"She puts up a Christmas tree."

The closest literal translation of 'kaffir' into English is 'infidel', but that's not entirely accurate, because 'kaffir' is often used as an adjective. Infidel is a noun, so it would have to be translated as 'heathen', which is not true in colloquial (and incorrect) Arabic, when people use it to describe other Muslims--a heathen is most often associated with "pagan" in English. It could also be translated as "not Muslim", but that doesn't have nearly the same connotation of using such a strong word to describe a girl who is devout, but is trying very hard to fit into mainstream American society by putting up a Christmas tree. (You can tell by the length of the explanation that it would be really hard to use any other word here. XD)

Ultimately, it's a lot more difficult to put a language other than English into the text, but if you want to expand beyond your borders a little, it's important to truly get an idea of the characters you're writing about.

Thankyou for your very detailed response. After reading this I'd decided to keep some French in, because the phrases I'm using are not complex and you can pick up the meaning quite easily. It'll be hard but it wouldn't be the same without it.

I think it all depends on the book you're writing. For example, if you wrote a book taking place in China, filled with Chinese characters speaking only in Mandarin Chinese, then I think little actual Chinese dialog (if any) would be needed.

If, however, a character is new to country and is not familiar with the language (such as seems to be the case with your story), then I would definitely include the foreign dialog.

I am put off when authors use language such as "t'was" or "Aye". Yes, when writing a medieval/Tolkien fantasy, a higher level of diction can be used, but it swill bothers me.