BY JESSICA SHEN
Using foreign languages can be a great way to add depth to your characters and your story. It can inject flavor, give a taste of authenticity, and even add some mystery and mysticism. However, it’s important to ensure that your translations are not only a) technically correct, but b) appropriate in their context.
Your translations MUST be technically correct.Never rely on a translation software to give you the correct language. The technology available is not powerful enough to do much more than translate word by word. Your best bet is to seek out a native speaker, or failing that, someone who has studied the language enough to be fluent in it.
A correctly translated phrase or sentence can heighten your reader’s sense of setting and character; an incorrectly translated phrase, to a reader who happens to know the language, can achieve the exact opposite effect—it can take them right out of the story. The best story is the one that effortlessly builds a world for its reader and fully immerses them in it. A bad one has the author’s interfering fingers all over it.
Your translations should be appropriate in their context. Many of us learned a foreign language in school, but, as we often find, what we learn in school can be a far cry from the way the language is spoken natively. Just as in English, formal speech in another language is much more different than causal speech; the way you would speak to your friends is different than the way you would speak to your teacher, or your mother, or the President of the United States.
To achieve this, again, it’s best to seek out the help of a native speaker. It’s also helpful to verify it with another party. As with using an incorrect translation, though to a lesser degree, a translation which is not appropriate to the context can also jar the reader out of the story.
If you’re ever unsure about a translation, or have depended solely on a translation software to do your work, your best bet is to refrain from including it in your story.
However much you might want to give your story that extra bit of authenticity, the chance of a reader finding out that it’s not so authentic, after all, is not worth the risk. Your reader will be none the wiser if you decide not to include that foreign phrase.
Jessica lives, works, and edits from her home in northern California. Her latest project, Kingdom City: Resurrectionby Ben Ireland, was released in February 2014. Her next project, Vanguard Legacy: Foretold by Joanne Kershaw, is slated for release in March 2014.
Follow Jessica on Twitter.