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Writing dialogues for "fresh off the boat" characters?

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Writing dialogues for “fresh off the boat” characters?

How to write dialogue for someone who is intelligent but barely speaks the language?How do I make an ESL character sound realistic?Do the characters in the following dialogue sound the same?Will publishers accept bilingual or multilingual works?How do I make an ESL character sound realistic?Improving my EnglishWriting and proofreading a book in English - non-native speakerIs Polari too familiar and recently used to “steal” for a cant in a fantasy setting?Scenes with different languages spoken after translationHow do authors maintain suspension of disbelief for exaggerated situations or charactersIs it better to avoid names with a difficult pronunciation in Middle Grade fiction?How to indicate that the source language is gender-neutral?

2

I am seriously wondering how to go about writing dialogues for characters whose native language isn't English and who aren't very fluent in English. It's very hard, because people have different levels of fluency, and it may also be kind of offensive to write dialogues with several grammatical mistakes.

creative-writing dialogue language

share|improve this question

edited 2 hours ago

Cyn

11.5k12558

asked 2 hours ago

repomonsterrepomonster

941419

• 
  
  
  

  
  2
  

  
  
  
  
  
  

  
  
  Are your characters well educated or ignorant? There is a charming scene in Casablanca where two characters are practicing their English and talking about time. They misunderstand the term o’clock and construe it more literally as it was originally. They refer to hours as five watch. Such errors are logical though incorrect interpretations of idiom.
  
  – Rasdashan
  2 hours ago
  

  
  
  
  


• 
  
  
  

  
  

  
  
  
  
  
  

  
  
  They're just ordinary people.
  
  – repomonster
  2 hours ago
  

  
  
  
  


• 
  
  
  

  
  3
  

  
  
  
  
  
  

  
  
  Here's the scene @Rasdashan talks about: youtube.com/watch?v=Th0G8rkhBqg
  
  – Galastel
  1 hour ago
  

  
  
  
  


• 
  
  
  

  
  

  
  
  
  
  
  

  
  
  Please be sure to enter qualifying questions like this one in our question contest.
  
  – Monica Cellio♦
  24 mins ago
  

  
  
  
  


• 
  
  
  

  
  1
  

  
  
  
  
  
  

  
  
  Ordinary people covers quite a gamut. Are they illiterate peasants, well educated middle class or something else? Who are they?
  
  – Rasdashan
  9 mins ago
  
  
  

  
  
  
  

 | 
show 1 more comment

2

I am seriously wondering how to go about writing dialogues for characters whose native language isn't English and who aren't very fluent in English. It's very hard, because people have different levels of fluency, and it may also be kind of offensive to write dialogues with several grammatical mistakes.

creative-writing dialogue language

share|improve this question

edited 2 hours ago

Cyn

11.5k12558

asked 2 hours ago

repomonsterrepomonster

941419

• 
  
  
  

  
  2
  

  
  
  
  
  
  

  
  
  Are your characters well educated or ignorant? There is a charming scene in Casablanca where two characters are practicing their English and talking about time. They misunderstand the term o’clock and construe it more literally as it was originally. They refer to hours as five watch. Such errors are logical though incorrect interpretations of idiom.
  
  – Rasdashan
  2 hours ago
  

  
  
  
  


• 
  
  
  

  
  

  
  
  
  
  
  

  
  
  They're just ordinary people.
  
  – repomonster
  2 hours ago
  

  
  
  
  


• 
  
  
  

  
  3
  

  
  
  
  
  
  

  
  
  Here's the scene @Rasdashan talks about: youtube.com/watch?v=Th0G8rkhBqg
  
  – Galastel
  1 hour ago
  

  
  
  
  


• 
  
  
  

  
  

  
  
  
  
  
  

  
  
  Please be sure to enter qualifying questions like this one in our question contest.
  
  – Monica Cellio♦
  24 mins ago
  

  
  
  
  


• 
  
  
  

  
  1
  

  
  
  
  
  
  

  
  
  Ordinary people covers quite a gamut. Are they illiterate peasants, well educated middle class or something else? Who are they?
  
  – Rasdashan
  9 mins ago
  
  
  

  
  
  
  

 | 
show 1 more comment

I am seriously wondering how to go about writing dialogues for characters whose native language isn't English and who aren't very fluent in English. It's very hard, because people have different levels of fluency, and it may also be kind of offensive to write dialogues with several grammatical mistakes.

creative-writing dialogue language

share|improve this question

edited 2 hours ago

Cyn

11.5k12558

asked 2 hours ago

repomonsterrepomonster

941419

share|improve this question

edited 2 hours ago

Cyn

11.5k12558

asked 2 hours ago

repomonsterrepomonster

941419

share|improve this question

edited 2 hours ago

Cyn

11.5k12558

asked 2 hours ago

repomonsterrepomonster

941419

edited 2 hours ago

Cyn

11.5k12558

edited 2 hours ago

Cyn

11.5k12558

asked 2 hours ago

repomonsterrepomonster

941419

asked 2 hours ago

repomonsterrepomonster

941419

1 Answer
1

active

oldest

votes

3

Similar questions have been asked in the past, for example How do I make an ESL character sound realistic? and How to write dialogue for someone who is intelligent but barely speaks the language? You might take a look at those.

Let me give you a different approach, however.

Unless the way the characters speak is an actual plot point, it is not unreasonable for people who know they are going to immigrate to a country to put some effort into learning the language in advance. If your characters have done so, their grammar might not in fact be broken. (Realistically, some particular mistakes would still be made, particularly where the language has some exception to the rules. But as a writer, you are free to ignore those.) Realistic language for such a scenario would include short simple sentences, simple words, no colloquialisms. They would have an accent, but this is one element that's better told than shown - it is rather tiresome, and sometimes hard, to read phonetically written accent for more than a line or two.

If your characters have taken language lessons in advance, their real struggle would be with understanding what is being said to them: their teacher would have been talking slowly, and would have either had a local accent, or spoken something close to R.P., whereas upon arrival, they'd be hearing people talking fast, enunciating poorly, and having all kinds of weird accents (Newcastle comes to mind). But that too is something you can gloss over in your writing, if you wish. It might be that because they have an accent and look like foreigners, people make an effort to talk slowly to them. (In fact, in For Whom the Bell Tolls, there's a scene with a character talking to the MC slowly, using very simple phrases, when the MC in fact is a professor of Spanish Language. It's just his appearance that marks him as a stranger.)

Dialogue with severe grammatical mistakes is not offensive (usually), but it gets tiresome very quickly. It doesn't flow, the reader has to struggle through it. If there is any way for you to avoid using more than a few lines of it, try to do so.

share|improve this answer

answered 1 hour ago

GalastelGalastel

32.7k592173

add a comment | 

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3

Similar questions have been asked in the past, for example How do I make an ESL character sound realistic? and How to write dialogue for someone who is intelligent but barely speaks the language? You might take a look at those.

Let me give you a different approach, however.

Unless the way the characters speak is an actual plot point, it is not unreasonable for people who know they are going to immigrate to a country to put some effort into learning the language in advance. If your characters have done so, their grammar might not in fact be broken. (Realistically, some particular mistakes would still be made, particularly where the language has some exception to the rules. But as a writer, you are free to ignore those.) Realistic language for such a scenario would include short simple sentences, simple words, no colloquialisms. They would have an accent, but this is one element that's better told than shown - it is rather tiresome, and sometimes hard, to read phonetically written accent for more than a line or two.

If your characters have taken language lessons in advance, their real struggle would be with understanding what is being said to them: their teacher would have been talking slowly, and would have either had a local accent, or spoken something close to R.P., whereas upon arrival, they'd be hearing people talking fast, enunciating poorly, and having all kinds of weird accents (Newcastle comes to mind). But that too is something you can gloss over in your writing, if you wish. It might be that because they have an accent and look like foreigners, people make an effort to talk slowly to them. (In fact, in For Whom the Bell Tolls, there's a scene with a character talking to the MC slowly, using very simple phrases, when the MC in fact is a professor of Spanish Language. It's just his appearance that marks him as a stranger.)

Dialogue with severe grammatical mistakes is not offensive (usually), but it gets tiresome very quickly. It doesn't flow, the reader has to struggle through it. If there is any way for you to avoid using more than a few lines of it, try to do so.

share|improve this answer

answered 1 hour ago

GalastelGalastel

32.7k592173

add a comment | 

3

Similar questions have been asked in the past, for example How do I make an ESL character sound realistic? and How to write dialogue for someone who is intelligent but barely speaks the language? You might take a look at those.

Let me give you a different approach, however.

Unless the way the characters speak is an actual plot point, it is not unreasonable for people who know they are going to immigrate to a country to put some effort into learning the language in advance. If your characters have done so, their grammar might not in fact be broken. (Realistically, some particular mistakes would still be made, particularly where the language has some exception to the rules. But as a writer, you are free to ignore those.) Realistic language for such a scenario would include short simple sentences, simple words, no colloquialisms. They would have an accent, but this is one element that's better told than shown - it is rather tiresome, and sometimes hard, to read phonetically written accent for more than a line or two.

If your characters have taken language lessons in advance, their real struggle would be with understanding what is being said to them: their teacher would have been talking slowly, and would have either had a local accent, or spoken something close to R.P., whereas upon arrival, they'd be hearing people talking fast, enunciating poorly, and having all kinds of weird accents (Newcastle comes to mind). But that too is something you can gloss over in your writing, if you wish. It might be that because they have an accent and look like foreigners, people make an effort to talk slowly to them. (In fact, in For Whom the Bell Tolls, there's a scene with a character talking to the MC slowly, using very simple phrases, when the MC in fact is a professor of Spanish Language. It's just his appearance that marks him as a stranger.)

Dialogue with severe grammatical mistakes is not offensive (usually), but it gets tiresome very quickly. It doesn't flow, the reader has to struggle through it. If there is any way for you to avoid using more than a few lines of it, try to do so.

share|improve this answer

answered 1 hour ago

GalastelGalastel

32.7k592173

add a comment | 

Similar questions have been asked in the past, for example How do I make an ESL character sound realistic? and How to write dialogue for someone who is intelligent but barely speaks the language? You might take a look at those.

Let me give you a different approach, however.

Unless the way the characters speak is an actual plot point, it is not unreasonable for people who know they are going to immigrate to a country to put some effort into learning the language in advance. If your characters have done so, their grammar might not in fact be broken. (Realistically, some particular mistakes would still be made, particularly where the language has some exception to the rules. But as a writer, you are free to ignore those.) Realistic language for such a scenario would include short simple sentences, simple words, no colloquialisms. They would have an accent, but this is one element that's better told than shown - it is rather tiresome, and sometimes hard, to read phonetically written accent for more than a line or two.

If your characters have taken language lessons in advance, their real struggle would be with understanding what is being said to them: their teacher would have been talking slowly, and would have either had a local accent, or spoken something close to R.P., whereas upon arrival, they'd be hearing people talking fast, enunciating poorly, and having all kinds of weird accents (Newcastle comes to mind). But that too is something you can gloss over in your writing, if you wish. It might be that because they have an accent and look like foreigners, people make an effort to talk slowly to them. (In fact, in For Whom the Bell Tolls, there's a scene with a character talking to the MC slowly, using very simple phrases, when the MC in fact is a professor of Spanish Language. It's just his appearance that marks him as a stranger.)

Dialogue with severe grammatical mistakes is not offensive (usually), but it gets tiresome very quickly. It doesn't flow, the reader has to struggle through it. If there is any way for you to avoid using more than a few lines of it, try to do so.

share|improve this answer

answered 1 hour ago

GalastelGalastel

32.7k592173

share|improve this answer

answered 1 hour ago

GalastelGalastel

32.7k592173

answered 1 hour ago

GalastelGalastel

32.7k592173

answered 1 hour ago

GalastelGalastel

32.7k592173