( 17. ) Foreign Languages ✓

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Sweetheart, Google Translate is not your friend. Just look what they did to English word "wifey" to traditional Chinese "老婆SouljaBoyTellEm". It's a whole joke.


So you want to make a book with maybe a bilingual character

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So you want to make a book with maybe a bilingual character. Cool, we love it. But, you don't know how to speak the language you want to use. That's fine. Because there are other ways to learn what you want to know for your book, without trusting that bum Google Translate.


First, you could always learn the language for yourself. There's a lovely free app called Duolingo which has many different languages that you could learn. No charge at all, just a green owl that tends to be a bit too pushy. I'm currently advancing my Spanish and learning Russian on the app. I recommend for anyone who wants less language barriers between you and your writing, and you and the world.


Now if you don't want to take the time to educate yourself, or you simply have no other excuse besides the fact that you don't want to, find a translator. No, not a website. A person who actually speaks that language fluently. Don't pressure them into it, just simply ask if they would translate a few sentences for you. You might have a friend, or a teacher, someone around you that speaks the language and wouldn't mind helping. If not, I'm positive you could find someone online at no cost.


Do not try to write the language on your own. If you have no clue what you're doing, there is no shame in asking for help.

Do not make fun of any languages. People on here don't usually do that, but I still feel the need to put it out there. It's 2019, we don't support negativity and speaking other languages aside from English should be normalized.

And do not, please, do not call the Spanish language "speaking Mexican". My eyeballs will literally shred themselves if I have to read that dumb shit ever again.




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I would leave a little note here so people can say they're open to translate for others if needed, but I'm not pressuring anyone into doing so. I guess if you're interested in helping people, comment here saying what language(s) you're fluent with and if people could message you.

And because I don't want to leave those out, I want to leave another little note here for those with language-based books other than English, so you can shamelessly promote your books in my comments.

𝐒𝐓𝐀𝐑𝐒𝐇𝐈𝐏𝐒,   writing tipsWhere stories live. Discover now