Parlez-vous...Japanese?
On Foreign Languages in Fanfiction
"Sore wa..himitsu desu.." he whispered softly to his lover, leaving the other man shivering. It left the reader shivering too, wondering what in God's name the character had just said. Frantically the poor reader scrolled to the bottom of the fanfic, trying to find a glossary with no luck. The mystery would never be revealed.
Have you ever felt like that reader? I have. From what I've seen, the language barrier is more of a problem with anime and game-themed fanfiction than any other genre, but I'm not as familiar with other genres so I might be wrong. Feel free to correct me if I am. Anyhow, back to what I was saying. I write and read mainly anime and game based slash, and because most anime and games come from Japan, a reader is often confronted by words or phrases they can't understand. If I were to ask you the question "Toire wa doko desu ka?" would you have any idea of how to answer me? Possibly, if you've read enough fiction or ever looked at a Japanese phrasebook. If you haven't, you're a bit screwed aren't you? As much as I might wish it, I realize that not everyone adores languages and obsesses over learning them as much as I do. Because of this lack of obsession, there are a few points that have to be addressed before one uses a foreign language in any sort of fanfiction. Please note that I'm using English as the language the hypothetical fanfiction is written in, though the following bits of advice can be applied to any language.
1) If you use it, define it. Unless it's an extremely common phrase that's found it's way into the English language, like the French 'avant garde' or something like that, you must give a definition for any bit of foreign language that you use. You may think that having an undefined little bit of any language in there is secretive and romantic, but from a reader standpoint, it's just frustrating. Is Character #1 telling Character #2 that he has a nice ass? Or is he commenting on the weather? What's going on? Without a definition of some sort, the reader is often left feeling as if they've missed an integral part of the writing, even if it's just a few words that were spoken. It's not the responsibility of the person reading a story to dig out a Japanese-English dictionary and figure out what Character #1 was saying, it's the task of the person who wrote the story to give clear definitions.
The placement of those definitions is fairly important too. I can't tell you how many times I've gotten into a story, encountered a foreign word, and then had the flow of the writing completely destroyed because the author felt the need to define the word right there in the middle of the work. While it's nice knowing what a word means as soon as you read it, the phrase "'Hai (yes),' he said," is a good deal harder to read than the phrase "'Hai,' he said." After too much of this sort of definition, it starts to feel as though the character is speaking in one language and thinking in another, and that just leads to confusion on the part of the reader, and detracts from the story.
Ideally, the words and phrases used should be grouped into a glossary of some kind, and placed wherever the writer prefers. I, myself, like to have them at the start or ending of the actual story text so I can quickly move back and forth between my reading point and the definitions. Another method is to have a clearly marked glossary section on your webpage, if that's where the stories are hosted. The key part of the last sentence are the words 'clearly marked.' Do not hide your glossary in the deepest recesses of your webpage, because people will not know to look for it. Make it obvious, make it so obvious it insults the intelligence of your readers if you have to. If you don't put it on the story page, maybe put a blurb at the top that says the reader might want to check out the glossary or have it open on another page. But for the love of all things good and holy, put it somewhere. Reading one story that doesn't have translations can spoil a person on anything else by an author, so unless that's what you're going for, put in a glossary or story-by-story definitions somewhere.
As an added note to this, after talking with my friend Mat when he read over this essay: It's hard to walk the line between insulting a reader's intelligence and leaving a reader stumped. As he commented to me, a good portion of the people who read anime-themed fanfiction know common Japanese phrases, and it seems like an insult to the reader to have basic words and phrases defined. In an ideal world, every reader would know the series and the language, unfortunately this isn't an ideal world. I know what Mat means, I've experienced that frustration at having to define things that are terribly basic, but I'd rather be overcautious than have a first time reader stop reading the story because they couldn't understand something. The choice is the writer's, so don't take my words as law - just as advice for people who might be struggling with the use of foreign words, or contemplating it for the first time.
2) If you don't know it's correct, don't use it! This is another common mistake I see. Other than English, I speak two languages: French fluently, and Russian conversationally. The latter usually isn't all that helpful in the fanfiction world, the former has been a source of amusement at times, mostly in reading poor translations. People, while the translator on Altavista is all well and good, it's not the most correct source for a foreign language.
An example I always have to laugh at is use of the French term "je vous adore." Literally? It means "I love you." But the word "vous" as "you" implies formality or plurality. The first time I saw this used, it was a male character speaking to his male lover. I had to wonder: Were there other people hiding in the curtains? Was the man just a stickler for politeness, did he feel that he had to say something that intimate using formal phrasing? No. It was made very clear, as I progressed through the writing, that the use of "vous" was simply poor French grammar on the part of the writer, and it frustrated me. The proper term in that situation would be the singular, informal "je t'adore," but the writer hadn't bothered to do any sort of research into that. The story itself wasn't all that bad, but the fact that there was blatantly incorrect grammar scattered through it ruined some of the enjoyment for me. Always, always assume that anyone reading the story knows the languages you're going to be using. Assume that they're going to be laughing their heads off and flaming you if you get something wrong. That should erase the desire to use rampant foreign terms without finding out whether they're correct or not.
The best bet for anyone who wants to use phrases or words from a language they don't know fluently or conversationally is to find someone who does know them. Don't know anyone? It should be relatively easy to find someone. If you're looking to translate Japanese, go onto almost any anime or game fanfiction website or message board, and ask. There are usually a good number of people on them who, if not completely fluent, are conversational in that language or have picked up some common phrases from watching anime. If it's another language, just start asking around. French questions? Get in contact with me and I'll be happy to give you a hand or a quick grammar check. Even if it grates on your pride, ask someone for help with this one. Your pride will be a lot more injured if you get a mocking email asking what the hell is up with your Japanese grammar. Remember, correctness is the responsibility of the author, the reader shouldn't be laughing at the butchery of their language while they're reading a fic.
3) Familiarity breeds contempt, and overuse of a foreign language breeds reader boredom. Fiction is meant to be enjoyable. If you're writing fanfiction to show off your massive knowledge of an anime, you shouldn't be writing it. The same goes for a language. If you're throwing in words left and right just to show the reader that you know a language, you shouldn't be writing in a foreign language. Words in another language should be used in a piece of writing only to enhance the story, not to show off the fact that the writer knows what they mean. If you're going to have someone whisper "H..Hai." breathlessly, do it because you like the sound of the word more than you like the sound of the English equivalent, "Y..Yes." Don't do it just because you know a smattering of Japanese, that cheapens the usage of the word. Keep in mind when you're writing that every story has a flow, and a single foreign word placed poorly in the middle of a story can disrupt it.
Even if all the characters in your story are of another nationality, even if none of them speak English, you must resist the temptation to have every conversation in their native language. Most people will assume that the characters are speaking the language that comes most naturally unless it's stated otherwise. While I don't mind scrolling up or down to a glossary for an occasional definition, I certainly do mind having to do it every time a character speaks. If you describe a character as Japanese, speaking to someone who is also Japanese, doing the speaking in Tokyo, I will automatically assume that they are speaking Japanese. I really don't need the writer to drive the point into the ground and irritate me by writing every piece of dialogue in Japanese. Something that is seen sparingly is far more precious than something that one finds everywhere, and that applies to the use of foreign languages in fictions as well.
I hope that this half-essay, half-rant has helped any of you out there who are contemplating the use of another language in your writings. It can be a beautiful addition when done properly, but like anything, it only takes a small mistake to make it detract from the story.
Have fun, and write well!
-Tendai Kudou
Glossary of terms:
Sore wa himitsu desu = That is a secret
Toire wa doko desu ka? = Where is the toilet?
Many thanks to Mat for answering my question about one of my Japanese examples, and also for bringing up the point mentioned above.
~
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