I’m thrilled to be hosting Gloria Weber today. Not only is she an incredibly talented writer, she’s interested in bringing some diversity to her content. Since that’s something I’m passionate about myself, I thought it would be fun to have her tell us a bit about why her character speaks Spanish.
Before I start I’d like to say many thanks to Amy for allowing me to guest post. I appreciate the help and support.
ALICIA was a short story contest entry. When I learned about the contest I had about one month before it ended. This meant I had to make some choices and I tried to pick the easiest solution for all of them.
Before I even decided the title character’s name, I decided she spoke a different language. This was, of course, not the simplest solution. The simplest choice was that they spoke English for “some reason.” However, I wanted to add to her exotic feel by giving her a different native tongue.
As I mentioned, there was a time crunch. So I had two choices. Spanish or Japanese. I’ve been studying/teaching myself Japanese for a few years. My Japanese isn’t that great. On the other hand, my Spanish, is probably at a middle school level. I probably could have muddled my way through the story using Japanese, but like I said this was about the easiest solutions.
Now, having a language for her, I named this girl. Then came deciding where to use Spanish. As I thought about how to do this, I thought about authors who used a foreign to me language in their writing. I found that the ones that did it well used four techniques I tried to mimic.
The first thing I kept in mind was to use the words sparingly. Authors that relied heavily on foreign words made the text too dense. This not only usually alienated me, but made the text of what should have been a light, fun read into something much more frustrating and decidedly not fun.
Second thing I did, when possible, was I translated them as soon as I used them. Like my Cuban and Puerto Rican family members or me when practicing Japanese, when we’re stumbling for the right word we tend to placeholder it with our native tongue. It is part stalling method and part attempt to jog our own memory.
When I didn’t instantly translate, I used my third trick. In elementary school we all learned how to use context clues and I relied on this at times. I made sure there was no questioning what a word meant when I left it alone by itself. Of course, similar enough to their English counterpart could be treated like this as well.
The last trick for using a foreign language successfully is to make the language be more than just a pretty decoration. The language should help tell the story. I used Alicia saying a sentence half in Spanish without explaining her meaning to show she was panicked. And I used Leon translating a word to give that word and that moment even more impact. Otherwise, it kind of feels like the characters, or even author, might just be showing off.
I’m sure there are even more tricks to using a foreign, or a made up, language in writing. If you have one, please share it in the comments! And if you’d like to read a contemporary short story with a touch a fantasy and a dash of romance, please pick up ALICIA (http://amzn.com/B01417P1GA)!
Gloria Weber lives in Ohio with her husband, son, daughter, and many pets. Her website is http://gloriaweber.wordpress.com and she can be found onTwitter as @GloriaWeber or on facebook at http://www.facebook.com/GloriaWeberWriter
Thank you for hosting my blog post! 🙂