Question to non-english speaking writers

It s better to have a story in Tagalog then no story at all. Worry about translation when you come to it. To repeat the mantra often heard on these august boards "Get the story down"

Well, although I don't have any finished novels yet, I have to chip in.

I write them in either native or English depending on circumstances- it really depends on the target audience (if I'm writing for my friends more than for myself, if I'm writing for a specific target audience that I know doesn't do so well in my own language, etc), on if I feel the story can be told better in one language or the other, and ultimately, personal mood.

But I agree that you should focus on writing it first and translating later. Nothing can be translated exactly the same way without some loss along the way, however there are many ways in translation to convey the same feelings, it just takes different words sometimes.

Basically, if you're more comfortable writing in Tagalog, then write it in Tagalog. Worrying about the translation can come once you're done with the novel.

I'm better writing in English than in my native tongue. In the latter, all the phrases seem trivial, some are downright clichés. Writing in English frees me somehow from the restraints of my native tongue and I feel so much better when writing.
And since idiomatic English has never been my favorite branch of linguistics, I can pretty much ignore it and write what I want, not what the language wants me to write
If you feel better writing in your language, go ahead and do it, but I recommend somebody else translate it (or better yet, co-operate with someone on the translation).

I hear you. I am stuck between languages too, even though I only know two. (Chinese three dialects, and English, with a little Nihongo mixed in too.) Whatever I learned something in one language I'll always think in that language. That's why I do basic math in Chinese but calculus in English. I have been using English predominantly for the last 20 years. Doesn't make my English better, just make my Chinese worse.

Well, whatever language you pick, there are bound to be some phrases/concept that you need to translate. And some phrases/concepts are simply untranslatable, unless without losing favor. So, to me, translating a finished story will be partial rewrite.

Right now I write in English because Chinese is a pain to type. However, if it is easier for you to write in Tagalog, by all means get the story written first, even just an outline. Some progress is better than no progress.

How is a "non-English speaking writer" going to understand the question?

caw

Don Raden said:

There are things I can write in English but not in Tagalog and vice versa.

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I wasn't trying to be snarky in my preceding post, by the way, just amused. But this is a fascinating comment, something that has never occurred to me as an issue with multilingual people. It would be very interesting if you could be more specific, as to what kinds of things work best in which language.

Some very famous writers (Samuel Beckett, Vladimir Nabokov) have succeeded in more than one language, and some others (Joseph Conrad) have become geniuses in a second language. I do decent Spanish, and have toyed with a story in Spanish, plus possible translation of a couple of my English stories, but am not good enough to make it work, I've decided.

caw

lambauman said:

I hear you. I am stuck between languages too, even though I only know two. (Chinese three dialects, and English, with a little Nihongo mixed in too.) Whatever I learned something in one language I'll always think in that language. That's why I do basic math in Chinese but calculus in English. I have been using English predominantly for the last 20 years. Doesn't make my English better, just make my Chinese worse.

Well, whatever language you pick, there are bound to be some phrases/concept that you need to translate. And some phrases/concepts are simply untranslatable, unless without losing favor. So, to me, translating a finished story will be partial rewrite.

Click to expand...

This is true. My Spanish is honestly getting worse since I've been using English almost solely every day on writing. Thankfully, since I have to use Spanish every day outside the typing world, I've only lost the fancier vocabulary for writing (amazing -and kind of sad- how ten years ago I could write better in Spanish than now... )
And my Japanese has definitely degraded to almost nothing from lack of usage.

But, the thinking in the language you learn (or use at the time) is also true, as is the fact that you (Don Raden) remarked- such as some things being easier to write in one language than another. Sometimes we just find better words, or rather words that sound prettier, in another language than the one the main story is written in. It's happened before.

And also, true that for a writer to do their own translation it would probably end up as a partial rewrite; I think because we'd want to have it as close to faithful to the original meaning as we could get, it would be difficult to translate your own story (I do think it may finish up rewritten as a slightly different version, instead of a translation, haha).

I either write in my mother tongue (and never translate, maybe summarize the story for somebody who wants to know about it in 1-2 pages), or directly in English.

While I’ve not a finished novel by my name, I feel for you.

I learnt English as an expat when I was eleven. Two years later I was back at home country. Since then, my closest and dearest connection to English has been through novels; to the point where I knew what a word meant but had no idea how to pronounce it…

In my limited experience, different languages command a different set of mind. My train of thought may go every other way depending on the language I’m doing the processing with. Perhaps a linguist on board can shed more light in this regard? Otherwise a psychiatrist would do – I have insurance.

Anyway, I can see advantages to writing with a brain of two minds…

Bottom line, I write in the language the text is intended for.