Friday, August 23, 2013

Just a Thought: When a Book Includes a “Foreign” Language


To beginning, let me set up the background information that you might need to understand the venting that follows.  I was born and raised in Puerto Rico and I lived there until the ripe age of 23.  At that point I joined my hubby in the States as he had finished his basic and tech training for the military (of a branch that shall remain unnamed).  Anyway, my first language is Spanish, even if I’ve been living here for almost half my life.  Are you still with me?

I know there are people out there that are fanatical about grammar and spelling, and I truly understand that.  I try my best to make my writing as clean as possible and free of errors. I edit and I proofread and then I read it again before I press the “Publish” button. 

BUT there is one thing that is way worse for me (and here it comes): it drives me absolutely bonkers when a book includes a Hispanic character or even characters in a Spanish class and everything is spelled wrong or doesn’t make sense! 

May I offer a suggestion to you dear author?  If you are including words in your book that are in a language that is not your own, please have someone that is native in said language edit it first.  Put yourself in my shoes and tell me how you would feel if we reverse roles and I butchered your language in a book for the world to see.

I would love to hear from other readers out there that are fluent in a language other than English.  Does the same happen to you?  Do you find errors in their spelling and grammar irritating?  Maybe I’m alone in my frustration…(or I’m just plain ‘loca’).


Venting. Done. 

8 comments:

  1. I'm Cuban American. I was born here and I've never really spoken spanish. I have come across books with spanish words in them but I think either because I don't 100% fully grasp the written language I might have not noticed if they made no sense or the authors that I have read with spanish words in their books are hispanic themselves therefore they make sense. I think even if I don't grasp the written language I still know spanish so I would have noticed. I'm just wondering after your post if I've missed something in the books I've read. If authors mess up like that or don't care to research it's just rude. What if someone sought out that book specifically because it had an Hispanic character in it which is by the way rare in most YA books and then they are disappointed when they come to read them. The connection to that character is gone. That's significant in a readers life especially one who identifies with a certain culture.

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    1. I agree with you. I get easily distracted by the mistakes and by making corrections on my head that I start dreading the next dialogue in Spanish...

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  2. Great post, Liza! I really get where you're coming from on this one. When Irish (my second language) is misrepresented in books, it really gets on my nerves!
    On another note, have you read The Book of Broken Hearts by Sarah Ockler? There's a lot of Spanish in that and it's very native, very well-researched - maybe worth checking out?

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    1. I gets on my nerves too!

      No, I haven't read it yet. I have a birthday coming up, maybe I'll ask hubby for it :)

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  3. I'm Dutch and I don't think I've ever read a book with my language in it. I understand why, because it's not very exciting :p I always try to do my best to prevent errors and mistakes, but this is just a blog. A book should be (almost) flawless. If you can't write another language the right way, don't use it in your book..

    Mel@thedailyprophecy.

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    1. Amen! All countries are exciting, I'm sure there must be some books with Dutch in them. I think you might find some words in Gayle Forman's Just One Day.

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  4. I'm Filipina, and Tagalog is my mother tongue, but foreign books never say anything in my language, so I can't really relate to this one XD But I'm thinking that if the same happened to me, and the character is saying something that's utter rubbish because of grammar or spelling errors, I think I'd go bonkers too! D: I believe it's really important that authors consult people who actually know the language, unless they're fluent themselves. So yeah, that's just my two cents on this one ;)

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  5. I'm Italo-Australian and Italian is my second language, but it drives me ABSOLUTELY CRAZY when Italian is butchered in English language texts! I get really distracted and can quickly lose interest in the book if I'm sitting there making mental corrections. It also makes me wonder whether the author did any research or just used Google Translate which is hardly ever accurate. Anyway, I totally agree with you :)

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I love comments! Please leave me one and I will try to reply as soon as I can. Liza

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