[ SECRET POST #2843 ]

[case]

⌈ Secret Post #2843 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.

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Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 01 pages, 018 secrets from Secret Submission Post #406.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 1 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

Comments

[kaijinscendre]

Yeah, if the author does not provide a translation at the bottom, I assume it was not important to the story. It is just them showing how authentic/clever/aware of a character's background they are.

[(Anonymous)]

Same. Because that's what published authors in published books do. You don't include something vital to the story in a language other than the primary language unless you want to risk a big part of your audience missing the point.

[(Anonymous)]

Right. The only time you should use untranslated material is if it's an extremely common phrase, or if it's a callback to an earlier scene where it was used and translated in that context.

[(Anonymous)]

Or if the character can't understand it and it's not necessary for the reader to -- like an Easter egg.

[(Anonymous)]

Because that's what published authors in published books do.

Unless they're Charlotte Bronte. omg, so much untranslated French in The Professor and Villette.

[(Anonymous)]

To be fair, at the time she was writing, most people in her target audience would be at least somewhat conversant in French.

[(Anonymous)]

100% agree. It comes off as rather amateurish to me. There are several better ways of handling foreign language speech in a story than this cut and paste google translate nonsense.

[kaijinscendre]

The best way I have seen, which probably does not work on AO3 is when an author has it set up so you can hover over the words in a foreign language and the translation shows up in the mouseover text.

[(Anonymous)]

I'm pretty sure I've seen that on AO3! I wish people would use that.

[(Anonymous)]

You /can/ do it on A03 but I don't know how to.

[(Anonymous)]

If you use the span tag, and put in a title, and bracket the text to translate with that tag, you get hover-text. It works on AO3 (I've used it in my own fics sometimes), but not on smart phones or tablets as far as I can tell, which is why I always include translations in the notes at the bottom as well.

[(Anonymous)]

Yeah, that's one of the better approaches. The only problem I've encountered with it is that it's no help when I'm reading on a mobile device.

[(Anonymous)]

Pretty much. If the characters don't know the language, saying "she said something fast and angry in Spanish" (for example) would work. If they do know the language, there are a million ways to handle that too.

[(Anonymous)]

Even that bugs me a bit, because then I have to flip to the back or scroll down. I'm a very lazy reader.