[ SECRET POST #2320 ]

[case]

⌈ Secret Post #2320 ⌋

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

01. [removed on request of author]


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05. [repeat]


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[ ----- SPOILERY SECRETS AHEAD ------ ]












08. [SPOILERS for Iron Man 3]



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09. [SPOILERS for Fire Emblem: Awakening]



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10. [SPOILERS for Superman (1978)]



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[ ----- TRIGGERY SECRETS AHEAD ------ ]













11. [WARNING for rape and abuse]



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12. [SPOILERS for The Borgias]
[WARNING for incest]



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13. [WARNING for suicide]

[Gay Purr-ee]


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Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 00 pages, 000 secrets from Secret Submission Post #331.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ], [ 1 2 - ships it ], [ 1 - posted twice ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

Oh man, I so hear you. I wrote a story recently where one of the MCs slips into another language during a sex scene. Do I know a shitload of people who speak said language? Of course. Am I sleeping with one of them? Yep. Was I brave enough to ask anyone to translate for me?

...yeah, just going to mention that he switched languages and italicize that shit.

[galerian-ash.livejournal.com]

There are plenty of online forums/communities/whatever that can help you with stuff like that. Linguaphiles on LJ is where I personally tend to go, but there's plenty of other places.

(And hey, if anyone ever needs some Swedish or Danish translations, feel free to hit me up!)

[elephantinegrace]

Same for Mandarin Chinese.

[landly]

What really throws me off when French is used in fic is "vous" when "tu" is more appropriate. WHY

[oftheark]

Basically, because a lot of online translators will default to 'vous' because it's the polite form. It's really only if you ask someone who actually speaks French that you get 'tu' when appropriate.

[(Anonymous)]

THIS SO MUCH

I cringe every time I see a fic where a character calls their BFF or significant other "vous" because some random junior high school French teacher told them that vous = respect, and they then extrapolated that tu = disrespect. Gah! Vous is what you call authority figures, customers, and generally anybody you would address as sir/ma'am/miss in English. Tu = familiar! There is nothing wrong with using tu!

*twitch*

[(Anonymous)]

I don't speak French, what does it translate to?

[(Anonymous)]

"My very sensual boyfriend" and "You and a hot chocolate. A perfect way to end my day."

[oftheark]

Augh. Bad French is a pet peeve of mine. I can only assume that 'the French translator who assisted me' is someone they know who took a year of French several years ago.

[(Anonymous)]

Or Google Translate and its notorious literal-mindedness.

[(Anonymous)]

I'm sure people on here might help:
http://little-details.livejournal.com/

Or nonnies on here for that matter (if you're so shy):
http://fail-fandomanon.livejournal.com/

[(Anonymous)]

And why is necessary to include phrases in a foreign on a fic written in English?

I have always wondered about this, because the only two reasons that make sense for me is if the character uses words/phrases on a foreign language in canon or if the author is using as narrator a character that doesn't speak the language and they want the readers to understand what is being said, so it won't make sense to write the phrase in English and just point that it was said in another language.

Yet, every time I see foreign phrases in an English fic is just gratuitous French/Spanish/German/Japanese :/

[(Anonymous)]

I can't help but think "the french translator" who assisted her/him is Google Translate. Very bad move there.

OP, don't be afraid to ask for help. Where? Wherever you go for fandom. Most of the time people who speak the target language will be happy to help.

That said, it is annoying when you give a writer some corrections on their foreign language parts and they argue for what they wrote - usually because they saw the same mistakes in other fics (fandom-invented French pet names, anyone?).

[silverr]

Since I write in English, post in English, and get most of my reviews from readers who have a reading knowledge of English, I dodge this bullet when I can by a) not putting in non-English phrases unless the plot REALLY calls for them b) having anything that Character #1 says that Character #2 doesn't understand interpreted by bi-lingual Character #3, or c) have Character A say something in non-English, smack their head, and switch to English.

I do this because although English is the language I'm most fluent in (I'm actually embarrassed that I'm not very fluent in any of the languages I've tried to learn); I want to acknowledge that most of the world (and many of my characters canonically) speak something else.

[(Anonymous)]

I ask a native speaker or at least someone I know to have a competent grasp of the language to translate, giving as much context as possible. Even if I get it wrong, at least I'm comforted by the knowledge that one native speaker/person with competent grasp of the language would choose to translate it that way, so really, how wrong can it be?

[(Anonymous)]

Hahaha that comment from the writer. "I'll run it by my translator... So Babelfish, what do you think?!"

[inkdust]

If you can't find any good fandom-centered sources, there actually seems to be a pretty decent group of regulars on Yahoo answers, many of them native, who will translate phrases (especially if you make it clear that it's for a story and not trying to get someone to do your homework for you). Obviously there's always the risk of bad translations, but from what I've seen, they're a much safer bet than an online translator.

[(Anonymous)]

Just don't. Unless you have a very good reason for it or your character a get off on character b speaking French (Morticia/Gomez Adams, anyone?). I despise it when one character just starts speaking another language for what basically amounts to no reason. For ex. like in anime fics and Japanese.

The authors will have the characters speak every so often in Japanese for no reason other than to "demonstrate" their knowledge of fangirl Japanese, really, but they say it's b/c the characters are speaking Japanese and they want to include it. If you want to include the honorifics, fine. If the setting is Japan and the characters are Japanese, you don't need to throw in Japanese. Your audience is capable of figuring out that they're speaking Japanese in Japan since they are born and raised Japanese. Throwing sentences in sentences written in Japanese is distracting since it makes me realize/think that these characters are, for some damn reason I don't know, speaking English and reverting to Japanese for some also unknown reason.

Now, if you have French character in this Japanese setting and have him want to speak a sentence in French that's okay since he's not Japanese it's not destroying the setting the way the Japanese sentences are. Also, stop with the * next to the foreign language sentence to indicate an English translation at the end. If you've ever read a professionally published book, hopefully you've noticed those authors don't do it. What they do do, is use the next sentence(s) to translate it b/c the other characters understand it or guessed the meaning of it.

Like: "Hola, mi nombre is Juan." "Hello, Juan, nice to meet you." See how that implies he just said his name is Juan? Like that.

[(Anonymous)]

Just stick it in Google translate. I'm a polygot and I read an Avengers fic like this the other day and it's no big deal.
Put a footnote at the bottom saying that you used a translator and that if anyone wants to correct the phases you'd really appreciate it. Then list the English version.
It's just fanfiction, don't take it too seriously. Most people won't understand it and if anyone snarks just politely remind them that they're welcome to correct it.

[orangescones]

Aw, I really just wish no one would put unnecessary different languages in fics where the characters only speak English, especially if the lines aren't translated to English. I hate having to scroll back and forth to the ending notes and back to the fic just to figure out what they're saying. But I guess that could just be a pet peeve of mine...

I agree about this, though, since I can read Spanish well enough and hilarious mistranslations with that make me cringe.

[tabaqui]

I use http://multilingual.livejournal.com/ and/or friends of mine who speak the language i need. Try to push past your shyness - most people are happy to help, and probably a little flattered, and definitely want 'their' language to be correct.

As for non-English stuff in an English fic - why not? Some characters speak more than one language, and sometimes they slip, or deliberately use, a phrase or word from that language. I don't really get the complaints against this - i've read plenty of published books that do this, and unless it's tons of dialogue or pages of text with no translation, it doesn't bother me at all.

[quantumreality]

At least in Harry Potter you can make anything up and call it Troll, or Parseltongue. :P

[(Anonymous)]

Ugh, I absolutely hate people slipping foreign languages into English fic. Why? You know you're writing for an English-speaking audience. If you want me to know what you're talking about, you have to tell me. If you don't want me to know what you're talking about, then what if I do speak that language too and can translate it? You are fucking up your intent either way.

[sidhera]

Late to the party, but oh well.

Putting things through GoogleTranslate is the worst. It's unnecessary except as filler, can always be handled differently, and when you fuck it up (and GT will), it throws all readers of that language out of your fic.

I'm a Latinist by profession, and I read a lot of Avengers fic where Natasha randomly starts speaking GT Latin. To put it one way - I've never once read a fic (that didn't quote an ancient author) have Latin that made sense.

If you don't speak the language yourself, don't include it in your fic.