hello all,
I wonder if anybody has any experience of writing a novel in say English that is set in France (or indeed any other non-English-speaking country). I want to be able to convey authentic dialogue when it is spoken by French characters but should I write all or perhaps just short pieces of dialogue in the French language; and if not, how can I deal with dialogue when it is spoken by French characters but needs to be read by English speakers.
I do think that if you offer the French dialogue in English, you should point out to the reader (without using a sledgehammer) that you're translating it for them.
I echo Jonathan's points
a) If you're using words or sentences in another language to show the other character's lack of understanding, you should use the foreign words. Perhaps the best example I know of this is the FILM "Hell In The Pacific", in which Lee Marvin plays a Yank soldier and Toshiro Mifune plays a Japanese one. There are just the 2 of them on an island in the Pacific during the 2nd World War. Marvin speaks Yank throughout and Mifune speaks Japanese. And there are NO subtitles! Not understanding Japanese myself, I can't be certain, but I've always assumed that a Japanese audience could watch this film and identify with Mifune, being as bewildered by whatever Marvin says... as I was by what Mifune says. In short, the film puts you in the skin of the person involved very effectively.
(Point aside: I've always been bothered by [English-language] films where foreigners speak to each other - and to the English-speaking characters - in English, when in reality they don't speak the language, e.g. [to remain on the subject of war films] Nazi soldiers giving orders in English. On the other hand, I'm also bothered by that generation of "Old Boy" writers who sprinkled Greek or Latin throughout their work without explanation or translation... as if we all went to Eton or Harrow back in the 50s.)
b) If you're going to use a foreign language, make sure you do it CORRECTLY. Get a native speaker to correct it for you. And don't forget that (for example) Argentinian Spanish isn't the same as that spoken in Spain. The verb "coger" means "to take" in Spain (and - I suppose - in certain other Latin American countries): in Agentinian, it means "to take" ONLY in the sexual sense. Quaintly put: "to have sexual congress with".
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My suggestion: If you want to put your reader into your [non-comprehending] character´s shoes, use the foreign language without translation - unless you want to share a joke at the character's expense*. If you want to add colour but have your reader understand what's being said, you could write the speech in the foreign language and add translations as footnotes. (Not a good idea if there are pages and pages of the stuff.) DON'T assume that everybody did French at school. Some did German or Spanish. You're not insulting a reader's intelligence by providing a translation that they might not need.
* Do you know what the waiter's saying to the cook when you go to a Chinese restaurant? A Welsh friend of mine - who grew up in Hong Kong - (QUIETLY) explained/translated to her friends all the really abusive insults that the waiter in Guildford was using about her table's occupants. They all had a good (quiet) laugh about it. And an even bigger (louder) one at the waiter's astonished face when my friend ordered the coffee in perfect Cantonese.
As Lorraine wrote, "O la la!"
Write general speech in English, but you could put some phrases in French - there's really no translation for 'oh la la, la la'! (And yes, they do still say that here!) If you have any swearing, for instance, try French versions, because the reader will get the gist without having to have it spelt out for him/her and it adds colour.
You can also refer to patois if you're setting your work in rural France - that's often incomprehensible to outsiders, and differs from region to region. It's more than an accent - it's vocabulary, too.