Fandom Thoughts: Other Languages

Jan 20, 2011 22:22

So. It’s been a (very long) while since I’ve posted anything here. soera’s seen plenty of action (thank you, Torchwood), but this one… not so much. I’ll eventually (probably) post something on my trip to India last November, but for now, I’ve been inspired to talk about a fannish thing.

I’ve been following a few fandom communities lately, and I kept coming across something that made me think. Multiple people complained about a particular trend in some fanfics - the use of Fangirl Japanese. The reason I began reading those posts were because I completely agree. Fangirl Japanese (also applicable to other languages) is an unfortunate syndrome of immature writers with more enthusiasm than skill. A mature reader is likely to catch a glimpse and hit the back button rather violently.

The posts I read touched on all the salient points of Fangirl Japanese - its redundancy, its lack of clarity, its frequent errors (Japanese grammar, spelling, meaning etc.) and so on. That’s why I kept reading. But people kept saying something I couldn’t help but disagree with. Paraphrased from multiple posts/comments:

If a word has an equivalent meaning in English, use the English word instead. Words like “hai,” “iie,” “onii-san,” and “onee-san,” all have English equivalents, so there’s no reason not to use them!

“Hai” and “iie” I’ll agree with you on. The other two, though…


Let’s get one thing clear. I write in English, read English fics, and generally am part of the English fandom (in all my multiple fandoms). That means I like having proper spelling, grammar, punctuation, and all the rest of it. I like wordplay, I like formal experimentation (what can I say; I’m a postmodernist), I like you to demonstrate some semblance of knowledge as to how the English language works.

You know one of the key words there? English.

When I’m in the English-speaking part of fandom, that’s the language I expect to find there. I don’t expect to find, for instance, Japanese - unless you’ve got a damn good reason for it to be there.

Gratuitous Japanese is maybe the most annoying, irrelevant, obstreperous uses of another language I can think of. Those are words/sentences/paragraphs sitting pretty in the middle of a fic for no reason other than to prove the author knows them. Well, that’s wonderful. It’s great that you know ten words in this other language. But it’s all right, really - you don’t have to share. In fact, I’d be quite happy if you’d simply use the equivalent word in English, so that I (poor, unenlightened fool that I am), stand a chance of understanding what you’re talking about.

(Actually, I make this plea even for languages I know… because it’s brain-breakingly bad and/or hilarious when you get it Horribly Wrong.)

I think a lot of anime ficcers have this skeleton in their ficcing closets. I know I used to be guilty of this, and a number of other fiction no-nos. But I learned. I’d like to think I write far better now that I know it’s Not a Good Idea to write “Matte!” instead of “Wait!”

Does that mean I no longer use any non-English words in my English fics? Uh, no.

Fact is, there are some concepts that English just can’t convey accurately or naturally. I think it’s important to make that last distinction - naturally. Let’s go back to those two examples I listed up top.

Onee-san = older sister
Onii-san = older brother

There you go, English equivalents for the words. Why bother using the Japanese, right? Well, maybe because it sounds ridiculous in English. How many people do you know who go around saying “Older sister, could you help me?”

You could, at a stretch, make an argument for “sister” being all right. As in, “Sister, could you help me?” My personal opinion is that it still sounds very strange in English, unless you’re writing about a more archaic sort of society. Even if that was the case though, “sister” could mean either an older or younger sister. There’s a level of ambiguity there that the word “onee-san” doesn’t allow for. If you call someone “onee-san,” you’re saying she’s older than you, no two ways about it.

(Go ahead and call someone younger than you onee-san, but a) don’t be surprised if they laugh in your face or b) be saying it tongue-in-cheek to show you think of them as the older sibling despite your actual ages.)

I’ve seen people actually comment that there’s nothing wrong with just using the names of the characters, if the finicky nature of the “older sister” phraseology rubs them the wrong way. “Older sister” has a name, after all - use it!

No. No, no, NO.

I’m probably more sympathetic to this because I come from a society with similar terminology and expectations of use. My older sister does have a name, and a pretty one at that. Do I use it? Absolutely not. I think I might have called her by her name a few times when I was a kid, but I was very quickly set right by my mum. Roughly transliterated, I call her “chechi” (older sister).

I actually have trouble referring to her by her name when I talk about her to others. I’ve slipped up on a few occasions and just called her “chechi” when talking to my friends, for instance, even though they don’t share my language and don’t know the word. When I correct myself, I use “my sister.” I almost never use her name, except in the rarest of circumstances. Would a younger sibling ever use their older siblings’ names? Only in a certain way. If my sister and I had a hypothetical younger sibling, that sibling would call us “Amsdia-chechi” and “Anitia-chechi,” to differentiate between us, but never just by our names.

Let’s put this into context. I speak English almost exclusively. My mother laments the fact that I don’t speak my mother tongue more. Despite my Westernisation, however, I have been brought up in my native culture and influenced by my country’s culture (still predominantly Asian). That means that yes, things like what to call my sister are ingrained in me. I have to actively work past an “ugh” reflex when I call my sister by her name. It’s a running joke between us that to me, her name is Chechi.

So how does this work in conversation? When I talk to her, this is how it goes:

Me: Chechi, my printer’s dead! Fix it!

See that? “Chechi,” not “Anitia.” But the rest of the words are in English. That’s how it works, with my mouth, my instincts. I associate the word “chechi” with my sister more than I associate her name with her. I don’t think I’m alone in this. A lot of younger siblings in my culture have this same thing going on. To us, it’s extremely impolite to refer to your older siblings by just their names; they need to at least have the “older sister/brother” word tagged on.

There’s a point to all this, yes, and the point is this:

Using the words “nii-san” and “nee-san” is not intrinsically wrong. Sometimes, it’s necessary to convey the true relationship a couple of people have. If X simply does not think of Y by Y’s name, then you’re doing X’s character a disservice in putting that name in X’s mouth. Similarly, the words “older sister” are stupendously awkward in English, in which case, it really makes more sense to me to use “onee-san.”

This is all a really long-winded way of saying that there are times when another language has to be used because English just doesn’t cut it. Of course, this only applies for characters and fandoms where Japanese is spoken/Japanese culture predominates.

(Or any similar culture/language, for that matter.)

This is the thing: you’ve got to make sure the terminology in your fic is appropriate to the fandom. Something like… Prince of Tennis, for instance - (most of) your characters grew up in Japan, and their speech patterns are going to reflect that. Can you really imagine Yuuta calling his older brother Syuusuke? Didn’t think so. Then again, there are fandoms like FullMetal Alchemist, where you could conceivably make a case for Alphonse calling Edward by his name. Despite Al using “nii-san” in the manga/anime, Amestris is clearly based on Germany, so using German name conventions wouldn’t be out of place at all. I know some fans will disagree with me on this (and to be honest, I can’t imagine Al calling Ed by his name!), but I really do think that as long as a strong case can be made for the terminology you use, you’re allowed to diverge a bit from what the canon uses. Hell, we’re writing about Japanese fandoms in English. There’s already going to be a difference in the words used, like it or not.

So I went to my sister’s room and ranted at her for a while about all this. I remember one comment in which the commenter said that after a certain age, she started calling her parents by their first names, and she doesn’t get the big deal about “okaa-san” and “otou-san” (“mother” and “father,” respectively). I also remember staring at the comment in horror, then shuddering when I read the replies that agreed.

My sister is not a fandom person. She’s pretty lackadaisical about a lot of the things that get me riled up. She still instinctively went “Ugh,” when I told her about those comments - complete with a full-body shudder, even!

It’s the sort of thing that is Not Done in my community (or in Japan, I would imagine). Great for you if you do. That’s your culture, and I’m happy for you. If you introduce me to your parents and use their first names, I imagine I would eventually learn to do the same (especially if they insisted!). It does not mean that I will ever refer to my parents by their first names. Never, ever, ever. If I am fifty years old, I will not refer to them by their first names. I cannot accurately convey the depths of revulsion the thought inspires in me. They will always be Amma and Accha to me (i.e. Mum and Dad). If I introduced you to my parents, I would refer to them as Mr and Mrs Parent. That is also what you would call them (or Aunty/Uncle, if we were close), for they would be flabbergasted and insulted to be called by their first names.

Same deal with Japan and Japanese. I don’t presume to be an expert on the topic, but I’ve yet to come across any Japanese character in manga/anime refer to their parents by their first names. Or their older siblings, for that matter. It’s the same principle of respect, which - tired as the stereotype is - we Asian societies really do hold in high regard. Again, make sure what you’re writing is appropriate to the culture the fic is set in.

I know you’re writing in English. That doesn’t mean that it’s appropriate to write from a Western perspective of appropriate behaviour/speech.

All right, enough of the cultural/etiquette talk. Is there any other circumstance in which it’s appropriate to use a non-English language? Sure there is - when the use of that other language is integral to the plot.

I was re-reading Cormac McCarthy’s Blood Meridian the other day. Here’s an excerpt from near the beginning:

The barman nodded to him. Dígame, he said.
I aint got no money but I need a drink. I’ll fetch out the slops or mop the floor or whatever.
The barman looked across the room to where two men were playing dominoes at a table. Abuelito, he said.
The older of the two raised his head.
Qué dice el muchacho.
The old man looked at the kid and turned back to his dominoes.
The barman shrugged his shoulders.
The kid turned to the old man. You speak american? he said.
The old man looked up from his play. He regarded the kid without expression.
Tell him I’ll work for a drink. I aint got no money.
The old man thrust his chin and made a clucking noise with his tongue.
The kid looked at the barman.
The old man made a fist with the thumb pointing up and the little finger down and tilted his head back and tipped a phantom drink down his throat. Quiere hecharse una copa, he said. Pero no puede pagar.
The men at the bar watched.
The barman looked at the kid.
Quiere trabajo, said the old man. Quién sabe. He turned back to his pieces and made his play without further consultation.
Quieres trabajar, said one of the men at the bar.
They began to laugh.
What are you laughing at? said the boy.

The kid has no clue what’s going on. Neither do we (well, unless you know Spanish). But that’s the point. If you know the language, you get what’s going on, here and later. If you don’t, you’re as bewildered as the kid, as frustrated as he is when he knows he’s the butt of a joke he doesn’t understand. When it all goes to hell later, you’re right there beside him thinking, well, at least they’re not laughing now.

Effective? Absolutely. Frustrating? Hell, yeah. At one point I went “What the FUCK are you talking about?” I still couldn’t stop though, because there’s a point to the madness, and because the writing’s just that good.

That’s the important thing. The Spanish here is used with a purpose. For one, it’s authentic (key to this novel), and for another, it puts us in the kid’s shoes, right where we’re supposed to be. There’s no reason other languages can’t be used similarly in fanfic. I did it myself recently, in a Torchwood fanfic I wrote. Toshiko and Ianto are having a conversation about family; she says she regards him as a brother, then invites him to a family reunion that’s a Really Big Deal for her. When he agrees, she thanks him in Japanese, and he responds in like.

That’s it. Two lines in Japanese. It’s important though, because they’re from two different cultures, and this was a way of showing that Ianto’s comfortable with Toshiko’s heritage. Not just me showing the readers, mind - this was Toshiko seeking reassurance and Ianto providing it. It’s brief, but it’s important.

I didn’t get slammed for using Japanese in that fic. I like to think my reviewers, even if instinctively annoyed, were good enough to stop and think about what I meant to do with that scene. (Besides, I provided translations at the end, for the curious!) But if some of the commenters who inspired this post read it, I imagine they wouldn’t be happy. I suspect it’s an instinctive thing now, to see Japanese and presume the worst of it. Thing is, it’s not always a bad thing, and the good sometimes gets lost in all the anti-Fangirl Japanese ranting. People get a lot less tolerant of appropriate uses when they’ve seen so many awful examples.

I get that people have been burned before (so have I) by the improper use of other languages, but I don’t think we should be too quick to dismiss a fic on those grounds. Sometimes, there’s a good reason for it.

…… TL;DR:

A) Sometimes it’s culturally (and/or situationally) appropriate to use another language.
B) You can use a non-English language to good effect in an English story, if you know what you’re doing.
C) Don’t judge too quickly.
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