Second languages
This is a post I’ve been meaning to make for a long time. What is the difference between writing and reading in your second language and in your first? I've thought about it many times since getting involved in fandom.
As some of you probably know, English is my second language. My native language is Swedish, and I started learning English in school when I was about seven. (In the beginning, it was just songs and games, the alphabet, colours and numbers.)
Swedish might be a comparatively small language and a small cultural sphere, but not so small that it forces me to go beyond it to find things to read or communities to belong to. So why do I keep doing it?
One reason is of course that I got sucked into the HP fanfiction world, and there’s very little good stuff around in Swedish. (Think emo ff-net songfics.) But that’s not the only reason, at least not anymore. When I began trying to write fiction in English, I did it because I thought it was the only way to get some kind of response to my fanficcing endeavours, and because I wanted to be a part of the community that I enjoyed lurking in.
Now, I write fanfic mostly for the freedom it gives me. I can allow myself to feel satisfied even if it isn’t perfect, because hey, how could it ever be? There’s also an other kind of freedom - towards the words and the language itself. I can never know all the connotations and values of all the words. It makes me more removed from what I write; if I want to I can see it just as sounds and shapes on the screen. I find it liberating, and that’s why I keep going.
If I just wanted to write sexy lesbian fiction, I could do that in Swedish in a fraction of the time it takes me to write fic. But I still keep at writing fic, because it’s a relaxing break against my original writing even though it sometimes is excruciatingly slow going.
It’s probably pretty obvious that it’s different to write in another language, but it’s almost as different to read. Sometimes it’s harder, sometimes you understand less - but it also gives you that same freedom towards the language. I have much higher tolerance for clichés and simply bad writing when I read English fiction. (If I try to read pr0ny stuff in Swedish, I usually just find it silly, giggleworthy.) I’m less sensitive for which words don’t fit in a certain situation, for overused words, for crude words. If they’re not a part of my most well known vocabulary I give myself some leeway to interpret them the way I prefer.
And if I hadn’t started, I would never have gotten to know all of the great people in fandom either, and that would have been a loss!
Last night I dreamt that I spoke English with one of my classmates. He found it very weird. (That might have had something to do with the fact that I was trying to explain why he was being used as a part of an experiment about male sexuality. Hee!)
Rainstorm outside. I should be working on my novel, but I’m not really in the mood. Beach barbeque parties feel so far away…
As some of you probably know, English is my second language. My native language is Swedish, and I started learning English in school when I was about seven. (In the beginning, it was just songs and games, the alphabet, colours and numbers.)
Swedish might be a comparatively small language and a small cultural sphere, but not so small that it forces me to go beyond it to find things to read or communities to belong to. So why do I keep doing it?
One reason is of course that I got sucked into the HP fanfiction world, and there’s very little good stuff around in Swedish. (Think emo ff-net songfics.) But that’s not the only reason, at least not anymore. When I began trying to write fiction in English, I did it because I thought it was the only way to get some kind of response to my fanficcing endeavours, and because I wanted to be a part of the community that I enjoyed lurking in.
Now, I write fanfic mostly for the freedom it gives me. I can allow myself to feel satisfied even if it isn’t perfect, because hey, how could it ever be? There’s also an other kind of freedom - towards the words and the language itself. I can never know all the connotations and values of all the words. It makes me more removed from what I write; if I want to I can see it just as sounds and shapes on the screen. I find it liberating, and that’s why I keep going.
If I just wanted to write sexy lesbian fiction, I could do that in Swedish in a fraction of the time it takes me to write fic. But I still keep at writing fic, because it’s a relaxing break against my original writing even though it sometimes is excruciatingly slow going.
It’s probably pretty obvious that it’s different to write in another language, but it’s almost as different to read. Sometimes it’s harder, sometimes you understand less - but it also gives you that same freedom towards the language. I have much higher tolerance for clichés and simply bad writing when I read English fiction. (If I try to read pr0ny stuff in Swedish, I usually just find it silly, giggleworthy.) I’m less sensitive for which words don’t fit in a certain situation, for overused words, for crude words. If they’re not a part of my most well known vocabulary I give myself some leeway to interpret them the way I prefer.
And if I hadn’t started, I would never have gotten to know all of the great people in fandom either, and that would have been a loss!
Last night I dreamt that I spoke English with one of my classmates. He found it very weird. (That might have had something to do with the fact that I was trying to explain why he was being used as a part of an experiment about male sexuality. Hee!)
Rainstorm outside. I should be working on my novel, but I’m not really in the mood. Beach barbeque parties feel so far away…