Thoughts on writing.

[benitle]

I know there's quite a few non-native speakers (of English) on my flist who write and read in English a lot. I'm primarily talking about fiction because that's what I write the most but I don't want to limit this to fiction because I guess almost all non-native speakers have at least once had to write a paper or any other kind of long text in a

Comments

[benitle]

I think the English language is insane when it comes to the sheer amounts of words you have. What's the worst thing about it though is that they're not really synonymous and that makes it really hard to figure out which of the 6 different choices means exactly what I want to say.

I don't know how anyone can keep journals, write fic, everything in other languages. I just feel so incredibly backwards only having a command of one. Sickeningly so.But you know what I find impressive about you? That you speak a little bit of everything. It might not be enough to write whole journals, fic, everything but it's enough to make a few polite conversations when meeting new people. That's worth a lot

[slytherinblack]

I know native English speakers who don't get the apostrophe thing...

Conversely to what I said below, Japanese people have crazy trouble with articles (because they don't have them). And I remember once trying to explain to my host sister the difference between see, look, and watch. They just have one word in Japanese. [g]

[benitle]

I remember having big problems using "come" and "go" in Spanish because when I wanted to say "go", it should have been the Spanish translation for "come" or the other way around. It was confusing and I always used the wrong one.

[loki_dip]

[benitle]

Oh, German grammar is HARD! I wouldn't want to learn it. We have the four cases and the accusative is one of them. Der, die, das is just the definite article for the three genders we have (Singular).

Exactly! That's what I find so hard about vocabulary. It's the little differences. If I look up a word in a dictionary, it'll give me several choices but it won't tell me which one I have to use in my particular case.

Oh God, I think I wouldn't even be able to explain the difference between further/farther. I'm not even sure I know. O.o

[loki_dip]

[benitle]

So you'd use "further" more in the sense of additional? Like, for example. "Until further notice, the library will remain closed." Something like that?

You are so wonderfully smart. :D

[slytherinblack]

I've done some writing in Japanese- one of the really hard things is that in Japanese, they have markers for parts of the sentence - they have one for the subject and one for the topic of the sentence, and it's really really hard for a non-native speaker to know which to use. X_x

[benitle]

That sounds like a nightmare. O.o

[aynslee]

I studied French and I was terribly incompetent even in the classroom. I felt it even more when I was in Paris. :/ LOL. I enjoyed learning vocabulary, but the sentence structure is what killed me.

It's amazing to me how well you express yourself in English. I think English is difficult, and I'm a native speaker. I've been through college and grad school, taken several technical writing courses, and I still struggle with parts of grammar and how to use certain words. I also routinely mess up the possessive forms of words.

[benitle]

Learning French in Paris is hard! People are not really helpful to be honest. They want you to speak their language, but they don't want to be kind about it and help you out when it's not perfect yet. That's tiring! I learned this little table which preposition goes where in French because they have a certain order for it. It was insane.

Thank you! :) I think learning basic English is actually quite easy. You know, reaching a level where you can talk to people and make conversation even if it's not perfect (I found it harder to learn basic French or Italian) but getting over that basic level is relatively hard because only then do you realize all those little rules and non-rules.

[gwendolen]

German by nature but writing a lot in English, both fanfic and am now trying my hand on original fiction as will with the goal of going pro

[legoline]

In German I tend to do long-winded sentences with lots of subordinate clauses. Not as bad as Kafka, but trying ;-) Doesn't work as well in English.

Yeah. Everytime my beta returns my fic there are plenty of comments saying, "Break sentence up HERE." :D

[gwendolen]

*g* That looks very familiar.

[legoline]

And I'm trying, I really am, but somehow... :D

It's so funny what is considered good style in German and what in English. It's almost direct opposites.

English: "Show us you can squeeze as much information as possible in a short sentence."
German: "Show us you can toy with grammar!"

:D