Thinking About Learning Languages

[jimkeller]

Originally published at ipse illum dicto. You can comment here or there.

One thing that comes up often in science fiction and fantasy stories is a situation where characters would, logically, probably speak different languages. The characters may come from different countries or planets, they may come from different times, or they may even come from

Comments

[jimkeller]

That's good to know! I'm not sure these idle musings are worth trouble the experts with, but as I get myself into projects where language matters I may wander over and introduce myself.

[jonahmama]

Not sure this matters, but as an addendum to your (well-reasoned and informed) post, any translator will tell you that it is exponentially easier to translate into your native language (or the language you know better), from your second (or weaker) language than the reverse. So it is that I can translate Hungarian to English on a pretty high level both in writing and in speaking, where I can even do simul-translation (saying the translated sentence with only a slight delay from the original speaker, without having to wait for them to finish all the time), however, I have significant difficulty translating English to Hungarian. Besides a "universal translator" your character may rely on an interpreter, but this is a good point to keep in mind.

[jimkeller]

Excellent observation, yes!