Character Fluent in 2 Languages Question

[BWFoster78]

A secondary character in Repulsive is a very white collar Mexican American who primarily uses English. How often would be appropriate to sprinkle in Spanish in his dialogue?

My first thought is, "Not much."

A. It's a distraction.
B. Whereas blue collar guys seem to use Spanish quite a bit, I rarely/never hear the white collar guys I know using any.

Perhaps only in a time of extreme upset/urgency?

Thoughts?

Thanks.

Brian

 

[MineOwnKing]

My wife is from Brazil but she speaks fluent English.

She also lived in Italy for 7 years and is fluent in Italian.

After 12 years of marriage, I have never heard her break into Portuguese, neither for swearing, nor for any reason.

But she is also the head of an IT department, so technically not a blue collar worker.

When ever she moves abroad she always makes it a point to alienate herself from Brazilian expatriates so that she can immerse herself in the language and not have slip ups.

I guess it might depend on who the person hangs out with.

Not sure if that helps.

 

[Ankari]

It depends on many factors. Does he have a family? Does said family speak fluent English? How about the extended family? Does he speak to the extended family?

Also consider his profession. Does he speak to clients or business associates of Spanish/Hispanic origin? Does have have friends who speak Spanish and they use Spanish to talk around people?

Finally, consider the character himself. Is he arrogant and wants to flaunt his Spanish? Does he think women like the foreign language and uses it to flirt with women? And so on.

 

[evolution_rex]

I always thought the breaking into Spanish thing was used more so to remind the reader of their ethnicity than because that's how they realistically speak. I encounter this all the time when reading, bilingual Spanish speakers randomly saying certain words in Spanish (usually for simple words because of the author's lack of knowledge of the language) despite other times using vocabulary that a person who didn't know English very well would use while speaking English.

But, of course, they probably would break into Spanish among other Spanish speakers or if he's being attacked or encounters something surprising (it'd have to be something a lot more serious than a co-worker sneaking up behind him). But other than that, you're right, it wouldn't happen much.

 

[Cambra]

I think you're looking at an interface of two things culture (possibly ethnicity) and class... English is the dominant language of the ruling class in US so a character on the make from a different cultural background would not tend to speak anything but English among his Anglosaxon co-workers, it might even be that if he encounters another person from his own cultural background and in the same position as himself, they would converse in English.

But on the emotional side, yes, I would think when excited, Spanish would be used (apart from anything else because it is a language so much more gifted for swearing than English!).

That would be the default position, but hey, I sense a lot of Hispanic pride rising in the States and it could equally be that more and more people like your character will start to use Spanish as a rallying cry to show their Anglo counterparts how ignorant they are (Jódete Donald Trump! Y vete a la mierda!).

I am British/Spanish and I work as a translator.

One last thing, please, please, please, if you use any Spanish run it by a native speaker from the same cultural background as your character... You owe yourself no less.

 

[Legendary Sidekick]

Read the works of Gary Soto. He's a Mexican author who sprinkles Spanish into dialogue. One thing to consider though: Spanglish comes naturally to Soto as well as Puerto Rican students I taught over the past seven years. If you're not fluent in Spanish—or even if you are, but you don't have that cultural experience of peppering Spanish into your spoken language, it may be hard to make the Spanglish look natural.

Another thing to consider: people who speak Spanglish are usually talking to someone who knows Spanish. They'll attempt more standard English when talking to me, or someone who knows little or no Spanish. I just get words like gracias and ​buenos dias. I am referred to as maestro. That actually does sound better than teacher. I suppose your takeaway from this should be: a Spanish-speaker might prefer to use Spanish for certain words.

One last thing, please, please, please, if you use any Spanish run it by a native speaker from the same cultural background as your character... You owe yourself no less.

^Yes.

 

[Legendary Sidekick]

After 12 years of marriage, I have never heard her break into Portuguese, neither for swearing, nor for any reason.

…

I guess it might depend on who the person hangs out with.

I'm quite sure it does. My wife speaks Chinglish when talking to friends from Hong Kong. She speaks Cantonese to the kids, but not Chinglish—it's proper English or no English at all.

I'll have to pay attention when she talks to other Chinese friends, though if they're native Mandarin-speakers, she wouldn't speak Chinglish since it would be the wrong Chinglish. She is fluent in Mandarin, but doesn't have the cultural background to mix Mandarin and English.

 

[Cambra]

Another thing to consider: people who speak Spanglish are usually talking to someone who knows Spanish. They'll attempt more standard English when talking to me, or someone who knows little or no Spanish. I just get words like gracias and ​buenos dias. I am referred to as maestro. That actually does sound better than teacher.
[/QUOTE]

See, if I was speaking my brand of Spanglish British/Peninsular Spanish, I might call you "profesor", there are lots of variants in Spanish nowadays...

 

[Aly]

One of my fantasy characters speaks ALL languages - once you've got that concept across to the reader they can usually make their own assumptions about what language is being spoken. I try to use actual samples of other languages only very sparingly. To prove a point, one of the main characters is deaf and uses sign language - try sticking that in quotes in your story! At the end of the day the reader might need to know what is being spoken but you provide him/her with the power to follow it as naturally as the characters who are speaking.

 

[BWFoster78]

Based on all the responses, I think my original thought holds up - maybe swear once or twice the entire book in Spanish; otherwise English only.

I'll have my niece help with the actual Spanish part. She's not a white collar worker, but she's familiar with what words young adult Spanish/English speakers would be using. I can give the character a young adult daughter.

Thanks for the responses.

Brian

 

[Ireth]

I have something similar in a few of my stories. My epic fantasy Tenth Realm has characters who are mostly bilingual in either Welsh and Irish or Irish and Norse. I represent all those as English, and simply note when characters speak one language or another. A Welsh/Irish speaker would use Irish when speaking to an Irish/Norse speaker, for instance, but might switch back to Welsh when speaking to another Welsh speaker and not wanting the Norse speaker to overhear.

Also, in various text-based roleplays, often characters will come from other worlds and times, and their languages don't always magically translate to English for the MCs' benefit. In these cases I denote the untranslated language with <pointy brackets>. When certain characters use ASL (one of the MCs is deaf and that is her only language; she also taught it to her husband and stepdaughter), I use italics and change the font color.

I also use pointy brackets in a novel involving a deaf mermaid MC who uses merfolk sign language. She doesn't understand human sign language though, which creates conflict with the main supporting character, who's also deaf and uses signs.

 

[K.S. Crooks]

The focus in this case is on the audience for the character. He would only use Spanish when speaking with someone who is more comfortable in that language over English. If he calls his parents, with friends at home or trying to ensure his kids also learnt he language he may use Spanish more often. At work only if speaking with someone who needs that language. One thing to consider is that people always do math in their native language. If a person wants to check a bill to make sure they were not over charged the revert back to what is natural.

 

[Aly]

That's really interesting - I hadn't thought to differentiate sigh language using different font as you have, Ireth. I think in my stories, sign (and there are lots of different sign languages) is simply another language just as Italian, Spanish, English and Japanese are. I occasionally clarify which language is in use but since my main character understands them I feel the reader should also.

I do use italics when I want to put the words untranslated (usually followed by a translation though.) I use this trick when I want the reader to understand the importance of it being a particular language (even made up one) and I repeat the phrase here and there - eventually untranslated - to promote some familiarity. that works well for greetings said between members of different races for example.

It's great to see how others approach the same issues I have.

 

[Svrtnsse]

Another thing to keep in mind is that switching back and forth between languages can be really disruptive when talking, even if you're familiar with both languages.
Languages have different "melodies" and different sounds to them. Switching from one language to another when talking is more than just swapping out a word. If the languages are very different you'll have to stop speaking completely to "reset your mouth" before you start again. It feels awkward, and generally sounds a bit odd too.
This of course depends on the language in question, or the speaker. If they're very similar sounding, or if the speaker isn't particularly good in one of them, then it's probably fine.