Forums » RP Discussion » Characters and languages

What is your take on characters using a different language when the player does not know this language at all, but copies and pastes google translator results?


I personally am bothered by it, quite a lot actually. I am cool with characters who speak French/Italian/Dutch/Russian/German so on and so forth, but to native speakers (German for me) it's a huge thorn in the eye. The character supposedly grew up in Germany but the player, using translators, doesn't know the difference between die, der and das and pretty much rapes the whole darned language with butchered text. It totally ruins the character for me. I feel the same about accents! Hollywood accents rarely represent the real accents people have but they are used constantly.

But the real kicker? Most people don't know wtf your character is saying anyway! Why bother putting in the text that doesn't translate properly back to English because it is butchered already and makes your character say he wants a turd sandwich instead of a tuna sandwich? I much more like italics with English writing that means the character is saying it in German... It makes sense to everyone and gets the point across better too. Fantasy/not real languages like elven or caveman don't count here obviously...

It depends on the language for how I do it, but more importantly, where I am RPing.
If my Persian character is talking Farsi in the Main Hall of TGT, I am going to presume that most people in that room do not know Persian. So I will use a translator, then whisper who I am specifically RPing with with a translation (or multiple people if it is a group RP).

If it's just a private RP, I get lazy and just bold or italic it to show they are talking in something else.

Online translators are there for a reason; to translate texts. Who said it would be perfect? I see more English-speaking people butcher the English language every day without the use of one.

I think online translators can be pretty silly things, and you've had an excellent point, Magica. (Actually, I think I've heard mentioned two other German speakers go wtf at something like that.)
If no one else knows, is their a real point to even type it out? Why not just describe that your character is talking like this? Or just use italics? Or if only one other person, your partner, speaks that language, just whisper them it?
I'm a bit on the fence about it, I suppose.

Accents also go hand in hand. Sometimes I find it incredibly annoying, if I have to work to figure out what your character is saying... well, my character isn't going to understand anything that is coming out of your characters mouth.

I've seen a lot of that too.

As far as characters speaking a different language, I think it's a little silly to write all of their dialogue in a language that other players don't know, regardless of whether you know it or use a translator.

If I was going to play a character that didn't speak English, what I might do is write their first sentence in the chosen language, just to give everyone an idea of what they're saying sounds like but include a translation following it in italics. Everything they say after that will be written in English but I might throw in the occasional word, to use German as an example, "ja" or "nein".

I don't think there are many people on Furcadia who speak Farsi (or anyone really??) so it kind of goes with the fantasy languages

Maybe it bugs me because English is not my native language... Someone messing up with German grinds my gears like oh god because I speak it. If an American or Brit speaks German like I speak English and they see a German roleplay an American character but using a translator to write completely butchered English text how would it make them feel? Imagine you're that person and put in that situation.. How would you feel about it?

On the other hand a friend told me that writing it in English may ruin the mysterious and foreign feel of the character and I can understand why italics won't work too.

I don't know how you speak English but you write it excellently.

Thanks. My friend is great at writing English too but I noticed that with many non-english speaking folks on Furcadia. Sometimes we do say things oddly though

My main's first language was, well, basically Arabic, but since I don't know anything about speaking it I just wrote it out in English in her story, briefly explaining that she wasn't speaking English.

I do things like this when my characters don't speak English: "It's only a model," she muttered in some obscure European language.

Hmm. I can see your point, the "italics English" approach seems better in light of that. Also, if people go all Funetick Aksent with their character's accent, that's usually not cool, but if said character's accent is implied but typed normally, then there shouldn't be too much of a problem.

Normally I would say this didn't bother me since I try to stay away from such things but then I remembered seeing someone play a character from Jamaica and while I'm not from there my family is from the Caribbean and to see someone butcher the slang and accent made me feel like I was chewing glass. So I'm not a fan.

Due to there being a ton of languages in WoW, a common thing to do is "[Language] Text here."
Since these aren't actually real languages, you can't really type them out anyway. And with languages your race knows, you can just select the language and it'll "translate" your text into something unreadable for people that don't know the language. People that do can read it. Which is pretty cool. For other languages the game doesn't give you, there's always pretending!

As for accents, I actually like them being typed out... it makes sense if your character actually talks that way! If it's hard to understand their accent for the player, I'd think it would also be hard to figure out for the character. And it can always be clarified what they're saying in OOC, anyways.

Aw man, now I feel bad, because I am one of those who uses Google Translate. ><

Augh, geeze, ah... I haven't gotten any personal complaints yet 'bout my foreign-based characters, but if it bothers someone I'm roleplaying with, I don't mind switching to implied foreign language use. The last thing I want to do is offend someone. Not sure 'bout accents though-- I guess if someone wants me to get rid of it, I could?

Anyway, er, in my mild and weak defense, I am trying to learn German so I can at least have a better grasp on what my characters are saying-- I have some friends who either took German classes or are German, so they help me out when I have questions. I use Google Translate most of the time simply because said friends are usually not online/busy and are unable to be pestered about something right then and there during an rp. Otherwise I ask stuff off-scene when I catch 'em.

There's all kinds of ways to do languages in a roleplaying setting, and I've seen them all executed well. Sure, sometimes ignorant people can make things frustrating--I have a background of living in India, and I go into a minor rage whenever I see characters claiming that they speak 'Indian'--but overall, I don't think there's any right or wrong way to insert languages besides the one being used as the roleplay medium. Still, there's different ways to do it depending on your skill with the language, and I feel that not stepping out of your bounds is key to successfully roleplaying your character.

I play a character who speaks Gaelic, for example, but I myself don't know enough about the language to feel comfortable even considering attempting to type in it--so I use italics, or label the language some other way when it is being spoken. If no characters present can understand it, I don't even bother typing any of the words, unless it's a loud exclamation ("D'anam don diabhall!").

As for accents, I love accents, and I love seeing other people type them for their characters (lookin' at you, Lauren!), but I'm kind of awful at it, myself. I do a really bad one on my troll and I'm not going to even attempt an Irish one for fear of making Edward sound like a leprechaun.

Vat are feelinks on Jägerizink?

You reminded me of this:

Honestly I think it's kind of silly. I used to do "K" for "G" way back in the day, but now-a-days I look at it and go "... what? Really? Is that even legit?"

Had a German foreign exchange student in one of my classes once, and I don't ever remember hearing that in her accent.

....I rofl'd so hard.

...What is that from? xD

It's from Hot Fuzz.

That is hilarious.

Anywho:

When I want to have my characters speak another language, I go like this.

"<Oh yes, quite, don't you agree old chap?>"

There. I established that he was French beforehand, and people are smart, so they know this means he's speaking French. Now, when he's speaking in English, I add a few French interjections so that people don't forget (zut alors!).

But funetik aksents? No, just no.