How would one communicate a change in language in the story?

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hikarinakano
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How would one communicate a change in language in the story?

#1 Post by hikarinakano »

Context: I finished the third draft of my current major project, so I set it aside to purge it from my mind before editing again, and now I'm throwing together some scenes for a different VN.

So, say I have a VN in which one of the characters is foreign, but the story takes place in a place in which English is not the native language. Sometimes, for the sake of a joke, or a cunning ploy, or whatever else, this character might switch languages to confuse the people he's talking to. How could I show that in the text? I have two examples of the options I've come up with:
[Character A]
C'mon, start talking, or I'll really beat you up!
[Character B]
アイ•ヅ•ノト•スピーク•ジャパネズ!
ワット•アル•ユ•タッキング•アバウット?
In the above example, Character A is speaking in Japanese, since the setting is in Osaka, Japan. Character B is a native English speaker who chooses to spontaneously speak English. But I can't have Character B suddenly change languages back to English from Japanese, because that's really confusing since there's no cue for that.

The other option I have is:
[Character A]
C'mon, start talking, or I'll really beat you up!
[NVL]
Maybe if I start speaking in English, he'll think that I don't understand him...
...maybe?
[Character B]
I do not speak Japanese!
What are you talking about?!
In this example, I tell the reader that there is a change in language, but I feel that it could be confusing, because the reader might still think that Character B is speaking Japanese.

Here's another scenario for the example, for clarification purposes:
Option 1:
[Character A]
Have you ever heard of フォトニクス?
[Character B]
フォトニクス? Oh, you mean photonics?
Option 2:
[Character A]
Have you ever heard of ------?
[NVL]
He says a Japanese word I've never learned before.
I struggle to figure out what it means, before realizing.
[Character B]
Oh, photonics? Yeah, what about it?
The key difference is that Option 1 uses Asian characters, and Option 2 does not. Which one should I use? That is, which one best communicates the change in language?

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Re: How would one communicate a change in language in the st

#2 Post by indoneko »

Unless you're using an alien language, I'd choose option 1 all the time. You could also add furigana/ruby text on asian language characters to make it more readable
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Re: How would one communicate a change in language in the st

#3 Post by Imperf3kt »

You could use Romaji, so those who don't understand moon runes and heiroglyphs can at least "hear" the sentence, even if they don't understand it.
So I'm assuming character one is Japanese, speaking Japanese (but shown in English so we can understand) and character two also speaks Japanese, but switches to English.

I'd do this: lets assume we want character two to say "Sorry, I don't speak Japanese" (pardon the shitty Japanese)
Character one:
C'mon, start talking, or I'll really beat you up!
Character two:
sumimasen, watashi wa nihon-go ga hanase masen.
Nan to itta no desu ka?
Anata wa ei-go ga hanase masu ka?
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Re: How would one communicate a change in language in the st

#4 Post by Sonomi »

hikarinakano wrote: [Character A]
C'mon, start talking, or I'll really beat you up!
[Character B]
アイ•ヅ•ノト•スピーク•ジャパネズ!
ワット•アル•ユ•タッキング•アバウット?

In the above example, Character A is speaking in Japanese, since the setting is in Osaka, Japan. Character B is a native English speaker who chooses to spontaneously speak English. But I can't have Character B suddenly change languages back to English from Japanese, because that's really confusing since there's no cue for that.
Why are you using katakana if Character B is speaking in English? ^ ^

This would absolutely work if the visual novel were in Japanese and a sentence or two had been written with the alphabet.

Character A (speaking in Japanese as usual): アメリカ人ですか? (Amerikajindesuka? / Are you American?)
Character B (pretending not to understand): Huh? I don't understand.

But in this case, I would probably just italicize, bold, or color Character B's response to make a visual indication of the change. Because if the visual novel is in English and the character is speaking English, that should be sufficient to get the point across! The readers instinctively know that there's a disconnect happening below (well probably...)

Character A (Japanese): Hey you, I need your help with something.
Character B (English): Are you talking to me? I don't understand.

I went a little overboard using all three at once, but I hope that makes sense.
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Re: How would one communicate a change in language in the st

#5 Post by hikarinakano »

Sonomi wrote:But in this case, I would probably just italicize, bold, or color Character B's response to make a visual indication of the change. Because if the visual novel is in English and the character is speaking English, that should be sufficient to get the point across! The readers instinctively know that there's a disconnect happening below (well probably...)

Character A (Japanese): Hey you, I need your help with something.
Character B (English): Are you talking to me? I don't understand.

I went a little overboard using all three at once, but I hope that makes sense.
Funny enough, I like the example more than the suggestion, if that makes sense. Just having the text be visually different isn't going to mean anything to anybody if they aren't aware that the colored text means something.

What's interesting are the parenthetical notes you used. I didn't consider just blatantly telling the reader that the character is speaking a different language. It certainly seems like in the case:
[Character B (in English)]
Are you talking to me? I don't understand.
The reader would be more likely to make the connection automatically, and gloss over the note, in much the same way as someone would gloss over
*cough*
and understand what it means.

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Re: How would one communicate a change in language in the st

#6 Post by Sonomi »

hikarinakano wrote:Funny enough, I like the example more than the suggestion, if that makes sense. Just having the text be visually different isn't going to mean anything to anybody if they aren't aware that the colored text means something.

What's interesting are the parenthetical notes you used. I didn't consider just blatantly telling the reader that the character is speaking a different language. It certainly seems like in the case:
[Character B (in English)]
Are you talking to me? I don't understand.
The reader would be more likely to make the connection automatically, and gloss over the note, in much the same way as someone would gloss over
*cough*
and understand what it means.
I made the parenthetical notes so that people reading this thread wouldn't get confused or anything, but if you see that as a viable option to implement in your visual novel then I would absolutely support that. It's definitely easier to understand if you opt for explicit notations. :)

Just...whatever you do, don't write in another language without at least using subtitles to explain what is being said! I am reading that sort of story right now, and unfortunately it's a little difficult to fully enjoy because I can't read Chinese at all. As a result, most of what one character says is essentially gibberish for me. Lol

(My Japanese is somewhat better, but point still stands.)
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Re: How would one communicate a change in language in the st

#7 Post by Jain »

A girl I knew in a fiction workshop class did a story set in Japan, and did, "Japanese dialogue" followed by a translation of said dialogue in italics.


It didn't go over well. The novelty of being able to see romanji wore off very quickly. I was taking a Japanese class and could barely follow the dialogue. The rest of the workshop had no knowledge of Japanese whatsoever, and just skimmed it until they found the translation.

I prefer to have a "foreign" character drop a word in their native language every now and then, allowing the audience to gather the meaning from context, and maybe depending on their proficiency with the "other" language, have them stumble over a word occasionally or struggle with their phrasing every now and then.

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Re: How would one communicate a change in language in the st

#8 Post by Katy133 »

It depends on the context of how much you want the player to understand the non-English speaker. Unless you give a translation, the player can't read the non-English text (unless they are familiar with it, which on TV Tropes is known as a Bilingual Bonus).

Another method is to play with font. Writer Terry Pratchett used unquoted SMALL CAPS when he wrote the character dialogue for Death. Death's words "[entered the other characters' heads] with no involvement from the ears."

Example:
Death: IF PEOPLE KNEW WHEN THEY WERE GOING TO DIE, I THINK THEY PROBABLY WOULDN'T LIVE AT ALL.
- Terry Pratchett, The Reaper Man

In the Portal video game series, the quotes from the robotic turrets sometimes place capital letters in the middle of words to illustrate their eerie voices.

Example:
Turret: aRe yOu sTiLL theRE?
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