(no subject)
May. 15th, 2010 01:17 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
adiva_calandiaI've been playing lately with the idea of writing a character who speaks English the way I speak Greek -- with a little understanding of structure and some rote dialogues, but not enough vocabulary to carry on a real conversation. I'm certain it's a she, and I'm pretty sure she's from a high fantasy type world, and I'm fairly sure she's a Ranger type. I'm not sure why she's in a country that speaks English Common a language she doesn't really know -- I was poking at it and thought "Well, maybe she's just exploring, you know, left home and is wandering the world," and then realized I was basically describing the people I've met in hostels, three of whom have been young women touring Europe before starting med school. Which, I don't know, might be a viable way to start off a story. But my roomie would wisely tell me to "make it harder," so . . .
I realize that this is proooobably my way of coping with the mild frustration of living in a country where I barely speak enough of the language to go shopping, but I don't think that negates it as an interesting idea.
(Also, really, I just want to try writing the dialogue. I mean, the way I speak Greek is not equivalent to the way furriners speaking English is often portrayed. I don't say "My name Adiva," I use the correct -- and memorized -- "I am called Adiva." But if I wanted to say something complicated -- like, say, the situation my friends were in when they found a dead turtle in the National Gardens and were trying to explain to some kids that it was dead -- I would probably start speaking like a bad Babelfish translation because I just lack the vocabulary. "No life! It doesn't reside! There is not life!" And I think the tension between moments of fluency and moments of being unable to say anything clear would be really interesting to explore.
The Name of the Rose, says Umberto Eco, came about because "I wanted to poison a monk." I want to frustrate a traveler. It's a start, right?)
I realize that this is proooobably my way of coping with the mild frustration of living in a country where I barely speak enough of the language to go shopping, but I don't think that negates it as an interesting idea.
(Also, really, I just want to try writing the dialogue. I mean, the way I speak Greek is not equivalent to the way furriners speaking English is often portrayed. I don't say "My name Adiva," I use the correct -- and memorized -- "I am called Adiva." But if I wanted to say something complicated -- like, say, the situation my friends were in when they found a dead turtle in the National Gardens and were trying to explain to some kids that it was dead -- I would probably start speaking like a bad Babelfish translation because I just lack the vocabulary. "No life! It doesn't reside! There is not life!" And I think the tension between moments of fluency and moments of being unable to say anything clear would be really interesting to explore.
The Name of the Rose, says Umberto Eco, came about because "I wanted to poison a monk." I want to frustrate a traveler. It's a start, right?)
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2010-05-15 08:21 pm (UTC)And actually I'd love to pick your brain, because one of the fiction projects whirring away in the back of my brain is about a stranger in a strange land, and the language stuff is both interesting and kind of a challenge.
no subject
Date: 2010-05-16 04:45 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-05-16 02:21 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-05-16 02:47 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-05-16 03:20 am (UTC)How common is the "my name is" construction, versus the "I am called" construction? I know German uses the latter, which weirded me out a bit when I started learning it.
no subject
Date: 2010-05-16 04:42 am (UTC)