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Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/q/31075
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

I am trying to write a character that speaks English poorly. I do not want to grossly misspell words for sounds or use bad grammar. I find those techniques to sound juvenile and the bad grammar is never the correct bad grammar a language would use.

From my bilingual experience, most people that speak poorly will pronounce words as accurate as they can as long as they are new words. On the other hand, when the word sounds similar to the word in their language they will often just say the native word.

I want to pass this on in my writing by including similar words spelled out in the native language.

Will readers correctly pick this up? Will having to figure out these words improve the feeling of the character or just become breaks on the reader's flow?

Some details.

The writing is obviously fiction. The language in question uses a similar enough alphabet to make the words readable.

I think my question is distinct enough from [Style when intentionally misspelling?](https://writers.stackexchange.com/questions/25355/style-when-intentionally-misspelling) as I am looking to know how it affects the flow of reading, not just a judgement of the reader.

Adding an example of how I am using the technique

> “You. You kill my father, and then you stroll in here with your little **våpens** , You come to see Maud V. You think he is weak, and frail and can be pushed around? No **mine**  **babyer**. Maud V is going to give you the punishment you deserve."

Original score: 17