How do I make an ESL character sound realistic?
I have to write an assignment in which there's an English character talking with a English as a Second Language (ESL) character. It is turning out really, really badly. I have a general idea of what the characters need to say to each other to advance the plot, but I can't get the characters to sound realistic. Well... the English one does, but the ESL character doesn't. He just sounds like an English speaker who doesn't really speak English well. He's supposed to be good enough to get by, but not fluent in English. I'm interested in psychology, and I thought I would be able to use that to help me better create this character, but that hasn't seemed to work either.
The ESL character is of Asian descent (but I haven't picked from where the character originates, so I'm not really able to ask for specifics or anything) and in order to gain an understanding of what people from Asian countries who learn English are like, I talked to a friend who is Japanese (and a psychology minor, she's the one who gave me some psychology paperwork to look into on the subject of language affecting thoughts and speech).
She pointed me to some studies (they're books and I can't find great references on Google but basically things like this) where language is brought up as something that influences thought. The example I gave talks about time, but there are other papers that could probably be more sufficient. The idea was that if I could find studies on how language affected thought in whatever language I chose for this guy's native language, I could use the studies to make general changes to his dialogue to make him seem more realistic (instead of my character saying "X broke the vase", he would say "The vase broke" since English speakers tend to assign blame more than Asian speakers do, for example).
I also talked to my friend to learn about her experience in learning English, but she's fluent in English now (so I can't pick up on how she speaks for my character) and says it's hard to remember the kinds of mistakes she made-- she said she remembers just being wrong all the time and now looking back it's hard to pinpoint any one time that taught her anything important. Other people I've talked to have less problems remembering mistakes, but I just can't get my character to sound right even with their help. He sounds too fluent.
Thus far, this is what I've gleaned from research:
- Few contractions, if any.
- Little slang. Difficulty using slang words that are often used like "gonna" or "dunno" if particularly weak at English
- Tag questions. Most of them are affirmation types, asking for corrections and so forth.
- Incorrect tenses, but it depends on how far along in English the character is. Irregular verbs are more difficult, but also past progressive tenses and things like that aren't bound to be completely understood.
- If puns/idioms are used, often they should be directly translated from the native language.
- Simple, short sentences
- Professional sounding English, since they aren't taught colloquial English
I don't know what else to do. If anyone has advice on how to make an ESL character sound realistic, I would appreciate it.
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3 answers
One thing typical for all languages would be the speaker using the wrong word when they translate to the same word in their native language. For example, my native language has the same word for both 'roof' and 'ceiling' and I used to have trouble picking the correct one in English.
Another one would be having slightly awkward phrasing: not the perfect choice of words all the time. Maybe a word or two missing. (I make that sort of mistakes all the time. See my edits for a minor example.) Try not to refine the lines, but leave them at 'draft quality'.
They might also have a couple of uncommon words in their vocabulary that they looked up from the dictionary to express some word often used in their language. ('We don't usually say something like that' is a fairly common response in the language SEs.)
For Japanese, I'll refer you to this series of articles (by Melanie Barr) that points out typical mistakes the Japanese (supposedly) make when speaking English. Updates are posted weekly. The articles are in Japanese but you should have no trouble gleaning the English sentences from them.
They also make the mistakes the Chinese do as described in @dmm's answer. (Although I don't think the Japanese have trouble with plurals.) In addition, some people overuse the passive voice since it lets them speak/write in a more natural word order. (Japanese puts the verb last. Example: The problem that encoding of 5.1 channel source didn't work was revised.)
Another peculiarity of theirs would be the use of certain English compounds that might sound nonsensical; this is known as 'wasei-eigo' ('English made in Japan') and an example of it -- quite ironically -- has found its way into the logo of the site in the first link: 'One point English'. Better phrased, it would be 'A quick lesson in English'.
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I don't know what else to do. If anyone has advice on how to make an ESL character sound realistic, I would appreciate it.
All answers so far, as promoted by the question, aims for advancing understanding of the foreign language and culture. For an assignment, that seems to be quite ambitious. Without knowing the assignment boundaries I would like to add some ideas of "what else". These ideas could help even if the assignment was specifically "make believable dialogue" or "write varied characters".
He just sounds like an English speaker who doesn't really speak English well.
Similar to translation you could choose to write the dialogue in perfect English instead. IMHO that would be a highly realistic way to tell the story. Use other signals to frame the setting and introduce characters.
Can they meet in a scenario (airport, university, abroad) where the language difference can be briefly mentioned and build character rather than dialogue? Would they have a relationship opening for language discussion (friends, teacher, tourist)? How long has it been?
Could it be the culture, food and area knowledge that tells the reader which character is less familiar with London/Boston? Are they necessarily in England or can the ESL be the one most comfortable, using his knowledge to help the other person (even without using any of the other language)? Even the way they dress or appear is a possible key to the introduction.
He's supposed to be good enough to get by, but not fluent in English.
Depending on setting "almost fluent" would then be as realistic as anything less. "Getting by" is however a fairly low criteria. He pointed at the map and said 'Hotel'.
Standing by the suggestion to use perfect English there could still be some additional signals in the dialogue to hint that it's "translated".
- Slight pauses to find the next word or longer pause to think through what to say. Possibly with written out thoughts of grammar rules or whatever.
- Asking for confirmation, even though it was perfect: Do you understand what I mean? Was that the right word to use?
- Repeating and rephrasing some key messages, as if being afraid of misunderstandings. Either the character does it herself, or they do it in dialogue. -I feel misunderstood most of the time. -Like, you're doubting your language abilities?
Things like this could be a normal part of any real verbal dialogue, but to make it less tedious reading, it's usually stripped out. Adding some of it back in could be a useful effect.
PS. I know this is a very old question, but it was recently active and I felt it needed another answer for the sake of balance.
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The best advice I can give you is to find actual ESL speakers and listen to them. If you can find an ESL class in your area, talk to the teacher. Ask permission from teacher and students to audit and/or record the class, so you can hear what word choices are being made.
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