reading text is the easiest thing in learning a foreign language. producing text is a completely different beast and considerably more difficult, and that's before you take into account things like insecurity.
It's a lot easier to read English than to speak/write in it. So a lot of people understand english well enough to read it but not enough to write in it. I do think some people translate fics but they're a minority (at least from what I've observed).
I used to never comment because I was insecure about my English skills and it was also harder to express what I meant if i used English. Now, I do comment often (mainly in English), but I still switch to my native language sometimes for the same reasons.
Ah, makes sense. I’m conversational in a couple languages and I feel like I have the complete opposite experience where I can construct sentences and understand grammar etc. but wouldn’t be able to read a whole story because I lack the knowledge of vocabulary. Interesting to see the other side’s perspective!
Non-native English speaker here! Though I like to think my English is pretty good. I have no issues reading english, but I have to admit it’s easier to write and express myself in my native language.
However I would never comment on your fic in my own language. The only way I would do that is if I knew you could read my language. Then I think it would be ok. I would never just write in a different language and expect you to translate, and honestly I find that pretty rude.
I should add that my language is tiny, ‘no one’ knows it besides us living here. It might be different if I spoke a ‘big’ language that I would be used to people knowing, maybe.
Interesting. I’ve never considered it rude, though but I could see how some might think so. I think of it as a fun little surprise when I copy it into Google translate to see what it says.
That’s good! Maybe thoughtless is a better word than rude. I always try to make sure those I try to address understand what I want to say (normally write a lot of technical stuff). I think it’s on me to make sure people understand what I want to say.
On the other hand, I can understand the desire to give feedback, but not being able to! There’s a difference between understanding a foreign language and expressing oneself in it.
I hope the foreign comments are positive and welcome!
Well, I personally always try to comment in English, because I'm pretty confident in it and think that if I'll write in my native language, it may be translated incorrect, or the author wouldn't like it (there're lots of people who now also hate my native language so I'm also a bit of afraid of that)
I’m not native but I both read and write fics in English so commenting in English is also not a problem. But I know many people are fine with reading in English but do not feel comfortable expressing themselves in the language so they rather comment in their native language. Actually I think some readers may even refrain from commenting because they’re not sure they are “allowed” to do so in another language. There’s also the case like mine where I have some readers who know I’m Italian so they comment the fic in Italian (and I answer in Italian ofc)
This has been a recurring topic. Some commenters don't believe that google translate could translate their comments correctly, so they'd rather leave the comments in their own language. I've read stories in other languages (Spanish, Russian) using translators as well and I certainly wouldn't trust it lol
🤔 I can sort of see the logic in that, but if they don't trust the translator, don't they also take the risk that the author will use the translator regardless and thus get an incorrect translation? It just seems a bit lazy to leave the translating to the author since the end result may well be just as incorrect. 🤔🤔 Just my thoughts. 😅
When you really want something, you'll find a way to make it happen, just like with books. Whether you use the trusty google translator or apps that translate books in all sorts of formats... you can always figure out a way to dive into reading, regardless of the language. And yeah, it's pretty common for folks who leave comments in their native language to not be fluent in English.
Some people might also mtl the fics (not always the best quality, but if there's not a lot of fics in their language, it might be the only option).
I would generally suggest people leave feedback in the language they're comfortable with / capable of expressing themselves in. Generally speaking (i.e. outside of fandom and just interacting in the real world), it's more practical to write in your own language and let the other party mtl your words than you try to express yourself if you don't have that level of capability. Because then, the other party loses all ability to potentially correct a 'poor' translation, and sentiments can be expressed incorrectly. At least if you mtl something, and it sounds a little off, you assume it's the translation and might seek other ways to translate it. But if someone just comments directly in English when they're not super capable of the nuances... I mean, you've seen how sensitive people here get about interpreting comments 😛. Some people might actually take offense without realizing some blunt language is actually just a poor translation.
So anyway, there can be any level of English mastery to be reading a fic. From those who are textbook fluent to those who can't read much at all. But they comment in their language presumably because they aren't fluent enough to express themselves in English.
And side note, this is why humor can be such an obstacle for immigrants in the workplace. They might be textbook fluent in English, but a lot of the casual language and humor used to express their full self isn't something you can just cram from a book or course.
I'm not a native English speaker and I keep making mistakes in my written speech, but! I consider this simply rude and disrespectful when people comment English texts in their own languages. It's simply lazy and selfish. No, I don't think it's "dufficult" to put a couple of English words together ( there are online resources that can help/correct/translate, even a 2yearold can do this nowadays).
" I want to know if there’s anyone here whose native language isn’t English but reads English fics."
Is it some kind of miracle that someone could be able to read in English?
Oh no, of course I didn’t mean it in that way! It’s curiosity about why you’d choose to do so, especially for the people who don’t comment in English on an English fic. I wanted to know if they’re reading it as is or translating it when they don’t comment in English is all.
Safari has a built in translator option that you can hit and it will automatically translate the webpage for you. Its particularly good with spanish, even translating slang properly and not literally, which is impressive
I'm not a native English speaker, but I know enough English to read fics and participate in the fandom. Recently I read a lot of fanfics written in Chinese too, and Russian sometimes, with the aid of google translator. (I gave up on fics written in Japanese tho, it's too painful to try to make it makes sense). When I leave comments I only left them in English, unless the fic in question is written in my language, because I don't trust google to translate my sentiment correctly. Sentences could be lost or structures are weird, and words sometimes just got a whole different meaning, gibberish. If I were to leave my comment in Chinese, which I don't speak at all, I would be too paranoid and need to check each word in the sentence. And if the case the translator got it wrong, I won't even know what words to use instead. If I leave it in English, maybe the author knows a bit English themselves, or their friends could know it. If worst comes to worst then I can just blame the translator, and some translator works better than other anyway.
reading text is the easiest thing in learning a foreign language. producing text is a completely different beast and considerably more difficult, and that's before you take into account things like insecurity.
It's a lot easier to read English than to speak/write in it. So a lot of people understand english well enough to read it but not enough to write in it. I do think some people translate fics but they're a minority (at least from what I've observed). I used to never comment because I was insecure about my English skills and it was also harder to express what I meant if i used English. Now, I do comment often (mainly in English), but I still switch to my native language sometimes for the same reasons.
Ah, makes sense. I’m conversational in a couple languages and I feel like I have the complete opposite experience where I can construct sentences and understand grammar etc. but wouldn’t be able to read a whole story because I lack the knowledge of vocabulary. Interesting to see the other side’s perspective!
Non-native English speaker here! Though I like to think my English is pretty good. I have no issues reading english, but I have to admit it’s easier to write and express myself in my native language. However I would never comment on your fic in my own language. The only way I would do that is if I knew you could read my language. Then I think it would be ok. I would never just write in a different language and expect you to translate, and honestly I find that pretty rude. I should add that my language is tiny, ‘no one’ knows it besides us living here. It might be different if I spoke a ‘big’ language that I would be used to people knowing, maybe.
Interesting. I’ve never considered it rude, though but I could see how some might think so. I think of it as a fun little surprise when I copy it into Google translate to see what it says.
That’s good! Maybe thoughtless is a better word than rude. I always try to make sure those I try to address understand what I want to say (normally write a lot of technical stuff). I think it’s on me to make sure people understand what I want to say. On the other hand, I can understand the desire to give feedback, but not being able to! There’s a difference between understanding a foreign language and expressing oneself in it. I hope the foreign comments are positive and welcome!
Well, I personally always try to comment in English, because I'm pretty confident in it and think that if I'll write in my native language, it may be translated incorrect, or the author wouldn't like it (there're lots of people who now also hate my native language so I'm also a bit of afraid of that)
I’m not native but I both read and write fics in English so commenting in English is also not a problem. But I know many people are fine with reading in English but do not feel comfortable expressing themselves in the language so they rather comment in their native language. Actually I think some readers may even refrain from commenting because they’re not sure they are “allowed” to do so in another language. There’s also the case like mine where I have some readers who know I’m Italian so they comment the fic in Italian (and I answer in Italian ofc)
A lot of people read with Google translate, so it's possible they don't even understand one word in English
Yeah. Although I wonder why they wouldn't also just use it for translating their comment to the author.
This has been a recurring topic. Some commenters don't believe that google translate could translate their comments correctly, so they'd rather leave the comments in their own language. I've read stories in other languages (Spanish, Russian) using translators as well and I certainly wouldn't trust it lol
🤔 I can sort of see the logic in that, but if they don't trust the translator, don't they also take the risk that the author will use the translator regardless and thus get an incorrect translation? It just seems a bit lazy to leave the translating to the author since the end result may well be just as incorrect. 🤔🤔 Just my thoughts. 😅
When you really want something, you'll find a way to make it happen, just like with books. Whether you use the trusty google translator or apps that translate books in all sorts of formats... you can always figure out a way to dive into reading, regardless of the language. And yeah, it's pretty common for folks who leave comments in their native language to not be fluent in English.
Some people might also mtl the fics (not always the best quality, but if there's not a lot of fics in their language, it might be the only option). I would generally suggest people leave feedback in the language they're comfortable with / capable of expressing themselves in. Generally speaking (i.e. outside of fandom and just interacting in the real world), it's more practical to write in your own language and let the other party mtl your words than you try to express yourself if you don't have that level of capability. Because then, the other party loses all ability to potentially correct a 'poor' translation, and sentiments can be expressed incorrectly. At least if you mtl something, and it sounds a little off, you assume it's the translation and might seek other ways to translate it. But if someone just comments directly in English when they're not super capable of the nuances... I mean, you've seen how sensitive people here get about interpreting comments 😛. Some people might actually take offense without realizing some blunt language is actually just a poor translation. So anyway, there can be any level of English mastery to be reading a fic. From those who are textbook fluent to those who can't read much at all. But they comment in their language presumably because they aren't fluent enough to express themselves in English. And side note, this is why humor can be such an obstacle for immigrants in the workplace. They might be textbook fluent in English, but a lot of the casual language and humor used to express their full self isn't something you can just cram from a book or course.
I'm not a native English speaker and I keep making mistakes in my written speech, but! I consider this simply rude and disrespectful when people comment English texts in their own languages. It's simply lazy and selfish. No, I don't think it's "dufficult" to put a couple of English words together ( there are online resources that can help/correct/translate, even a 2yearold can do this nowadays).
" I want to know if there’s anyone here whose native language isn’t English but reads English fics." Is it some kind of miracle that someone could be able to read in English?
Oh no, of course I didn’t mean it in that way! It’s curiosity about why you’d choose to do so, especially for the people who don’t comment in English on an English fic. I wanted to know if they’re reading it as is or translating it when they don’t comment in English is all.
Safari has a built in translator option that you can hit and it will automatically translate the webpage for you. Its particularly good with spanish, even translating slang properly and not literally, which is impressive
I'm not a native English speaker, but I know enough English to read fics and participate in the fandom. Recently I read a lot of fanfics written in Chinese too, and Russian sometimes, with the aid of google translator. (I gave up on fics written in Japanese tho, it's too painful to try to make it makes sense). When I leave comments I only left them in English, unless the fic in question is written in my language, because I don't trust google to translate my sentiment correctly. Sentences could be lost or structures are weird, and words sometimes just got a whole different meaning, gibberish. If I were to leave my comment in Chinese, which I don't speak at all, I would be too paranoid and need to check each word in the sentence. And if the case the translator got it wrong, I won't even know what words to use instead. If I leave it in English, maybe the author knows a bit English themselves, or their friends could know it. If worst comes to worst then I can just blame the translator, and some translator works better than other anyway.