are these accurate? #bilingual #writing #writingtips #writer #author #books #authortips #booktube

Great tips!

If you dont speak/write the language of the character you're writing, what should you do?? I dont know if I can trust google translate or if I should just have it say "She said something in Spanish" or whatever.

And we forget words!
I learnt English, use it online, went to Australia three years back, I’m fluent, I can talk, write, use figures of speech. And think in English. But it clashes with my native French, and I spend way too much time googling “how do you say root in French”

usually someone who isn't 100% fluent in their second language will be very formal in it, because you learn the "correct" way to speak first -- slang and flexible word order and sounds/words/etc that u can drop out are things you can only rly learn how to use properly by being immersed in a language.

"Sometimes they forget how to speak in both" Yup. Yup. Doesn't matter how many languages you know, or that you know the term intimately. You've definitely used that word before. The exact vibe you're going for is perfectly valid in all three of the languages that can be understood in the current context. Still, you're only able to maybe stutteringly explain the term instead. Worse when it's a really common simple word, like "popcorn" or "kettle", if only because it's really embarrassing.

i never realised i do that code switch thing 😭 i also change pitch but that's not really something you can add in writing lol

the first one is so accurate, in english i'm filled with confidence, but when i speak french i become so shy and apologetic

You reminded me to practice my duolingo lol.

Thank you! This will help a bit with one of my favorite OCs!

I saved this video because those are good tips for writing bilingual characters, then remembered I’m bilingual myself😭

you aren't bilingual if you can't speak it

Another thing is that there's a difference between a us bilingual and non us bilingual.

A lot of Americans are bilingual by virtue of being an immigrant or dependant of em, and so have a different home language to English.

A lot of non Americans are bilingual as just a part of regular schooling, I'm danish and fluent in both english and danish, as most danes my age are. I'm in a stem field, my books and any paper i read for sources are in english, a lot of companies in my field are international and require english knowledge, with german also being appreciated.

also i'd like to point out that if you use a specific language, research its own specific bilingual culture
for example in places along the welsh border to england (like where i live!), a lot of kids are first language english and learn welsh in school, these people tend not to use welsh outside of school, reading bilingual signage, and making jokes about the language
so theres a really niche and nuanced culture here around bilingualism which could make for a story in its own right
(and thats just the border: there's also the north/south divide (especially south welsh bias in welsh-language education), the trilingual colony in patagonia, the history of the suppression of the welsh language, and tons more)
so yeah, do some research into your specific language, dialect, history, and location, and you could find some real interesting stuff to potentially include in your story!

only the first category of your three is actually "bilingual" lol

this is actually really helpful information and very well explained!! I'll have to keep this in mind ^^

btw the highschooler is also called unilateral bilingual :D

I speak Russian with my family, Ukrainian in public and English on the internet

I speak English with my friends but Danish at home, the consequence of this is that a lot of the slang I use is either outdated Danish slang or I’ll just say the English version while thinking in Danish because I don’t practise the slang in Danish with my old parents.

As someone who is fluent in English as well as my mother tongue, I still use English words because they are sometimes more precise

thank you!

If you want to add family dynamics into the character’s story you can show how the languages are used at home. My dad and sister speak both Spanish and English but my mom and the rest of the family that lives with us only speak Spanish. That’s what always got me about the “what language do you speak at home/ with your parents” question. I only speaks to my dad in English and only Spanish with my mom. My sister and I have the same language skill in both languages but choose to only speak English.

And when we can't remember a work it's like "uhh that that .... Thing. With the.. that does UGH *tries to say it in another language but forgets that too*" at least for me

There's a character who responds to a racist remark by saying "por favor comer caca grande" which I believe means "please eat a big poop"
EDIT: In the novel I'm working on.

May i suggest number four which is the one who can read the different script but cannot go beyond basic vocab in speaking 😭 like my cousins are fluent but can’t write and i am the other way around

Babe wake up new linguistics content creator just dropped

For #2:
That’s called passive bilingualism vs. active bilingualism!

Also like curse words, I dont know curse words in my second and third language cause either my parents taught it to me or I learned it in school and don't consume media in those languages so I only know swearing and slang in one language, unfortunately

none of my characters are bilingual, (yet) commenting so other people who need this video, see it.

Video tips from an editor! (I have been editing since I was 10-11) All of these tips will be 100% free to do and will instantly improve the quality of your videos with very little effort on your part.

1,) Stabilize your video! If you film a video and it’s shaking all over the place like this, there are a lot of programs online that can automatically stabilize any footage. It’s also easy to do yourself with key frames if you have the patience.

2.) Don’t try to fight with music. I can’t tell if the music here was added in post, or if it was playing in your room. You’re having to talk over the music, when background music should just be there in the background. You can avoid this weirdness by choosing a song with little to no lyrics. This mistake is present even in some tv and movies and it’s really, really bad. It will make people block your channel because it’s really annoying and overwhelming to try and listen to what you’re saying while a song with a lot of lyrics is playing. I’d also lower the volume a little so it doesn’t drown you out like it does here.

3.) don’t put the camera down and look down at it, because this is unflattering. Hold your phone at face level or even a little above and look either forward or slightly up at the camera with your chin pointed out towards the camera (the opposite of normal good posture- look up posing tutorials for better instruction)

4.) Film with the light source in front of you, not behind you. Right now you’re in a shadow because the window behind you is letting in natural light and there is no light in front of you. I would instead film facing the window with whatever wall is behind that as the background. The natural light will look very good on your face and you will no longer be hiding in a shadow. Backlighting makes you very hard to see while the background is too much in focus.

- I constantly switch between the two languages with my friends that speak the same two with no real reason

- I need to get back into the other language a bit when I spoke/was around the other for long and will at first only use often used/simple/similar words, especially the similar words things even if they are not commonly used in the other language

- also say one word in the other language and I will switch completely automatically as a response

- same can also happen with dialects/accents, that you switch to them with certain people (like family), situations (like when frustrated) or trigger words

- when not purposfully doing it, not outwritten numbers are usually read in first language (in head)

- FRUSTRATION WITH AUTOCORRECT
(Well yay that‘s my rant)

sometimes when im speaking my brain just automatically goes back to my mother tounge MID convo and i dont even notice lmao

I’m bilingual, in Spanish and English, and yeah, sometimes there’s a stronger one. English was my first language but I learned Spanish pretty young because of where I lived. English is usually stronger, but sometimes I’m able to just fully spit out some pretty good Spanish at work or other situations.

Another thing as a bilingual person myself, I often use spanish endings or phrases when I’m speaking in English! Like instead of saying “look at the chair” i say, “oh, el pequeño chairito”. And often, instead of saying ‘huh?’ i say ‘que?’ Another thing I do is when texting, instead of ’hahahahaha’ i do ‘jajajajaja’. Hope this helps!

I feel so called out, I grew up hearing my dad and grandparents speaking russian all the time up until I started elementary school and heard mostly english, and I have a decent sized vocabulary and understand a lot, but for some reason I can't summon the words i already know 😭

In my fam we call what we speak Denglish (Deutsch + English) because we'll mix grammatical concepts in addition to words. It's very fun

I am a billigual who is basiclly fluent in both since Finnish is my mothertoungue and I started English At 3 so I am really good with both and in school we are Also learning Swedish and German so Swedish is one that I can about understand but not really talk

the first one is so reall like i be talkin in polish not cussing at all and being rlly polite but in english i be swearin like a mf sailor and am wayyyyy more casual

To add to this, fluent or even conversational speakers can accidently speak in the wrong language at the wrong time leading to funny moments

Real! Also, my parents are both polyglots and will stop mid sentence and be like “uhh, what’s the word for x in English again?” And I’ll have to translate. They don’t “get stuck” speaking one language or something like some people describe, but they do forget words.