Blah Blah Blah: Foreign Languages in Books

One of my biggest pet peeves when it comes down to books is the misuse of foreign language in books. To be honest, it’s mostly the misuse of French that bothers me. I speak French, which means those mistakes are pretty hard to miss.

Many authors use different languages in their novel. Russian, German, Italian, Spanish, French…. I’ve seen all of these and more. When it comes to those languages, the mistakes won’t bother me that much, even though I’ve studied them all at least one year in college. Since my knowledge of those languages is not as extensive as my knowledge of French, I don’t really see the mistakes as easily. Most often, I will simply think I’m the one mistake, because I do want to believe those authors ask someone who speaks fluently to correct those passages.

Sometimes, I also give the author the benefit of the doubt. Maybe it’s a dialect I haven’t heard yet.

Still, I can be put off a book that I was REALLY excited for, simply for those mistakes, especially if those mistakes are obvious.

Let me share some examples:

“Excusez-moi, mademoiselle, mais peux j’ayez s’il vous plaît votre attention”

Carrier of the Mark by Leigh Fallon p.12

This sentence here is one of the main reason I never reviewed Carrier of the Mark. It’s the only thing I could remember, when came the time to write the review. This sentence makes me cringe so badly. I hate it. This made me mad, and I can’t understand why no French speaker was asked to correct it before it was published. Maybe it has been corrected in later editions of the book, but the one I have has this sentence.

If you follow me on Twitter, you might have seen me tweet about this sentence:

“Était-ce tout vaut la peine?”

Stolen Nights by Rebecca Maizel p.140

This sounds like a sentence translated with Google Translator. Sigh.

The last book I want to talk about is one that almost everyone raved about. I was one of the only ones who didn’t love it, and this might have been one of the reasons why.

“en français pour que la résistance malheureuse puisse me comprendre”

Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein p. 189

The unhappy resistance? Wait, what?

“Résistance idiots sales, vous nous MASSACREZ TOUS”

Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein p. 286

The “Résistance idiots sales” doesn’t work together. It should have been “Sales idiots de la Résistance”, or something like that…

There were also words that were simply written in a way I had never seen…

“ ésprit de vérité”

Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein p. 131

Since when does “esprit’ needs a “é”

“la famille de grandmère”

Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein p. 174

It’s “grand-mère”, not “grandmère”

I get it. People can make mistakes, especially when they are writing in language that is not their own. I make a ton of mistakes in English. It’s normal. English is my second language, and I often don’t see my own mistakes. That’s why there are probably many mistakes on my blog. Yet, when a book is published, I don’t get why they don’t simply find someone who speaks fluently that language to correct it. It is so easy to find someone online willing to check them for you. There are entire websites dedicated to that, as long as you are open to correct some sentences in your own language….

What do you guys think? Do these mistakes annoy you too?

What are some of YOUR biggest pet peeves?

Blah Blah Blah: Reading in Other Languages

 VS VS

I’ve been thinking of writing a post about reading in a foreign language for a while. I’ve been asked often why I read mostly (if not only) in English. For those of you who don’t know, I grew up in a French environment, and I only learned English in my teens. People don’t always understand why I chose to read in English, when I could easily read the French translation.

To me, reading in English comes mostly from the way I was raised. My parents watch mostly movies and TV series in English, so do my sister. Since I started understanding English, I’ve always chosen the original version over the dubbed version. Maybe it was because the original version always is out earlier than the translation (for TV). Mostly, it’s because the translation always sounds wrong to my ears. I got used to listen to the voices of the actors, their real voices. I can’t stand to hear their French equivalent, since it sounds so wrong.

Now, when it comes to books, I can think of many reasons why I pick English over French. First, the books usually come out earlier. It was the main reason why I bought the first book in English (that I’ve read for pleasure, of course. I had to read a few in English classes before that…), which was Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. With that book, I think I realized I could read in English as easily as I can read in French (I read Deathly Hallows in one day… even though I was working half of the day…) The second reason is that I read mostly Young Adult, and I’m always disappointed in the selection we have. There are not as many books in French, or so it seems. Many of my favorite books aren’t available in French. It sucks right?

Yet, I don’t think it’s why I keep reading mostly in English. I want to read the real voice of the author. I don’t want to read the interpretation of the translator. I get that they are usually pretty accurate, but some expressions aren’t easily translated. I just don’t want to miss those choices. I want the author’s words, not someone else’s.  I read in French when the authors wrote it in French first (Amelie Nothomb, Patrick Senecal…) and I would read in German if I could get my hands on the German versions of some books (like Ruby Red. I tried to find it in German, but I couldn’t find it anywhere in Montreal).

Reading in English made me fall in love with the language in a strange way. I now study in English. I don’t think I could go back to reading translation. Reading in English now feels more natural to me.

Any of you read in any other languages? Why? Do you think you could read in any other languages?