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Being a good writer in multiple languages | ||
Tags: Language Level Satisfaction | Book | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : General discussion |  | |
| Thuan Triglot Senior Member GermanyRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 6933 days ago 133 posts - 156 votes  Speaks: Vietnamese, German*, English Studies: French, Japanese, Romanian, Swedish, Mandarin | Message 25 of 27 04 December 2012 at 10:15am | IP Logged | ||
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Alex Kerr wrote 'Lost Japan' in Japanese and won the Shincho Gakugei Literature Prize in 1994.
Tawada Yoko is a Japanese writer who moved to Germany at the age of 22. She has won several prizes both in Germany and in Japan. An interesting tidbit of information: She can either write in Japanese or in German, but not in both languages at the same time. She said in an interview that she "loses her Japanese" when she writes in German, and it takes her a few days to a few weeks to regain her ability to write in Japanese. The languages are so different, that she just loses the way to express subtle emotions that are only possible in Japanese. On the other hand, German is a more concrete language and she understands her own writing better when it's in German. If you're interested in her writing, you can find one of her stories in the book 'Read Real Japanese'. Edited by Thuan on 04 December 2012 at 10:16am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| s_allard Triglot Senior Member Canada Joined 5433 days ago 2704 posts - 5425 votes Speaks: French*, English, Spanish Studies: Polish | Message 26 of 27 05 December 2012 at 2:29pm | IP Logged | ||
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If I were to rephrase the OP, I would say that the question should be: How does one become a proficient writer in multiple languages? The question isn't whether it can be done. Of course, it can be done. The real issue is how.
What many others have pointed out already very well here is that there is always a story behind all these examples of great writers in multiple languages. Is this a surprise to any reader here? People don't learn to write by pure osmosis. It's a lot of hard work in good circumstances.. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Lapislazuli Tetraglot Senior Member Austria Joined 7039 days ago 146 posts - 170 votes Speaks: German*, EnglishC2, Swedish, ItalianB1 Studies: French, Hungarian, Esperanto, Czech | Message 27 of 27 05 December 2012 at 8:55pm | IP Logged | ||
It can be done in the same way that it can also be done in your native language: read a lot, write a lot. As easy and as difficult as that. Of course there are also other non-language related factors. You have to know how to structure your essay, your story or whatever it is you want to write. And then you need something interesting to write about. Of course there are lots of approaches to this, lots of books have been written on the topic. I believe that after all, being a good writer in your native language, is also an important factor in becoming one in another language. (I don't want to say that it is absolutely necessary, as there might be exceptions, but in general it would be an advantage) 2 persons have voted this message useful |
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