When English isn't your native language

[Potoh]

Hi guys, I'm Julikaru, the creator of Elfyn'gar and Josy & Lloyd Like the title says already: English isn't my native language, and I am sure there are a lot of other creators who also don't have an english speaking background.. In my comics I often can't explain certain things in the way I want to. Also I think that a lot of a characters charme can lay in his way of speaking, but yeah... can't do that. I'm worried that my stories could not be understood, or misunderstood because of grammar mistakes (spelling mistakes are not that evil in my opinion, happens to everyone).
So... how do you guys do it? Do you have beta-readers, or do you pay extra attention in English class? ?

I am German, by the way and fluent in Dutch.

[keii4ii]

I'm not a native English speaker, but I don't like to use that as an excuse for any quality issues with my comic. I've been living in the US for almost 20 years now. At this point, I'm more comfortable thinking and speaking in English than in my first language. XD

I understand this can be a legitimate concern for those who don't live in an English-speaking area, though, or for anyone whose situation may be different from mine.

My current comic is a bit of a unique challenge. The majority of the dialogue is canonly spoken in Korean (of which I am a native speaker). Since I'm primarily writing for an English-speaking audience, I try to write in English from the get-go instead of writing in Korean first and then translating, but sometimes the dialogue just pops up in my head in Korean... and translating is HARD even when you're fluent in both languages! I feel like I kind of dug my own grave with this one OTL

To make matters worse, one of the main characters speaks a specific dialect of Korean, giving him a very prominent accent. I had to create a fictional English accent in order to at least SORT of capture that feeling because I can't imagine him not having an accent. The fictional accent has grown on some readers, but not all, and it's become one of the least popular creative decisions I've made with this comic. But I'm sticking to my guns because in a character-driven comic, preserving character is a goal worth taking a risk for.

[Silerna]

I'm dutch from origin (hoi! (: ) but learned alot of english with gaming ^^'. Some harsh words I just look up in the old fashioned dictionary . But overall I have no problems at all translating my comics and works to English. I find it much harder to translate to German though...

[Kyosu]

I'm italian, so I'm not a native English and I know it's difficult especcialy when I must create a dialogue. the mayor difficulty is some italian's terms don't have a respective english' terms, as english with italian. The best way is to write the dialogue with your mother language and then write it in english.

[sleepingmarlons2]

I am filipino, and yes it's really hard and typoghraphical errors are just normal hahaha

[mappypaint]

@resleepingmarlon Filipino as well and even though English is our secondary language, we will still make typos and grammatical errors.

I can relate on the "can't explain things in the way I want to" part. Sometimes it's hard to translate it to English without having it mean something different. Most of the time I just write it myself, read it over and over again to see if it sounds right. If i'm not sure about it, I ask my native English speaking friends I met online to check it and ask for some suggestions if there's an easier way of saying it. And in some cases when a typo or grammatical error makes it way to the final page and someone points it out, I just edit/correct it and reupload the page.

[scythe]

Forget English class. READ.

READ. READ. READ.

Read Dickens, and Twain and Melville. Read new fiction too. That's how you get a feel for a language and build your vocab. Even living in an English speaking country won't give you the high level of vocab that reading will give you. Just look at native English speakers who are non-readers. Their vocab is noticeably curtailed compared to readers.

[DeadAccount]

Russian speaker here. I've been living in the UK for years now, but I don't think I'll ever master English to the point where I can confidently write in it (and not have it that my characters sound like foreigners) I think having an editor or a native speaking proof reader is a way to go for a lot of us. That, and reading as scythe said.

[BraveHeartTatsumaki]

Spanish speaker over here.
I often talk with people who speak english, with that I learn much better than what i learned in school (in my country english classes are not that good), also playing videogames in english and even I've watched series in english or with english subtitles. And in case I'm not sure about a phrase for my comic, I have a friend from USA to ask if the phrase is well built or anything

[Ayumi]

I'm a native Hungarian speaker. People say, that it's one of the most difficult languages, so I'm glad I don' need to learn it XD But yeah, it doesn't matter where're you from, when english is the language of success Well... when I started to share Furusato House in english, first I had a translator. She offered me it, so I just tought: Okay, why not? Meanwhile I tried to translate Dreamcatchers by myself, and for a while I translate Furusato House too. I was a member of DREAM manga, and they helped too with Dreamcatchers. I know that I'm far from perfect, but I always ask my native english readers to tell me, if something isn't obvious.

[getsuart]

French there. English class was useful to know how to conjugate verbs and how to construct a good sentence (even though I tend to forget some good ones). Reading and hearing English through video games, books and films helped me a lot.
Now I try to speak with native english persons. This can help in translating a webcomic too. Because sometimes, you think what you're writing is understandable. But then, when you say it out loud and realize the person in front of you is just ".... huuuuh?", clearly you still have a long way to go XD

In any case, I try to ask different persons sometimes if my translation looks awkward or not. And when it is, I just change it. (and it happens a lot of time I don't see a wrong spelling and mistake "kind" and "king", even if I read it like 3 times. It already happens in French... :'D)

[abbastudios]

I use Google Translation.

[carloswebcomic]

Yeah, that's a problem. I guess it has to do with what audience you want to target.
Heck, even in English there are a lot of variations. Are we talking about Australian English? British English? Canadian or American English?
First pick which English you want to go with and try to get some people that live in that live in an English speaking country to proof read and perhaps edit the dialogue.

[mg78]

i m italian and i need help for the check the translation (there s a good guy here who do as beta reader XD )

btw, when i working on a script and it come to write about talk/chat/conversations i think in english.
that's because if i think in my native language, too many things would not fit because we re quite full of idioms and there re many way of saying that in english would be quite nosense...
...like to say "It’s raining cats and dogs"

[ikushina]

English is not my native language either. I can still get insecure about my English, because I don't want to fuck up and sound stupid. /i cringe when i read my old English comics with grammatical mistakes etc >_>/
I have a friend who's pretty good at English, so I'll ask her if there's something I'm unsure about ^^ and read read READ! That's how you get better! look up the words you don't know etc.~

[foervraengd]

Native Swedish speaker here.

English is pretty common in my country, we don't dub most movies except cartoons and movies for children. Nor do we translate/dub most video games either, our dubbing industry is pretty tiny compared to other countries. Also many commercials aren't dubbed either depending on the channel you watch, and many swedes write in english on social media sites. So many of my generation are pretty decent at english since we use it on a daily basis.
However I too have issues with the language in my own comics.
It's not the grammar or spelling I have the hardest time with; translating cultural references and idioms to a english counterpart is to me the hardest part.

My best method for this is to write and plan out the script in english right from start. That way I will have less trouble finding a english idiom for "the taste is like the butt - parted" (yes this is a swedish idiom lol). To me, translating english>swedish is easier than swedish>english.

Another thing that I'm lacking is having a grasp on all the various english dialects and slang, which could be a useful knowledge for giving your characters more diverse dialogue.
The best solution I have right now is to just let my native english-speaking friends read through my script.

[Simon_M]

Spanish here.

I don't know. I'm currently translating the first three episodes of my main series into english. I've been bilingual all my life (catalan/spanish) so translating between languages is something that I'm used to, and I've read so many books and watched so many tv series in english that I don't find it as hard, I guess. My main concern is not so much with vocabulary, but the little things that I miss instead, like prepositions. Those are a pain because english and spanish have very similar uses for some prepositions, and then all of a sudden they are very dissimilar, and I cringe a little every time I see my words expecting some error here and there. That almost never happens to me in spanish.

Other than that, I'm finding that writing in english is a funnier experience for me, like wearing someone else's clothes, whereas in spanish I'm concerned with the function of the dialogue and if it's completely appropriate for the story and character.

[sleepingmarlons2]

very well said! hahaha!

in my case, I let the readers tell me that my grammar or spelling is wrong haha. for me flauses make you're series more awesome bwahahaha

[ratique]

Hello fellow German! Du bist nicht allein, die meisten hier haben Englisch als Zweitsprache.
Das macht unsere Arbeit als Autoren natürlich nicht einfacher - Ich kann dir nur nahelegen, dir jemanden zu suchen, der sehr sicher im Englischen ist und dir weiterhilft wenn du stecken bleibst.

So lernst du auch noch was dazu.

Good luck!

[ZelEnkora]

i'm from india.... i get stuck at times not knowing how to explain certain things in english... the struggle is real