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I'm about to become 26 years old, and I've only been working for two weeks on what might be considered my first proper job, except I'm not sure teaching on Skype is a "proper job". I haven't even signed a contract. Maybe I'll be a pretty normal 26-year-old but that's doesn't cheer me up either. I didn't imagine my adult life would be like this.
Well. When I was eleven I thought I'd be married to my Prince, with lots of children, by the time I was 21. Silly me.
It's not too bad, at least I don't have to get out of the house (or comb my hair at all, sometimes) to work.
I also do transcripts of interviews, and in fact I'm on the last two minutes of the first transcript, which surprisingly has only taken me three days to complete. Almost. I don't know why, the last minute or so of the interview is always the hardest to transcribe. It doesn't have any relevance anymore, the participants are relaxed and speaking less clearly and coherently, and I'm desperate for it to be OVER. Which is why I'm procrastinating and writing this instead.
So, there's a long and complicated discussion going on at yvi's journal, about a possible Non-native English celebration fest, to celebrate(?) or at least make visible all the people in DW whose mother tongue is not English. Like me, hey! From the comments I read, there's a lot of discussion about pros and cons of the use of English, and linguistic imperialism and such, and well. Maybe it's good to take a look around if you're interested.
I think it'd be nice to suddenly see lots of post in other languages. I like languages, even if I can speak relatively few of them (Spanish, English, Catalan, Japanese, very little German). Of course, it'd be only a day, or a few days, and then it'd be back to the status quo. Little groups of native speakers huddled in one community or page, possibly because they don't understand much English. And non-native speakers merging with the crowds of Americans and Canadians that seem to dominate fandom, if not the internet itself. Or perhaps it's just the sites I move around in (DW, LJ...).
Personally, when I first started "participating" (lurking around would be a more appropriate term) in fandom, I started reading in English but writing mainly in Spanish, because I felt most comfortable with my native language. (My monstrous creations are still around on FFN and followed by some people, I think). But now, for example, if I were to write a Sherlock fanfic, I'd probably do it in English, because I feel NO ONE in the communities I follow would understand a fic in Spanish. I mean, no one posts in any other language. And Spanish-language communities are a)few and rarely updated, b)full of people who think good spelling is an infallible sign of good writing or c)non-existent.
And Gah. I can't count the times I've seen bad Spanish in fanfic, used because it sounds cool or sometimes confused with Italian or Latin. I don't always bother to go ahead and point out the mistakes because some people start getting too defensive. Yeah, so you didn't get a beta or a brit-picker, I assume you'd be even less willing to get someone who knows Spanish to look over a couple of words in your fic. Most (English-speaking) readers will read them over, say, "yeah, that looks like Spanish" and will be able to get on with the story. But the bad Spanish just hits me like a slap and takes me out of the story.
So perhaps a more long-term solution would be to promote non-English communities or sites? And also promote second-language learning? Which would mean more work for teachers like me, so it's not a bad thing at all.
That said, if they do decide to make a post-in-another-language-day fest, I think I'll definitely join in and write something in Catalan, just to make it more interesting (hey! my journal title is in Catalan! (sort of)).
Well. When I was eleven I thought I'd be married to my Prince, with lots of children, by the time I was 21. Silly me.
It's not too bad, at least I don't have to get out of the house (or comb my hair at all, sometimes) to work.
I also do transcripts of interviews, and in fact I'm on the last two minutes of the first transcript, which surprisingly has only taken me three days to complete. Almost. I don't know why, the last minute or so of the interview is always the hardest to transcribe. It doesn't have any relevance anymore, the participants are relaxed and speaking less clearly and coherently, and I'm desperate for it to be OVER. Which is why I'm procrastinating and writing this instead.
So, there's a long and complicated discussion going on at yvi's journal, about a possible Non-native English celebration fest, to celebrate(?) or at least make visible all the people in DW whose mother tongue is not English. Like me, hey! From the comments I read, there's a lot of discussion about pros and cons of the use of English, and linguistic imperialism and such, and well. Maybe it's good to take a look around if you're interested.
I think it'd be nice to suddenly see lots of post in other languages. I like languages, even if I can speak relatively few of them (Spanish, English, Catalan, Japanese, very little German). Of course, it'd be only a day, or a few days, and then it'd be back to the status quo. Little groups of native speakers huddled in one community or page, possibly because they don't understand much English. And non-native speakers merging with the crowds of Americans and Canadians that seem to dominate fandom, if not the internet itself. Or perhaps it's just the sites I move around in (DW, LJ...).
Personally, when I first started "participating" (lurking around would be a more appropriate term) in fandom, I started reading in English but writing mainly in Spanish, because I felt most comfortable with my native language. (My monstrous creations are still around on FFN and followed by some people, I think). But now, for example, if I were to write a Sherlock fanfic, I'd probably do it in English, because I feel NO ONE in the communities I follow would understand a fic in Spanish. I mean, no one posts in any other language. And Spanish-language communities are a)few and rarely updated, b)full of people who think good spelling is an infallible sign of good writing or c)non-existent.
And Gah. I can't count the times I've seen bad Spanish in fanfic, used because it sounds cool or sometimes confused with Italian or Latin. I don't always bother to go ahead and point out the mistakes because some people start getting too defensive. Yeah, so you didn't get a beta or a brit-picker, I assume you'd be even less willing to get someone who knows Spanish to look over a couple of words in your fic. Most (English-speaking) readers will read them over, say, "yeah, that looks like Spanish" and will be able to get on with the story. But the bad Spanish just hits me like a slap and takes me out of the story.
So perhaps a more long-term solution would be to promote non-English communities or sites? And also promote second-language learning? Which would mean more work for teachers like me, so it's not a bad thing at all.
That said, if they do decide to make a post-in-another-language-day fest, I think I'll definitely join in and write something in Catalan, just to make it more interesting (hey! my journal title is in Catalan! (sort of)).
