Okay,

This is an issue that is driving me up a tree. How do most non-english speakers translate their fics? Do they use some program (i.e. Word) or an actual person? The reason I ask is because recently I've run into a spree of fics that were horrible grammatically speaking. These fics were so bad I can only conclude that they must have been bad translations...really freaking bad. The only other conclusion is that the writer is actually that freaking stupid. Even with as little hope for humanity as I have...that's a low prospect.

So...anyone able to tell me if situations like these might just be horrible translations?

Here's an example...

 

Err, I don't see what was so horrible about this excript. It's a bit awkward and incorrect at places, but far from unreadable. I've seen much worse, both by native English speakers and foreigners.

 

Nothing terrible in there. Yeah, it does make me stop in a few places to add in a word, but nothing that can detract any enjoyment from the story. Like IP, I have seen worse.

 

To answer your question, a lot of the time they write in their native language and have other people translate the stories for them.

 

In my experience, people who actually go through the trouble of translating their story take the time and effort to do it right. I'd have to say that this person is just stupid. He (or she, but I'll stick with he) sounds like he's writing how he speaks instead of how he should speak.

 

OK from what I understand from what my brothers Polish girlfriend has told me is that English is what most people consider a back to front langauge.

When we say something like "That food is hot"

Most other language say "Hot is the food"
Or something similar to that.

My brother speaks no Polish and she is average at English. So one day while writing her an Email he changed the language to Polish as an option on mircosoft word. She replyed that she could barely read it. The words were all translated correctly but the words were all jumbled up from her perspective.

So what people may be doing is just putting it into a translating program that translates all the words correctly but not the grammar. Not being fluent in the language themselves or understanding the different rules they don't see the bad grammar.

 

I was starting to figure it might be something like that. The example I gave wasn't as bad as many I've seen, but it was the first I could find. At least I can maintain my minimal hope for humanity now.

 

I doubt this is a translation. When the author is able to use idioms like "breaking a sweat", they can't be translating unless they're really good at what they're doing, therefore all the more able to avoid basic grammar mistakes.

I'd also add that most translations on FFN are from English to the author's native language. Speaking from experience, it's way easier for me to translate English into French than French into English. When I write, I don't first think in French then translate in English.

And last, I have an utter and absolute hatred for online translators/translating programs--you will never have something even semi-coherent by just copying and pasting a text using one of those. There's no way the extract you posted can be the result of a translating program (even from French to English, and both languages have sentence structures that are reasonably similar).

So yeah, the author just needs to work on their grammar a little...

 

I think one thing we often overlook is that an awful lot of "foreigners" learn the language(s) of their family/community/nation and then on top of that seek to accommodate all us English speakers who don't know the first thing about other languages.

I don't think they have translators or anything like that. I think it's simply a case of English as a second language, in which some are not as good as others. I suspect there are many fics out there you don't even realize are written by "foreigners" for whom English is a second language and can manage it quite well, often better than many for whom 'American' is the only language they know (because calling it English is an insult to the language).

Considering the inline author's notes, I get the feeling they're probably borrowing familiar phrases and curious wordings out of context. And I like reading that pasted section with a Slavic or Russian accent. "My comrade in Gringotts saw a silver haired man entered..." (Ouch. Poor guy.) "...you can also ask information from the stores..." See isn't it more fun reading with an accent?

 

See? That's why I can handle poorly written fics better than you guys