: It may or may not be true that every crisis in the real world is an opportunity, but it is true that every writing challenge is a writing opportunity. The challenge of multiple language

@Sarah872

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It may or may not be true that every crisis in the real world is an opportunity, but it is true that every writing challenge is a writing opportunity. The challenge of multiple language isn't an obstacle to overcome, it's a chance to show things about the world your characters live in, the mindset of your world's difficult cultures, the relationship between societies, the developing relationships between characters who speak different languages, and so forth.

Of course, doing that well would take a lot of work. If you don't want to put that effort in --no judgement --the best choice is probably to just do what everyone else does and ignore the implausibility of it. Like other standard choices, it becomes invisible that way. Any other way of addressing it will probably just call unwanted attention to it.

It's worth noting however, that quite a large percentage of the real world population is in fact fluent in multiple languages. If you're willing to foreground this aspect of your worldbuilding, the possibilities are endless. Which language is high status? Which is low status? Who knows multiple languages, and who doesn't? Who secretly understands a language she pretends not to? Who secretly doesn't understand a language as well as he pretends? What happens when you absolutely have to communicate with someone whose language is utterly alien? The storytelling possibilities are wide open. (Samuel Delany even developed an entire, critically acclaimed novel around this very issue --a linguist was his hero.)

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