: Re: Is it a flaw if a book is readable, flows well, and gets the point across, BUT you can tell that the author is a non-native? Even though English is not my first language, I have completed

@Jennifer354

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Most bilinguals experience some kind of linguistic interference. It may be L1>L2 or L2>L1. Some element in the other language they know gets leaked into the language that they are currently speaking. One easy way to resolve this issue is to use several search engines, such as Google, and do a quick search on the specific word choice that you are not completely sure of.

For example, I am an English native speaker and have spoken English since kindergarten. My immersive exposure to English has given me a native-like grasp of the English language. I also speak Chinese (Mandarin); it's actually my first language and home language since infancy. I can remember a few instances in which Chinese actually influences my English. The first instance occurred when I was in elementary school, playing with another child. I said, "I am going to eat your piece." And that child and surrounding spectators commented that I shouldn't say "eat"; I should say "get". Somehow, I said it again, "I am going to eat your piece." For some reason, it didn't occur to me that I was intentionally saying anything wrong. To me, it felt obvious that the piece was eaten. Plus, when I played checkers or chess or other board games with my father, he would say, "吃棋", which I interpreted literally as "eat the piece".

A more recent example occurred to me when I used the expression, "return the knowledge to the teacher". Sometimes, my father would say, "还给老师" in a sentence, which I interpreted to mean "return [the knowledge] to the teacher". If I had returned it to the teacher, then that would explain why I don't remember it at the moment. If I hadn't, then I had kept the knowledge. It seemed pretty obvious what it meant, but for the life of me, I couldn't find any English examples on the Internet. But it's a common Chinese expression.

The reason why I suggest using search engines is that search engines can give you an insight on popular expressions. Some expressions may seem obvious to you, but they may seem a bit weird to monolinguals. Some expressions can be transferred cross-culturally, but other expressions cannot. So, I think it is important to be able to identify cultural elements in your culture that are different from American culture. If you don't, then your reader(s) may misunderstand your story. You may want to mention the setting or cultural background of the characters, because the reader will keep that into account instead of getting stuck on some kind of weird phrasing here and there.

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