: Re: Writing dialogues for characters whose first language is not English I am seriously wondering how to go about writing dialogues for characters whose native language isn't English and who aren't

@Pierce369

If they are fairly well educated people of the middle class, they will probably have a good grasp of the basics of English.

Idioms are always an issue - as with the Casablanca scene. Idioms have an internal logic that is difficult to explain and often puzzling to those who are learning English.

I went to school with an Italian exchange student whose written English was much better than ours. He had learned Standard Written English and had been strongly encouraged to use that as his norm.

Idioms gave him some trouble and his spoken English was formal.

I have also known various refugees from different nations and they often did not know where they were going to end up so had better Spanish, French or German than English.

Your treatment of their dialogue will depend in part on the reason they came to the new country.

Scenario one
Immigrants coming to a new land, probably to join other members of their extended family who already made the move. Such characters might not be too quick to learn English as they plan on living among people of their own nationality. They will eventually learn it, but mixing it with their native tongue when the foreign word escapes them.

Scenario two
Foreign Student/Work permit
These people will have studied English and will have a good grasp of the formal, but can struggle with the colloquial. Conversely, some might have learned English from movies and have an odd vocabulary based on Elvis movies or such.

Scenario three
Refugees - the most varied of the lot as they can be of any socioeconomic group and might be highly educated - doctor or engineer back home but can’t get work as anything but a janitor or cabbie. They might not have known that they were going to an English speaking country - just where the ticket they could afford or were given took them. Their learning of the language will be more incremental and they will be frustrated when their level of English comes nowhere near the level of their thoughts and they must either use their native tongue or be silent on what matters most.

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