: Re: How do I make an ESL character sound realistic? I have to write an assignment in which there's an English character talking with a English as a Second Language (ESL) character. It is turning

@Megan928

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Interesting problem you've got there. I'm a "native English" speaker - Californian - living in Thailand for quite a few years now, with frequent trips into Laos and Cambodia and Yunnan. There are only a handful of native English speakers in my little town, all British, plus the occasional American tourist.

For years now I've talked almost exclusively to local people who have taken a few years of English instruction in the public schools, generally from teachers whose English is quite weak (or utterly lacking). You made the following guesses "gleaned from research" --

"Few contractions." In my experience, NO contractions. Even as simple a contraction as "won't" would seldom be used by the SE Asians I know. The reason probably is that Asians generally perceive English as a string of words, the order of which is often a puzzle to be worked out. When they speak English they often get word-order wrong. Putting in a complex double-word into the mix, like "won't," just soars past them. (And being gentle Buddhists, they will never humiliate you by suggesting that you're failing to communicate, so they're likely to just smile and nod.)
"Little slang." Younger Asians love to use English slang, even if they don't speak the language at all, but they always seem to get it wrong -- wrong context, wrong word order, missing words, wildly mispronounced words. If you try to put that in your characters' mouths it will sound like you're making fun of them, which probably isn't your intent. If I were you I'd stay clear of slang.
"Tag questions" -- sorry, don't understand this.
"Incorrect tenses, irregular verbs." Simple past is as far as Asians I talk with can get, and they use it as seldom as possible. On the other hand, if I use any kind of a past tense -- or god help us, progressive tenses and so on -- it's hardly ever understood.
"Puns/idioms." Absolutely not understood. The best speaker that I know owns a restaurant here, and she has a Masters in English from Chulalongkorn University. Puns and most any idioms either puzzle or annoy her, and being educated, she's quite willing to show her annoyance.
"Simple short sentences." Better still, think in terms of simple phrases, not tied together with connecting words. Keep your vocabulary down to a hundred very basic words -- the fewer the better -- all spoken very clearly.
"Professional sounding English" rather than colloquial. No, please don't make it professional sounding, just simple! And always be on the outlook for something not having been understood. Repeat it as many times as it takes, changing word order and simplifying, until it seems to be comprehended.

Of course you can build on all this, but (IMHO) it should be your baseline. If your ESL character is somewhat better educated, then let her not misunderstand so much, and perhaps she can even speak in connected phrases.

Enough.

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