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ENGLISH OR NOT ENGLISH?
by
EL MAXWELL
English or not English, that is the question.
I'm sure most of you have looked at the title and thought: "What the
heck does this mean?" Well, I'm going to talk about a topic that most
writers doesn't concern that much, i.e. the writers from anglophone
countries. Writing in your native language is the easiest thing you can
do. You have learned this language when you were a baby and since
thought, talked, laughed and lived in this language. You know the
sayings, the idioms, the grammar inherently, to put it short: it's your
language. Why shouldn't you write in it?
Yet, there are a lot of people who don't live in an English speaking
country. These are the people who should read this article.
You might want to state that most of writers in that country usually
write in their own language. I, too, agree with you. However, there's a
cleft between exactly these writers. On the one side, there are the
established ones who don't have to worry about having their novels
translated. They use full-time-translators and don't have much business
with their novel outside their own language.
But what about the new aspiring writers who haven't been published yet?
They can't afford someone to translate their works, just to be able to
submit to a bigger market. These people need to decide which way they
choose: do they stick with their native language, putting up with a
harder competition? Or do they "abandon" their native language to write
in a language they learned painfully in school or university, just to
be able to serve a bigger market?
Nevertheless, writing in English holds many an appeal to writers. The
market is only one of them. Let's talk a little bit more thoroughly
about it, though. One, there's the size of the market.
Look at the USA. In the vastness of the country, there's an immensity
of different magazines, publishing houses and the like inherent, too.
Now look at Germany (which is still one of the bigger countries in
Europe). 80 million there compared to 300 million people in the United
States? Come on. And in some other states it's even worse.
Second, a bigger market also equals a bigger diversity and a multitude
of magazines doing essentially the same thing. Ergo: a much bigger
chance for a new aspiring writer to be published. Even if the first
magazine doesn't accept you, it's likely for you to find another one
and submit to this one. You'll soon notice the diversity. There's
basically one magazine for every flavour you can think of. It's great,
really.
For me, it wasn't just a matter of the market. I came to writing in
English in a very specific way. You must know that, for years, I've
been reading fanfiction. Since the shows I liked weren't broadcast in
Germany back then, there wasn't much German fanfiction out there and
what was around most often sucked. So, I started reading English
fiction and lots of it. It certainly made my English better and helped
me become fluent in it.
The first thing I wrote was a fanfic. Since all the people I knew spoke
English, I wrote it in English, of course. It wouldn't have made sense
any other way. I wanted them to read and understand it, after all.
Slowly I found out that fanfiction isn't all I wanted to write.
Actually it only took me three months to realise that there were lots
of stories in me that wanted to be told. Stories of my own with my own
characters and a history I created for them. I loved it. But still
everybody I knew spoke English. So I wrote my original fiction in
English, too.
I beg you to not misinterpret me. I love my native language, couldn't
live without it. I have written some pieces in German, but most of my
works are in English. The ratio might and probably will definitely
shift, but English will always be the winner in that contest. At the
same time I know that the German market for fantasy novels of the kind
I write is very limited, if not even non-existent. Nevertheless, don't
underestimate your own influence. There'll only be a market, if there's
an offer. There'll only be offers, if you write this certain kind of
book.
Write in your native language, so you won't "unlearn" it. The knowledge
of a language needs to be polished, needs to be used, otherwise you'll
forget. If it's your native language, this will happen much more slowly
than if it was a foreign language for you, but it still happens.
Why am I writing this article then? I want people to encourage to write
in both languages, their native one and English. Perhaps you'll find
that you can do some things more easily in one language and others in
the other one. Don't be shy to make mistakes. There are people who will
help you. Either way you'll have made an experience and you won't be
worse off. Yes, you might fail with your English writing, but at least
you have tried. That's more than most people out there can claim.
Copyright © Sabine Hunsicker,
2004. All rights reserved.
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