Although I work with French documents all the time, over time I've developed some sort of a tech writing specialization: I'm often the-one-who's-French-but-who-speaks-decent-enough-English-that-she-can-write-in-English-and-especially-help-French-people-write-better-English*.
After over ten years, it still amazes me how your first/primary language completely shapes your view/understanding/conceptualization of the world, in a way that is totally different and bigger than just grammar and syntax. I don't know how many French-speakers' English I've proofread by now, but it's a lot. And it's ALWAYS the same mistakes that they make. Always. It's as if learning French first hardwired us to make these.
-Pluralizing words such as "information", "communication", and "media".
-Mixing up "these" and "those" (using those improperly).
-Mixing up "then" and "than" (in a language other then French or English).
-Using the possessive apostrophe for objects (the step's numbers; the system's modules)
-Displaying a lot of confusion with contractions and language levels (using can't in a very formal setting such as a business proposal; writing can't not; not being able to write things like ain't or aren't correctly or to use them in the proper context)
-Mixing up "currently" and "actually" (in French the latter (actuellement) means the former)
-Using too literal translations ("the linguistic interface of choice of the user" instead of "the user's chosen language")
And the two biggest ones:
-Using the passive voice (I used to do that a lot. Heck I probably still do).
-Displaying confusion with genderization. I've lost count of how many times I've explained that no, you really can't write "the administrator can view the list in his profile". It works in French (a very sexist language), but in English, it's not just grammatically incorrect, it's also ethically incorrect, non-sensical, and somewhat offensive/sort of asking for lawsuits.
Anything else I forgot?
*I know I make mistakes too, all the time.
Monday, January 23, 2012
Always in between the two
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
4 comment(s):
I totally agree that our first language influence the way we see the world. It's sooooo hard for native French speakers to understand that in English, there are only four fingers!
In December, I gave a conference to 7th- and 8th-graders on how French is important in science and one of my points was that you need to know your own language well to translate well (English is ubiquitious in science) and to spot translation mistakes which are quite frequent. I've seen a confusing troubleshooting section in a manual once, where a dubious translation of the verb "to miss" (the correct translation fo "I miss you" is "tu me manques", not "je te manque") resulted in the impossibility to understant what was missing to what in the French version. And I have a few other examples...
My world is the opposite!
Je te manque...
Actuellement when they mean actually...
Je suis fini!
J'ai reveillé....
And the worst is me! This morning I said 'Je pense qu'on va voler à Ottawa' Instead of prendre l'avion. I was so ashamed. It is the sort of thing that I know I used to know, back when my life was French :(
As a native English speaker, let me just say that those English mistakes are common among us as well . . .
Ooh, I am seeing these things regularly since I have been tutoring English and also editing articles translated from French to English.
Yes, the errors with "currently" and "actually" is common, and mixing up gender too.
Also, these come to mind:
For vs. Since
"What day are we?" instead of "What day is it?"
But I know I do the same when I speak/write French...certain mistakes I consistently make because of my first language being English.
Post a Comment