Language. A beautiful thing. It lets us communicate our thoughts and feelings and express ourselves verbally. But there are a LOT of them! I mean, there are roughly 6,500 languages spoken in the world today.
As a writer who writes in English, I find this thought daunting. How can I get my stories to others in the world when I can’t write in their language?
So I’ve thought of a task that I’d like to take on this year–choose a language and translate one of my stories into it. I’d love to reach out beyond the borders of one language. I mean, there is a HUGE world out there with millions of people who read books just like me.
One of the other things to think about when choosing which language is MARKET. Meaning, if I choose Mandarin vs. French, what is the likelihood that a) anyone who speaks those languages would buy my work or b) I can get those translations into their hands.
It’ll be a challenge, that’s for sure. But I’d really like to see what I can do.
Do YOU speak any other languages? Or have you ever heard of a book in another language that you wish you could read? I’d love to hear your thoughts!
living in mexico, i have picked up some of the language here. what i’ve discovered is that, altho i learned spanish in high school, it was the spanish of spain. in mexico, the language spoken is castellano, which is different from the spanish i learned. thus, it’s been like learning a new language all over again. and, translating is often difficult if one is not familiar with the idioms of each language. a sentence can be translated from english to spanish, or vice versa, and not make any sense whatsoever. nonetheless, christa, i think it’s a great project, one that will keep you busy! since books are translated into other languages all the time, i know it’s do-able. i hope you have fun with it, whatever language you choose. enjoy!