Recenty I read this book (Stray, Ak Host) about a girl that finds herself in a new parallel world. Very nice book but I kept being bugged off by the strangeness of having an author that probably speaks only one language trying to write a book aout learning a new language.
Everything was off.
The girl didn’t speak at all in the beginning. There were no dialogues about grammar details. There was no sense of tiredness by trying to listen to other people. And making the effort to understand.
The fact that the other language was practically a variation of latin, despite being the other side of the universe. Considering that the language was probably supposed to be some evolution from an ancient form of egyptian is even more disturbing how similar everything was to normal occidental culture.
I’ve been also reflecting on how the carachter kept thinking in English and had no problems with forgetting her original idiom or going to push hard to try to remember words she used to know.
Also no problems with strange sounds that are impossible to reproduce. I remember having a pretty good time one afternoon trying to have my japanese friend pronounce the italian “GN” combination. It was funny and a big chat that I still remember really happily.
Also another less happy situation with me trying to pronounce the Korean 나 sound with a very stricht teacher. No matter how much I tried I couldn’t find the right nuance, it was always off a bit.
we italian people keep mispronouncing the english Th making it a definite T.
All this was missing.
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Another thing on this book: why are we women that read romantic books so attracted by men with very little or no facial expression?
It works. After reading ten of her books it still works. No idea why thought. Maybe it’s the fact that it makes us reader appreciate more that one special smile? Or maybe it’s that we become (with the character) more focused on the small things (of the love interest)
Works well as plot thought.