So, in a story I'm writing, one of my main characters is bilingual/multilingual. She can speak many languages, but she mostly just speaks French and English (so I'd like to focus on those two).
The main language spoken in the place where the story is set is English.
As I am not bilingual myself, I don't know how to write a bilingual character realistically.
Any help would be much appreciated. Thanks.
There's a lot of hurdles while writing bilingual/multilingual characters, I agree with you on that. One of the main things is keeping your grammar spotless. I suggest that you use Google translate, select your languages, and make sure that your writing and translating makes sense. While writing in another language- French, for example, maybe write/type in italics, and make sure you never make your character say something like this: "Oops, sorry. Hard to switch back sometimes" from languages, because that gives off a strange aura in writing. I hope I provided you with the help you were looking for :)
I spent some time in France last summer, and seeing how French is not my first language, I kept accidentally saying stuff like "I am foot pain" (Je suis mal au pied) instead of "I have foot pain" (J'ai mal au pied). So you can have your character use english grammar in french or vice versa, if she is still learning? Or also when someone screws up with common idioms it can be entertaining.
Actually is not as hard as it seems, but here is some tips of real bilingual friends (and i):
-Sometimes they think in the language they are most comfortable with, but when they are with people that speech other languages they start thinking on that language
-If someone speaks really fast sometimes is confusing, i think you can do something with that
-It's not A WORLD being bilingual, like it's pretty useful but you don't build your character in that so far.
Good luck, if something it's wrong with the grammar i'm sorry
There’s a Pinterest post floating around there somewhere that’s really helpful. Try searching ‘writing a bilingual character’ or something like that.
Try searching French idioms and having them say the idiom in English and having everyone be really confused before they realize.
They can’t count backwards in English, so they switch to French to count backwards.
There’s more, just try to find that post.
The thing about being bilingual is mainly mixing the two languages, whenever the situation deems it fit, particularly if your character is surrounded by others who speak the same languages. In a casual situation, this applies particularly well when a character is trying to get a point across, but either lacks or has forgotten some word or phrase in language A, so instead opts to fill it in with language B. If your character, however, is the only one who speaks French, there are a number of common ways it can be used. First and foremost, my favorite, when your second language (though usually your mother tongue) is used for comedic purposes, be it colorful swearwords or frustrated blabber. This is something I personally do with my own friends, as most of us understand both English - my second language - and Swedish - my mother tongue, we tend to cuss shamelessly and go on aggressive rants in Swedish, for, when you scold or whine or cuss in your native language, it adds something more to what you're saying - sass, attitude, if used in the right way. I strongly suggest you do some deep research into typical French phrases/expressions, swears, words, etc. to make your character believable, and if you can, definitely try to talk to someone who's, like, properly French who can help you. Like some other comments mentioned, your mother tongue is something you instinctively come back to whether you like it or not, especially when it comes to counting (I count in Swedish but I think in English), or when you're put in an unexpected situation, something that might cause extreme fear, for example. Your character will likely also use their bilingual skills to their advantage when it comes to secret insults or details that they don't want other characters to understand/hear. It is also easier for multilingual people to make linguistic connections, for example, as an English, Swedish and Spanish speaker, I see words in other languages which I can relate back to what I already know; this is particularly convenient for written ciphers, clues, etc., but also just a generally good problem-solving tool when it comes to language barriers. If you know two languages, it is almost always easier to learn more, for example, as someone who speaks Swedish and Spanish, I understand both Danish and Norweigan, some German and French, but you get the point: languages are similar. You will, most definitely also make grammatical mistakes in the language you're less dominant in, as rules vary from language to language. One last thing I'd like to leave you with before I end this ridiculously long post is: sometimes, when a bilingual person is surrounded by people who only speak one of the languages they do, it can definitely be harder to communicate. As an example: I'm better at English than Swedish, so, when I'm around someone or some people that only speak Swedish, I tend to be more quiet, as it takes longer for me to find the right words and sometimes even the correct grammar, and expressing myself the same way I do in English as in Swedish is something I can really struggle with. Hope this helped, sorry for the information dump, I'm very passionate about these things. Good luck writing!
I'm not actually bilingual, but I've taken multiple courses in a couple of languages (ASL and Chinese being the main ones), and my mother tongue is American English. I think and usually speak in English, but if I can't think of a particular word, or another language has a better "phrase" for something I want to say, I wind up gesturing (in butchered ASL) or thinking/speaking in the other language. Or alternatively, I'll use a literal translation of a term/phrase in another language.
For example, if I'm having trouble thinking of the word "thermostat," I wind up gesturing like I'm turning a knob while I explain the type of word I'm looking for. (I've called thermostats and thermometers "temperature gauges" on multiple occasions.)
As another example, a friend and I in high school liked Japanese music and dramas. There was a Japanese celebrity in particular that was trying to learn English, and he thought prawn were called "car shrimp" in English because that was, as my friend told me, the literal Japanese-to-English translation. He also referred to a particular part of his body as "eggplants" in Japanese, so my friend and I took to using the English word "eggplants" to refer to the same body part.
Since you are not bilingual, I would personally recommend getting some basic knowledge of the language down and/or trying to write around that. (There are plenty of programs and apps for learning languages; I personally enjoy DuoLingo.) Such as, writing the thoughts and words for English in plain text, but using italics for thoughts and words that are in French (or supposed to be in French when you want the characters to know what is being said/thought without pulling out a translator). E.g.:
"I can understand you, you know," I told the French woman who sat nearby, gossiping about me. She gave me an embarrassed look before she and her friend moved to seats further away. If she hadn't moved away, I would have asked her out – she did say I was cute, after all. I sighed. C'est la vie.
Good luck with your writing! It's awesome that you want to give this perspective a shot!
Apps for languages are pretty good, like @Elle F. Wade said, but be careful with Duolingo. It teaches you vocabulary, not grammar and conjugations, so it can be very confusing if it's your only resource.
I got ahead in Duolingo of my Spanish 1 class once and I was very confused because it didn't tell me the difference between bebo, bebes, bebe, bebemos, and beben. I didn't understand until we got to that in my Spanish class.
As SolarisBlond said, never have a 'I'm sorry, it's hard to switch back sometimes' moment. Those are ridiculous. If the character is extremely confident in both languages (raised in bilingual household) then they can have perfect English and French. But if they learned one language later, you should sometimes apply their first language's grammar to everything they say.
For example, I once used an English idiom in French class, with the direct French translation. My teacher explained how the idiom would not work, then gave me a suitable replacement.
Honestly, best thing to do if you don't know the language you're trying to write for any character is to find a phonetically fluent friend who knows that language, and get them to write down what you mean, or at least check it for mistakes.
Don't trust google translate or Duolingo in these matters.
Have them occasionally forget the word for something in the language they're speaking:
"What was the word? Ach, it's on the tip of my tounge! I'm getting it…I'm getting it…nope, not coming."
"Hey Barry-"
"REFRIGERATOR!!!"
From personal experience: most of the time I speak, read and think in English, and very rarely in Polish (my first language). I had a Polish colleague, who would always insist on speaking Polish to me — except once he started in English, and we talked in English for a couple of minutes before he realised this. I found it funny. He thought he was being extremely rude, by speaking to me in a language that wasn't our shared, native one.
It's not really that it is /hard/ to switch between languages – sometimes it just takes a second to realise you need to, if you've been immersed in the other language before being interrupted.