I have ethnic characters who use English as a second language and I want them to have conversations in their first language to make it more realistic and "comfortable" for my characters. How do you suppose I write that without constantly having the phrase in one language and then translating it right after?
Just write it in English, maybe italicize it, and make a note that they started speaking in their first language. Maybe have italics signal that two people are speaking in a different language?
It depends on whether the characters understand each other. If they don't, you'd say "They spoke in their native language, me having no clue what they were saying" or in third person, "They spoke in their native tongue, (insert character name) having no idea what they were saying." If it's important dialogue, just italicize their dialogue in English and on the first line say "(insert name) said in (insert first language)." That sort of thing.
Thank you!
It depends on what PoV you're taking.
A 1st person might hear them and have absolutely no idea what they're saying. A little bit of unintelligible speaking can go in a story.
But if the person whose sight we use as the narrative is the one who's speaking a different language, then I would go for what @Jensen-rs said.
But with 2nd and 3rd person, the narrator can translate for us, just explaining that the two character are speaking in a different language.