I'm sorry, but I don't speak Spanish

[liliaeth]

you know what's annoying.

If you post a fic in English, every other one of your fics is in English as well. You have given no indication anywhere that you speak any kind of Spanish whatsoever . (for the record, my first language is dutch) And someone decides to review your fic in Spanish.

The same goes for anyone else responding to a fic in another language than the one the fic is written in. Unless you know the writer and know they speak another language, I don't feel it's polite to respond to a fic in a language you can't know that the writer actually understands.

That's not entitlement is it?

For the record, anyone here mind translating this review to me? Can't even say if there's any triggers in it, cause well I don't understand it. Just that the fic itself was non-con and had character death in it. (could be I'm even wrong on this being Spanish, like I said, I really don't understand what they're saying)

y que se pudra en el infierno el hijo de puta ese. al menos no convertiste a jensen en un enfermo que se enamoraba de él.

Comments

[chase820.livejournal.com]

I had a review in Spanish one time, and it was a very mean one from a troll. I think this may be a thing. I'm not saying your review is mean (since my Spanish is quite limited), but it's possible.

[liliaeth]

well someone translated it for me on fanficrants, and the review seems to be appropriate. it was just a moment of WTF, because well my Spanish is limited to 'olé' and 'si'

I may understand a bit of Latin, but even that is over twenty years in the past and rather limited...

[chase820.livejournal.com]

Oh, Good: I'm glad yours was nice. I never understood the Spanish speaking troll. If you want to hurt my feelings, wouldn't you want to do it in my native tongue? So weird.

[thirdgrace.livejournal.com]

My Spanish isn't great but I think it says something along the lines of:

"and that son of a bitch rots in hell. At least you did not turn Jensen into a patient who was falling in love with him."

[liliaeth]

well at least you know more Spanish than I do.

[tifaching.livejournal.com]

I got a review a few weeks ago in what I think is Russian. I've got no clue what it says and so haven't replied. Yeah, if you can read the story in English, you should probably try to comment in that language, I would think.

[liliaeth]

uhuh, it's just weird... I'd get it if I had Spanish fics somewhere, making people think I speak the language, but I well don't...

[alex-axle.livejournal.com]

The Russian comments are almost guaranteed to be spam/useless comments. My old fics keep getting hit with comments from Russian users that are completely irrelevant, annoying, or deliberate spam.

[tifaching.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the info! It's the first one I've gotten, but if they're just spam I'm sure I'll get more.

[honeylocusttree.livejournal.com]

Sometimes I get spam in Russian, just on random posts. There's the 'translate' function in Google, which I find handy for things like this.

[tifaching.livejournal.com]

I'll give that a try, though I'm sure it's just spam. Thanks!

[ficwriter1966.livejournal.com]

That's...bizarre. I do see people responding in another language to a post that's in English, but I assume it's people who know the poster. (As in your case, people who know you speak Dutch, and respond to you in Dutch.) I have no idea why someone who doesn't know you would comment in Spanish!

Although, those automatic translator things do come in handy. I think Jim Beaver makes frequent use of them in responding to tweets.

The Internet, it is bizarre...

[liliaeth]

exactly, I can see responding to a friend, if you know they speak the same language, but when there's no hint that the person in question speaks said language...

(the only thing I can think of, is if they're confusing me with someone else who does speak Spanish.)

[ratherastory.livejournal.com]

I had a girl faithfully review every single chapter of a WIP a couple of years ago... in Portuguese. I ran it through a translator and used my limited knowledge of languages to try to figure it out, but it was a little frustrating. In her case, I think it's because her English was not good enough that she felt comfortable commenting, and I'm glad she took the trouble, but it was also a little odd.

The comment you got, even though my Spanish is next to non-existent, seems kind of negative. I'd assume troll and ignore it.

[liliaeth]

well someone on fanficrants translated it for me, and basically they're insulting the bad guy of the fic, and saying that at least the victim wasn't a 'sicko' for falling in love with his rapist.

(for the record, the review was a response to my recent 'blindfold' fic 'Robbed')

Still don't get why they had to respond in Spanish though.

[astridv.livejournal.com]

I got a French review on Deviantart once or twice, and a Spanish one iirc. I didn't mind but then again I can read French, just not speak it, and the Spanish one was brief and very easy to decipher. I found it made an interesting change, scrambling together the reply.

I do think that review was rude (mostly since it seems like it wasn't very positive). But otoh fandom is so rooted in English and it's become the default to the point that one doesn't even notice it any more... I guess I feel like sometimes English Native speakers take it for granted that the rest of us come to their playing field so I don't mind it too much when someone ignores that, just for a bit. There have been occasions where it irked me when flawless English was expected from ESL speakers, especially in debates.

Okay, I have more feelings about this than I thought. Maybe there's a meta post in this.

[gillo]

I am constantly astounded by the quality of the English used by non-native-speakers in fandom - often to the extent that it's way too easy to forget people are using a second or third language.

I speak adequate French and a smattering of Spanish and Italian, but I know I would have no hope if I tried to write fiction in any language but my own.

I am awed. My hat is off to you all.

[astridv.livejournal.com]

Heh. Fandom is really great practice when it comes to foreing languages. Definite bonus. :)

The weird thing with writing fiction - fanfic at least - is that I can't imagine writing or even reading fic for English-source shows in German. I've tried reading German-language fic a few times but it always felt so awkward, even in the few cases where I found a well-written one. Might be just force of habit but English feels so much more natural.

Whereas I have no problem reading English for Fullmetal Alchemist, even though I watched that in Japanese with subtitles. Weird.

[gillo]

My Spanish is very, very old (last lesson in school? 1971) but as far as I can tell it says:

...and that this son of a whore should rot in hell. At least you did not turn Jensen into such a weakling that he would fall in love with him.

Does that make sense in the context?

It strikes me as rather weird that someone would write feedback in a language the writer has shown no evidence of knowing, but perhaps the commenter was ashamed of their English but wanted to leave feedback?

[dolamdiz.livejournal.com]

I'm Spanish and have to say that the translation you've done is correct.