non-English writers writing in English

[JonB1969]

hi, everybody ......

I don't know if anyone else is getting requests from people who are not from the USA or any other English-speaking nation, whether American or Queen's English?

What do you usually do when you get a request from someone who says English is their second language and they want you to edit for them? I don't want to sound cruel or harsh but I have had a couple of clients come to me, to discover they have definitely not been raised in an English-speaking country but they want me to edit their stuff.

Don't worry, I know that the planet has 6 billion people and counting, and the USA only has 300 million or so, so yes, I know I'm in the minority. The only problem I have is that I get so frustrated trying to edit a piece from someone who wasn't raised with English as a primary language. PS - I'm not a racist or ethnocentric. I just want advice and or to find out if anyone else is having similar experiences.

Thanks.

 

[sr71plt]

Think you'd have to take this on a case-by-case basis. I've met a whole lot of non-English speakers who handle written English better than native English speakers do.

 

[ukstockinglvr]

I have a slight envy for those who can speak other languages fluent enough to be understood and even more so if they can write fiction in them!

Growing up in the UK foreign languages were taught compulsory at school but when it came to your choices you could drop them. I picked two, but lost interest and tried to drop them both but had to keep one, I barely scraped a pass and even then I am far from fluent.

Older, wiser I know that if I had kept at them it would have greatly improved my employment opportunities in the sector I am in, especially early on.

The world now is a far smaller place with a lot more people within communicating reach.

 

[Todger65]

I have edited several stories from authors for whom English is not a first language. They take longer than others and I always inform the person that they will get them back eventually and not as a priority. If they don't accept that, then I won't do them. I have had some which have been fairly easy and others that have been a nightmare.
Having said that I have had both USA and UK English speaking residents with written English a lot worse than some of the non-English people.
I have been sent stories, not knowing the origin, and after giving them a quick once over have returned them with a polite no as the content is so bad it is unreadable.

2 choices, you either refuse all non English authors or you accept the 'suck it and see' principle and reject any you find too difficult.

 

[MarieWriter]

non english

I have edited several stories from authors for whom English is not a first language. They take longer than others and I always inform the person that they will get them back eventually and not as a priority. If they don't accept that, then I won't do them. I have had some which have been fairly easy and others that have been a nightmare.
Having said that I have had both USA and UK English speaking residents with written English a lot worse than some of the non-English people.
I have been sent stories, not knowing the origin, and after giving them a quick once over have returned them with a polite no as the content is so bad it is unreadable.

2 choices, you either refuse all non English authors or you accept the 'suck it and see' principle and reject any you find too difficult.

I have to agree- I too have edited a handful of non-English stories. In my case I'm fluent in Spanish so that of course helps, but even then, they can be difficult. To be honest, I've often found the "Queen's English," as hard as anything simply because some of the terms are unknown to me.

What I have found is that often times I seem to do as much writing as editing and that's not what I want to do... So I edit case by case, letting them know they may get it returned- and I have and will in the future if need be, return stories uncompleted because they just were too difficult to edit or required too much "new" writing.

 

[i_would]

Think you'd have to take this on a case-by-case basis. I've met a whole lot of non-English speakers who handle written English better than native English speakers do.

I'm one of those non-native English writers.

I've gotten many comments on Internet forums on how good my grammar is, compared to many natives. The simple reason for that is that I'm a learner, so I was actually taught grammar. Most natives are expected to "just know it". It's part of what keeps my errors to the common homophones at bay (e.g. there/their/they're).

There are many stories here that are obviously written by native speakers - or at least people that were born and raised in the US (I can tell that from cultural references in the story), however the language use is bad enough (spelling errors, grammar errors) that I stop reading after a few paragraphs. It's just so irritating.

As a matter of fact I'm regularly proofreading and editing English texts, and I've been teaching it. One of the hardest parts for me is to keep British English and American English separate - having never lived in either country, that part doesn't come natural!

 

[SexyGeek]

Editing for Non-native speakers

I rather enjoy editing for non-native speakers. A couple of my favorite authors are from Sweden and India and both have excellent control of English. Some others that I edit need occasional cleaning up, but honestly the stories are frequently of a higher level than the constant, "He stuck his cock in her cunt" tales that I get from American writers!

The challenge sometimes is taking a foreign turn of phrase and putting it in vernacular English. I learn some foreign ways of expressing things that are very descriptive.

Occasionally I get sent to the dictionary. For example, one writer described a character as looking like a "morin." He did not mean "moron," and I was a bit baffled. Finally he sent me a picture and I found that was the Moray Eel in his language!

So I am happy to accept stories from foreign language users. They add a bit of interest to the day!

 

[LadyVer]

Think you'd have to take this on a case-by-case basis. I've met a whole lot of non-English speakers who handle written English better than native English speakers do.

Ditto.