Working on a Science Fiction project

[benlehman]

I'm working on a science fiction book. It's set in the near-future, maybe ~%50 in Asia, and the rest scattered around the world. Part of the goal of the book is to have people using a lot of different languages, including code-switching (changing languages in the middle of a conversation to make a particular point), pidgins, and other multi-lingual behaviors.

Would people be willing to help me with translation? Or help me find people who might be able to help me with translation?

Languages I'll probably need to so far:
Awkward foreigner-style Chinese (I got this one covered)
Japanese
Korean
Burmese
Ghanan
Bengali (I'll settle for another South Asian language)
Tamil
Uighur
Russian
Finnish
Sami (I recognize that it is really unlikely to just find someone who will just translate Sami for me for free but, hey, it's the internet.)
Spanish, particularly US-style spanish.

Plus general advice from any trained linguists that might happen to be around.

Remember, it's just a story. It's okay to get things a little bit wrong. So even if you're not a native speaker, you're probably a lot of help to me.

edit: Linux.

Comments

[gbsteve.livejournal.com]

I could have helped had it been French, my siblings and I use quite a lot of franglais when we talk and it was the lingua franca of early French roleplaying too, things like "je prends mon sword plus one" or "je le resurrectionne". Nothing quite as wonderful as Miles Kington's "soddez cela pour une alouette" though.

former_pirate might be able to help. He can even speak Latin.

And good luck with the novel, that's a major undertaking.

[benlehman.livejournal.com]

Thanks. If there's a need for franglais of Europe, I'll totally hit you up.

yrs--
--Ben

[opticalbinary.livejournal.com]

If you end up needing Esperanto, look me up.

[benlehman.livejournal.com]

Hmmm... I guess I need to decide if Esperanto still exists...

yrs--
--Ben

[opticalbinary.livejournal.com]

Also Dev MIGHT be able to help with the Bengali. If not, Shreyas can probably help with Hindi or really bad Gujarati.

[bigbluebackpack.livejournal.com]

I can do US-style Spanish, no problema. Russian I'm OK on, and I've been brushing up a bit, and I work with real Russians so I can probably have them check my work.

If you'll buy me the book, I'll study the Ghanan...the language of KWASHIORKOR!

[benlehman.livejournal.com]

Sweet. You're hired!

[russiandude.livejournal.com]

I can check up on the Russian, but I don't really have time to commit for full time assistance.

[benlehman.livejournal.com]

All-in-all, there's going to be at most 10 sentences in Russian. Most of the Russia part of the story takes place on the east coast, which (in this story) is mostly ethnically Chinese.
yrs--
--Ben

[benlehman.livejournal.com]

But I'm totally going to take you up on that offer, regardless. Would rather have 10 sentences of beautiful, authentic Russian than 10 sentences of google-translated schlock.

[benlehman.livejournal.com]

If you're serious about the Ghanan, I will totally fund a Ghanan textbook for you.

[kitsuchan.livejournal.com]

I can do the Japanese if you can't find someone better. But you can probably find someone with better Japanese.

[benlehman.livejournal.com]

See q below to Andy.

[kitsuchan.livejournal.com]

Indeed, I thought Andy might volunteer.

[moreocean.livejournal.com]

Pinche carbron!

[benlehman.livejournal.com]

Cool. I will use you and Alison for the Americans then.

[zigguratbuilder.livejournal.com]

I can do Japanese.

[benlehman.livejournal.com]

Hired!

[benlehman.livejournal.com]

Okay, first thing.

I want, like, a few snippets of rant from a ultra-right Japanese TV host. Think like the Bill O'Reilly or Pat Bucchanan of Japan.

(In point of fact, this guy is Korean, but at this point the Koreans in Japan consider themselves "Japanese" and are considered "Japanese" like the Irish {O'Reilly and Buchannan, natch} are consider themselves and are considered "white" these days in the US. So there's more than a bit of "we got ours" going on.)

Context in the story: The main character's room-mate is a Korean-Japanese, and really really into right-wing politics. Watches the show all the time. So it appears as background noise and distraction.

yrs--
--Ben

[locke61dv.livejournal.com]

i've got quite poor bengali at your service