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/lit/ - Literature

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12049929 No.12049929 [Reply] [Original]

How many of you polylinguist(or even just bilinguists) who can write very well in English are able to transfer that skill over to writing in your other known languages?
It doesn't even need to be English specifically. If you're above average at writing in one of your known languages, do you also automatically get good or better at writing in your other known languages? Supposing you have more or less a native grasp of the language.
Perhaps it might be with the romance languages but what about from German to Japanese?
Or is there no significant effect?

>> No.12049939

>>12049929
I wouldn't say so.English isn't my mother language,but I can write way better in Engkish than in my other languages.(I'm quadrilingual for reference)

>> No.12049940

>>12049929
Which side won? I’d bet on the Dosties. Tolstoy is obviously better to anyone who isn’t a mong, but I think Dosties can use their long strength to their advantage.

>> No.12049946

The Dostoevsky fags would draw knives because they know that Tolstoy boys would fuck their shit up.

>> No.12049964

>>12049929
dostofags know that tolstoy is the better writer, that headline is fake

>> No.12049973

I can't express very precise shades of meaning in any of the other languages I speak. Word choice in one's mother tongue is guided by connotation through lived experience.I have no idea how Conrad was able to write so well.

>> No.12049998

>>12049940
Probably Dosto fans, they seem like they’d be the most deranged.

>> No.12050017

>>12049929
I hope those dosto fags rot

>> No.12050024

>>12049929
I will speak about academic writing since that's what I know the most.

There's more than one skill at play when you write in a foreign language. First there's your vocabulary range, then your hold on grammar and how familiar you are with the type of text you are supposed to write. There's also your capacity to use the flow and own characteristics of the language in order to create harmony and beauty in your writing. In my experience, these skills do not transfer well from one language to another.

On the other hand, being a good writer also means to be able to plan, outline and organize your text, to be able to make a compelling argument and to identify the weak and strong points of any argument, as well as to provide examples to illustrate and highlight your points. Finally there's your own inventiveness, imagination and the use of rhetorical devices to aid your writing. In my experience, these skills are transversal across any language you speak (or write).

IMO this may be more noticeable in speech. Some people are great speakers, have awesome voice projection, intrapersonal intelligence, an understanding of rhythm, cadence, non-vebal cues and tone that naturally draw the listeners in. This will be most notable in the native language of such person, but given enough proficiency, he will be able to replicate his success in a foreign language. It's not very concievable that he becomes a sperg that cannot speak in public just because he happens to be speaking another language.

I also speak 4 languages like >>12049939 but I would only consider myself proficient in 3 of them.

>> No.12050661

>>12049973
You probably have not yet achieved a native-like proficiency in those languages

>> No.12050669

>>12049929
>Polylinguist

Brainlet

>> No.12050686

>>12050017
Fuck you bitch, I’m trying to read a book not a leviathan of text.

>> No.12051018

>>12049929
> reacting to clickbait

Those drunks could argue about Ferrari and Lamborghini just as well, and achieve the same results, you idiots.

>> No.12051081

>>12050686
I'm trying to read a novel not sad adventure fiction.