Jul 08 2010
What are the Costs and Benefits of Multilingual Characters?
I was rereading through comments and found this one very sharp.
I’ve never understood the appeal of the power to speak all or several languages in works of fiction, I’ve seen it numerous times in fan fiction, but it never really made sense to me. The whole point of characters going to places where the language barrier is an issue is, well, primarily because the language barrier is going to be an issue, with a few exceptions in a few plots, and discounting fantasy works. Why send Captain Superior to China if the fact that he is an American-born superhero isn’t going to matter? Couldn’t he just stay home and skip a panel or two of flying? How is it exotic if he can just wander into any McDonald’s and order like it was any other Friday?
I agree that it’s important to cut out extraneous elements. However, I think there are some situations where foreign languages would add something to the story even if the main character can speak them.
