[Guide] Enhancing Foreign RP with Languages

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Shareef
Posts: 141
Joined: May 2018

[Guide] Enhancing Foreign RP with Languages

Thu Sep 13, 2018 6:06 am

Enhancing Foreign RP with Languages
Originally written by DoranoIS, edited by Shareef

Many people have misconceptions on how to use languages in IC chat, specifically language tags, and this typically results in confusion on both sides of roleplay. Today, this guide will teach you how to properly use language tags, along with how to use foreign languages in IC chat in an appropriate way.

Language tags represent that your character is speaking in another language. Your character may know more or less, and often different languages than you do, so language tags simply show that they're not speaking English, without requiring you to go out and learn the whole language for the sole purpose of portraying a character.

When using language tags, I'd personally recommend that you use square [brackets] for your language tags. There are two, technically three brackets you could use. You could use parenthesis, but those don't stand out, since people often use parenthesis for other purposes in chat, along with the fact that typically a script will place suffixes to your name such as (phone), so these usages will make it less obvious that you're speaking in another language. You could also use curly brackets, but those just look weird, and almost troll-like. So, for the best visibility, since the only way for other players to interpret to their characters that your character is speaking another language is to see it, I'd recommend the square brackets.

Often times, players shorten the language they're speaking when using language tags. While this is also a stylistic choice, I'd recommend using the full name. When people type [SPA] or [RUS] it looks a bit off in my opinion, but regardless of my personal aesthetic choices, I can personally attest that some people simply don't know the short hands for most languages. A lot of roleplayers come from non-English speaking countries, and I have many friends who roleplay that don't know all the languages names in English very well, but they know them in their native language. Because of this, they'll be confused when they see shortened versions of these, since it's not as implied as one might think.

One common mistake while typing in language tags is the usage of that language's slang words. While it's not a major plight, this is simply not how language tags work. Some words which can not be translated might be able to pass through this, but for the most part, you shouldn't be saying "[Spanish] Hey cabrón, you're in my varrio, you better get outta here!" because both "cabrón" and "varrio" are Spanish words which can be easily translated into English. This is a common mistake, but hopefully you'll be able to see why this doesn't make sense to do.

Another common mistake is when players write out an onomatopoeia in a foreign language with nothing else attached. Typically this is an honest mistake, even I do it sometimes when I don't mean to, but you don't really make sounds in other languages, so there's no reason to attach a language tag to an onomatopoeia. Typing out "[French] Hmm." and just typing out "Hmm" would literally be the same thing speaking-wise. However, that isn't to say that you can't include an onomatopoeia in your sentences, such as "[French] Hmm, I guess so." because this is still translating something.

Language tags help you add flavor to your character's speech, but there's another way to do that. You can also use words of slang or commonly used words in your IC chat. When portraying a character whose native language is not English, or who uses another language other than English frequently, I'd recommend doing research into commonly used words or slang that you could use to enrich your character's speech. Just be sure not to be typing full on sentences in another language, as that's not allowed, but throwing in words here and there is perfectly fine.

Although this is a short guide, and most people don't think twice about language tags, foreign language and language tags themselves are crucial to augmenting the quality of roleplay and the environment surrounding it. This guide will help you be a better roleplayer with a more in depth understanding of how language tags should be used throughout your experiences on the server.
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Florida
Posts: 19
Joined: September 2018

Re: [Guide] Enhancing Foreign RP with Languages

Mon Sep 17, 2018 6:08 pm

[RUSSIAN] sup
JackHW
Posts: 6
Joined: September 2018

Re: [Guide] Enhancing Foreign RP with Languages

Sat Sep 22, 2018 7:10 pm

[American] nice
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Kolyah
Posts: 48
Joined: August 2018

Re: [Guide] Enhancing Foreign RP with Languages

Sat Sep 22, 2018 10:19 pm

[Russian] Blyat....
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Xgin
Posts: 237
Joined: May 2018

Re: [Guide] Enhancing Foreign RP with Languages

Sun Sep 23, 2018 5:08 am

[spanish] no

jokes aside cool guide
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.Dan
Posts: 10
Joined: August 2018

Re: [Guide] Enhancing Foreign RP with Languages

Sun Sep 23, 2018 12:52 pm

[romanian] bine, bă

great guide, I hope that players who rp speaking foreign languages will have this in mind
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Ace
Posts: 60
Joined: September 2018

Re: [Guide] Enhancing Foreign RP with Languages

Sun Sep 23, 2018 9:50 pm

[Cantonese] lol
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Burim
Helper
Posts: 185
Joined: May 2018

Re: [Guide] Enhancing Foreign RP with Languages

Sun Sep 23, 2018 10:28 pm

[Albanian] Hahahah

I dig the guide. <3
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CLouT.KInG
Posts: 34
Joined: October 2018

Re: [Guide] Enhancing Foreign RP with Languages

Thu Oct 11, 2018 8:52 pm

[ [][][]]][]][] ] pozdrav

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