November 17, 2015

The challenge of writing in a foreign language

I started reading Dmitry Glukhovsky's METRO 2033 and the very first line jarred me. "Who's there? Artyom—go have a look!" There is nothing wrong with it. In fact, it sucks you right in the story. What bothered me was the tone of the translation. I couldn't pinpoint what it was at first. The words seemed all right. But something about them was not quite Russian. Yes, that's how one would say it in English but not how one would say it in Russian. I was certain that the suss was lost in translation, the sense of a superior commandeering a soldier.

I dismissed the feeling and read on (the annoying habit of distrusting myself since childhood). Sure enough, two paragraphs later another chunk of dialogue tripped me up. "You idiot! You were clearly told. If they don't respond, then shoot immediately! How do you know who that was? Maybe the dark ones are getting closer!"

August 12, 2015

Growing your vocabulary by using etymology

by Ksenia Anske

I seem to have cracked one of my biggest obstacles to writing well: the excruciatingly slow growth of my vocabulary (have found a way to significantly speed it up, I mean, not crack it). Since I started writing in English, I have tried all kinds of methods to pound new words into my head and failed at each, adding maybe 10 new words per month or so, which was nothing. It got me mighty pissed that I couldn't retain the meaning of words like "inexorable" and "parsimony" and "celerity" and "doff" and "grandiloquent" and more complex words packed with layers of meaning like "egalitarianism" and "idiosyncrasy" and "meritocratic" and the like. I'd open up a new book and every few paragraphs would have to whip out my phone to look up that word or the other or whole phrases like "bona fide" or "tour de force" or "carpe diem" and such. It would drive me bananas that I came across the same words over and over and over again and failed to remember what they meant.

Then over the last month I have been astonished to find that the new system I'm using is finally fucking working! Fucking glorious hallelujah!!!

April 25, 2015

Expanding your vocabulary

by Ksenia Anske

Photo by JoãoBacalhau — Photo by JoãoBacalhau

I have a particular challenge of writing in a language that I learned about 16 years ago, and expanding my vocabulary is on the forefront of it, painfully so. I would love to hear your ideas and tricks on growing it faster, especially those of you who write multilingually. Over the 3 years that I've been writing full-time, I have devised system after system after system to help me. They all collapsed shortly after I started them, but this one stuck and I wanted to share it with you because it might give you a little boost if you're struggling as I do.

Words are our tools. No mater which way you spin it, the breadth of linguistic fluidity shows up in writing time and again. It might look simple at first, but it's the breathing fabric underneath that makes it sound different, rich, fresh, enthralling. Same concepts, same tired expressions can be said so many different ways, it's astounding.

February 8, 2014

My journey as a non-native English speaker & writer

by Ksenia Anske

A non-native English speaker (like me) and my blog reader asked this question: "Hello Ksenia!! I was visiting your blog and I was thinking why not sharing your journey as a non-native speaker writer! I don't know if you have already written something similar but I think it would be very interesting and useful to share some tips! I mean the ways that helped you to encounter the difficulties of writing in English which is not your first language."

Yes, for those of you who didn't know, English is not my first language. Russian is. I came to America in 1998, knowing a few phrases from Beatles songs like "Hello", "Goodbye", "I love you", "Help", and such. I did know German though, from living for 4 years in Berlin in my teens, so since both languages belong to the Anglo-Saxon language group, it was perhaps easier for me to grasp? Not sure. Anyway. I had to learn English fast, because, number one, those annoying newspapers kept calling and asking for a subscription, and I couldn't properly tell them to piss off, and, number two, I left Moscow in the middle of college (studying architecture) and I had to transfer my credits and learn English (pass TOEFL and all that jazz) to be accepted by the local college and graduate with some sort of a degree. Or sit home and go crazy. So I learned it.