Language hodgepodge.

[zabnat]

I didn't find a thread where this has been discussed before so here it is.

Recently I found myself creating a design document for a game, which I was to do alone, in English. As this is not my native tongue, I stopped for a moment in when I had several lines of text and noted that I was writing English. Then I though, what the heck, since this was coming out so naturally, why not? And looking at my previous design documents, I can see they are a not so beautiful mix of Finnish and English . It's not that hard for me to switch between them, as sometimes when reading stuff I don't even notice when a language changes, but on some level it does bother me that it's not consistent . On related note, I often catch myself thinking in English.

So my question to you, my fellow AGS people whose mother tongue is not English, is: In what language do you write your design documents? Do you catch yourself thinking in different language?

ps. on not so related note, I haven't really gotten the hang of the usage of commas (not to mention articles) in English, so I just use them like I would in my own twisty language .

[olafmoriarty]

When I on rare occasions write a game design, I think I write most of it in English. I like to pretend that I have several reasons to do so: One is that in the way I write such documents, I like to be able to cut-and-paste from them so that if I come up with an excellent piece of dialogue, I won't have to re-think it to come up with a good translation. Another reason is that I really dislike my own artwork, so even though I'm working all alone on a project I like to keep the opportunity open for possibly recruiting a team at a later point in time. (Also, my main project at the moment is based on an existing literary work, so it's nice to be able to read and write in the same language.)

Though, it should be noted that writing texts in English is my main income source, so I write it almost as fluent as my native tongue.

[Evil]

I only know one language fluently, and even then I have very little grasp of writing concepts of my native language.

I don't have a problem with writing in different languages, but when writing papers or writing dialogue I write in a lot of my mannerisms and words I use a lot. "Don't know" is always "dunno" and every extreme situation is "epic."

But mainly I wanted to say that your comma use is very good. Much better than mine.

[Lionmonkey]

I write all the AGS stuff in English because AGS is English, it's Manual is English and it's Forum is English.

Naturally, I got used to thinking about the AGS in English, because almost everything, connected to AGS, I've seen so far is in English.

And since thinking stuff up is actually the process of combining completely anything you have got, stored in your memory, it is easier to just do it, without doing the extra  job of translating it to Russian. Translating just slows you down, taking away the precius nanoseconds, before the thought dissapears from your head.  The!

3.|o|.:Same goes to this forum.

[voh]

I only write in English. Be it for stories, poems, song lyrics or design documents for whatever project I'm working on. Dutch just never really 'clicked' for me.

Makes it much easier to collaborate with non-Dutchies as well, as I'd hate to translate 56 pages worth of design document

[Babar]

While english IS my first language, some words I've mixed up sometimes. Like it took me a long time to realise that  'lakh' wasn't an english word. And some words (mostly food and spices) I don't even know the english word for, and usually mix up while talking about.

[paolo]

t took me a long time to realise that  'lakh' wasn't an english word.

Well, it is in English dictionaries (see http://www.askoxford.com/concise_oed/lakh?view=uk, for example), but I've never heard anyone use it in the UK. How do you use it? Would you talk about a lakh of rupees, or lakhs of people, or something like that?

My first language is English but sometimes when I am speaking French or Italian I have to stop and think which one is coming out of my mouth. This is especially true when I use both languages in one day.

[Babar]

Yeah, I'd use it something like that. I mean, it's like the use of the word 'million'. Can be done wherever it is needed.

Also, as a kid I had a bangladeshi babysitter/nanny, so when I first started speaking it was a very weird 'hodgepodge'. I've seen videos of me saying stuff in Bangla that I don't understand today . Another weird effect (involving the spices I was talking about) is that I mix up ginger and garlic in english, but when I think of them in bangla, I can differentiate the two.