Anonymous asked:
This might be a bit weird.
How to describe foreign culture without sounding like a foreigner?
writingquestionsanswered answered:
1 - Do lots and lots of research.
WQA’s Guide to Internet Research
Setting Your Story in an Unfamiliar Place
How to Write Any Type of Character
Writing a Diverse Character from Outside the Community
Describing a Character’s Race & Ethnicity
Writing Character Slang and Accents
Dialogue Scenes with Language Barriers
Using a Foreign Language in Your Story
Character Speaking Another Language (Without Actually Writing It…)
Watch documentaries and read books about the culture. Watch movies and TV shows about the culture. Read interviews, blogs, and articles about the culture. Sometimes you can find people from the culture who love to educate people about their culture, so see if you can find people like that in writing forums, travel forums, etc. Just don’t ask people who aren’t already offering this kind of help.
2 - Hire a sensitivity reader (or two, or three) from the culture.
If you’re going to write about a culture that isn’t your own, it’s absolutely VITAL that you hire at least one sensitivity reader from that culture. Otherwise, not only are you going to sound like a foreigner portraying a culture that’s not your own, there’s also a high risk that you could end up doing something offensive or even harmful, and you definitely don’t want to do that.
I hope that helps!
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