I wrote a previous post briefly mentioning that I have had some thoughts working on bilingual books. In this post, I would like to explain more clearly why creating a bilingual book is not simply a matter of having one language and its translation.

I was born and raised in Vietnam, then went to Australia to study Bachelor degree. After that, I returned to Vietnam to work before coming back to Australia, where I now live as an Australian citizen. Naturally, as I have grown older over time, my thoughts and experiences have also changed and developed along the way.

I also got my certificates and worked in childcare and schools in Australia. Because of that, when it comes to this field, especially professional terms and industry-specific language, I often find myself thinking in English first. Quite simply, there are times when I am not even sure how to translate certain terms accurately into Vietnamese.

Vietnamese, on the other hand, has a great many particles and little words that add meaning to a sentence, but are almost meaningless on their own. Have a look at this. With the same basic idea of ‘ăn cơm’ (which translates to ‘eat your meal’ even though ‘cơm’ literally means ‘cooked rice’, not ‘your meal’), we can say it in many different ways. The literal meaning may be similar, but the feeling and attitude behind the words can be completely different. These words do not only express politeness; they can also show the level of closeness and intimacy between the people speaking.

For example:

• Ăn cơm: Eat / Have a meal (Infinitive verb/General concept) or Time to eat!
• Ăn cơm đi: Eat up! / Go eat! / Have some food! (Casual, informal)
• Ăn cơm đi anh: Go eat, babe! / Time for dinner, sweetie! (Affectionate, gentle)
• Anh ăn cơm đi nhé: Enjoy your meal, okay? / Remember to eat, babe! (Gentle reminder)
• Anh ăn cơm đi mà: Come on, please eat! / Please eat for me, babe! (Whiny, begging)
• Anh hãy ăn cơm đi: Please go have your meal. (Polite, slightly formal/serious)
• Anh hãy ăn cơm đi nhé: Please make sure to eat, okay? (Caring, polite)
• Anh ăn cơm ạ: Please help yourself to dinner, sir. (Polite, highly respectful)
• Vậy anh ăn cơm đi nhé: Alright then, go eat! / So go have your dinner, okay? (Gentle transition)
• Vậy thôi anh ăn cơm đi: Never mind then, just go eat! / Anyway, go get some food! (Wrapping up the conversation so the other person can eat)

So, when Vietnamese uses these little particles to express emotional nuances, translating them into English while allowing the reader to feel the same emotion is not always possible through a word-for-word translation. If we compare every single word, the English sentence may no longer follow the same structure as the original.

Yes, in Vietnamese, simply placing one small particle in a particular position can completely change the structure needed in English to capture the emotional tone of the context.

For example, changing:

• “Anh ăn cơm đi nhé.”  “Please eat, okay?” (Sweet)

to:

• “Vậy anh đi mà ăn cơm.”  “Well then, just go and eat.” (Storm starts!)

can shift the tone from something like:

“I love you. I care about you. Please eat.”

to:

“Fine then. Go and eat. I don’t care.”

With just a few words, Vietnamese can move very quickly from affection to mild annoyance, sulking, or something that feels more like: “Fine. Do whatever you want. Go and eat, and just leave me here as you wish.”

Vietnamese can sometimes be quite terrifying that way. It is incredibly efficient at turning affection into a little episode of sulking, complete with a touch of loving guilt, using only a few words!

So, after parents and children have finished learning Vietnamese, remember to look at people’s faces when you hear them speaking too! Don’t just listen to the words and then wonder, “Wait, why does this sound almost like the same sentence, but their attitude has suddenly done a complete 180?”

For that reason, when writing stories for children, I try to limit the use of too many conversational particles and instead focus on sentence structures that can preserve the innocence, humour, and childlike nature of the characters as much as possible.

My aim is that when the story is translated into English, children can compare the two languages and recognise their differences without encountering sentences whose structures have changed so completely that they become confusing for someone learning the language.

Of course, there are still times when dialogue is necessary. In those moments, whether I originally think of the sentence in English or Vietnamese, when I move it into the other language, I try my very best to preserve exactly what I want to convey, even if the structure of the two languages needs to be different.

And fortunately, because I have lived in Australia for quite some time, I have gradually learned to recognise the humour, wit, and emotional nuances in an English sentence that may seem, at first glance, to simply follow the rules of grammar. But when those words are accompanied by a facial expression, an action, or an entire context that came before them, their meaning and emotional tone can change enormously.

That is why illustration is also important to me, it is like a slow-motion film playing on paper, allowing the reader to see the things that words alone may not fully express. And that is something I am trying my very best to convey through my books and need more talented illustrators guiding me.

Because when someone can look at the illustrations, then read the Vietnamese, then read the English, and still laugh at the same moment, understand the same joke, or feel the same emotion, isn’t that wonderful?

Apart from the creative process itself, translating a manuscript before sending it to a publisher, and then continuing to revise it afterwards, is genuinely a difficult and challenging process but also a fascinating one. When I read a sentence in Vietnamese and feel truly satisfied with it, then read it again in English and still feel the same way, that is when I feel the sentence is right.

And one more tip: if you can tell which version sounds more natural, Vietnamese or English, you might just be able to figure out which language that particular thought first came to me in. Want to take the challenge? Hihi.