Part 1 : Bases
Accepting Biais :
I am not sharing my gender and my nationality here just to talk about my life, but to introduce the topic. Here, as you read that I am french and a girl, what images, what ideas popped into your mind ? If you suddenly had some pictures of hot girls, Paris, french kiss, sensual accent and such thing, you just discovered what I’m going to talk in the first point.
We all are raised with some ideas about the other people, their gender, their nationality, how they are supposed to be. For example, in France, we say that UK folks are some snobbish people who will stop everything they might do at 5PM because “it’s tea timeâ€. I saw you smiling ! But.. no matter what you think about it, you, me and your neighbour have been bathed in those (stupid) popular belief all our life and while we cannot avoid them, we have to understand that when we meet someone for the first time and come to know about them, we will have a lot of preconceptions to fight against (and trust me, sometimes it isn’t that easy).
A fellow foreigner RPer probably met some other people before you, he will come with some luggages and in those there are probably some bad experiences related to all those who like to jeer others for their grammar rather than spending 1mn to read the content of the sentence. At the same time, you come with your own luggages and knowledge about that person’s nationality, all those biais like “Oh she’s french, french are rude†(Yes. I was told those sort of things more than once) can become a problem if you don’t pay attention to them.
Those pasts experiences will color every single of your exchange with each others, and you cannot stop that. The only thing you can do is accept this terrible truth and so, always have a second regard on your own reaction - even after the situation is long gone - to know if at this time you took a sentence badly and read some implies because of your partner culture / nationality / gender / hair color.
Acknowledging someone’s difference :
This goes for the native speaker and the non native speaker. Because you’ll meet a lot of people in that game, you’ll have to stay vigilant when you’ll meet someone new as they might not be from the same country. But it’s not always easy to say nor to ask if your partner is a native speaker, so here are some small tips to help you :
That doesn’t mean that you have to ignore the fact your partner might be a foreigner and so to continue speaking as if the one in front of you would understand everything you will say. I’m not telling you to not use your usual range of vocabulary (in fact it helps us a lot as it’s the best way for us to learn some new words) but to avoid such things as acronym (our nightmare) and text messages. This might seem dumb, but trust me, it helps a lot when we don’t have to deal with those two things or it becomes a translation in english to translate after in our language.. Ew.
How to not be an arse :
Here some people will smirk and will think “Hey, it’s obvious, I just have to not say to the guy ‘you dumb ? How can you not have understood that’ lul†. Well no. Hurting someone is something easy, particularly when that person will endanger themself by going out of their way and try to RP with you. I know that you’re not a big monster in front of your screen and you’re probably a caring person whose last goal is to hurt your RP partner, but sometimes we do stuff without even notice them.
In any case, keep in mind that the person in front of you is extraordinary (yes sir / lady, you’re marvelous). To be able to be in front of you today, to RP with you, they learned your language for years, they are gathering some courage to meet you in a situation which will endanger them (it’s really scary to RP in another language sometimes) and they are making some effort to fight their handicap and to be a part of the story you’re weaving together. Be amazed, that person in front of you deserves it and don’t forget to tell them *nods* .
Building some Self Confidence :
This time I’m addressing more to the non native speakers, but I encourage the native speakers to read this section, this might be interesting for you as well.
Between you and me, we know that meeting some new people isn’t always something easy, we’re going out of our way, out of our comfort zone, not knowing how we will be welcomed. But here are some small tips to make the things going smoother.
Accepting Biais :
I am not sharing my gender and my nationality here just to talk about my life, but to introduce the topic. Here, as you read that I am french and a girl, what images, what ideas popped into your mind ? If you suddenly had some pictures of hot girls, Paris, french kiss, sensual accent and such thing, you just discovered what I’m going to talk in the first point.
We all are raised with some ideas about the other people, their gender, their nationality, how they are supposed to be. For example, in France, we say that UK folks are some snobbish people who will stop everything they might do at 5PM because “it’s tea timeâ€. I saw you smiling ! But.. no matter what you think about it, you, me and your neighbour have been bathed in those (stupid) popular belief all our life and while we cannot avoid them, we have to understand that when we meet someone for the first time and come to know about them, we will have a lot of preconceptions to fight against (and trust me, sometimes it isn’t that easy).
A fellow foreigner RPer probably met some other people before you, he will come with some luggages and in those there are probably some bad experiences related to all those who like to jeer others for their grammar rather than spending 1mn to read the content of the sentence. At the same time, you come with your own luggages and knowledge about that person’s nationality, all those biais like “Oh she’s french, french are rude†(Yes. I was told those sort of things more than once) can become a problem if you don’t pay attention to them.
Those pasts experiences will color every single of your exchange with each others, and you cannot stop that. The only thing you can do is accept this terrible truth and so, always have a second regard on your own reaction - even after the situation is long gone - to know if at this time you took a sentence badly and read some implies because of your partner culture / nationality / gender / hair color.
Acknowledging someone’s difference :
This goes for the native speaker and the non native speaker. Because you’ll meet a lot of people in that game, you’ll have to stay vigilant when you’ll meet someone new as they might not be from the same country. But it’s not always easy to say nor to ask if your partner is a native speaker, so here are some small tips to help you :
- Time for answering : We’re all needed more or less time to answer to something IC. With some time, you’ll know more about your RP partner’s pace, but usually foreigners are slower.
- Sentence structure : When you face someone making constantly the same grammar mistake, it can both be a foreigner or a native who doesn’t bother. So I suggest you to pay attention on the sentence structure instead. Depending on the country, the way the sentence is made is completely different and not always obvious for a foreigner.
- Vocabulary : Sometimes you meet someone whose english is really nice and the only way you might spot the fact he’s not native is his limited vocabulary. We RPer are using a wider vocabulary range than most of people, but, as a foreigner, you come by with a HUGE handicap : You will always have less vocabulary than someone who is native speaker. If sentences are often seem similar, the same words to describe close situations etc. You might be in front of a foreigner.
- Misunderstanding : Subtles sentences might lead to misunderstanding more easily. While a native speaker will have no problem to guess the implies and to have a general image of the scene close to what his native speaker partner is describing, it’s not always the case for a foreigner (I’ll explain this more in another party).
That doesn’t mean that you have to ignore the fact your partner might be a foreigner and so to continue speaking as if the one in front of you would understand everything you will say. I’m not telling you to not use your usual range of vocabulary (in fact it helps us a lot as it’s the best way for us to learn some new words) but to avoid such things as acronym (our nightmare) and text messages. This might seem dumb, but trust me, it helps a lot when we don’t have to deal with those two things or it becomes a translation in english to translate after in our language.. Ew.
How to not be an arse :
Here some people will smirk and will think “Hey, it’s obvious, I just have to not say to the guy ‘you dumb ? How can you not have understood that’ lul†. Well no. Hurting someone is something easy, particularly when that person will endanger themself by going out of their way and try to RP with you. I know that you’re not a big monster in front of your screen and you’re probably a caring person whose last goal is to hurt your RP partner, but sometimes we do stuff without even notice them.
- Corrections : Do not pick the person on their grammar / vocabulary / spelling / anything related to english without their consent. I know sometimes it burns your fingers and you think that what you do is for your partner own good but don’t do it. I’ll do a whole section around “how to help your RP partner†later, but for now keep in mind that correcting someone isn’t an easy thing to do and deserve some peculiar attention.
- Pace : Respect. Your. Partner. Pace. If you don’t have the patience nor the time to allow your partner to follow their pace, tell them you cannot RP with them right now. Spamming sentences because you think your partner should have had enough time to answer and so doesn’t because they have nothing to say (or whatever reason which can pop in your mind) is a HUGE mistake. Keep in mind that each time you add something, your partner might feel the want to catch up and so will be even longer to answer (and might panic).
- Accept the OOC questions : Answer to your partner questions and demands, particularly when they ask some precisions about the scene. I know that some of you like to avoid OOC during their RP session, but if you’re RPing with a foreigner, you might have to OOC more often as the person might need to be sure they understood properly. As the previous point, if you don’t have the patience, avoid to RP with them right now.
- Pay attention : If your RP partner’s english is good, you might forget that this person isn’t native and become more tough, less tolerant when that person will tell you that they misunderstood something (oh how many time this happened to me !?). Keep in mind that if suddenly a sentence is weird or not accurate, your partner might have read something else in your words and you have to discuss with them OOC about it. It’s not the end of the world if you have to “reckon†the last 10mn of RP if there were some misunderstandings.
In any case, keep in mind that the person in front of you is extraordinary (yes sir / lady, you’re marvelous). To be able to be in front of you today, to RP with you, they learned your language for years, they are gathering some courage to meet you in a situation which will endanger them (it’s really scary to RP in another language sometimes) and they are making some effort to fight their handicap and to be a part of the story you’re weaving together. Be amazed, that person in front of you deserves it and don’t forget to tell them *nods* .
Building some Self Confidence :
This time I’m addressing more to the non native speakers, but I encourage the native speakers to read this section, this might be interesting for you as well.
Between you and me, we know that meeting some new people isn’t always something easy, we’re going out of our way, out of our comfort zone, not knowing how we will be welcomed. But here are some small tips to make the things going smoother.
- Don’t hide your nationality : Tell them you’re not native speaker as soon as you feel it’s necessary (if your RP partner seems impatient for example). This will help them to be more tolerant. You might also need to be tolerant yourself if they begin to act sillily. Finding the right pace and the right language takes more time when one of the partner is handicapped by their difference of language or culture. Bear with them, they probably want to see this RP working as much as you do.
- Precise the time you need : Tell your RP partner if you think you will need more than 5mn to write a sentence. It can be because you know that there are some words you will have to fetch in a dictionary or because you have no idea how your character will react and so you will need more time to write, no matter the reason, tell them. 5mn is my golden rule, because I know my writing pace, I know my character perfectly (dear Ilwe, sometimes you’re dumb and makes me write silly things, love, your player) and I know when what I’ll write will cause me some problem or not. Saying that you will need time will calm them if they are the sort of spamming sentence and you will yourself be less stressed by the idea of giving them a sentence.
- Ask some questions : If you have some doubt, if you’re uncertain, ask. Always. Never roll on thinking “Oh I think it might be that.†Better looking dumb 1mn because you didn’t understand something simple rather than going through some misunderstandings.
- Facing an arse : If your partner doesn’t seem to want to make some efforts and becomes anal, walk away. Not everybody is able to RP with a foreigner, it asks a lot of patience (particularly at our beginning) and it’s better to simply stop before it damages too much your confidence.
- You are amazing : At the end of the day you are and you will remain an amazing person. It’s not important if sometimes you fail. It doesn’t matter if you didn’t manage to find the right word at the right moment. You still made the effort to try and no matter if someone is rude to you and picking on your english, that person doesn’t make any effort on their side. Remind yourself that it’s really easy to mock someone while it’s really hard to gather to courage to try.
![[Image: Ilweransig_zps9ea63f49.png~original]](http://i1293.photobucket.com/albums/b581/Ylthin/Sprites/Topic/Ilweransig_zps9ea63f49.png~original)
