Characters with English as a Second Language

I am writing a story where two of the characters are Japanese. They end up spending some time in America, so they are forced to use English.

I want their dialogue to convey that English is their second language. It's natural that they would make mistakes, but I want the mistakes to be plausible (and not make their dialogue incomprehensible).

What are some realistic mistakes that a Japanese speaker would make while speaking English? I'm looking for any types of mistakes: grammar, word usage, strange syntax, etc.

http://ezinearticles.com/?Five-Common-English-Mistakes-Made-by-Japanese-Speakers&id=3917570

There are a number of websites that are easy to google.

Speaking as someone living in Germany with English as the second language and German, as the third, I have an advice to all writers who have non-native English speakers as characters: never, ever use Poirot Speak outside of comedy and parody.

Substituting easy-to-learn words for "yes", "no", and "thanks" with foreign words is a cheap-ass characterization trick that only manages to demonstrate that the character is really stupid or really contemptuous to their hosts. If anything, it's the complex or rare words that we have trouble with, e.g. a sentence like "I am looking for, uh, I don't know what's it called in English... 'Heftstreifen'?" is perfectly realistic. On the other hand, it is also OK for non-native speakers to use local words when speaking in their native tongue. This especially concerns legal terms that have no direct equivalent in their native language (again, rare, complex words). The main rule of bilingual etiquette: you only speak in a language when you know everyone present will understand it.

edited 28th Dec '10 4:47:31 AM by Koveras

From my experience, I can say these:

• Repeating words and phrases. Obviously, the vocabulary of such a character will be limited. When talking with native speakers, they are likely to use the same expressions over and over again, in order to avoid...
• Frequent pauses. This too, is obvious. You need some time to remember certain words, so your responses will be slow.
• Sometimes, when you don't know the right term in English, you attempt to translate it on the spot, resulting in mistakes such as ordering a "nuclear pizza".
• You won't know many phrases and metaphors. Even some very widespread phrases are completely different in other languages, though they retain their meaning.
• What Koveras said. You never answer "yes" in your native language, unless you're being a jerk.