Note: This chapter is definitely one of the most unique I have ever done for the editorial. Not only is this part going to tackle the mistranslation of certain foreign words in fantasy fiction, but also talk about a huge pet peeve I have that may surprise you. A special thanks to PaigesOfBookland who suggested I tackle this subject in the comment section of the previous part. Now on to a cliché that some of you may have never even heard of due to it involving foreign language.

If any of you have ever taken an English class, then you know how brutally on key you must be with every tidbit of sentence structure. When tackling any type of sentence, you must know whether your wording shall be in the past tense, the present tense, or the future tense. Point of view additionally must be thought about even when writing a simple three hundred word paper. Are you going to be in the first person, the rare second person, or the very common but scorned about third person? Words like don't, ain't, and you're must be split into the two words that originally fused them together. The adjective comes before the noun, the use of an exclamation point is a taboo, and each essay must start out with a well thought out thesis statement. These rules are drilled into your head constantly, never to be forgotten once. Those who succeed in English class will do well in other courses, as all English speaking countries have the class applied to everything. If not, you are doomed to an eternity of flunking report cards.

But there is one thing that even an English class tends to forget to express about. That thing is the complexity of defining the meaning behind a word. While it is applied early on in elementary school, after that the dictionary becomes your teacher. This one aspect of the English lesson structure, unlike the other debatably unnecessary sections, is needed for the real world. Without the ability to define a word completely, how are we supposed to apply our English language skills to other languages? And if we cannot do that, how are we supposed to correctly write out a foreign sentence for our pending fantasy novels?

Mistranslation of foreign words, especially in Greek and Latin, is a huge problem in most fantasy books. With no guide on how to structure these languages' words, we rely on the usually wrong Google Translator. As a result, the experience of the novel is shattered, especially if you know a thing or two about the foreign language being used. This is especially bad, since we use foreign languages for most spells or enchantments in these stories to make them seem even more mystical.

For this cliché, there are really only two options to fix it, either of which are not easy. The first is to take a class on the language you want to use in your story. This solution, especially if you are past the age of eighteen, can take five or six years to master. The best time to learn a new language is when you are still young, as the brain is not yet fully developed and can more easily create new neuron connections so becoming bilingual is more natural. Most of us by the time we write the debut fantasy novel are eighteen or even older than that. Then there is the idea of creating a fake language to cover up the issue. However, in order to do that you would not only need to be an expert with the English language, but with language structure.  Unless you are an expert at creating a whole new fictional language such as J.R.R. Tolkien, it is not going to be very successful.

  So how can we avoid mistranslating words in fantasy if we cannot learn a foreign language or create a whole new language ourselves?  The answer to this one strangely enough is to not use these foreign words at all.  Instead, try using a different method for tasks such as spell casting using certain hand gestures, imagining the task in the character's head, or having the character hold a weapon that can do multiple magical spells.  They get around the usage of language and are more out of the box original.  Like the previous two language building solutions, it still is not easy.  Unlike the other two though, they take at worst maybe a month or two to completely flesh out.  Fleshing out the idea is way better than your friend correcting you on every Latin sentence you use on spell casting character.

  Nothing is simple to achieve.  With hard work and dedication at hand though, the impossible becomes possible.