how to do foreignness wrong

     So we've talked a lot about how good translation is (purportedly) that which sounds natural in the target language. Privately, I've always felt this isn't entirely true, but I wasn't sure how to explain that or what would make it untrue. That's why I was pretty excited that Bellos implied that such thinking might actually have valid reasoning. But my hopes of learning how to do foreignness well were unfortunately dashed by an explanation of several ways to do it wrong, for which Bellos provides several examples.

    There's writing gibberish based on phonology, which is interesting to listen to and can make for fun lyrics, but it's obviously not useful for reproducing meaning. You can also leave interjections or short phrases in the original language, but as Bellos notes, this was only ever viable for French, and it isn't anymore (I also didn't know English speakers used to learn French as part of their education, which I guess explains why a lot of French phrases just appear in English sometimes). It also makes them sound like a caricature of an immigrant who sometimes switches to their original language for comedic effect.

    Bellos goes on to argue that foreignness in a translation necessarily adds to the original, which is where I got kinda mad, because it's not true. I tried to hear him out, but none of his points are very convincing. Kafka sounds only like Kafka and not German? I literally don't believe you. American authors sound American to me. And I think it's easy to write in a way that preserves the "authentic foreignness," though maybe it's harder for someone working in French or German. I don't think the goal of keeping foreignness is for the reader to identify exactly which foreign language the text comes from, and I wasn't sure why he argued against it. Do people really think that something translated from German should sound German in English? And I don't have any particular agenda for English, so the part about globalization/pushing English as an international language (which, of course, it doesn't need) wasn't interesting to me, except maybe as a reminder to keep the hegemony of English in the back of my mind.

    idk i just feel like foreignness to the extent that you're actually introducing real foreign concepts or language (even if the reader isn't necessarily learning about the language, because why is that a goal? it shouldn't be unless it's a textbook) is great and some of the foreignness Bellos is arguing against here is obviously bad and idk how you would do even do it without sounding racist by 2026 standards.

winter