Screenwriting : Duel Dialogue or leave it alone? by Oscar Ordonez

Nope. Write it in English. A couple of ways to handle it. Mention it in the action sequence.

-John looks at Manuel holding the gun. He reaches out his hand. Manuel shouts in Spanish...

Or simply put (In Spanish) in the dialog line header. Some folks like to write foreign dialog in italics to help emphasize the fact that it will actually be spoken in the other language. That's okay too. It's a stylistic choice.

Now, it's also okay to put a single line in the foreign language, perhaps to emphasize the fact that there's going to be a SWITCH in languages. In my current pilot, our Submarine rescues a Filipino sailor from the sea. One of the crewmen think he's a Japanese. The Filipino is crying in 'broken English' 'No Japanese..." The CAPTAIN, in an effort to communicate, tries his 'high-school Spanish'.

CAPTAIN

Not Japanese? Uh... (In High School Spanish) "Tu hable, Espanol?"

PRISONER

(In Spanish)

Yes! I speak Spanish, not as good as my Tagolog of course. My Father was Spanish, my mother was native--

The Captain holds up his hands to stop him.

CAPTAIN

Okay, that's too fast for me.

Depends on your intended market. For the US market: If it's only one scene use Spanish dialog with subtitles. Dual dialog is a technique to use when two characters speak at the same time - nothing to do with multiple languages.

Thanks guys. I had a gut feeling I shouldn't do that. Plus it looks super cluttered on the page. For some reason I wanted to really emphasize the Spanish, but less is more.

I was told that you should write the dialogue itself in English, but indicate in parentheses that it is in Spanish or whatever.

MARIA

(in Spanish)

What are you doing?

@Doug raises good points, a great deal of folk USA have Spanish as mother tongue and it can be a bonding tool if two characters say something in unison to add panache to an important emotional beat. It depends on context of film and mindset of particular characters whether or not to go dual language. EG I have a scene where woman shouts in the fake desert (Almeria) “Porco Misero” and other actor tells his ally antagonist he’s just been called a miserable/mean pig. It provided a mind play I needed between bad guy and strong protagonist that was way better than if she had merely said F...Off. Duel Language/subtitle in script is not generally recommended but in some circumstances can provide a twist/surprise/bonding etc. I don’t think the odd sentence matters if it’s provided for effect but readers/audience don’t want to feel their reading/watching a translation dictionary. Buenos Noches.

Good luck with your script and all your work. Necesitamos mas Latinos escribiendo peliculas.

J Anthony Ramos what does that mean? HAHA just kidding.. Muchas gracias, espero ser una buena representacion para la comunidad Latina. Maybe even become a director... como Guillermo del Toro!

Ha, ha, or should I type, Ja, ja? En serio, te deseo mucha suerte. Y te diria, simplemente Escribiendo y siendo Director de peliculas o un Creativo de cualquiera manera, ya eres un buen representante de la comunidad Latina. Ya que necesitamos muchos mas, especilamente de tras de las camaras y haciendo decisiones de producion. I love Guillermo del Toro. He's shooting something now ... at least he mentioned it in Twitter where he's active. If you haven't checked out, Issa Lopez's film, Tigers Are Not Afraid, check it out. Guillermo saw it and is now Producing her next directorial film that she's also writing. A werewolf in the west story I believe? She's also active on Twitter. Simplemente sigue siendo tu mismo, diviertete y echale ganas como decimos y si, los dos trabajremos como Directores como ellos. Cuidate y saludos.

“Manchester by the sea” does dual dialogue well.

People talking at the same time, like people say.

I hate it. I wanted to slap the characters. But it was effective.

Sorry to revive this old thread but I have this question, and I did not want to write a new one. Since this thread was 5 years ago, I am wondering f things have changed since more and more foreign language shows have been streaming or even shows like Shogun where they never let the Japanese speak in English.

For a script where some character predominantly speak another language, is it OK to use dual dialogue with the native language on the left and English on the right? I have been told this is becoming very accepted now?

I am from Jamaica, and we speak a language called Patois(Patwa) which is a very broken style of English with a mixture of other languages. There are some concepts or phrases that just don't translate well into English and if you tried, it would sound ridiculous in English but sounds perfectly fine in Patwa. Therefore, in many cases when you translate it into English, it's not a direct translation, but more a translation that gives you the sentiment or meaning. A simple example I can give is if you were to say "Sh** or get off the pot", it might make perfect sense to a culture that uses that phrase but to another culture they may interpret that literally and wonder the relevance and hence you might have to translate it to "Hurry up and make a decision". Yes, it means the same thing, but it definitely has a different impact.