This is Seth, he's English!

Hello all! It's another wonderful day in Quebec. Day camp is going well, and I feel like me and my sister are starting to get in the groove of things. We know our rhythm, and it's working for us. Now it's just a matter of choosing what stuff we're going to teach and what activities to do with the kids each week! This post is part "here's how it's going here in Quebec" part "here's how it made me think about writing and stuff."

So here goes. Being relatively new to the area, I meet new people all the time. This doesn't bother me as a general rule, what bothers me is how it comes out most of the time. Usually when I'm introduced to new people here, it goes something like this.

"This is Seth, he's English!"

When this is translated into French, and then back to English, it comes out as

"This is Seth, he's mentally handicapped! So make sure to speak nice and loud, use small words, or refrain from conversing with him at all!"

I know it's not that bad, but it always bugs me when I'm introduced like that. People automatically assume that I can't carry a conversation or something because French isn't my first language. Granted, I'm not fantastic, but if given the chance I can usually hold my own. I know it's probably really obvious based on my accent alone, but saying it as a way of introducing me feels awkward.


Thinking about this lately made me think about how characters are introduced in novels. Usually you want to introduce a character doing something normal. Waking up, going through their work day, starting school, doing something that most people can relate to. Even if it's a book where the character is going to be doing a ton of stuff that you can't relate to (blowing up cars, flying spaceships etc.), it's important to establish a baseline where the reader can feel connected to the character.

In the series that I'm planning, one of the characters that plays a major role in a later book has a fairly significant handicap, and I try to keep it hidden for as long as possible, because in my thinking, the moment you slap a handicap on someone, you distance your reader from them. That guy's in a wheelchair? Oh, he's not like me. He's blind? Well, I don't have a clue what her life must be like.

He's English? Well, I guess he's not really just like any one of us.

Now, understand this. I'm not saying that anyone here has snubbed me, or made fun of me intentionally just because I'm not French. After people have been given some time to get to know me I'm usually fine except for a bit of a language barrier. The problem I run into is instead of the usual distance of "They're new, I don't know them." There's the additional hurdle of "They aren't like me, we can't understand each other." This makes it a lot harder to close the gap and go from acquaintance to friend. It takes that much effort on both ends to really form a connection.

I think the same can be said about characters in a novel. First impressions are super important. If you put up barriers between yourself and the protagonist right at the start saying "I'd never do that. What kind of person is this? I don't understand them!" It'll be a lot harder to care about them later.

Now, I could probably go on, but I'm beat from a long week, and even longer weekend (somehow), so I need SLEEP. Which unfortunately and inexplicably escaped me this afternoon when I tried to nap. Therefore, goodnight all, and have a great week!

Right now, I want to know, what do you think of first impressions? Have you ever had a first impression that turned out to be the exact opposite of what you thought? Post a comment about it!