Words of the World: Drawing Creative Inspiration from Other Languages

What fascinates you about another language? It might be the lilting sounds of French, the way the Tibetan word for compassion means “noble heart,” or a Japanese word for a person who collects books without reading them. Or maybe you have a personal or ancestral connection to a language, whether or not you speak it yourself, or simply feel drawn to the sounds, histories, and meanings another language carries.

In this generative course, you’ll let those other languages—their sounds, rhythms, and the emotions they inspire—lead you somewhere unexpected. This is not a translation course, and you don’t need fluency or facility in a second language (although that is welcome!)—only a connection you’d like to explore. You’ll learn to draw inspiration from all the vocabulary English has borrowed from other languages, dig deep into the cultural history of foreign words, and explore the surprising, strange, uncanny effects produced when two or more languages meet on the page.

Each week, you’ll follow your curiosity into new creative territory, producing writing that surprises you. Along the way, you’ll deepen a relationship you already have with another language, or cultivate one you’ve long been drawn to. You will write with no preconceived idea of genre; in this course, you’ll let the language lead you to the final form.

You will generate new material every week for five weeks. You’ll receive written feedback weekly from me, as well as some suggestions from your peers. The course will be conducted over video call with a written assignment due every week. The video call time will comprise a mix of mini lectures (10 mins), group writing time, group text-based discussion and Q&A.

Who This Course is For

This playful course welcomes writers of all experience levels who want to explore a personal, ancestral, or imaginative connection to another language while discovering new ways to innovate on a word level.

Direction and Feedback

You will receive direct, personal written feedback from me on every weekly assignment you submit, as well as some suggestions from your peers.

Learning and Writing Goals

Learning Goals

In this course, you will learn how to:

• Avoid cliché and instead use language in surprising and innovative ways.
• Find new sources of inspiration to enrich and freshen up your work.
• Explore personal cultural and linguistic connections and learn how to mobilise them in your writing.

Writing Goals

In this course, you will: 

• Compose 10 pages of free writing.
• Draft at least three new pieces, with no genre restrictions.
• Revise at least two pieces based on instructor feedback.

Zoom Schedule

We will meet each week on Zoom on Tuesdays at 7:00PM Eastern time. 

Weekly Syllabus

 Week 1: Sound over Sense

To start the course, we will learn about Oulipo constraints and use their “surface translation” exercise to isolate the effects of sound over sense. We will use bilingual slam poetry to identify the emotions partial incomprehension can produce in us, and discover how much can be communicated through rhythm and sound alone.

Assignment: Rework your free write from the live session or compose a new piece inspired by a foreign word, prioritising sound association and play with rhythm.

 Week 2: How to Swing a Cat in a China Shop

This week we will explore the creative potential of mistakes. We will read excerpts by writers who find productive uses for mistranslations and misunderstandings, then use the literal meanings of figurative expressions as prompts for some weird and wonderful written scenarios.

Assignment: Compose a new piece inspired by a foreign idiom (working from your free write if you wish) or revise your week 1 piece based on instructor feedback.

Week 3: Foreign Forms

This week we will examine non-English literary traditions – in languages written from top to bottom of the page, say, or from left to right, or that use alliteration and parallelism as organising poetic principles – and draw on those traditions to refresh our writing in English.

Assignment: Choose one of the forms seen and discussed in class and apply it to a new piece of writing in English.

Week 4: Cannibal English

This week we will learn about the history of English’s contact with other languages, reading excerpts from modernists like Joyce and Eliot as well as contemporary, everyday prose, to discover the generative, innovative potential of foreign borrowings.

Assignment: Choose a foreign-derived word discovered in class and weave new meaning around it by having a character (or poetic/narrative voice) use it in context in a new piece of writing. Alternatively, revise a different previous week’s assignment based on instructor feedback.

Week 5: What’s in a Name?

This week we will learn about the importance of naming in establishing identity by reading excerpts from contemporary writing in English and in translation. We will research and discuss the cultural and linguistic history of our own (or our characters’!) names, and discover how they can inspire a personal essay, a poem, or flesh out the identity of a fictional character.

Assignment: build on your class research and free writing exercises to write an interior monologue in which a character (or poetic/narrative voice) reflects on their identity through their name. Alternatively, revise a different previous week’s assignment based on instructor feedback.

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$395.00 Original price was: $395.00.$340.00Current price is: $340.00.Enroll Now