<p>I have foreign dialogues (translated into English of course) in my essay. I’ve read somewhere that it’s not advisable to do so, specially if there is an ‘everyday English equivalent’. However, the dialogues I used are a big part of my native language. It is, in a way, a cultural phrase.</p>
<p>In my essay, I used four foreign words. The first two words are repeated several times in the essay for repetition. Will this be okay?</p>
<p>Non-Roman alphabets might be a little distracting, but overall it sounds fine. And put the foreign phrases in italics.
Or you could just use English all the way through and say stuff like “she said in [language].”</p>
<p>Yeah, don’t forget to romanize the foreign phrases if they contain weird letters. This might not be a big deal for European languages, but East Asian languages definitely need to be romanized.</p>
<p>Thanks for the advice. Dialogue romanized! :)</p>
<p>It is fine but only use the words if they mean something to you. Are they in a random language or one you speak at home. If it is one you speak at home. That makes it better then a random language.</p>
<p>It’s dialogue, so they don’t necessarily need to be “special” words…any foreign dialogue would show something of the OP’s life and give character to the essay.
But they should be very short foreign phrases, ~3 words or so at the most…no long sentences.</p>