Write a story about two or more characters who don't speak each other's language (literally or metaphorically), but still find a way to communicate.

Posted in Dialogue on Dec 16, 2022

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✍️ 54 stories

“No Words Needed” by Susana María Castro Egas

Submitted to Contest #177

A boy quietly opens the yard door, he takes car steering wheel with him and sit on the stone wall to see the path ahead. The breeze ruffles his hair, rushing air in his face through the open car window at high speed. Leaving. Going far far away. He only has one seat though; he wishes another sit so his sister can go with him. But he can’t, she`s not allowed. A high pitch scream breaks his window and the car fades in the air. He is back in stone wall with is steering wheel, his sister in inside with their parents, but he no longer hears a sou...

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“A Reason to Learn” by Echo Watts

Submitted to Contest #177

Asher 6:30 A.M The alarm I set for 6:00 is sounding. For a second, I get irritated with my phone for waking me up, until I look at the time. Of course, on one of the most important days of my life, I woke up late. I have to go. There’s no time to shower, obviously, because I have to get there in about 15 minutes. Now I'm just irritated with myself. My heart and head are pounding with panic as I put on a button-up shirt and jeans. I slide into my shoes and rush out of my small apartment, down 2 flights of stairs,...

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“Voice of the Pheonix” by Aurora Martin

Submitted to Contest #177

*Warning, references to slavery and child abuse She didn’t know what to think as she gazed upon the people who had been brought before her. They were children, teens, and adults, but they had all been slaves for some amount of time. Some for weeks, some for years. All of them were muttering in different languages, but all seeming to understand each other for some reason or another. Queen Crystal was looking at a crowd of people that had been taken from their homes, their kingdoms, and been forced into labor and to fight to survive. A lot of...

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“THE CHINESE DELEGATION VISITS THE WHITE HOUSE” by BRUCE MARTIN

Submitted to Contest #177

(With Acknowledgement to Abbott and Costello)The Chinese contingent visiting the White House, made up of current and past leaders:Xi Jinping (Paramount Leader)Hu Jintao (Paramount Leader 2004-2013)Wen Jiabao (Premier)Hou Guofeng Wat Lien ChanYu Kuo-hwa He Zhao ZiyangThe American president is given a thorough briefing prior to such a high-level meeting to acquaint him with the very important attendees.American President: “Bob, what’s on the agenda this afternoon?”Advisor to the President: “Sir, you have a very important meeting with...

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“In Retrospect” by Chase Hunter

Submitted to Contest #177

I didn't know I was in a conversation, I suppose that's the point of the translation part. Then again, I didn't know a lot of things for a long time. This is where it started: "I'm slipping!" Her voice was shrill and scared. I grabbed on tight to the rocks and watched as she fell past me. I was told after that we were two hundred feet up, a whole twenty-ish stories of wretched fall. I felt the wind blow into my ear as she screamed, shooting past me like some sort of dreadful comet. She was right at the top too. I'd always likened El...

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“Things Get Lost in Translation” by Etya Krichmar

Submitted to Contest #177

On March 8, 1978, the morning after my husband's uncle picked us up from JFK Airport in Brooklyn, New York; we stood on the corner of 65th Drive and 108th Street in Forest Hills, Queens, New York, ready to explore our new surroundings. The night before, as the Soviet refugees claiming religious discrimination and clearing customs, we legally entered the United States of America. Afterward, we got into my husband's uncle's car and drove to his apartment. The falling snow was a distraction. I couldn't stop staring through the car's window as ...

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“The Voice of Lonelinesss” by Brandon Rich

Submitted to Contest #177

Liam paces up and down the grocery store aisles. His movement is rapid, frantic even, fingers drumming against his sides at different intervals like hatches not battened in a storm.His eyes scan up, down, across the shelves — searching, searching, searching. A desperate gaze probing waves of colors and shapes and heights clashing so heavily they homogenize. Where is it, he says, where could it be? It was here, I know it was here.He thinks he knows it was here, at least. If he doesn’t find it, he’s not sure what to do. “It” being a small...

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“Marie” by Natalie Schmitt

Submitted to Contest #177

Trigger Warning: Slight gore, blood. “You’re so difficult!” I screamed, the wind lashing my hair in front of my face. She yelled something back, but I couldn’t hear her over the violence of the wind. It surrounded us as if we were the only two people in the world, swirling around us in massive gusts, all directions, spinning like a top. It rushed through the leafless trees, stormed through the old bones of the faded red barn at the end of the cornfield. It was winter, and the corn was all gone, yellow and dead, old stalks smashed flat agai...

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“The Birds” by Kimberly Pienkawa

Submitted to Contest #177

Content warning: gore I still dreamt of it: I still dreamt of birds with snapped necks left at my doorstep. The raw offering and its residue. Then, me and my sister crouching down, knees pressed to asphalt, picking apart the feathers from the bone. I watched my sister place the pulp to her mouth, a tedious effort. I devoured, simply. For once, I was feeling everything: the winter’s frost, the dewdrops in dirt, my hands. My hands, ragged and exposed. There was a brief glimpse of scales, translucent, glued with sticky membranous ...

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Contest #177

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Write a story about two or more characters who don't speak each other's language (literally or metaphorically), but still find a way to communicate.

Submissions are closed

✍️ 54 stories

“No Words Needed” by Susana María Castro Egas

“A Reason to Learn” by Echo Watts

“Voice of the Pheonix” by Aurora Martin

“THE CHINESE DELEGATION VISITS THE WHITE HOUSE” by BRUCE MARTIN

“In Retrospect” by Chase Hunter

“Things Get Lost in Translation” by Etya Krichmar

“The Voice of Lonelinesss” by Brandon Rich

“Marie” by Natalie Schmitt

“The Birds” by Kimberly Pienkawa

🌟 Similar prompts

Set your story in a meeting where a professional interpreter takes some liberties, with major consequences.

Write about someone who is slowly forgetting their mother tongue or losing their language.

Lost in a foreign city where they don’t speak the language, your character uses a translation app to get around, but constantly runs into problems.

Write a story about a character who struggles to translate their thoughts and feelings into words and action.

Contest #177

Enter our weekly contest!

$250

Prize money

150

Contest entries

70

Stories

Win $250 in our short story competition 🏆

Explore more writing prompt ideas: