At some moments, it feels like seducing girls is easier in English than in my native language Dutch. Saying one-liners sounds so much better in English than in my language. Almost all media are in English: television, games, internet, traveling, this pick up community. Often, I use a lot of English words in my language, or I give it a Dutch form (f.e.: "ge-invite" instead of "uitgenodigd"). This because sometimes the English word is more familliar to me than the Dutch word.

In the pickup community, we are often learned about what is the best thing to say in specific sitautions. In American series and movies, we see how smooth guys seduce women. If you listen or read to what they say, it makes perfect sense. It makes you use that line or expression more easily in English as well. However, when I think of it and translate it to my language, Dutch, it would be strange or weird. Perhaps this is because we have different associations for the same words in different languages.

Some words mean the same thing, but are used in a (slightly) different context. Language also has its own culture. Some expressions are easily said or normal in English, while in other languages, it's strange.

That goes for pick up as well. I've found myself sometimes stammering words in Dutch when talking with girls sometimes because I actualy would not know how to express it in Dutch, while I would say it perfectly smooth in English. At other times, while it would sound very normal in English, I would restrain from saying it as it would not sound (as) well in Dutch. Often, it would take me too much time in a conversation trying to think how I would express it in my language.

A simple example:

- "Tell me something you're realy passionate about."

In Dutch, that would be:

- "Vertel me iets waar je heel gepassioneerd over bent."

Frankly, saying that just doesn't feel right. Maybe because the word "gepassioneerd" sounds stupid and less sexy as "passionate". While if you would say it in English, it sounds normal, and it's easy to give it a sexual undertone. In Dutch the sexual undertone could come off as creapy.
I would rather say:

- "Zeg me eens, wat is je grootste passie?"

Translated:
- "Tell me: what's your biggest passion?".

English is in this example a richer and more usefull language. I could say the same thing in a statement instead of turning it in a question like in Dutch. Using statements is more sexy.

Other example, inspired from an other thread on text game:

- "You, me, drinks at bar X at [time]." Sounds badass.

The same in Dutch:
- "Jij, ik, drankje in kroeg X om [tijd]." Not as badass. I associate the word "drankje" with boring girls drinking Ice Tea.

I would rather say: "Laten we iets drinken in X om [tijd]".
Translated literally: "Let's drink something at X at [time]".
In English I would rather use: "Let's grab a drink at X at [time]".

See the problem?
I was wondering if there are many of you also experiencing this (in different languages). I'm sure I'm not the only one. It's not a major problem as confidence is what lets you keep your cool, and many of the English lines we learn should be nothing more but guidelines. However, it can sometimes give you a hard time expressing what you realy want to say. Wonder if there was such thing as a pickup dictionary. It would make pickup translating to other languages or cultures much easier.

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You WANT to make a change.
You CAN make a change.
You WILL make a change.

Ambitious to be succesfull => Shyler

This is key. As a professional translator I often come upon terms or expressions that are not easy to translate, certain idioms, sayings, etc. The same is with pickup language. Forget about the actual words and just capture the feel of the english sentence and write down some examples that capture the feel of it in Dutch. Some of them will never sound good enough, some will. Focus on the emotion and don't be afraid to drift away from the actual words used. Sometimes it will never work. I don't know Dutch, but your example: You, me, drinks...
If you put that sentence in a format: Let's grab a drink later.. it dissolves the tension of using single words in a repetitive mode, the feeling is lost. So if the word "drinks" is the problem, try to replace it with a certain drink - beer, wine, manhattan - whatever is her drink of choice and still keep the tension. The other example about passion, I think you came pretty close to keeping the feeling, it's still a powerful sentence. Anyways, don't be afraid to think outside of the box, just concentrate on the feeling - pinpoint what makes the sentence powerful, the words, word order, pauses or just language culture (the most difficult to recreate), then try to switch elements that sound more natural in Dutch, but keep the feeling

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rAFC and yes, I'm a chick.

I have bursts of being a lady, but it doesn't last long.

This is of course very good advice! Feeling is important when talking, so that people get into the reality of your story. It comes down to calibration as well, a popular word in the PU community today. Body language might tell more than a thousand words.

I always try to keep the feeling in it, and sometimes even make it stronger. You can do that by internser eye contact, talking slower, speaking deeper.


But in some translations, there will always be a loss of feeling. I can try to keep as much feeling as possible in my translation, often, it will lose some of it's feeling, of it's flow, associations. Although you can make every word sexy by the way you say it, some words of the same meaning may have a sexual innuendo while the Dutch word won't.

I always like this kind of subjects. Language is such a complex medium of communication, and you can philosophize a lot about it to a point where you don't know the meaning of thruth anymore.

I wonder if other people with different languages experience the same thing.

_________________
You WANT to make a change.
You CAN make a change.
You WILL make a change.

Ambitious to be succesfull => Shyler

Lines are just lines.

Try to understand what they wanna accomplish, are they giving others information, are they negging, are they creating a connection?

Then find the equivalent in your language. The words doesnt matter, only the feeling you give off. Which is also an important thing to remember when trying to figure out what a girl says.

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I'm not trying to be a dick Ezo, but you're being a Pick Up Snob in my opinion.

bbardot: you just reminded me about porn