So in my Nano, the characters hopped through a magic wormhole and go to an entirely different planet. While in my speed-writing frenzy of Nano, I managed to completely overlook the fact that the two worlds would speak entirely different languages. The world the MCs are from isn't yet even aware that there is other sentient life.
When I first set about trying to fix this, thoughts of the Babel Fish kept entering my head. Not wanting to blatantly rip off anything, I discarded that and toyed with the idea of them actually learning the language. However, after asking some people here, it would take at least 3 months to be able to function. I could feasibly keep them in place learning the language for only about a month, though, before I would have to move them on through the plot.
So now I'm stuck. How I resolve this will determine how the next quarter of what I wrote goes, so I want to get this solved before I continue on my editing spree and resume writing. Does anyone have any suggestions, be they Babel Fish-esque solutions, or possibly ways I could hasten the learning (or at least make it semi-believable)? I really don't want to pull some cheat move out for this...but then again, I also don't want a huge plothole in my story simply due to language.
For reference, both languages are spoken by humanoids using similar vocal patterns. Nothing is terribly different between the two, other than the language itself.
Thanks in advance.
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0 / 50,000
Mayo 5, 2008 - 22 17
It takes three months for total immersion fluency, since they only have about a month, they could still easily learn some important phrases like "Where is the bathroom?" and "Can you recommend a nice restaurant?" within a couple of weeks. Toss in a few communication niceties ("How are you today?" and "Does it look to you like it's going to rain?") and that will round off your month nicely. Granted, they'd still be a bit stilted and awkward at this point, probably relying on the occasional crazy hand gestures and pointing wildly when a word or phrase escapes them, but they'd know enough to survive by then.
Alternatively (or additionally), you could have some sort of updated English to Alien translator with an AI chip. Granted, this is the sort of thing they did in Star Trek (to a more extreme level), but it's a natural technological progression as opposed to something unique like the Babel Fish.
And just for fun, here's a random "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" quote: "Ah, this is obviously some strange usage of the word 'safe' that I wasn't previously aware of." (ok, maybe it's not "Hitchhiker's...though I'm pretty sure it is (I'm thinking it's in the Airlock scene on the Zorgon ship), but it's definitely Douglas Adams)
PS: Don't forget your towel. :)
50,348 / 50,000
Mayo 6, 2008 - 12 29
You're talking magical wormhole ... so toss in a bit of magic. If you were using, say, a Stargate ... maybe the molecular deconstruction and reconstruction adds something at the reconstruction end ... an enhanced ability to learn languages, or a sudden instantaneous-translator ability, or something like that. If you just enhance their ability to learn, you could squish it down to a month or less. (I honestly don't know why they didn't do something like this in Stargate anyway ... any race smart enough to build the gates and reconstruct people from a molecular level could surely insert a bit of extra knowledge in at the same time?)
Also ... immersion in a culture under relaxed circumstances is very different from immersion in a culture where you're trying to save your skin. If your characters are in a dangerous or adventurous situation, they might have a bit more incentive to hurry up and learn. :) And keep in mind ... fluency is different than just being functional.
Or you could, again, borrow a stargate idea and just assume that they all had a common root language. Which magically turned into English everywhere. Yep.
On an even wilder note, let 'em eat a plant with mind-altering chemistry ... maybe it makes them slightly telepathic so it's easier to understand other folks and thus easier to pick up on languages?
Sorry ... none of these are super scientific ... but you did say magical wormhole.
32,310 / 50,000
Mayo 8, 2008 - 18 52
Is there any way that the world to which they're traveling might somehow already include someone who speaks their language? Maybe they find out that they're not the first to travel to that world. They might encounter someone who disappeared from their world years ago. Bonus points if that earlier traveler has to struggle to remember how to speak the MCs' language, since it's been so long since he/she spoke it.
----------“Imagination is more important than knowledge.” -- Albert Einstein
50,378 / 50,000
Mayo 8, 2008 - 19 31
Well, there is the person who brought them there, he speaks both languages and would act as a teacher for a bit. He routinely does this transition, though, so he's fluent in both.
I can't use magic for it, since my magic system wouldn't allow something like that. Honestly, I need to think about it to see if it can actually even allow the wormhole.
I like the idea of using some sort of mind-altering substance, though. I have an empath already in the story, living there, so it wouldn't be a far stretch to imagine her allowing studies on it, and from there, I can bounce around science a bit to get a drug that induces temporary empathy. It wouldn't actually help in the learning of the language, but it would help break personal communication down, and maybe get the characters thinking in their new language? I remember speaking to a few foreign exchange students in high school, and they said that the trick to speaking a language fluently was thinking in the language.
If anyone else has suggestions, though, I'd be perfectly willing to hear them. This idea is by no means set in stone.
26,147 / 50,000
Mayo 10, 2008 - 17 18
you could just do like the first white men did who encountered the native americans and communicate with obvious signs and gestures until learning or technology fixes the problem. Or, if you are working with magic have a magical device like an amulet or special sort of book or scroll that translates or a magic spell that causes universal comprehension (this has been used before but what hasn't? The point is how YOU utilize it and describe it, etc..) Or you could have a technological device that 'downloads' understanding of language in a few seconds, minutes or hours. It depends on your worlds level of technology/magic, how you use your imagination and writing ability to make it seem plausible, etc/
58,233 / 50,000
Mayo 11, 2008 - 09 05
You could try taking a page from Star Trek's book and have one of the characters that goes through the wormhole be a linguist... they would generally be the fastest to learn the patterns of the language and could become the group's interpreter... with a few key miscommunications of course ;-) just to make things interesting.
----------Nano 2007: The Strangest Union
0 / 50,000
Mayo 12, 2008 - 09 59
I learned in Linguistics that if there are neighboring people which speak different languages, they sometimes create a "pidgin" language, which is not learned natively, but it's a mixture of two or more languages so they can communicate. When it develops into a real language that the children learn natively it's called a creole. Just a tidbit of knowledge that you might find useful :)