From: CXIR000 <CXIR@MUSICA.MCGILL.CA>
Subject: Re: Stewart's/Picard's accent
Organization: McGill University
Date: Thu, 28 Jan 1993 02:57:19 GMT

In article <C17u3y.Gos@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu> jeffo@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu (J.B. Nicholson-Owens) writes:
>Hans-nicolas Kenneth Janberg writes
>>As a French native I simply say: It is not !!
>
>I believe this is yet another case of American TV shows catering to
>American ignorance and American subtitle prejudice.  I would bet that
>most Americans can't place the accents of most people they hear.  Also
>interesting to note here that most American students are not taught a
>second language from when they are little.  They might try to pick it
>up in high school, college or perhaps later in life, but far more of
>Europe speaks other languages than Americans speak other languages.
>American attitudes toward simply travelling in a non-English-speaking
>country generally result in hanging out in the English towns nearby or
>hiring someone to talk for them instead of learning the language
>enough to get by.
>
>>[Picard spoke] character Minuette in French.
>
>Was it a conversation in French or just some French words every now
>and again (just like how his French family and friends *in France*
>choose to speak English to one another but greet each other with a
>"Salut" or "Bonjour" every once in a while)?  Another example of the
>sparse French Picard actually speaks is when Picard sees his mother in
>a hallway of the Enterprise, he greets his mother with "Maman" but
>that's about it.
>
>As much as he is paid, I would think he could take French lessons and
>learn to speak the language.  Other people who perform in other
>languages, such as opera singers, learn to speak the language and they
>are paid far less than Patrick Stewart.  Although opera singers
>perform the entire opera in another language, situations I've
>described above seem incredibly silly to me in English.
>
>For an example of a slightly more realistic setting, Worf speaks far
>more of the native Klingon language (I don't know it's name) when he
>is with other Klingons than Picard speaks French with other French
>speakers, actually.
>
>I'd say even Data spoke more French than Picard when Data had a
>conversation with a gambler in one of those stupid Old West shows.
>--
>-- Jeff (jeffo@uiuc.edu)
>-- NeXTmail ok
>.
For that matter, even Picard himself speaks more Klingon than he speaks
French. When he adjudicates the Kligon High Council's succession he
speaks lots of Klingon. In fact, those episodes are among the most
realistic, second only to "Darmok", because they take seriously the
fact that different cultures speak different languages. We are expected
to believe, in most other episodes, that the [ridiculous] "Universal
Translator" is somehow on everywhere all the time and is so perfect that
it can even synchronize with lip movements! This is a bit much, even for
Star Trek! Lets get a little bit more real, please. The Bajorans are
fiercely nationalistic and can't stand the Federation. They have all
kinds of terrorists lurking behind every pillar and post yet even the
terrorists speak unaccented English amongst themselves? Give me a break.
Yours, Ian Ritchie.  CXIR@MUSICA.MCGILL.CA

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