Trip Speaking Vulcan

[honeybee]

As a diplomat, it would be about learning to adjust his personality appropriately and using it to his benefit, rather than suppressing it.

Genuineness is a quality that works for you not against you in diplomatic situations. He would not behave exactly the same way he would in private - but he'd still be true to himself or the people he's dealing with would naturally suspect he's hiding something.

[WarpGirl]

May I present Commander Tucker getting a personality transplant. And yet he's still him... http://triptpolers.houseoftucker.com/fi ... _man.shtml I find it hysterical people are so violently opposed to Trip speaking proper Vulcans just with strangers. When In this he stops speaking English all together. And This story is better then mine will ever ever be. At least I'm not making him a vegetarian. Or worse... a vegan. How many people would slay me for that?

[honeybee]

Trip always speaks properly, unless he's being facetious. I'm talking about the use of idiom - that's a completely proper use of language. He would speak as a human with his own personality.

People tend to confuse having and accent and using colloquialisms with speaking incorrectly. They are not the same.

One thing I can't imagine Trip doing is complaining about being served vegetarian food while on Vulcan. He might wistfully miss human food, the man enjoys eating, but a Southern gentleman would never insult his hosts by complaining about their food. That is as endemic to his personality as his way with words.

[WarpGirl]

Well he drops his g's not entirely proper. Like I said I just think that it's disrespectful to start using expressions a person has no chance of understanding when you just meet them. Over time I intend for Trip to become more comfortable around people, and be more himself. But since he's at the beginning of his journey into Vulcan culture then I think he would be overcautious in some respects. Want to make sure there was absolutely minimal chance of being misunderstood while speaking Vulcan. That's all. I hardly think its character assassination.

I want to know who the 3 people were who voted no in the poll. Hiding doesn't help me guys.

[Alelou]

I didn't vote.

[WarpGirl]

Well you don't have too. You've made your vote already. BTW "My Bad" I meant the three people who said "Yes he will speak differently." I know I didn't do it. I don't cheat.

[pdsldl]

Trip used his idioms in English when he spoke to most anyone, Vulcans included, and they didn't understand him, so why wouldn't he do it in Vulcan? I can see him cornering Hoshi for some lessons on how to translate the words he's used to using so he doesn't have to retrain his brain to think one way one translate it to speak more formally. It's not disrespectful to be yourself and even if he was all formal I can't imagine him still not having to explain what he means sometimes to Vulcans in either language.

[Rigil Kent]

I drop my 'g's when I speak, but nobody accuses me of speaking improperly - that's not "improper" grammar, but more of a regional accent thing. Improper grammar would be if he always used "ain't" or "ya'll" or just mangling his sentences so they're incomprehensible. As to the use of idioms, I've always seen Trip as using his accent and the normal stereotype associated with those of use from the South to his advantage; people underestimate him because of his accent and he takes advantage of that.

To me, it frankly depends on the context. If, for example, T'Pol is the person who instructs him in Vulcan, I find it extremely difficult to believe that she isn't going to be an unrelenting taskmaster to make sure he's not only comprehensible but also bordering on the formal so as to not present the appearance of a barbarian. Depending on to whom he speaks, Trip would probably have varying levels of formality - I'd think that he'd talk to T'Pol or Kov a whole differently than how he speaks to T'Pau.

As a related aside, I discovered a really neat season 1 era fic called Southern Cooking that has the fascinating premise of T'Pol hailing from a region that is the equivalent of the Deep South (so, like Trip, she suffers from the same sort of stereotypes among Vulcans that Trip does among humans due to his accent and culture.)

[WarpGirl]

OK confession... I'm a native NYer. I live South of the Mason Dixon line now, the fact that I don't drop my g's (except the times I'm being a smart-mouth brat) has people telling me all the time "Ya always speak so proper" and they're talking about my g's. When I go home for a visit, and drop my g's (because I am being a smart-mouth brat) my family tells me to speak properly. So I think whether dropping g's is proper depends on where you are. In my head it isn't. I didn't mean to offend anyone.

You know what though, Y'all are just gonna have to read the darn chapter! Pretty please, with a cherry on top.

Rigil Kent Thank you for that link that was one of the best fics I've read in a really long time. I especially liked how T'Pol explained Surak and emotions. I've only been saying that ever since I got here. One of the Admins should invite that person over here.

[Alelou]

That was a very well-written fic. I'm not an admin any longer, but I suggested us to the author.

[WarpGirl]

YEY!

[Lady Rainbow]

Just read it. I agree it's an excellent story.

It reminded me of my own parents and one of their closest friends. My parents are from the Philippines...Dad's from a fisherman's family and Mom's from a VERY well-to-do family (her father was the police chief of their medium-sized town. Yeah, I've got law enforcement in my heritage. LOL.) They both speak the same dialect of Filipino (Tagalog) with some slight differences. Tagalog is considered the "standard" dialect by the government.

Their friend came from what was considered "down South" (Cebu) and spoke her own dialect (Cebuano). Cebuano compared with Tagalog is like comparing High German with Swiss German. (Hochdeutsch/Schweizerdeutch). There's some similarity, but unless you know the dialect it sounds mostly like gibberish. So when she spoke Tagalog it was with a noticeable "accent" that marked her from being from "Down South". Dad was pretty easygoing about it, but Mom (who is a self-admitted cultural snob, a product of her social class, unfortunately) always complained that she could NEVER understand what her friend was saying. According to Mom, it made her sound like the Filipino equivalent of an uneducated hick. Which she wasn't. She actually held a couple of medical degrees.

And yeah, having an accent is different from using colloquialisms. I say "ya'll" occasionally because of my husband's Southern roots, but I'll also say "bloody" because I'm from England. Go figure.

[WarpGirl]

Unfortunately class snobbery (may it one day die) isn't restricted to the elite. I didn't say Trip would never use another colloquialism though, trust me folks.

[justTripn]

May I present Commander Tucker getting a personality transplant. And yet he's still him... http://triptpolers.houseoftucker.com/fi ... _man.shtml

I know . . . you said it perfectly. He practically becomes a Vulcan, but its still him. This story fascinated me when I read it, and I have no idea why. Sometimes very little would happen: Trip and his colleagues would discuss technical stuff, everyone would have lunch . . . and yet I be feasting on every word.

[WarpGirl]

Oh absolutely the only thing I really hated was when their daughter died. I liked her. But I'm not going to write Trip like that.