Does anyone speak or thought of learning Klingon or Vulcan? I looked at the Klingon for fun and then decided, I have far better things to do but I know that there are thise who have seriously sat down and learnt one or the other, why?
Trek languages
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There was a time when I actually thought for a moment that it would be pretty cool to speak Klingon fluently. But then I got a hold of myself and realized that if I was going to go through that much effort to actually learn a second language, why not Spanish, or French or something that might actually have real application in the world.
The thought of learning Konversational Klingon lasted about 42 seconds.
The thought of learning Konversational Klingon lasted about 42 seconds.
Ha ha. I always thought it was so cool that people so embraced the fandom to create and study invented languages. I'm going into the field of linguistics and languages, and perhaps I'd add one of those to my repertoire. Why not, right? Languages are all about communication and, to a degree, membership to a special club of knowledge. I can dig it.
No prize for guessing which way I voted...
Honestly, fan dedication to (ultimately) pointless pursuits like this must be all-gratifying for the creators/writers but I'm sure Doohan/Rodenberry and Tolkein didn't really expect vast legions of new speakers of their respective brands of Esperanto...
Like sbk1234, I see Spanish as having more practical value than Klingon or Elvish...
Honestly, fan dedication to (ultimately) pointless pursuits like this must be all-gratifying for the creators/writers but I'm sure Doohan/Rodenberry and Tolkein didn't really expect vast legions of new speakers of their respective brands of Esperanto...
Like sbk1234, I see Spanish as having more practical value than Klingon or Elvish...
I have my own answer...
I am creating a Trek language for use in fanfic. I certainly don't expect anybody to learn to speak the Cardassian language, but it's a LOT of fun to work on!
But what I voted was "thought about learning one." I did think about learning Klingon, but never really took it that seriously. I mainly just read the book for curiosity's sake.
I am creating a Trek language for use in fanfic. I certainly don't expect anybody to learn to speak the Cardassian language, but it's a LOT of fun to work on!
But what I voted was "thought about learning one." I did think about learning Klingon, but never really took it that seriously. I mainly just read the book for curiosity's sake.
That's why I learnt Norwegian
They made Vulcan into a proper language? When did this happen? I always thought, the few Vulcan phrases that were voiced on screen were just random jumble made to sound like a language without being one. Very much the opposite of Klingon.
I googled in the Vulcan language for fun and this is what came up
http://www.stogeek.com/wiki/Language_Lesson_1
I did actually think about trying to learn klingon. Bought the CD and book but never did anything with them (other than listen to the cd which was pretty funny actually), so i ended up selling them.
3.5 years of Spanish, a semester each of Latin and German were enough for me. Spanish came in handy for dealing with clients; I know enough to communicate very basically if they are patient with me.
As for learning a non-existent language... no. I never knew every detail of every episode, let alone Klingon, Vulcan or Romulan. Besides, why should I when I can call upon Nyota Uhura to differentiate for me?
As for learning a non-existent language... no. I never knew every detail of every episode, let alone Klingon, Vulcan or Romulan. Besides, why should I when I can call upon Nyota Uhura to differentiate for me?
Perhaps you can guess how I voted. I consider myself fluent and have studied Klingon off and on for over 15 years. I first got into it because I enjoy languages, and Klingon was very interesting. I was always a Star Trek fan, but I was indifferent to Klingons themselves (although I have since grown to appreciate them more); I got interested at first simply because of the language. Languages come easy to me, so it didn't take more than a few evenings reading the Klingon Dictionary to get a good grasp of the grammar. Some of the advantages of Klingon are that it was written by a real linguist, so it isn't just a dumb recoding of English, it's small enough so that you can get a solid grasp of it, and the Star Trek connection created a much larger pool of people to speak with than something like Lojban.
As for why I do it, and shouldn't I be spending my time more profitably, I'd just counter, Why do people follow sports teams, and spend hours memorizing statistics or arguing past games, or collect Star Trek memorabilia or gather on the TrekBBS to discuss the length of the new Enterprise's engine room? Aren't there more profitable ways to spend your time? It's pretty ironic that people on a message board for what most of the world considers a marginal pursuit should be so judgemental about how others choose to spend their time. I study Klingon because it's fun, because I've met interesting people through it, because I've been able to integrate Klingon into all sorts of other projects that interest me, and because it's fun. What kind of dullards would we be if we only did things that had immediate practical payoffs?
As for why I do it, and shouldn't I be spending my time more profitably, I'd just counter, Why do people follow sports teams, and spend hours memorizing statistics or arguing past games, or collect Star Trek memorabilia or gather on the TrekBBS to discuss the length of the new Enterprise's engine room? Aren't there more profitable ways to spend your time? It's pretty ironic that people on a message board for what most of the world considers a marginal pursuit should be so judgemental about how others choose to spend their time. I study Klingon because it's fun, because I've met interesting people through it, because I've been able to integrate Klingon into all sorts of other projects that interest me, and because it's fun. What kind of dullards would we be if we only did things that had immediate practical payoffs?
Klingon makes my throat sore.
I about died laughing from that episode!!!
I have the Klingon dictionary and I'd like to learn the written language. I get embarrassed every time I have to look up where the apostrophe and the K go.
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