Title: Context
Author: nostalgia (http://bitextual.gatefiction.com/nostalgia)
Rated: PG
Disclaimer: Paramount...Berman...Braga...Blah...
Summary: What Hoshi does.
- - - - -
Hoshi is a lot tougher than she looks. She knows that the others on
the ship worry about her, cast her as the victim. But really, she's
tougher than she looks.
Her job isn't easy, by any stretch of the term. And really, they
shouldn't expect her to be able to reconstruct an entire language
from three nouns and a verb. But they do.
"How's the translation coming?" asks her captain. There are many good
words for him, in many languages. But sometimes she feels that
there's nothing better than a good Anglo-Saxon swearword, the way you
have to spit the hard sounds out, the way the words hurt the ear ever
so slightly.
Arabic insults aren't nearly so much fun. But she mentally refers to
him as the brother of a prostitute, and it gives her the mental calm
she needs to say, "Just a minute, sir. The syntax is a lot more
complicated than I was expecting."
And then he says, in his annoyed sigh, "What the hell is it with
these people? You'd think a language should be simple."
He speaks two languages - English, and a scattering of French. In
English, he is multi-dialectal, which is always something. She could
probably do his job with far greater ease than he could do hers. And
yet...
She has to learn each and every language from scratch. She has to use
intuition, context, and sheer guesswork. She has to study the tone of
voice and accompanying gestures. It's not like there's an English-
Alien dictionary she can pull out and look up.
Archer is just out here for the adventure. He doesn't really care
about cultures, and his eyes glaze over when T'Pol talks about art
and poetry. But Hoshi knows that language is more than a way to
convey tales of daring. It's all about the culture. Context is all.
Whatever he thinks, whatever Trip and Malcolm and Travis think, Hoshi
has as much right to be out here as any of them. They'd be lost
without her, probably even dead.
She's a lot tougher than she looks. She's far more important than
they seem to think she is.
Which is why it shouldn't bother her that they think of her as a
civilian in uniform. It's why she should feel comfortable on the
bridge. Her only failure is that she can't convince herself of her
own value. It's an old story, and one that she knows far too well.
But then, she's only a short-term measure. Every translation
algorithm that she adds to the UT moves her a little further towards
forced retirement. Who needs translators when a computer can do it
instead? Who needs a human, who eats and breathes and wastes
resources, when a computer is faster and more reliable.
Who needs translators when it's all about the adventure?
Author: nostalgia (http://bitextual.gatefiction.com/nostalgia)
Rated: PG
Disclaimer: Paramount...Berman...Braga...Blah...
Summary: What Hoshi does.
- - - - -
Hoshi is a lot tougher than she looks. She knows that the others on
the ship worry about her, cast her as the victim. But really, she's
tougher than she looks.
Her job isn't easy, by any stretch of the term. And really, they
shouldn't expect her to be able to reconstruct an entire language
from three nouns and a verb. But they do.
"How's the translation coming?" asks her captain. There are many good
words for him, in many languages. But sometimes she feels that
there's nothing better than a good Anglo-Saxon swearword, the way you
have to spit the hard sounds out, the way the words hurt the ear ever
so slightly.
Arabic insults aren't nearly so much fun. But she mentally refers to
him as the brother of a prostitute, and it gives her the mental calm
she needs to say, "Just a minute, sir. The syntax is a lot more
complicated than I was expecting."
And then he says, in his annoyed sigh, "What the hell is it with
these people? You'd think a language should be simple."
He speaks two languages - English, and a scattering of French. In
English, he is multi-dialectal, which is always something. She could
probably do his job with far greater ease than he could do hers. And
yet...
She has to learn each and every language from scratch. She has to use
intuition, context, and sheer guesswork. She has to study the tone of
voice and accompanying gestures. It's not like there's an English-
Alien dictionary she can pull out and look up.
Archer is just out here for the adventure. He doesn't really care
about cultures, and his eyes glaze over when T'Pol talks about art
and poetry. But Hoshi knows that language is more than a way to
convey tales of daring. It's all about the culture. Context is all.
Whatever he thinks, whatever Trip and Malcolm and Travis think, Hoshi
has as much right to be out here as any of them. They'd be lost
without her, probably even dead.
She's a lot tougher than she looks. She's far more important than
they seem to think she is.
Which is why it shouldn't bother her that they think of her as a
civilian in uniform. It's why she should feel comfortable on the
bridge. Her only failure is that she can't convince herself of her
own value. It's an old story, and one that she knows far too well.
But then, she's only a short-term measure. Every translation
algorithm that she adds to the UT moves her a little further towards
forced retirement. Who needs translators when a computer can do it
instead? Who needs a human, who eats and breathes and wastes
resources, when a computer is faster and more reliable.
Who needs translators when it's all about the adventure?
