Omniglot: Difference between revisions

Sometimes there may be justification for this -- perhapsthis—perhaps it's a superpower, or perhaps they had an [[Upgrade Artifact]]. And sure, some people genuinely are good at languages. But sometimes, it just seems to be a case of [[Did Not Do the Research]] -- the—the author is just not aware that learning a foreign language properly can be quite difficult and time-consuming (perhaps because the author has never properly learned a second language himself). The result is a sort of [[Charles Atlas Superpower]].

* In ''[[Luminosity]]'', this tends to come with the territory of being an immortal--perfectimmortal—perfect recall and the time for ''anything''. Notably Bella and Edward cultivated this skill, and Bella passed it on to Elspeth.

* In ''[[The Jungle Book (novel)|The Jungle Book]]'', Mowgli -- andMowgli—and by extension his teacher Baloo -- knowBaloo—know all the languages of all the creatures of the jungle. Baloo knows them because he's old, wise, and accepted everywhere, and he teaches Mowgli them because being a "mancub" means that nobody will accept his presence at all unless he learns their language. Mowgli eventually one-ups Baloo by adding the Indian human tongue to his list.

* Kelhus of ''[[Second Apocalypse]]'' has a perfect memory, above-genius level intellect, and an insatiable thirst for knowledge. It's no surprise that he learns new languages in about a week, just from talking with people who speak it. He even became fluent in the ancient language of magic in two weeks--whichweeks—which took his genius teacher six months to learn the ''grammar''.

** They also veered too hard in the ''other'' direction initially in the ''[[New World of Darkness]]''. Each language you knew besides your native language was a separate one-to-three-dot merit, and you required two dots to be literate and conversationally fluent -- onefluent—one dot meant you were minimally fluent and illiterate. For reference, this means that it took nearly a third of a character's starting merit dots to be able to read and speak an additional language, and it cost as much in merit dots or experience as having an intuitive sense of impending danger or being a relatively significant celebrity. They quickly rewrote it in the errata so it now acts as the original version of the Linguistics skill, except as a merit.

* There's actually a trait for it in ''[[Eclipse Phase]]'' called Hyper Linguist -- itLinguist—it reduces the time and cost to learn Language skills to one-third, lets your character automatically learn a language through a single day of complete immersion, and grants a + 10 modifier to interpreting languages they don't know. Given that you need 50 points in a language skill to be fluent, and you normally require one Rez Point per skill point and one week of studying per point, plus you're restricted to 5 points in a skill per month, this is '''very''' handy if you're not planning to rely on your Muse's translation program for communication. It can also be varying degrees of justified, as your character can be anything from a custom-programmed AI to a centuries-old world-weary immortal.

** Homer is such an omniglot he can even [[Speaks Fluent Animal|speak Penguin]] -- and—and his comment that he can understand "food talk" in any language may mean he has a limited grasp of any animal language.

* An episode of ''[[All Grown Up!]]'' shows Susie Carmichael knowing various words in various languages as part of a language contest. She claims that she has a "freaky knack" for this. Problem is, such an ability is attested only once outside of the episode in question. <ref>In ''Rugrats in Paris'', Angelica boasts that she's going to Paris and brags about learning the language. Susie responds in perfect French, "I feel sorry for the French people who will hear you."</ref> The even bigger problem is that this ability solely exists to eventually {{spoiler|force Susie into picking [["Friend or Idol?" Decision|helping her friends win the language contest over auditioning for a singing contest]].}}

* Out of all the [[Seiyuu|seiyuusseiyuu]]s out there, [[Tetsuya Kakihara]] is the only one who's known to be able to speak ''five'' languages and those are Japanese, German, English, Spanish, and Latin.