Tahirians invite the Envoy crew to make camp on Tahir. The camp is visited by a few Tahirians but is not plagued by journalists, crowds, salespeople etc. Is this because Tahirian society is "'...very controlled...'" (p. 216) or just alien? The latter makes more sense. Why should intelligent beings have nuisance-making journalists etc? After a while, the guests are invited to go on tours. Who has decided this and how? How long does it take to understand even a strange human society let alone an alien one? Tahirians communicate mainly through body language so that conversations between them and human beings are impossible.
Dominic Flandry learned Eriau. Olaf Magnusson was fluent in three Merseian languages, including Eriau. Arinnian of Stormgate Choth whose human name was Christopher Holm translated texts from Planha into Anglic. Human-alien communication is not necessarily going to be as easy as that and Poul Anderson shows us this with the Tahirians. Each future history conveys more.
3 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
Except, in the Technic series Flandry could draw on the hard won experience and knowledge gained from a millennium of humans and aliens interacting with each other. And THE REBEL WORLDS includes a description of how Flandry's training at the Imperial Intelligence Academy included intensive drilling in the methods needed for learning non-human languages as quickly as possible.
Ad astra! Sean
It would vary considerably. If species were unlike -enough- communication would probably be both impossible an unnecessary.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
You reminded me of the Ymirites, hydrogen breathers so different from mankind the two races were nearly totally irrelevant to each other. But some limited dealings were possible even with them: such as exchanging scientific data and agreeing to swap planets they didn't want with each other in HUNTERS OF THE SKY CAVE.
Ad astra! Sean
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