Then just figured he’d match ego with ego.
Initially I had Then bantering with the two new sarnothi in the final panels, but got to thinking about the reader comments about Selkie breathing in a wetsuit and a funnier idea came in my head. Thanks, everyone.
xD oh my. she’s so cute with her little silliness. I like Then so much xD sarcasm
They seemed to understand her just fine in the previous comic! Lol
I dunno, their reaction would still fit if all they heard was screaming gibberish.
They could also be commenting on how, instead of the traditional, claws-pointed-away greeting, she has her arms spread wide as though she intends to attack.
Pretty sure they know she doesn’t intend to do THAT, but this has to be a little like old human folks having a kid greet them with her finger up her nose.
Ok, young Sarnothi woman seems to be an idiot. Old guy seems to be much more accommodating.
Why the FUCK did Pohl let Selkie wear a wetsuit?
And yes, Selkie is adorbs…
Why an idiot? Because of what she said?
Notice the guy’s speech is in carrots. He’s speaking tensei. Her speech is not. She’s speaking English. No different from someone rattle off a paragraph at you in Spanish, and you say, “No comprendo, amigo”. She’s doing the best she can.
it’s not in “carrots” at all. for starters, they aren’t even orange.
The ^ character is called a “caret” which is pronounced “carrot”.
Alpo is trying to refer to the characters, which are more commonly referred to as “angle brackets”. But when I say more commonly, I mean “it’s one of the several names programmers have made up to refer to them instead of greater than and less than signs” which isn’t actually all that common.
There weren’t any orange carrots at all until the 17th century. 😉 The breed most people grew was dark purple!
Um, I have family members that speak Mandarin Chinese, French, Basque, and Spanish. I can do better than “NO SPEAK HUMAN” at the top of my lungs in any of them, it takes 30 seconds with Gargle to find out the appropriate sentence.
I was also kinda responding to the look of terror on the woman’s face. Old guy has the situation at hand, especially since he’s addressing another Sarnothi.
Sentitzen dut, ez dut ingelesez hitz egiten. — Basque
Désolé, je ne parle pas anglais. — French
Duìbùqǐ, wǒ bù huì shuō yīngyǔ — Mandarin
Lo siento, no hablo inglés — Spanish
Uh? Wut? — Pidgin
1. Given that she has been raised by humans she may not know Sarnothi. My friend was adopted from Korea, she speaks zero Korean.
2. Just because you have a better grasp on how to say “I don’t speak that language” doesn’t mean everyone will or even has to. On top of which you had the time to look it up, she is doing it ON THE SPOT. Try speaking a language you barely if ever use sometime after a long period of non-use. See how fluent you are.
I didn’t google those, except for the Basque. I learned them *because* I might need to use them. (All my Basque-speaking relatives are in Europe.) I learned them out of politeness so I can inform people I care about in an appropriate manner (and I practiced the Chinese *a lot* because caucasian ears don’t hear the tones very well)
To your second point, the lake is in the US. We only have one language here. Learning a single sentence such as “I’m sorry, I don’t understand” is not too much to ask in the name of politeness, and keeping your cool and not screaming it is probably a politeness thing too. (Note the other guy not only had the presence of mind to not yell but also gave the Sarnothi hand-greeting.)
And, by the way, I didn’t use my (less than fluent) Spanish for about 5 years when I found myself in a Spanish travel agency in Madrid, trying to book travel to Morocco. Absolutely no English was spoken (I tried.) Given that we actually GOT there and back without losing any children or detours through Italy, I think I was fluent enough.
Its also entirely possible that Sarnothi grammar and English grammar are different. Its quite common for people learning another language to string together individual words in the grammar structure they are used to rather than that of the foreign language. Its a very common pattern I experience with the Japanese students I teach English to.
Chinese grammar is completely different from English, and don’t get me started on Basque.
You don’t need to learn the grammar to learn the phrase “I’m sorry, I don’t understand.”
Gargle. That would be the underwater search engine, right?
😉
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Now Now don’t be Mean to the poor woman, this is a common reaction to someone who doesn’t speak or knows very little of another language. Being from Canada My French is Embarrassingly poor despite me living in a “Bi-Lingual” Country. Best I can manage is a “I Can’t Speak French” and very Garbled at that. The better nature of my French Countrymen just make due and we both try our best to understand each other- the Rude ones look at me Like I have Leoprsy then talk to someone else… usually while I’m still in their presence.
The Sarnothi Woman just probably panicked and went to her “No Speak Human” Line because- Well it’s probably just a natural reaction when someone speaks English at her. and to be perfectly honest there’s no indication that a Very Strange Child in Questionable Attire even Knows their native Language
Interesting implication there though, to them it’s human, not english. Makes me wonder how much sarnothi actually know about humans/the surface world.
Eh, most Americans refer to people speaking “Chinese” even though there are actually a number of different languages/dialects that people from China/Taiwan/Hong Kong/etc. speak.
You just pointed out a mistake I made, thank you. I said “Chinese” in my response. The tones I learned are in Mandarin.
Like you said, you don’t speak “Chinese”, you read and write it. You speak Mandarin, Fukinese, Shanghainese, Cantonese, Toishanese, and so on. They all share the same written language, but are somewhat incomprehensible between dialects.
I only speak one language, not for lack of trying, I just have a hard time with it. So MAD respect for anyone who speaks more than one, even if its poor, even if its only a few words.
I think most non english natives pretty much have to pick up at least some english to get around nowadays.
I also speak german and a little hungarian in addition to my native slovak because both countries are a stone throw away and we got open borders. This is nothing special though with how interconnected the eu is.
While if you speak english you are already set for life, and probably won’t visit another country expect for a vacation. And since everyone else learns english anyway there is no real need to learn another language other than as a personal fancy.
Also, depending upon where you grow up, you may not have much chance to speak anything other than English. I grew up in Minnesota, on the middle of the northern U.S. border, and despite taking French in high school, my opportunities to actually use it were almost nonexistent because French tourists didn’t often get near where I lived – even the Canadian French speaking ones!
We in the US are actually quite lucky that the “second language” learned by most people in the EU, Scandinavia, and parts of Asia is typically English.
Usually a bit of politeness is enough to get someone in a foreign country to switch to their grammar school English so you can buy your telecard or train ticket.
The wetsuit might have been because of her previous reactions to cold, and her not being acclimatized to the temperatures in that frozen-over lake.
Ok, I hadn’t thought of that. Possibly they are being over-cautious given that she *did* contract a human cold.
Being in her element? Er, … Being in her native compound seems to have brought out the scientist in Dr. Terrorhamner.
Good call on the last panel. Much more fun 😀
Agreed!
Dunno if you know, Dave, but wetsuits are SKIN-tight. They’re so tight you often need soap, AND help, just getting into them. And neoprene is kind of thick, as well. Those are some super gills lol
I’m going to suspect that Selkie’s wetsuit was mostly to “look normal” if she was helping her dad practice around humans, and is not actually neoprene — it’s probably spandex tricked up to look like neoprene to the non-experts.
I’ll be honest, the extent of my thinking on the wetsuit is “Todd felt something more protective than her one-piece was warranted, but it’s still flexible enough to give way when she exhales”. Don’t have a specific material in mind for it.
Love the puffer-fish effect. (If you need any ideas: There are spandex body-suit things for swimming — they’re mostly for providing protection from UV, I gather, but we were trying one of those when the kid was having swimming lessons, as being extremely low in body-fat = shivering in anything that’s not a heated pool, FAST. Alarmingly fast.)
Depends on the wetsuit, this could be a relatively thin one. If you have one that fits correctly it shouldn’t be too tight– and putting soap under one to get it on, ew…
I can get mine on pretty easily by myself, and I’m usually so tired afterwards I just peel myself like a banana.
I thought TEETH AND SCALES was profanity. Maybe not MF, but right up there with GD.
What’s he doing cussing at that little girl?
sounds more like the equivalent of “oh for Christ sakes…”
Taking gods name in vain is actually the original definition of profanity, so yea that’s the point. Some people still get upsed at for Christs sake or even damn.
The context I got for this instance was something like “OH MY GOD!”
A really light curse, barely even registering on the meter.
And she’s saying it LOUDLY, because (as everyone knows) yelling at someone helps them to understand better. 😛
I don’t know about that. Bizarre behavior often transcends language.
Oops, that was supposed to be a reply to the next comment.
That’s okay. Mine was a reply to my own earlier comment, way up the thread. Don’t know why it’s posted here, as a stand-alone.
Sometimes you click a button and the computer ignores you. Sometimes you get a blue screen. Computers are like that.
oh god poor Selkie that looks like she REALLY needs to change
and it looks to me like those two understand English/humanese fine from the previous page, but they deliberately want to get Selkie to talk in her native language so long as she’s there
honestly a good idea IMHO
I see nothing that actually shows they understood her, Monday. They just seem to be commenting on her boiling up out of the sub and screaming.
Basically this, they’re reacting to the abruptness of her actions more than her literal words.
Mr Then just got more annoying and I don’t like those two already. There’s a way to speak to children and apparently they don’t even want to try.
Especially Ms SCREAMS AT KIDS.
you don’t know either, apparently.
I do know how to. But whateves.
Is Selkie wearing an earpiece so she can hear her dad over what appears to be a radio?
Maybe a radio, but I’m think some sort of underwater speaker/adaptor. Like a Darth Vader helmet, but not as cool.
bone conducting mike for selkie something akin to a Bluetooth headset that uses the mastoid bone as the resonator, a buddy phone box for Todd and a receiver for her system (which would probably be a throat mike to pick up the vibrations of her vocal cords and amplified
its off the shelf stuff actually.
Uh, it wouldn’t be *radio* per se, given it doesn’t work underwater too well.
Basically a sonic transducer that adapts sound to underwater frequencies. Sarnothi would probably have that kind of tech down pat.
No, the helmets have waterproof speakers. They’re built for communicating with sarnothi underwater.
This.
Actually I work with a Burmese fellow, his English is subpar… But it’s also not his native or even second language! I have mad props for him. So the lady, to me, doesn’t come across as yelling. She’s just forcibly saying what little “human” she knows, since speaking a foreign language can be difficult… Especially when the way to speak it differs. Some languages are more fluid, some are coarse and gruff. English is… Complicated. Lol. So for Tensei, which I personally imagine to be more of a… Well, almost like mixing speaking with sonar, given that it’s an underwater vocalization, plus any human language won’t sound normal underwater, she probably had to grind it out and hope she got it right.
Some languages have words I wish English had. But sometimes we just rob another language. I was in a bunch of college students and we were discussing college-level physics; how can you explain to a German who asks “what is the English word” for Gedanken Experiment?
We finally convinced him when we countered with: “What is th English word for Kindergarten?” He knew that much English and That convinced him we were in earnest.
Gedanken experiment would be thought experiment and kindergarten is simply daycare.
I’d like to add my experience, which is that I’ve never heard of a gedanken experiment before, (but have done plenty of thought experiments!) buuuut “daycare” is an Americanism which, while logical, is not something you often here around here. 😉
“Kindergarten” and “day care” are two different things. The former involves a somewhat structured learning environment with specific goals children should master. Day care simply provides child care while parents are working or otherwise unable to do so themselves, with no expectation of any specific learning.
But the *German* word “Kindergarten” is, I believe, closer to what Americans would call “day care”. When we appropriated the word, we didn’t keep the meaning.
When did Selkie learn Tensei? I’ve forgotten. Did Todd learn it too?
Selkie always knew it, it’s her mother tongue.
That’s true, but I wonder how well she can still speak it, after three long years (I think) at the orphanage.
Someone mentioned it a couple comics ago, but isn’t it really cold underwater especially when frozen? If the lakes are there natural habitats wouldn’t they be hibernating almost all the time?
Good, he’s wearing a mask. Just strikes me as common sense, lest there be some microbe on the Sarnothi that finds some aspect of human anatomy to be rather too pleasant, if you get what I mean.
Ich or Mycobacterium would be the most likely. ICH just gives you a nasty rash (ive had it) Mycobacterium marinum which can do anything from nothing to small granuloma. however as this is a cold water environment… myco is not likely. (Myco marinum is sometimes refered to fishkeepers disease. It MAY also be related to fishkeepers arthritis as people who keep fishtanks tend to develop a specific kind of arthritis.
Mycobacterium is known as FISH TB in some circles.
Also may I say, panel 3 is one of the most adorable pictures of Selkie you’ve drawn yet. You should make that the logo for the webcomic.
Dave,
I don’t know if my phone is just infected with malware, but you have a seriously unflattering dating ad that has been advertising at the top of the page.
For a comic that’s supposed to be so family friendly, to the point of censoring curse words, I’m a little surprised to see hook-ups sites advertised on this page.
hmmm I’m pretty sure it’s not malware… if this website’s ad mechanisms are similar to others I’ve heard about then Dave has zero control over which specific ads appear, just a binary choice of “ADS THAT WE CHOOSE FOR YOU WILL APPEAR” or “NO ADS AT ALL” and of the ads that DO show up, those are based on YOUR browsing history and many other user-identifiable data that various tracking databases have of your personal information… so if you are seeing those types of ads, then that is an ad that “fits” with whatever YOU have been browsing in the past… and it is more than likely entirely your fault, NOT Dave’s fault
These things usually do allow the owner to tag particular adds they don’t want to appear on their site though.
I’m getting ads for game of thrones merchandise (probably relevant), carpets, mentos and cameras (not really relevant). 😀
No, sorry. My browsing habits doesn’t include going to adult hook-ups sites advertising middle aged women.
I know what kind of ads you are talking about, I see them all the time advertising stuff I browsed on Amazon and stuff. Nome.of those returned the same kind of advertisement.
I thought I’d just let Dave know, because in the past, other website operators weren’t aware of all the content that was being displayed on their sites.
But I really do appreciate you trying to oust me and make it my fault. Thanks a ton.
I’d like to add, I refreshed the site several times and none of the advertising had anything to do with my browsing habits. I really have no idea what the he’ll “the great inflatable race” is.
Sorry for the slow response, I’ve gone through the ads list to try and remove some of the more suggestive-looking ones. I doubt I’ve caught all of them, but best I can do in this situation is to try and prune them out by de-approving the undesirable ones manually.
My ad settings are set for family-friendly levels, but I can’t stop unscrupulous people from flagging their dildo ads as “family friendly” just to snake out more views, sadly.
she is so cute! I really like when Selkie has an honest kid moment, not snarky, not defensive, not offensive, just fun.
So who else rofled at that last panel?
Ohhh, thank you for the laugh… I just cried at SSSS’s site, from sadness, then coming here, now I’m crying because of too much laughter… XD