this post was submitted on 06 Dec 2023
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Risa
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Come on'n get your jamaharon on! There are no real rules—just don't break the weather control network.
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They can't speak English though. In fact the scene this screenshot is from is them trapped in the past unable to communicate because their universal translators are offline. I would assume Quark speaks Federation Standard, but apparently that's not close enough to English to figure out what they're saying in the 40s
I assume he made a clear point of never learning it.
I'd put larger odds on Nog and Rom eventually learning it (but not at the time of the screenshot).
I could see Quark learning it. He lives in the federation, and fluency is good for business. Probably a RoA to that effect.
Hum... By the end of DS9 he lives in the federation. For nearly all of it he lives in Bajor, and shortly before it he lives in the Cardassian Empire.
Yeah, I could see the Lower Decks version of him speaking it.
He doesn't live in the federation until the last episode, though. He lives on a Bajoran space station administrated by Starfleet.
Being underestimated is also good for business
One thing I've always wondered, and this is hardly the most unbelievable aspect of the science fiction elements of this show but it's one of the most pervasive and constant; why don't we ever hear the native languages of the aliens underneath the sounds of the universal translators? Most, although not all, of them speak by vibrating the air, so where are those sounds disappearing to?
The translator also emits an interference pattern that cancels out the original speech to the listener
This was a plotpoint in DS9 where the UT didn't picked up the nuances of a language but the mutants who were able to comprehend the language deciphered what was really meant.
They actually do this in Star Trek Beyond
fwiw: you do get to hear a little bit of ferengi in this episode, before they get their translators fixed
Quark would never lower himself to speaking anything human. He views humans and the Federation as inferior and foolish.
Understanding a customer as famously wily as the Federation through language would be a business advantage. We know this because it works today.