Language learning

I think that it would be a cool thing to do in order to show a sort of character development, but it honestly depends on how you do it. I think that it either has to be something glossed over, like it happened but you don't describe it, or obviously have it be relevant to the plot in some way that they learn each other's languages. Is there a certain way you're wanting to go about it either way? Is it necessary to the plot at all?

Raunchel said:

I know that this might be a rather stupid question, but in one of my projects, the protagonist meets someone else, and they don't have a shared language. I want to include a few scenes where they essentially try to communicate, each using their own language and learning the other. Is this something that you think can be depicted, or would it really turn audiences away?

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I think it can be depicted and I think it would add depth and maybe even moments of humor as long as you don't go overboard in the number and length of those scenes. If you can think of a movie in which that occurred, it might be helpful to search out the script online to help you with the depiction. The "Darmok" episode of STNG comes to mind, but I'm sure there are many others probably more relevant to your story.

Ari, the one you can count on for "out there" suggestions.

I think everything boils down to execution. If it's funny or dramatic or interesting in any kind of way then it's great. If it's dull or excessive or stops the flow then it ain't great. I usually just write it and see what happens. Sometimes you'll realize right away it isn't working. Other times it'll turn out to be one of the best scenes in the MS. Of course, there's also those times when you write it and you're still on the fence about whether or not it works. But that's writing...

I agree with Ari in the idea of introducing them trying to learn each other's language - starting out with simple things like "Stick"/"Qarti", "Rock"/"Bqtal", etc., but don't belabor the point. It might be a good chapter/scene break going from introducing language difficulties, to speaking broken language, to one or the other getting fluent in it.

Even if you had a "universal translator", it would still need time to gather words/phrases/sentence structure before it could turn out a decent translation, either direction. And, don't forget, even if Person A or Person B learns the other language, they might slip back into their own language in a high stress situation, leaving the other person confused (and possibly in danger, if the first one is telling him to duck and he does it in the wrong language).

If you can find it, the movie "Enemy Mine" had a good section about two opponents who're forced to work together to survive crashing on a planet.

It's all about the individuals involved. We can communicate a lot via facial expression and gestures without oral language, but all humans on Earth have some of those in common. It takes one to three years to learn a language to conversational fluency. But the bare necessities can happen more quickly, especially if they really are necessary. (ESL Teacher here, so I've had this experience. It helps a lot to know a little about the structure of the other language and to have visuals.)