How did Ax learn English?

[estrid]

ya, in the book where jake is at the grand opening of the sharing community center (book 33 i think?) where tobias is tortured by taylor, ax talks to jake in thought speak while he is in his human morph. so ya, i dk what was going on with that whole thing

[musicman88]

What I was curious about was how did Ax learn to code computers?  I mean, they might have the same basic structure as Andalite computers, but it would be near impossible to have the same commands do the same things.  And I've taking a bit of programming and it's not something that you can quickly figure out by yourself.  You have to get both the commands and the syntax right or else the computer won't know what you're talking about.  That's why it was incredibly strange that the first time Ax picked up a human computer he was automatically a wiz at it.

[Myitt]

Maybe it was just like a game to him, like that program he "fixed" on Marco's dad's computer...seeing the patterns in the computer code, or something...who knows, he's a genius by human standards XD;

As for learning English...maybe he studied it as a major Earth language while learning about humans, but more likely his translator device translates for him, and his thought-speech conveyed the proper meaning before he really got the hang of English on its own.

Another thing that bothers me, is Visser Three always speaking English?  You'd think he'd speak...I dunno, Galard or Yeerkish or Andalite to the supposed "Andalite bandits", especially in human form?

[Blake (xtrunkzx)]

You know you seriously have a point about Visser 3...huh I never thought about that. Yea how the hell do ppl explain THAT!
With Ax it's easier, at least he knows he's talking to humans but with Visser 3 no one knew they were human until they were compromised.

Did KA ever explain that issue?

[traycon3]

I don't think so...Maybe?
I guess it would depend on if Yeerks themselves could speak Galarad and if they could speak it through their hosts, rather than having to rely on their host's native tounge.
If Yeerks couldn't speak or understand Galarad when in control of their hosts, then with the flow of new Controllers coming in almost constantly, it would be natural for Visser Three to resort to using English when in human morph.
Also, Andalite might be a fairly complex language to speak aloud, especially when trying to use a human mouth. This speculation comes from the fact that the Animorphs originally called Aximili Ax because the name was so complicated to pronounce. Either that, or he said it really, really fast.
I'm just speculating here. Feel free to rip my logic to shreds with better, more thought out logic.

[morfowt]

when he's in andalite form, the answer's easy: thought-speak works at a level beyond mere words. so any species can understand it.

when he's in human form...if I recall correctly, the only time visser three was in human morph was at sharing meetings, and when he pretended to be tobias's cousin. Obviously the latter, he'd have to speak english, otherwise he'd blow his cover. The former, he'd also blow his cover if he said it near some of the new members...but once he's with the full members, I don't know.

and I'm pretty yeerks can speak garlard through their host's mouth. If horse-controllers can speak garlard, I don't see why human-controllers can't.

[traycon3]

Yep, see. Better, more thought out logic.