How did Ax learn English?

[ThermalRider]

Maybe the human languages were already "learned" by Andalites at school...? Since Ax once said that they studied humans as part of their education in their school.

I don't know about that. Ax was a worse slacker than Marco as far as school goes. Anytime it came up he "Didn't pay attention that day."

[zaprowsdower]

True, when he first had to explain Sario rips(in #11, I think)he said he didn't learn much that day beacuse he was distracted by a girl .

[OrcaMorph]

Here's how I've interpreted the books' explanations.

First of all, translator chips work regardless of whether the user is morphed or not.
The translator chip (once it has decoded the language) almost instantaneously translates spoken word into the whole universal-symbol-more-than-words-super-neato-everyone-can-understand thought speak equivalent.  So the user (an andalite, for simplicity) both hears the actual spoken word and comprehends it's meaning at the same time.  It would not take long for anyone using this device to VERY quickly pick up the language and therefore be able to speak it once morphed into a sound-speaking creature, ESPECIALLY smart people like Edriss and Aldrea.
Let's look at the cases:
Aldrea spent much time exploring the Hork-Bajir homeworld with Dak in both Andalite and Chadoo forms, forms which she used thoughtspeak to talk to Dak, and even fought most of the war before she actually morphed Hork-Bajir and spoke with words. That's plenty of time, if we use my above hypothesis, to learn the language from that method.  In fact, I don't believe Aldrea actually morphed a Hork-Bajir until very late in the book. But even if I'm wrong about that she STILL had alot of time to speak with him in non-soundspeech forms.

Elfangor had PLENTY of time to use the translator to understand Loren and Chapman with the translator chip before he ever actually morphed human and had to use soundspeech.  He surely would have learned by then, again using my above theory.

Ax is a little harder to explain, but he did have plenty of conversation with the Animorphs in human form on the Dome Ship and then on the beach before he morphed human on the mainland.  But it's not like he had some huge monologue; it's feasible that he was a quick enough learner on this very efficient language learning system that he learned enough of it to speak the little amount that he did in this book.  After all, though she was obviously more intellectual than Ax, Edriss was able to interpret much of the English language (her first host was muslim, so you can't really use that as an explanation) in a short time from listening to radio signals in orbit without the aid of thought-speak-element-based translator chips. 

[zaprowsdower]

I applaud you for your deep intellectual reasoning .

[morfowt]

Here's how I've interpreted the books' explanations.

First of all, translator chips work regardless of whether the user is morphed or not.
The translator chip (once it has decoded the language) almost instantaneously translates spoken word into the whole universal-symbol-more-than-words-super-neato-everyone-can-understand thought speak equivalent.  So the user (an andalite, for simplicity) both hears the actual spoken word and comprehends it's meaning at the same time.  It would not take long for anyone using this device to VERY quickly pick up the language and therefore be able to speak it once morphed into a sound-speaking creature, ESPECIALLY smart people like Edriss and Aldrea.
Let's look at the cases:
Aldrea spent much time exploring the Hork-Bajir homeworld with Dak in both Andalite and Chadoo forms, forms which she used thoughtspeak to talk to Dak, and even fought most of the war before she actually morphed Hork-Bajir and spoke with words. That's plenty of time, if we use my above hypothesis, to learn the language from that method.  In fact, I don't believe Aldrea actually morphed a Hork-Bajir until very late in the book. But even if I'm wrong about that she STILL had alot of time to speak with him in non-soundspeech forms.

Elfangor had PLENTY of time to use the translator to understand Loren and Chapman with the translator chip before he ever actually morphed human and had to use soundspeech.  He surely would have learned by then, again using my above theory.

Ax is a little harder to explain, but he did have plenty of conversation with the Animorphs in human form on the Dome Ship and then on the beach before he morphed human on the mainland.  But it's not like he had some huge monologue; it's feasible that he was a quick enough learner on this very efficient language learning system that he learned enough of it to speak the little amount that he did in this book.  After all, though she was obviously more intellectual than Ax, Edriss was able to interpret much of the English language (her first host was muslim, so you can't really use that as an explanation) in a short time from listening to radio signals in orbit without the aid of thought-speak-element-based translator chips. 

I think my brain just fried.

[CounterInstinct]

ummm... need a translator chip for that? 

[zaprowsdower]

O come on, I got it .

[Gaz]

I really want to come up with an intelligent answer for this but the only think that pops into my head is the Universal Translators from Star Trek. Despite the fact that they are the comm badges worn on the chest everything everyone says is translated and understood perfectly!

[Chad32]

I think it says somewhere that Andalites, and some other species, have chips implanted that can decipher most speech. I know it's stated in Hork-Bajir Chronicles. Aldrea gets Dak to talk about a tree until the chip decodes his speech and she can understand him.

[Liz]

I figured learning English must have had something to do with the translators.  It wouldn't make any sense otherwise.

Though, I always wondered how Ax was able to learn to read English so quickly, in #8.  Would the translators somehow help with that too?  Or maybe Ax is just fast.

And another thing that bothered me about thought-speak was that its meaning could be understood no matter what language, but as I understand it, the "sounds" in your head would still be the original language, right?  I mean, you wouldn't "hear" Ax's voice as English in your head, I'm assuming.

So...Wouldn't Visser 3 or whoever else know the Animorphs were human because they "spoke" English?

~has been thinking about this waaay too much~

[morfowt]

no, I think thought-speak is like communicating in thoughts or images. like learning in china, geography and math are easiest. it's because numbers and maps are pretty much the same no matter where you go.

for thought-speak, like saying grass, well grass is pretty much the same no matter what planet you go to. it may be different color but it's still the same. if it's not the same, it wouldn't really be called grass. so the andalites thought-speak grass, and other species understand the thought or picture and they understand the word in their own language or something. am I making sense?

[CounterInstinct]

Yeah, it was like when Elfangor thought-spoke, "Yeerk" for the first time, instead of words, images appeared in the brains of the Animorphs... 

[traycon3]

I really want to come up with an intelligent answer for this but the only think that pops into my head is the Universal Translators from Star Trek. Despite the fact that they are the comm badges worn on the chest everything everyone says is translated and understood perfectly!

Yeah, but that still doesn't explain how the aliens in the original series all spoke English. Even Spock says a few did! Though they did address that in Deep Space Nine once or twice. And Klingon still comes out sometimes as Klingon, even though the most famous word (which I can't remember how to spell) translated to "Sucess!"

Ok, back on topic.
Interestingly enough, originally the Andalites were suppose to have a sort-of mind-reading ability, too. Like if someone thought "loud" enough, an Andalite, or even someone in morph, could pick it up. The ability to send pictures associated with words may have stemmed from that idea.
However, that random fact still doesn't explain how Ax learned English. Though these theories are pretty good. I have one, however.

I think that all universal translators are connected. So, if one translator knows a language, so do all of them within a few minutes to a few weeks, depending on the travel time for the signals. Then, whenever the person is in morph, the translator takes the thoughts and translates them from the brain to the mouth. So, while the speaker may be thinking in Andalite, he or she will automatically have it translated to whatever the native tounge is.
As for reading...maybe he watched his TV with subtitiles?
Though he understands an Almanic in book 8, he has some trouble with reading the English in book 9. So, obviously his reading ability when it comes to English is not perfect.

[morfowt]

I doubt it. in #28 he said he recently got a tv. so he couldn't have had a tv in #8 or #9. Besides if he had a tv, why didn't the animorphs tell david he could watch tv at ax's instead of having to break into a hotel?

yeah, but only in book 1. my guess is K.A. at first wanted that you could thought-speak even out of morph. then in like book 2, she decided to change that rule.

ok, so how does elfangor saying "Suddenly the translator chip had heard enough." fit into that theory?

[Estelore]

I doubt Visser Three watched Muzzy when he first tried a human morph

RYTX, I actually snorted when I read that. Thank you. You've made my morning.

Also, I agree with that, and with Phoenix's clear summation of the situation. (Page 1, this thread)