Intergalactic Summit

Interesting! Now that you’ve mentioned it I checked my implants, found that dialect function, and activated it. Now I am really curious to meet my “first” Gallente! It was always strange to me that some foreigners appeared to speak our languages so fluently. When I am walking around in Dam-Torsad I sometimes switch my translator off. I really enjoy listening to all those different languages and accents and see all those different scripts and numerals.

My mother tongue is Khanid, but when I speak to other capsuleers I actually always make use of Imperial Standard. I find it polluting and desacralising to hear some subalterns “speak” Khanid while in reality they are replying in some pidgin language. Battle comms and briefings are always in Khanid. No translators used. I know it’s mostly flawless, as Lyn Farel pointed out, but it is not only about meaning, but also about intonation and melody. And I am not convinced that the translators can actually reshape them precisely and tie them to their original carrier. So I select only Khanid officers, who can actually read the particular mystique and characteristic wisdom of our noble warrior class. Our entire race is one large family based on a set of ancient and immutable laws which cannot be translated by any means.

I grew up speaking two languages: Gallentean and Modern Classic Intaki (MCI). At school, the former took precedence in most cases, but my father, as an Intaki native himself, was adamant that I be able to speak both languages with equal levels of fluency and skill, so while both languages were used at home, MCI was given slightly more emphasis. I grew up in one of Caille's cultural districts, so there were plenty of opportunities to use either language outside of the home as I pleased.

I've added another pair of languages - Amarrish and Khanid - after spending most of the last year and a half living in the Kingdom. I used the assistance of a translator briefly while I was learning the basics, but once I had those down I elected for full immersion. Sure, I screwed up a bunch at first, but with enough practice and encouragement, it feels just as natural to me to respond with either of those as it would with either Gallentean or MCI.

With that preface out of the way - as far as my personal use of translators goes, I prefer to speak to people using a common language (theirs, preferably, if I know it) if possible. It's the polite thing to do. However, if I'm in the capsule, it's already on by default, and I generally see no reason to turn it off at that point.

Overuse of the feature that allows one to force a particular phrase or word to go untranslated on the receiving end can be mildly irritating, but it takes very little effort to just say, "I didn't quite catch that, could you please repeat what you said" and be done with it. Not to mention that by now, the typical case of it being employed when greeting others should make the occasional stand-out appearance of words like saisieni, salve and ashaltiasten in the middle of everything else just part of daily conversation.

Most of the time I use Napanii with translator. I have been taught to give and perfectly understand orders in Napanii, as well as interrogate prisoners and for basic conversations with civilians. I am trying to practise my skills and use this language to honor my father, who, unfortunately, didn't have enough time to train me.
However, when the text that I'm trying to read is too hard to comprehend, I briefly switch translator to my mother's language.