New Fic: Speaking In Tongues

[namaste]

Title: Speaking In Tongues
Author: Namaste
Summary: Five drabbles on where -- and why -- House picked up some of his language skills. Gen.
Author's Note: Prompted by the scene in "Don't Ever Change" in which House spoke a few words of Hebrew, and knew what the prayer meant, which got me wondering why he'd be familiar with them. Also written to celebrate shipping my BigBang story, and giving myself a break from that fic. Finally.

Excerpt: On a street corner far from the front gate he sits on a bench, closes his eyes and just listens, trying to pick up rhythms and tones in language the same way he does when he's trying to work out the chord changes in a song.




Greek

He doesn't remember learning Greek, just knows that Dad doesn't approve when he laughs as Mom tells him about hearing Greg speaking it with some of the other kids at the park.

"Of course he did," Dad says. "It's hard to be the center of attention when no one understands you." He chuckles and gives Greg's arm a soft punch, pretending it's all just a joke, but he doesn't fool anyone.

"Don't tease him, John," Mom says, and smiles over at Greg. She squeezes his hand. "I think it's wonderful."

Greg stares down at his plate and doesn't say anything.



Arabic


In Egypt, he picks up his first bits of Arabic at a dig site when one of the men waves him over. He stands at the edge of the pit. There's a precise grid laid out in the dirt, and the man points down at one of the diggers, who is pulling a piece of pottery out from the dust. He says something, and Greg realizes that the sounds have assembled themselves into words in his mind.

"Look here," the man says.

"What is it?" Greg asks, without thinking about words or languages.

The man smiles. "A clue," he says.


Japanese


Dad tells him to stay on the base, so Greg sneaks away every chance he gets.

On a street corner far from the front gate he sits on a bench, closes his eyes and just listens, trying to pick up rhythms and tones in language the same way he does when he's trying to work out the chord changes in a song.

At the hospital, after the accident, the doctors talk openly in front of him, thinking he can't understand. Some of the medical phrases slip past him, but then he realizes he's hearing one word again and again: buraku.


Hindi

House is bored when he finds the book on Hindi and leafs through it, never meaning to learn it at all. But every time he hears an unfamiliar phrase, he opens the book again, wanting to find out more.

He never speaks Hindi with anyone, doesn't care that his accent is bad. That's not the point.

All he wants is to be able to understand them, to eavesdrop on the students at the next table and find out what they know. To know their secrets. The first thing he hears is that they don't like him. He already knew that.


Hebrew

It begins with Yiddish, with a curse House doesn't know. He studies it, hearing the way German and Hebrew grew into something more. Yiddish leads to Hebrew, Hebrew to theology he doesn't believe in.

He finds an old book on the shelf after the infarction, after Stacy, when he's looking for a distraction. He tells Wilson it seems appropriate to read backwards now that everything else in his life has been turned upside down.

Somehow he always ends up at discussions on the same theme: "Because of our sins, we were punished." He doesn't believe it, but he keeps reading.

Comments

[phinnia.livejournal.com]

This is wonderful. I think my favorite is the Arabic one because I have a soft spot for archaeological digs (and the image of young House in that environment is just so /clear/ - I could see him in another life being an archaeologist instead of a doctor, it's all about looking for clues, after all). The Hindi one rings so very truthfully, because it's /exactly/ the kind of thing he'd do. And he'd be disappointed, too. <3 Such gorgeous images.

[namasteyoga.livejournal.com]

Thanks. I've been so happy that the show gave us that moment of House and the mummies (regardless of the fact that there's no Marine base there) because it's so easy to see young Greg in the midst of all that knowledge, trying to find out everything.

[purridot.livejournal.com]

It's neat how you had House trying to crack languages whose script is so different from English, and thus so much more of a challenge!

But every time he hears an unfamiliar phrase, he opens the book again, wanting to find out more.

I particularly like that line -- it is so Housian to not be able to leave *any* mystery alone.

[namasteyoga.livejournal.com]

Thanks. I'd actually played around with a drabble involving Spanish, but that seemed so ... pedestrian compared to the others.

[pwcorgigirl.livejournal.com]

They're all little gems, but I particular like "Japanese," for the mention of how he listens to language like it was music. And there's a heartbreaking progression in these pieces, too, from the little boy who learns language to fit in, to have friends, to becoming someone who is essentially an outcast but still has to know what's going on. The pivot for that is in "Japanese," when he sits by himself and listens and later when he so identifies with the buraku.

[namasteyoga.livejournal.com]

Thank you. I liked the idea as well as language and music were so intertwined for him -- as is language and knowledge.

[misanthropicobs.livejournal.com]

I liked the Arabic one as well, also because of the image of the dig. Hindi is also a favorite because of the line about not caring if the accent is bad since speaking isn't the point. That sounds very much like I imagine the young House, it's not about communication with other people, it's about learning in order to know, finding things out.

[namasteyoga.livejournal.com]

Thanks. I know that after "Distractions" some people who speak Hindi said his accent was very bad, so I decided to play that into the drabble, along with the idea that he wasn't looking for a conversation, just information.

[sangria-lila.livejournal.com]

Somehow he always ends up at discussions on the same theme: "Because of our sins, we were punished." He doesn't believe it, but he keeps reading.

I love this line. It's surprisingly uplifting for House, but yet so very true.

[namasteyoga.livejournal.com]

Thank you. I actually ran across that line while trying to find some bit of theology to hook into the language, and it seemed to fit.

[datsun99.livejournal.com]

This is really lovely.

Each one of these is great, and they weave together well, but something about the first one really made me sad. It's like a really understated, child-like sensitivity to that kind of snub, and for some reason I think it has a big impact.

[namasteyoga.livejournal.com]

Thanks. The fic began with the image of House studying Hebrew merely because of a curse word in Yiddish, but also came complete with the image of John failing to see the joy in language, and ridiculing him for it. Then I had to come up with everything else.

[oldblue.livejournal.com]

Wonderful! I love these. Arabic is my favorite.

I think the fact that he knows so many languages is my favorite facet of House's character and you've really captured that nicely here.

[namasteyoga.livejournal.com]

Thank you. It's kind of fun whenever House busts out another bit of dialogue in another language, and you never know what the next one will be.

[soulcanhope.livejournal.com]

This is the reason I love drabbles so much! Short, tight and simple, but they really hit you right in the gut.
I particularly loved this He tells Wilson it seems appropriate to read backwards now that everything else in his life has been turned upside down.
Sad, but perfectly fitting to his emotions. Well done!

[namasteyoga.livejournal.com]

I'm glad you liked that line. It was one of the images I liked from the start, then had to figure out how to squeeze it into 100 words along with everything else.

[topaz-eyes.livejournal.com]

I love how you choose such fundamental and influential world languages to reflect House's depth and breadth of knowledge and emotional landscape. Nice.

[namasteyoga.livejournal.com]

An earlier version of this included something with young House noticing the similarities of Italian and Spanish, then seeing Latin and having those connections click, but that was sacrificed because I couldn't find a way to make that version of a ficlet work, and finally landed on the drabble format, but then that Latin influenced snippet didn't work.

[niicelaady.livejournal.com]

This is lovely. I'm a language geek (not what you'd call fluent in any of them, but I speak Spanish, read Latin and can communicate in ASL), and I love that House is one, too. And you have captured that side of him in beautiful, economical language. Love this especially:

He finds an old (Hebrew) book on the shelf after the infarction, after Stacy, when he's looking for a distraction. He tells Wilson it seems appropriate to read backwards now that everything else in his life has been turned upside down.

Nice work.

[namasteyoga.livejournal.com]

Thanks. I minored in Spanish in college and also speak some German, French and Italian -- plus thanks to last year's vacation can now order beer in Czech, Polish, Slovak and Hungarian. (Admittedly, it's the same word in Czech, Polish and Slovak, but still ...)

[npkedit.livejournal.com]

I like this. And Yiddish is, ironically, a really great language to swear in. I can totally see him hearing that and it spurring him on (though, admittedly, it's more like German than it is like Hebrew). The reading backwards crack was great.

Chinese and Portuguese would probably have made cool stories, as well. We've seen him either speaking or reading those over the course of the series, too.

[namasteyoga.livejournal.com]

It was the idea of trying to learn how to swear in Yiddish that prompted everything (I had to drop some of references to its similarities to German to fit into the drabble form).

I debated more languages, but when I tried working on another one it was too similar to the other themes, so decided to pare them back to just a sampling.

[joe-pike-junior.livejournal.com]

Japanese and Hindi are my favourites.


Dad tells him to stay on the base, so Greg sneaks away every chance he gets.
This is such a concise statement that's so, so indicative of House's personality.

I love how, especially in those two drabbles, you've married House's intellect to his isolation. Very nice.


BTW: I don't suppose you know what the Hindi words are that House uses when Foreman comes to ask him to take the case in Distractions? I found out the other day but there may have been talk about it in fandom before.

[namasteyoga.livejournal.com]

Thanks. I know I'd read something at some point on the Hindi phrase back when the episode came out, but I'm afraid I don't remember it. I do recall, though, that the person said his accent was so bad it was hard to understand him. (Same with someone who spoke Chinese, if I recall.)

[joe-pike-junior.livejournal.com]

I don't doubt the accent being dodgy.

Lately there's been a bit of a furore on the media over here about some swear words and racial taunts that were exchanged at a cricket match. As a corollary I managed to learn that the phrase approximating "teri maa-ki" in Hindi means ..."motherfucker".

So there you go, I guess.

[angelcat2865.livejournal.com]

Love this!

[namasteyoga.livejournal.com]

Thanks.

[poeia.livejournal.com]

And Portuguese and Mandarin...

I like the idea of John not understanding the beauty and romance of languages. He's a circle king but he goes to these countries to do a job for the Marines and hang out with other Americans when he's not working.

House is, by nature, an outsider. He'll never be part of those cultures, but his intellectual curiosity means he will learn something every where they go.

These beautifully capture that dichotomy.

[namasteyoga.livejournal.com]

Thank you. I can see John as never wanting to leave the base. When I've visited bases overseas (once or twice for work-related reasons), I was struck by how it was suddenly like walking into an American neighborhood, regardless of the country where it's located. American brands in the stores, American money, even standard American drinking fountains everywhere. I can imagine John as feeling comfortable in that setting, while House felt confined by it.

[ellixian.livejournal.com]

Lovely - you say so much with so few words. I love the progression here, from Greg to House, from wanting to fit in to just wanting to KNOW, to always be picking up clues and understanding what's going on around him. Beautiful images. Thanks for sharing!

[namasteyoga.livejournal.com]

Thanks. I do think that even as a kid wanting to fit in, part of that desire was to know what the other kids were doing -- so curiosity drives him to hang out with the other kids, which drives his learning another language.

[hibernia1.livejournal.com]

Oh, I love these, as always with your stories I see the young Greg right in front of my eyes. I like the way you compare languages to music, very true! I liked the one about Arabic the best. Thanks for sharing!

[namasteyoga.livejournal.com]

You're welcome. I've often heard that people with an ear for music pick up other languages easily, so I figured it was a legitimate comparison.

[oursoliloquies.livejournal.com]

These are wonderful- I think I like "Hindi" best, because it just gets you right in the gut. For me at least. I love how you weave in all these foreign languages with something so relatable to his situation.

[namasteyoga.livejournal.com]

Thank you. I wasn't sure how well the "Hindi" drabble would work, so I'm glad it did.

[mystcphoenxcafe.livejournal.com]

Greetings!

In reading a book about race the other day, I came across a section where people of various ethnicities all talked about their native language being an important part of who they are. The one constant.

Language and identity. So if you think about it, the fact of House's multilingualism can be as much about his role as an outsider as anything. Trying to find connection by language, at first for the attempt at connection, then simply for the power of information that it brings.

His search for language is also a painful reflection of his personal universe, both w/his relationship with his father and his relationship w/the world in general. "Dad tells him to stay on the base, so Greg sneaks away every chance he gets. "

It is a sad thing indeed when folk cannot or will not see the beauty that surrounds them.

As others do, I love the line "He tells Wilson it seems appropriate to read backwards now that everything else in his life has been turned upside down."

""Because of our sins, we were punished." He doesn't believe it, but he keeps reading."

There is a very disturbing theme throughout the show of House's need to self-punish. For as much as he hates his father, he still cannot help but play the good son in that, at least.

Powerful stuff. Thank'ee's for sharing. :-)
-Katrina

[angelfirenze.livejournal.com]

I'm so glad I stumbled across this one. It figures that John would have convinced himself that the only reason Greg would want to know anything was to show that he was better than someone. Good grief, it's no wonder he eventually grew into the habit. *kicks John for starting that crap*