I read about this yesterday and I'm not even sure how to react. It's a legitimately sad article.

That bastard he should have taught him Elven.

All jokes asides I should be flabbergasted about this, but after seeing so many parents do dumb ass shit to their kids online. It doesn't surprise me that shit like this is going on.

This guy should have his testicles removed so he doesn't try it again.

His child will probably have to go to special "English as a second language" (or ESL) classes in school because of this.

He only did it for three years. The kid is 15 now.

After seeing how cool the new movie was,it made me feel like I should start getting into Star Trek,checking out the shows and such,but I keep getting turned off by the fanbase. I mean,it sounds stupid,but I see a picture of some fatass dressed like a Klingon,and think,why would I want something in common with him?

I love me some Trek, but I tend t distance myself from most of the fanbase. I get embarrassed for people dressing as Klingons and such, out in public. I mean, if it's Halloween and you're at a costume party, that's one thing. But while sitting in a movie theater??

Like William Shatner said on SNL, "Get a life people!"

This reminds me of a friend I knew who had a younger brother that his parents never got a social security number for. His dad wanted to conduct a "experiment" and see if he could make it through life without one, because you don't technically need one. That effed up.

Sure, it'd be evil, abusive, and insane... if the article was accurate. A quick flip through the article's comments reveals that the kid was raised bilingual, not solely on Klingon. While it's not an especially useful language, I haven't made much use of my childhood-ingrained Spanish, either.

It does run the line towards 'experimentation', but will it do any lasting damage? Nah. It's just silly. I have a feeling the kid is perfectly fine at age 15 now. With the vast array of legitimate child abusers out there, why harp on this dude?

Are we all done with the uninformed knee-jerk response, or do we need a little more time?

I love how they refer the the child , its life lol what jerks. I suppose nerd reporters don't have kids lol.

OLD NEWS...I heard about this years ago.... The kid rejected Klingon in favor of the mom's teaching of English because there was simply more English words to use. Klingon, because it's an artificial language, is horribly, horribly limited in vocab and descriptors.

I don't think it's that big of a deal. It'd be like talking to your child in French for the same amount of time with no English. When he goes to school he wouldn't be able to understand anyone anyway. Plus, English is probably the easiest language in the world to learn. It takes about 6 months of total immersion to learn it. So the dude has plenty of time to plop his kid in front of the TV to watch Sesame Street and blues clues and shit like that to learn how to speak English. It's actually an interesting idea and I'm curious if it could work with one of Tolkein's languages.

Y'know, we really do need to get our collective heads out of our collective asses some times. As PJ said "uninformed knee-jerk" rage is unproductive. The kid is bilingual, or, at least, he could've been. Yes, if a child was only taught a useless language (Klingon, Elven, Sanskrit, Latin, German), then, of course this guy would win the Worst Father Ever prize. But the reality? The reality is, this is much, much, much less revolting than naming your kid Apple, or Trig, or Steve.

Also, since when did nerds start ragging on other nerds for their public acts of nerdery? How is dressing up like a Klingon and going to see the new Star Trek movie any different than a Packers fan painting his face and body green/yellow and cheering shirtless in -20 degree weather at Lambeau Field? One is more socially acceptable? You wouldn't do either? Does it matter? We're not even really talking about nerds here, we're talking about people. But, I guess everyone wants to feel superior to somebody else.

I think the response to the article is way out of line and the poster just doesn't like "nerdy" things in general. Many foreign families that live in other countries still teach their kids the language from their home country knowing full well that those kids will never use that language in school or in the area at all. That language is only spoken at home with the family.

What's the difference here? Just because it's a language from a science fiction universe rather than another country, the author now has a problem with it. Get over yourself.

RobP,you're not that Raichu guy,are you? If so,congrats on the engagement.

Also, since when did nerds start ragging on other nerds for their public acts of nerdery? How is dressing up like a Klingon and going to see the new Star Trek movie any different than a Packers fan painting his face and body green/yellow and cheering shirtless in -20 degree weather at Lambeau Field? One is more socially acceptable?

Uh yeah, that's pretty much it.

It won't be as bad as when Twitards take their kids, cover them in body glitter and skin bleach, and teach them the Twilight series as if it was Charles Dickens. The children will be shocked as the object of their affection presents them not with roses, but with a restraining order after they sneak into their rooms to watch them sleep. Children will have their teeth filed to fangs, and anyone who questions this will be dubbed a "jealous h8r."

On another note, how the hell did this guy find someone willing to breed with him? I guess there really is hope for us all.

Honestly it is an interesting question and you really couldn't test it on anyone but your own child. since he raised him bi lingual it isn't totally mean, he can speak English. If I was a linguist I would probably consider bi lingual teaching this way, but I would use a language I think would greatly benefit my child. Maybe Latin. If I was going to see if my child could grasp a non human language I would probably teach Elven, but it might be too human, plus this guys company did stuff with Klingon so I guess thats part of it.

Doesn't Klingon have a very basic set of vocabulary? It's not full-blown language...

I wonder how the kid's pronunciation of English fared. I suppose it wouldn't be a big deal as long as the kid is 'bilingual' in some way in the end.

I don't think this is something to react about. To only teach a children klingon is cruel - to give a child a bilingual raising with two languages where one of them is klingon is not.

What really made me react was when DarthChris4 posted that english is one of the easiest language in the world, rather the opposite. Ask any linguist about it, or read Dinousaur Comics.

But you can of course say that english is easy to learn because it is everywhere, like in Sesame Street for example.

The kids three. He'll get over it. I think the couple whose kid dressed as captain mal for Halloween and verbally badgered some poor darth maul wearing youngster because he should have known the prequels sucked, all while his parents smugly watched the situation unfold, will suffer far more for their parents nerdery. And rob applauded that behavior.

There's a word for a person who exemplifies every negative stereotype of a certain group, but I'm not allowed to use it.

Being a star trek fan myself, this pisses me off, because people who are not fans will only think of shit like this whenever they think of Star Trek or it's fans. "First interracial kiss on TV? longest running sci-fi franchise? a great look at what our descendants might look forward to? Bah! All I know is those people dress up like wierdos and talk funny, they're crazy!"

puq'loD jathlIl Suv'wI Hol'a?

maj'Qa, Qapla' }}}:]

What's the word for someone who exemplifies negative stereotypes? I'm not joking or anything,I really don't know.

How is this any different from the baby-talk that most parents use with their moppets? The kindergartners and first graders in my fiancee's classroom aren't exactly speaking the Queen's English; they sound like they're border-line retarded. And it wasn't like the kid wasn't exposed to English. I haven't read the article but I'm assuming the family is American.

I wish more parents were super-scientists with the balls to conduct social experiment on their kids. I plan to feed mine protein shakes and eggs and train them in krav maga and turn them into Captain America style super-soldiers.

And, yeah, I'm a Star Trek fan. If this guy was teaching his kid how to speak solely in, I dunno, sports lingo... would anyone even care?

Oh what, not even a psychologist. They're known for experimenting on their children, but a linguist?

Funny thing though, my final year project, I worked with Ultralingua. Some cell phone app. Totally didn't work, our understanding of languages isn't far enough.

First of all this story is like ages old, but others have mentioned that.

Second, the article does not mention that they raised the kid as in a bilingual family. Dad spoke only Klingon, OK, but Mom was speaking in English.

And naturally, the experiment stopped when the kid was three because at that age he quickly figured out that the Klingon vocabulary was just too poor for the new ideas he was now willing and able to express. So the kid just naturally switched to English exclusively and simply made his dad understand in a practical way that he could take his Klingon crap and stick it up his ass.

If anything, that proves that this kid was growing up intelligent enough to realize English was better for him than Klingon. That's hardly a proof of a fucked-up intellect now, is it ? I'm tempted to say "all is well that ends well", but that would be ruining Rob's enjoyment of his liquor-fueled nerdrage.

So, instead, I'll say : "this is terrible, the kid will probably end up robbing stores with a Klingon mask". Happy ?

Even if the father spoke only Klingon to the kid and didn't expose him to any English whatsoever, it would only take a few months in an English setting (for example, a preschool) for the kid to pick up fluent English.

That's why you have immigrant families in the states where the kids speak English fluently but the adults don't.

This is nothing.

My spawn knows only the Black Speech and has to fight the dogs for tablescraps.

At least he'll be able to read Shakespeare in the original Klingon.

As someone that has an incredible amount of disdain for children, I laughed pretty hard. Besides, his dad can start speaking to him in English now. He'll be fine AND know Klingon.

Christopher Lloyd is an awesome Klingon.

I am ssssssssssssssooooooooo sure the dad was the only human contact the kid ever had. Nope. No mother. No english speaking mother.

Geez Rob, why so oversensitive and ragey?

kid probably talks with a funny accent now...

Wow, Rob, your nerd rage has caused other nerds to throw their own fits of nerd rage because your nerd rage was unjustified.

We nerds sure are some hypocritical people. Also we love to rage.

More proof that I'm teaching my kids the right way! Suddenly Barry's Sith Lord Apprentice Parental Plan doesn't sound so farfetched, now does it?

I dunno anything about Klingon, but after 3 years the kid is long past the era of phoneme acquisition. If Klingon does not contain all 52 or so of the English phonemes, he is going to be fucked trying to speak his native tongue for the remainder of his days. Yeah, that qualifies as evil, all right.

Have you met my twins? This is Test and that's Control...

That's just fucked up, the kid probably won't be able to watch Star Trek since 80% of the movie is composed of freaking human language.

I'd say the father did the kid a favour with the bilingual up-bringing. Pairing English which is highly idiosyncratic with Klingon, which is constructed and more predictable, is quite reasonable. The kid would've formed useful linguistic synapses that sole-english speakers may not have. And to those who think the kid would grow up with an accent or whatever - I suggest you buy a bus ticket to the Chinatown/ little India /where-ever is closest.

I am raising a son in both Japanese and English. It is a challenge to say the least. Growing a mind that is capable of processing more than one language from the get-go is probably better for that mind in the long run. In the short term, it presents challenges that single-language minds never face. For single-language minds, the language one speaks is quite literally the "code of the mind" and structures to the point of limiting one's range of thought and ideas. Learning a second language not only expands a mind's range of skills, but expand's a mind's ability to think and process information, thoughts, ideas and concepts in different ways.

The choice of Klingon over a language that is in actual public use is somewhat irrelevant to the point and purpose. The choice of Klingon does make it a bit more novel and geeky but not entirely useless. The real benefit is found not in the object of knowledge, but in the expansion resulting from the acquiring of skills and knowledge.

Was the child "harmed" in this? Demonstrably not. I find it interesting that people have responded so negatively over this story without any experience in life other than their own. The short form of the negative consensus is that "This is just wrong" but when digging deeper, the only supporting argument for the assertion is that the child might experience "difficulties" that are experienced quite regularly by children whose parents speak a different language than that of the community surrounding them. Is it therefore also harmful or "wrong" to teach a child one's own native language when living in another country or culture? Clearly the answer is no. So the issue is the perception of "Klingon" as a language that is invalid or not useful. In the human educational experience, there are lots of "not useful" skills required as part of curricula. Quite often, the purpose and benefit are not the skill itself. I hold this is the case with starting out Klingon.

honestly, this doesn't seem as bad to me as people who raise their child from birth to unquestioningly follow some absurd and/or demonstrably false religion.

It is pretty bad, though.