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Re: Everyone speaks English to Alex?

Posted: 19 Sep 2018, 13:18
by Mindy Conahye
I never thought about this while I was reading the book. I think I've read other books that the characters all speak English though they're in a different country. Good observation.

Re: Everyone speaks English to Alex?

Posted: 20 Sep 2018, 23:43
by stonehaven494
I hadn't noticed that inconsistency, but it's true; it doesn't make sense that everyone knows English, conveniently. There are other things about the story that I think need work, like character development and more suspense when there's action, but overall, I thought it was a pretty good read.

Re: Everyone speaks English to Alex?

Posted: 28 Sep 2018, 07:26
by aprenni
I hadn't noticed this particular inconsistency, but now that you mention it, it is very distracting. I had been focused on some other distracting inconsistencies during the book, but it would've made the book 100 times better if Fayman had mentioned some sort of language barrier. Alex simply could've downloaded a Dutch dictionary on one of his web trips, and this issue would've been explained away. But it makes sense that people would talk to him in English in hotels and other very touristy areas. When I traveled abroad, I (and my cohorts) stood out as American, and restaurant servers, cashiers, and other service people immediately spoke to us in English because we were in such high touristy areas. However, as soon as you go to a less touristy spot, they speak their home language first. So it doesn't make sense that the homeless shelter would speak English, or the mobsters outside of the city. Stewart may have initially tried waking him in Dutch, but switched to English thinking that Alex didn't understand Dutch. Otherwise, though, there should've been some sort of language barrier mentioned and dealt with throughout the course of the novel.

Re: Everyone speaks English to Alex?

Posted: 03 Oct 2018, 22:56
by jjmainor
I imagine some countries get so many American tourists, it's not that hard to find someone who speaks English, but the suspension of disbelief left me when the newspaper showed up in English.

Re: Everyone speaks English to Alex?

Posted: 31 Dec 2018, 02:35
by Mai Tran
I noticed that too, but it was something I had to accept in order to enjoy the book. I agree with aprenni, it would have been more realistic if the author had mentioned some sort of language barrier.

Re: Everyone speaks English to Alex?

Posted: 09 Jan 2019, 23:09
by DC Brown
dbulkley wrote: 01 Aug 2018, 12:21 I didn’t catch this, but excellent point. Adds to the many things I didn’t like about it!
Glad you mentioned there were other things that bothered you in this book. I hadn't actually thought about the language barriers, but there were other disconnects that I did notice...

Re: Everyone speaks English to Alex?

Posted: 29 Sep 2019, 22:58
by Atara Miles
That was another peeve I had with this story. I thought maybe he could translate it due to his bouncing through the internet and since the internet isn't limited to one language, it just came with the package. Even if this is the case, Fayman doesn't actually provide an explanation for that, so that's just my assumption and not a fact.

Re: Everyone speaks English to Alex?

Posted: 30 Nov 2020, 10:28
by Sarah Schmidt
I found this questionable, too. There are a lot of people that speak English, yes, but the likelihood of Alex running into so many people without fail who do is slim to none. This wasn't continuous with reality and was another area that required improvement in the story.

Re: Everyone speaks English to Alex?

Posted: 29 Jun 2022, 08:11
by Moneybag
It was wired though, but yes everyone did.