Parseltongue and Ron ... (SPOILERS!)

[Steve]

No: HPFGUIDX 173473

---  "ciraarana" <ciraarana at ...> wrote:
>
> Karina:
> 
> I've been suspecting that Parseltongue is learnable
> since Dumbledore didn't ask Harry for translation of
> the Morfin's memory wherein he and Voldemort spoke 
> exclusively in Parseltongue.
> 
> Lynda:
> 
> It didn't bother me either, because any language is
> learnable, really, if someone has enough initiative.
> 
> 
> Cira:
> 
> But if it was learnable, why isn't half of Slytherin 
> House speaking Parsel already? I rather think that 
> Salazar would have loved the idea of distinguishing 
> his students from all others by having them using a
> "secret language".
>


bboyminn:

I don't understand this controversy at all. First, Ron
didn't learn Parseltongue, he simply repeated a single
word that he had heard Harry use before, and that Harry
had used recently, and it took him several tries to 
get it right. 

If is really so difficult to learn a single solitary
word in a foreign language? 

Why don't more people speaker Parseltongue if it is
'learnable'? Well, who is going to teach them? Who 
can possibly document a language spoken by only three
known people across the span of 1,000 years? 

You are all aware that many American celebrities
appear in commercials in Japan, and in doing so 
appear to speak in Japanese, but they haven't learned
Japanese at all. It's all phonetic. They are given a
series of parsed sounds to repeat, which they do, but
they have no idea what they are saying. 

How is this any different than what Ron did? Once again,
Ron has not and did not 'learn Parseltongue', he simply
repeated a short series of sounds he had heard previously,
and did so with some difficulty. Something that any one 
could have done. 

That is quite a different feat than 'leaning Parseltongue'.

Perspective, people, perspective.

Steve/bboyminn