#and especially tomas speaking czech as europe culture is not just that damn english

[cienie-isengardu]

No offense but I imagine the Lin Kuei might have had a bit of an issue with the language barrier given Tomas probably didn't speak English and assuming he did, it was probably broken English.

Bi-Han and Kuai are just staring at him trying to decipher what the fuck he's saying and it's a really bad first impression and utterly cringe worthy because Tomas is tripping over himself trying to sound coherent and it's backfiring.

I’m here for the language barrier as Tomas comes from a totally different culture than Lin Kuei, however considering how little we know about his family, especially why they were so far away from home (Prague), I’m not sure if Tomas even spoke English before he was adopted by Grandmaster. The BIO and intro dialogues doesn’t paint one, coherent picture why they were hunting[*] on Lin Kuei territory, but as Smoke’s ending points out, he was with Lin Kuei for around 15 years (“It was looking at myself, fifteen years ago. I would've ended up just like him, if Lin Kuei hadn't taken me in”). We do not know how old Tomas is during the events presented in story mode, but I think assuming he is in his 20s is a safe bet and thus there is a real chance he was less than 8-10 years old when his family died. Again, we have no idea why Tomas’ family traveled so far from Europe, but if they were hiding from something or someone, they could on purpose avoid contact with people and in result Tomas had not an opportunity to learn different language(s) outside of his native one. Of course, he could attend school at some point before his family moved on to Asia or the parents could teach him English or any other language just in case, but we have no idea how Tomas’ life looked nor how well educated he was. So I wouldn’t cross out the possibility Tomas spoke only Czech - the same as we do not have an idea when Bi-Han and Kuai Liang started learning English, as this is not their native language either.

But the most important thing is, Tomas being unable to speak English or communicate with Grandmaster’s sons is hardly the first - and bad - impression he would make on Kuai Liang and Bi-Han. He was a kid who witnessed the death of his family and then was forced to live with a clan responsible for this merciless act. As we know Tomas as a kid did not consider being adopted by Grandmaster as anything good, he could on purpose refuse to learn the dialect used by Lin Kuei** and/or talk in any other language than his own native one - or show his justified resentment in more drastic ways. The communication barrier was, as I imagine, only partially created by lack of skills and more by lack of will to interact with the murders of his family. 

So I think Tomas on his own wanting to communicate with Kuai Liang or Bi-Han, no matter how broken his English or Lin Kuei dialect was, could be seen as a great improvement compared to his resentment, anger, maybe agression and generally speaking trauma.

That said, I’m pretty sure there is plenty of hilarious stories about their earliest attempts at communication. Sadly, tie-in material does not provide any anecdotes about that :(

[*] Tomas' family hunting as a means for survival or hunting solely for fun builds a very different impression of who they were. 

[**] I don’t have an idea what exactly language Lin Kuei use on daily basis, just throwing here an idea that since they live in hiding for centuries, their speech patterns could be considered as outdated compared to the official language(s) of China (as I assume Lin Kuei are still somewhere there stationed) and after such long time of isolation from world, Lin Kuei has their own unique dialect.

#mortal kombat #my replies #tomas vrbada #smoke #lin kuei #kuai liang #bi han4 #look i get why using english as a common language make everything easier #but i'm here for characters speaking in their native languages #and especially tomas speaking czech as europe culture is not just that damn english