August 12 , 2009

PAVI Game Design & 3D Animation Student Teaches Klingonese to ‘Trekkies’

Sitting in a coffee shop at the corner of Broadway and Manitoba Street Monday afternoon, none of the patrons blink an eye at Charles Bae's yellow Star Trek uniform shirt, or even his replica ray gun.

It's not until the Collingwood resident begins to sing a chorus of the Klingon national anthem, in Klingonese, that the woman behind him puts down her newspaper and looks over.

"Koi keh-less pook load. Koi Pook beh poo. Yoch bow math bow je shuv wee. Say moach chyu may ew. Mah shoov, mah nong...," Bae sings.

Bae explains he speaks and sings Klingonese phonetically, which is how he intends to teach the language. Klingons are the warrior villains from the fictional Star Trek universe. The 36-year-old has started a Star Trek Klingon language "meetup" group, through which he hopes to share his skills in Klingonese. Meetup groups are arranged through an online website, meetup.com, dedicated to bringing people of similar interests together.

"I always thought it was such a shame no one was teaching Klingonese locally," said Bae. "But when I checked [meetup.com] there were 12 people here who wanted to learn. So I decided, why not?"

The self-described "Trekkie" said there are only 1,000 people in the world who speak fluent Klingonese, a language created in the early 1990s by University of California linguist Marc Okrand for Paramount Pictures for use in several Star Trek sequels. Okrand published an official Klingon dictionary in 1992. "I know the translations of all of the Klingonese in all of the movies," said Bae. "But I'm still learning to speak it all fluently."

When the Courier asked Bae to speak a common Klingon phrase, he instantly offered up the Klingonese words for "Beam me up." He added Klingonese is just one of several languages he speaks, including Hebrew, French, Romanian, Russian, Arabic and Korean.

Born in Canada, Bae was never taught to speak Korean, his parent's native language. But several years ago he went to Korea to teach English as a second language and as a result learned Korean. In a surprise twist, his new language skills landed him a job as a game show host on Korean TV, as well as a three-year gig as an on-air radio pundit. Upon his return to Canada, Bae began classes in 3-D animation at the Pacific Audio Visual Institute near Broadway and Main Street, which he'll complete in September.

Bae said as a six-year-old child watching his parent's 21-inch Sony, he assumed Star Trek was real.

"I thought the Starship Enterprise was a real place," said Bae, who 30-years later is still a huge fan of everything Star Trek. "I used to think, 'Poor Captain Kirk,' because he was always getting beaten up."

Bae's dream is to meet actor William Shatner, the actor who played Capt. James T. Kirk in the original 1960s series and who remains a popular cult icon today.

"I'd love to meet William Shatner and do one of my Captain Kirk impressions for him," Bae said.

Urged on by the Courier, Bae holds his arms up in a classic Kirk gesture and begins to speak in the captain's trademark halting style.

"You Klingon bastard, you killed my son. You Klingon bastard," Bae said passionately, as the woman with the newspaper sitting behind him really starts to pay attention.

Any Star Trek fans interested in learning Klingon can reach Bae through http://startrek.meetup.com/cities/ca/bc/vancouver.

sthomas@vancourier.com