Jake's Learning Rate
 

I don't know, but I feel that the rate at which Jake learned to be a Na'vi is unrealistically fast. It took Norm five years to learn the Na'vi language, and yet Jake could speak it fairly well within 3 months. And he has other things to worry about, such as physical training, hunting practice, etc.

Does anyone else think so?

I think it's alright, remember that studying a language is always much much slower than hearing it all the time and actually having to use it to communicate.

I see what your saying as it does seem like a short amount of time to learn all the skills needed to become one of the people. I suppose that you have to remember that this was all Jake did in all this time, literally living in his Avatar until he needed to do basic things in his human body such as eat and wash (also his video diary). I think you would be surprised at how much you are capable of learning when it is done in a everyday, living and adapting situation like this. I'd imagine a lot of the physical stuff (archery, hunting) would have come to Jake much quicker than the language and society as the Avatar body is already built for what the Na'vi do (since it is part Na'vi!) and also the marine mentality would have given him the drive and determination for the physical stuff. Even the marine ways guided him to learning language (like the building up of a gun, repetition).

Overall, I think Jake fulfilled all parts to learn so much as he did in such a short amount of time. Not anyone could have done what Jake accomplished, hence why the Na'vi gave him a chance since he wasn't a scientist and had different ways of learning things which worked well in his favour.

well norm wasent in their enviroment, it was not the same learning curve, rythm, speed and so furth

I do understand what you are saying here AC but as others have said, you learn languages and other skills much faster than usual when you're completely immersed in it. Also, as Muia said, the Avatar itself was part Na'vi so maybe he had a kind of natural nack for things when he began learning the ways of the Na'vi.

Well, when the 70's crisis broke out many Spaniards went out to Germany or France looking for the job that was lacking here. And being there meant: you learned the language in a record time or you were out. And when my aunt Clara had to move to France, and she learnt the language in six months. And she spoke it fluently.

I imagine Na'vi is a simpler language. So it's not strange at all.

Anyway, he does sound like having trouble when talking in Na'vi, most of times he switches to English or needs someone translating him.

Well, to quote Max Patel, "That's a gorgeous brain." Must be good for something.

He's no where near fluent. He only speaks Na'vi occasionally, and when he addresses the Na'vi after Grace's death, he even has Tsu'tey translate for him.

I think he learned the basics but has a long way to go before he actually grasps the whole language.

People learn languages much faster when surrounded by it, not just learning it for an hour or two most days.

As for his skill hunting, and generally living as a Na'vi, it seems about right to me.

Norm has link time logged which means that he supposedly had some avatar time under his belt.
But also.. we're talking about the difference between the hero and a scientist.
Think about it, Jakes brother was a scientist...smart enough for a PhD, they were twins so who's to say that Jake is just as smart, he just didn't have the right environment to realize his full potential.
And his language wasn't flawless, he stumbled in trying to tell everyone to leave Hometree, and for long speeches, he just couldn't do it. He had basic phrases and about as much language as he could get in three months. Conversational plus a bit, and he was also getting some schooling during his downtime as well, so immersion plus tutoring on the side, yeah he had about the right skill level.

^ this

And also, some people learn faster when they are enjoying what ever it is they are learning. Maybe he enjoyed Neytiri's presence so that's what motivated him :)

learning Na'vi in 3 months=NO
Shooting a bow=YES
Riding Direhorse/ikran=Unlikely
Getting Neytiri=NO
going from 0 to hero in the clan in 3 months=NO


oh another thing i noticed, the way they hit hometree with their missiles, home tree wouldn't of fallen sideways into the forest, it would have fallen back towards the gunships

Well, as others have said, he learned the bare basics needed, not the complete language...

Agreed. :)

Well, i'm not entirely sure exactly how difficult it is to ride a mount like that when you have the bond on your side. You can literally tell the animal where to go mentally so I don't know myself...

This one is definitely possible as far as i'm concerned. You can see that Jake and Neytiri fall in love with each other and it's not impossible in 3 months for that to happen.

Again, with this one i'm not sure. Normally i'd agree but Jake showed so many traits that would make him and excellent leader and a worthy 'hero' (although I still doubt the Omaticaya really see him as this) plus, he is really the only person who could effectively take over after Tsu'tey and Eytukan's deaths.


Now this one I really can't explain. :P

^Now how ironic would that have been, if Hometree fell on the gunships attacking it lol. Quaritch would've been going nuts.

lol fk, well atleast we agree on somthin :D