Headscratchers / Star Trek Deep Space Nine S 04 E 08 Little Green Men

• So all that time while on Deep Space Nine Quark, Rom and Nog had the universal translators to understand English (along with other languages)? How did they never pick up English at all? So was Nog just going to use that forever, even in Starfleet? It seems a little odd.
  • Well, presumably quite a lot of Federation officers speak a variety of different languages - even among humans, there are hundreds of languages to choose from.
    • Furthermore, if they've been using universal translators most of their lives, they've probably never even heard untranslated English before (or any other language, for that matter).
  • Universal translators are a Pandora's box of headscratchers. What language is everyone really speaking? Are they speaking their own language and getting translated? If so, why are people able to suddenly switch into another language (or sprinkle alien words into their speech) without getting automatically translated? Shouldn't you have to shut your universal translator off to even hear someone's native tongue, much less learn it?
• Lucky for Odo that the Americans weren't watching from the one-sided window when he shapeshifted out of his dog disguise.
  • And when Quark openly lays out his whole dastardly plan to seize control of Earth and usher in a new era of Ferengi dominance.
• The idea that Ferengi are shocked that people would "buy their own poison" doesn't withstand much scrutiny. Even if humanity has evolved past the point of widespread drug use, the galaxy must be filled with other species who aren't as enlightened and would be more than willing to pay for drugs. And even more glaringly, Quark owns a bar where people go to drink intoxicating beverages.
  • Except the Ferengi don't sell intoxicating beverages. They invented and sell sythehol.