Linguist on alien planet must learn the local language, ends up becoming an actor

Question

I'm trying to remember a story I encountered in the past. Here's what I remember:

A linguist goes to an alien planet to teach English. On the way he loses his translator and has to learn the alien language. The aliens are underwater people (with multiple arms). To make the noises of the aliens' langauge he has to flick his teeth and other weird things. He ends up falling in love with an alien. In the end he becomes an actor in the aliens' movies because he speaks the language.

Answer 1

That sounds like the novel Angry Young Spaceman by Jim Munroe. Do these ring a bell?

• Aliens are described vaguely, but kind of like jellyfish.
• Aliens live immersed in a kind of air/liquid in-between substance.
• He's not really a linguist, more like a "random American teaching English in Japan" sort of situation.
• Major political implications of his being the first alien able to produce all the sounds of the aliens' speech.
• Protagonist is an "angry young man" -- unhappy with what he sees as the fake culture of Earth, on the outs with his rich mother, etc.
• Lost his translator by being distracted at the spaceport bar.

Angry Young Spaceman matches your description, although his becoming an actor is not a major plot resolution, just a way he finds to make a living and stay on the planet permanently.