#also google said polyglots can speak some 6-12 langs so i’m taking that and running

[luigisghosts]

Thinking about polyglot Luigi.

Luigi who grows up fluent in English and Italian, yet also picks up words and phrases from the other immigrant families in his neighborhood. Becoming an appreciator of languages and their beauty and complexity.

Choosing Spanish as a class in high school. It has a similar structure to Italian so he learns it rather quickly, easily keeping up in conversations with native speakers. One of the cashiers at the local grocers speaks Portuguese, and he realizes it’s also alike to Italian and Spanish, so he starts learning that too. The cashier is touched and gives him advice and new words whenever he stops by.

He and Mario were into Japanese anime when they were younger, and he’d make the connections between the subtitles and the audio for a while until he started to teach himself properly. While not necessarily too similar, Chinese and Korean came as a natural response. Luigi’s a little nervous trying it out with the neighbors, but they’re impressed at his dedication and assist him as well.

Luigi would get sucked into a language for little to no reason sometimes. Heard a pretty song in French; learn it. Accidentally set a movie’s language to Swedish and didn’t change it; learn it. Friend wanted a buddy to try Arabic together; learn it. Saw a Hindi vocabulary book on sale one day; learn it.

Some languages would stick more than others due to lack of use or resources, but he makes the effort to retain what he does know. Writing notes to himself in Portuguese, quietly insulting people in Arabic, etc. When he’s not with Mario or reading up on plumbing, mechanics or engineering, he’s sprawled out over a language book—mumbling words, highlighting important notes, writing his own examples on the side.

It’s a talent that persists in the Mushroom Kingdom. At a large multi-kingdom event, he’s drawn in by the sounds. Such unique and glorious voices he doesn’t know what to focus on. The sharp and guttural color of the Koopas? The flowing and musical tone coming from the Beanbean group? The staccato and bright sound of the Sarasaland representative? It’s nearly heaven for him.

Luigi spends a lot of time scouring for texts of their language or even writing to their rulers and asking for books himself. They’re all more than happy to oblige, some even setting him up with tutors. He takes to them just as easily as languages from Earth, and it doesn’t take long before he’s endearing himself to the natives with his knowledge of their tongue. It definitely helps him and Mario out a lot on journeys where people may not be as well versed on the common language throughout the worlds.

While he does have his own bookshelf of his own personal collection, Peach decided to invest in a section of the local library dedication to language learning. He loves it. Luigi himself assists with deciding what to choose and which books would be the most useful. He even teaches some of the toads when he gets the chance to.

TLDR; Just, Luigi knowing a bunch of languages and people adoring him for it.