#especially as fast as klavier does it. it doesn't seem like he has to think about it which indicates to me hes incredibly fluent in german

[jinxedshapeshifter]

Alright so first things first, I need to give some context.

A semi-common thing when immigrants immigrate to English speaking countries is anglicization, which basically just means changing your last name to make it easier to pronounce, fit the culture better, avoid discrimination, etc. For an example of this, my last name, Weber, is German (which is hilarious considering the characters I'm talking about), and my family on my grandpa's side came from Switzerland. Worth mentioning is that my last name wasn't anglicized. The anglicization of Weber would be Webber or Weaver, with Webber being how it's pronounced in America and Weaver being a direct translation from German (and also closer to the German pronunciation). This happens with a lot of non-English languages, I'm just using German because it's one I have experience with and, well.

A few things that make me think Klavier and Kristoph's parents were first-generation German immigrants:

Klavier and Kristoph both have German names (Kristoph is an alternate spelling of the German name Christoph, which comes from Christopher from English). Granted if Klavier's name has been Klavier his whole life, Klav and Kris's parents literally named him Piano, but I doubt that'd be a concern if they're not around people who know they named their kid Piano.

Klavier's tendency to sprinkle German into his speech. This could just be because he has an interest in Germany or because he studied there, but I think it'd make it more meaningful if he grew up bilingual and sprinkling German into his speech is how he retains his knowledge of the language (along with speaking it when he can, obviously). Klavier knows German well enough to make his band name a German pun with his last name, he seems to know the German language quite well, even by the time he's 17 (as that would've been when he formed the Gavinners). If he was just learning German while he was in school or picked it up while he was in Germany, I don't think his knowledge of the language would be as good as it seems to be (although I completely acknowledge it's not impossible that his knowledge of German came from learning it as a teenager and/or from studying in Germany). Aside from that though, it doesn't make contextual sense to me for Klavier's knowledge of German to come from just being interested in German culture. I have interests in Japanese and French culture but I don't know almost any Japanese and didn't practice French enough to know much French now. In addition to this, I have an uncle from Peru and an aunt who's American who are fluent in both English and Spanish, and they, as well as their son, do the exact same thing Klavier does (sprinkle Spanish in with their English). My best guess for why Kristoph doesn't speak German on-screen is because he either doesn't see a reason to or he doesn't like to for whatever reason.

This is where my previous explanation of anglicization comes in; Gavin sounds like the German word for win, gewinn. With this in mind, and the fact that both Kristoph and Klavier have German names, I actually think it's likely that at the very least Kristoph and Klavier have German ancestry somewhere and this resulted in Gewinn becoming Gavin. This could technically be explained with Gavin isn't exactly a rare surname in English-speaking countries, but I think it's more fun to imagine Kris and Klav's parents changed the spelling of their name upon immigrating to America to make it easier for people to know how to pronounce.

Like obviously there could be alternate explanations for all this but I prefer the idea of Klavier and Kristoph being born to German immigrants. It adds more depth to them I think.

i'm kind of sad "gavin bros were born to german immigrants" isn't a more common headcanon tbh