#it would make sense if like japanese was his native language but spoke english or something

[stefisdoingthings]

tbh writing wolfwood call vash ‘tongari’ is so off it’s like writing someone in an english-speaking country call their friend ‘baka’

[parasolladyansy]

hello! i've liked ansy's adventure for a while, and i noticed how you play on japanese names for the pokemon, especially for mizumi's and sasmu's. what do you think of the languages in the pokemon world? i can guess hisuian equals japanese, but does sinnohan/kantonese also translate into japanese? or the four japanese-based regions are adapted into english ( or unovan?) i don't know if i'm explaining myself, but how do you view the pkmn languages and their equivalents in our world?

こんばんは! Good evening! Thank you for following along ^o^/

Class is in session lol! Professor Laventon seems to be most comfortable writing in his native Galarian, though he also has various notes in traditional “Japanese”, written vertically & read right to left.

So, language is a very interesting thing in fiction, & the Pokeverse is no exception! Through the games (& especially the latest ones, Scarlet / Violet) we’ve had a number of characters who spoke in different languages. I remember a couple of NPC’s in BW Unova, there’s Fantina in Sinnoh who peppers her speech with Kalosian (French), & a Hiker on Galar’s Route 6 who spoke what I’m guessing was Paldean (Spanish) rather than Galarian (English). Then in SV, we have Mr. Salvatore who teaches (& uses) many languages (off the top of my head, I remember him teaching how to say “thank you” in Spanish, French, Chinese, & German).

It does get tricky when it comes to the “Japanese” regions of Kanto, Johto, Hoenn, Sinnoh / Hisui, & Kitakami, as those regions otherwise make up one country in our world, but this has yet to have been canonically established (which is why I always put “Japan” / “Japanese” in quotes, as there currently isn’t a name for that one country, same with “America”). I do believe they share the same language - at the very least Hisui & Kitakami have the same written script, & I feel pretty confident that if they were to retcon it, they would have the other “Japanese” regions use it, too (before Legends Arceus, they just used random shapes that didn’t seem to spell anything, which I interpreted to just be placeholder characters).

If there is a common language in their world (& I think is, from characters from different regions being able to talk to each other no problem), I personally would guess it to be “Japanese” - as we look at the other regions, we can see a sort of Japanese flavor that would otherwise not be there (though they clearly did their homework on the various parts of the world these regions reflect!). Of course, Pokémon is from Japan, so it would make sense that they would add some of their own culture to this world they created. For a possible in-universe explanation, the Pokeverse seemed to have started in Japan (specifically in Sinnoh as we learned in Legends Arceus, so I guess their universe actually is geocentric like old astronomers used to think ours was?).

I think that’s about it. In DxP REWRITE, while my own language is American-English (& beginner-level Japanese lol) so I read the characters to be speaking American-English, they are actually speaking “Japanese” while in Sinnoh (which is why I haven’t really been peppering Ansy’s dialogue with Japanese). I have tried to write in the “Japanese” or Galarian scripts for signs & things a couple times:

The sign just says “Gear Station”

Here I (tried to lol) translate Mizumi’s letter to Japanese then wrote it out in in-game characters (in the modern horizontal, as Mizumi is from the modern era writing to someone in the modern era).

Thanks for reading yet another post of me geeking out lol. Feel free to let me know your thoughts in the comments! じゃあ、またね! Until next time! ^o^/

—

PS: For funsies, here’s the (non-canonical, as these were made by fans) references I’ve been using when writing in either Galarian or “Japanese” in DxP REWRITE:

I personally was confused by the “Japanese” script also being alphabetical rather than phonetic like hiragana / katakana (two common scripts in Japan, the first being mostly used to spell Japanese words while katakana is used to spell foreign words - the third script, kanji, is used to write whole words). If that is the case (which is how I wrote it in Mizumi’s letter), “Japanese” is written in what’s called “romanji”, where they write out words in the Latin (aka Roman) alphabet rather than phonetically: “ありがとうございます” becomes “arigatō-gozaimasu” (“thank you very much”).

Whether it is actually written out that way in game though…? At a glance of the signs I saw in Hisui & Kitakami, it does look like it’s more like hiragana & kanji instead, but this chart is all I got for now. Any Japanese folks or fluent Japanese-readers who can tell me if there’s anything out there in the Japanese fandom about this, please lemme know so I can do right by it into future - as of writing this, I haven’t seen much else among the English-speaking fandom 8u8;

As for the Galarian script, it’s clearly based on the Latin alphabet that much of the Western world uses for our various languages - we see it in Paldea as well as Galar, & according to the trailer in Pokemon ZA, they retconned it to be used in Kalos as well. In universe, I wonder if they were at all influenced by the Unown, being based on the Latin alphabet themselves. Again, who knows? (though I question the accuracy of this particular font / chart: if it is, the first thing Laventon’s chalkboard says “REXBOQ” lol XD)

[funnywormz]

i think the dunmeshi english dub is pretty decent but i have a few Thoughts

1) as much as i love prozd, i feel like an older man's voice would have suited senshi better (like his va in the japanese version)

2) some of the dialogue is funny, but it's very 2020s and they've added in some jokes/lines that are way different to the original, and i feel like it's gonna age about as well as "LOL SO RANDOM XD" humour did (as in not well at all). the line where chilchuck calls laios cringe especially grates on me considering that's not even close to the sentiment of what he was saying originally

3) i think it would have been cool if toshiro could've been voice acted by someone who was a native japanese speaker with english as a second language too. maybe the same for kabru, where he could be voice acted by someone who spoke arabic as their first language or something. and, controversial idea i know, but laios and falin could have european accents although idk exactly from where........... ik this is nitpicky and silly but i just get a bit sick of every character having a generic american accent can't we get some variation in there. canonically all of the characters are from different places so it doesn't rlly make sense for them to all sound exactly the same

[cienie-isengardu]

I would think the Lin Kuei was linguistic since It has people from different sides of the world besides China (Cyrax and Smoke as prime examples) and also likely doing missions or business outside of china, but then again I’m mostly going off of Bi han knowing 3 languages in one of the live action movie so I cling to it mostly as a headcanon

Bi-Han in Mortal Kombat film (2021) was a truly nice addition to the widely understood lore and I love that this film allowed characters to speak in languages other than English. On other hand this highlights how games barely pay attention to cultural differences or use different languages as nice nuances and nods to characters’ origin.

That said, Lin Kuei education was never truly explained in great detail but tie-in material does imply Lin Kuei warriors are very likely to speak more than two languages - their native one and English. Maybe not every member of the clan will be a fluent polyglot, but for example, in one of the old Mortal Kombat comics "A Cold Day in Hell", Kuai Liang was presented as living in Japan. His place didn’t look like some special hideout but normal flat, so we could assume he worked undercover there.

Now, MK1 Kuai Liang is currently living in Japan too, so most likely he and Tomas either already knew Japanese, as Harumi and supposedly her parents are an old family’s friend or are learning the language alongside building their new clan. As I assume a great number of the new members of Shirai Ryu recruited by Scorpion and Smoke are in fact Japanese, so speaking their language would help in communication. 

(Also, if Kuai Liang and Bi-Han spend some time with Harumi’s family when they all were children, Sub-Zero too could be speaking Japanese, or at least be familiar enough for basic communication). 

Then there is a chance that in Liu Kang’s timeline, Bi-Han and Kuai Liang (and Tomas) could also speak or be familiar to some degree with their cryomancer ancestors’ language - unless this is official dialect of Lin Kuei and so the Standard Chinese/Mandarin language - or whatever other dialect is official language there in Liu Kang’s timeline - wasn’t their first choice of communication at home.

Now, lets add to that the fact that original Lin Kuei are implied to recruit potential new clan members in Czech (Europe) and Botswana (Africa) while original version of Kuai Liang & Bi-Han’s father operated for years in America (though not specified if USA or just somewhere on the continent), we could say that Lin Kuei operated worldwide, so it is logical to assume members of the clan were specialized in some languages more than others. But the sources go further, Lin Kuei operated in Ourworld too,

in old comics ("Kitana and Mileena") even taking part in Shao Kahn’s conquest of Edenia, which happened +/- ten (outworld) thousand years ago. And I doubt during that time anyone in Edenia knew English.

Games make it look like everyone, from the gods, to residents of any realm speak English, but that actually makes no logical sense. So thought I don’t think there is any source outright saying how many languages are taught to Lin Kuei warriors, movie!Bi-Han spoke at least three, and most likely Kuai Liang knows as much, either in obscure source material or MK1 (a dialect used by Lin Kuei stationed somewhere in China/Asia, Japanese and English). Cyrax and Tomas have a great chance to speak a similar number of different languages (their native ones, English and a dialect of Lin Kuei). Hard to say about Sektor, but he is at least fluent in English. 

Again, not really a hard, direct source as we don’t see any Lin Kuei talking much in anything else than English, but there is a solid ground to assume Lin Kuei warriors would learn additional languages out of pragmatism and need.

[mysticlibraryhushbats]

I posted 1,398 times in 2022

That's 1,179 more posts than 2021!

80 posts created (6%)

1,318 posts reblogged (94%)

Blogs I reblogged the most:

@thelaundrybitch

@whispering-about-the-tmnt

@tmnt-roni-paws

@turtle-ika

@tmntstyle

I tagged 192 of my posts in 2022

#tmnt - 78 posts

#teenage mutant ninja turtles - 66 posts

#rottmnt movie spoilers - 37 posts

#rottmnt spoilers - 37 posts

#tmnt 2003 - 25 posts

#tmnt comics - 17 posts

#michelangelo - 16 posts

#leonardo - 14 posts

#rottmnt - 13 posts

#hushbats - 13 posts

Longest Tag: 89 characters

#the samurai vs ninja way of thinking is a much better reason for the raph vs leo conflict

My Top Posts in 2022:

#5

My language headcanons for the turtles that nobody asked for!

So, in addition to the obvious English, all of the turtles also know Japanese but to varying degrees.

Leo and Mikey are the most well rounded in all four skills (speaking, reading, listening, and writing) in Japanese. Even though they aren’t innately good at languages, they put in a lot of hard work and study to get where they are. This is largely due to their motivations. Leo wanted to be able to talk with Splinter in his native language, while Mikey was super into Japanese pop-culture, anime, and manga. As Japanese was something both were passionate about, this is the only language other than English they speak.

Raph, on the other hand, does have an ear for languages and can mimic what he hears really well on first try and somehow retain it. He never actively studied Japanese in the traditional sense beyond what Splinter made him do like Leo and Mikey though resulting in poor reading and writing ability. On the upside, he is the only one of the four that is truly multi-lingual. From childhood, he used to sit with Splinter while he watched Spanish telenovelas. He would get really into them and parrot the characters lines. This continued throughout his childhood and early teens until he eventually could have really detailed (and dramatic) conversations in Spanish. His Spanish is probably better than his Japanese. After he started going topside, he was exposed to a few other languages from hanging around areas of New York with large immigrant populations, and has picked up a little from a few but not enough to say he speaks them, but who knows, maybe some day!

Donnie sees language a little differently to his brothers. Being a man of science, Donnie views language as a puzzle, or a code to be cracked, rather than a tool to communicate or consume media. Basically, he’s more into the linguistics of it all, studying how each language is built and how to conjugate correctly etc. Therefore, Donnie put a lot more of his time into reading and writing Japanese, and thus, he is much more confident in those abilities than his speaking or listening skills. He also suffers quite a bit with language anxiety and fears making mistakes which has also hindered his speaking ability. He finds linguistics interesting and sometimes reads about it in his free time, or during breaks in his projects, so he has knowledge of a lot of languages and can recognize most languages just from seeing/hearing it.

So they all grew up learning Japanese from Splinter, but that does not mean they are native speakers as they pretty much always spoke to each other in English. If they were to speak to a native Japanese, that person would instantly know they didn’t grow up in Japan. Leo’s Japanese is quite stiff and formal because he usually only uses it with Splinter, a person he must show respect to, and so he finds it difficult to switch to informal Japanese when appropriate like when speaking to his brothers. The opposite is true of Raph. Though his pronunciation and intonation is flawless, he only uses informal Japanese and refuses to use or learn keigo, the honorific Japanese used with your seniors, therefore he comes off as extremely rude sometimes (but what’s new there!). Mikey talks like an anime character and is oblivious to it. He thinks it’s normal because that’s the type of Japanese he’s most exposed to, but a lot of the language used in anime is specific to anime and isn’t used by Japanese people in their daily lives. And finally, Donnie’s main give away that he isn’t a native speaker is his hesitance as he searches for the right word or sentence, but like Raph, his pronunciation and intonation are pretty good once he gets going. 

In addition to spoken language, the turtles also have system of hand signals they use to communicate when in the field as ninjas. This isn’t a complex system and can only be used to give directions when on a mission. Leo started developing it not long after he was made leader and all four turtles and Splinter can use and understand it. 

268 notes - Posted March 3, 2022

#4

Just checking out the concept art for the new Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie (2023), and just look at Leo!

Really look at him

They gave my boy braces!!! 

Source: Cartoon Crave on Twitter. Copyright: Nickelodeon.

285 notes - Posted February 16, 2022

#3

Donnie would never!

Template source: @west-brooke

306 notes - Posted June 14, 2022

#2

More Japanese language headcanons for the TMNT boys that nobody asked for!

These are my head canons of how the TMNT boys address each other when speaking Japanese.

I see much of the fandom, particularly fans of the 2012 series, have the younger turtle brothers refer to Leo directly as お兄さん (onii-san) and often have the older brothers refer to the younger ones as 弟 (otouto) in fan fics and it's had me thinking more about how I think the turtles would interact with each other in Japanese. お兄さん (onii-san) is very formal and actually creates distance between siblings, implying they do not have a close relationship when used. It’s usually used to refer to another person’s older brother, or sometimes to talk about your own brother to a third party. 弟 (otouto) is never used to directly address one’s younger brother. So here are my own personal head canons of how I think the turtles would actually address each other in Japanese.

I 100% believe that Raph and Donnie would call Leo 兄貴 (aniki) when speaking directly to him. 兄貴 (aniki) is interesting, because those somewhat familiar with Japanese media might recognize this word as one used by Yakuza, the Japanese mafia, to refer to those in a higher position than them. However, it is also used by close siblings either seriously or as a kind of joke. I think Raph and Donnie would use it for Leo both ways depending on the situation. And I think Donnie would use it for Raph, too. As for Mikey, I think it depends on the version. Most Mikeys would probably use 兄貴 (aniki) too, except for 2012 Mikey. He seems like he would be more likely to use 兄ちゃん (nii-chan) to refer directly to each of his older brothers. Dropping the honorific お (O) at the beginning and adding -chan instead of -san is a much more natural way for a younger brother to address an older brother he has a close relationship with. It also sounds more innocent and child-like coming from the speaker which is why I think 2012 Mikey is most likely to use it, but I think 2003 Mikey would use it when trying to suck up to his older brothers to get what he wants or get away with something. I think 2003 Donnie might occasionally use  兄ちゃん (nii-chan) for Raph because they seem to have that kind of relationship with Donnie calling Raph, “Raphie”, in the show.

How older brothers refer to younger brothers is more simple. They would likely use the brother's name or nickname followed by the suffix ～ちゃん (-chan), or simply use their name without a suffix like we do in English. I think Leo is most likely to use ～ちゃん (-chan) when speaking to Mikey. Sometimes he'd use it with Donnie, but never Raph. Raph is always just Raph. 

Raph always adds ～ちゃん (-chan) to Donnie and Mikey's names when speaking to them in Japanese, and Donnie always uses it to refer to Mikey.

They all address April as 姉ちゃん (nee-chan meaning older sister) when speaking to each other about her. She doesn't speak Japanese, but she asks Splinter one day why they sometimes call her Nee-chan, and she is delighted to learn they think of her that way.

Anyway, I'm by no means saying don't use Onii-san and Otouto in your fics or anything. I just wanted to provide some more natural alternatives for anyone out there interested in sprinkling a little authentic Japanese into their fics to keep bilingual readers invested in the story. Do with this info what you will.

397 notes - Posted April 24, 2022

My #1 post of 2022

A typical Raph and Mikey pillow fight:

Mikey's a tough one to pin down!

Source: Daniel Labelle on TikTok

1,632 notes - Posted February 5, 2022

Get your Tumblr 2022 Year in Review →

[demonsfate]

     Ooc: I looked at your post about Jin speaking Japanese with a muse who knows Japanese; and it made me think about Luna conversing with Jin in Japanese. Luna grew up speaking Japanese with her father (Keiichi); her grandmother (Mayumi); her neighbors; and some of her friends from her years as a student. From an early age up until she graduated high school; she went to a language school where she talked to students and teachers in Japanese daily.

     Having Japanese reading materials; consuming Japanese media; and playing Japanese video games helped her with knowing how to write; type; and read in Japanese. She also visits Japan every year; which helps her with her fluency in Japanese language and understanding of Japanese culture.

     If she notices his frustration with translating everything in his head; Luna would switch to speaking Japanese with him. She will also be patient with him when he mispronounces words in English. (Luna) 🐰

I'd LOVE to be able to write in Japanese more often to express this more accurately! But I know very little Japanese. And I know the Tekken CEO (Harada!) once tweeted his frustrations with fans using Google translate to talk to him - he's said he'd much rather them SPEAK in English than use a translator of his original language. He's spoke how translators often confuse him. Which led me to believe that translators AREN'T the most accurate. Which is why I don't like to use them. Whilst I realize it's unlikely those who speak Japanese will view my blog... I just feel silly using them if they're inaccurate anyways.

But like even if I can't read or speak Japanese. I still headcanon that Jin speaks it best since it's his native language! He's more comfortable speaking it 'cos he hasn't much experience with English.

And that's good to know! But given English seems to NOT be their first language - that makes sense!!! Of course, I've shipped Luna with my muses we've interacted with so far. But I particularly liked Jin and Luna 'cos they seem to share a lot in common :) I just need to gain more muse for Jin! Though I haven't had the biggest muse for writing in general... but most of it seems to be going to Eddie lately. xD

[natsspammityspamspamham]

I had no idea about this fact despite following this person for some time.

Yeah, he has a little sister. I don't know the age gap though. As an annoying little sibling, it varies on how much the older sibling wants to tolerate-- I mean keep in contact with their younger sibling.

I feel like family communication is probably done in Japanese for the most part. Unless it's between siblings, I think those are usually done in whatever language the kids grew up with outside of the house (although it bounces back and forth).

My mom spoke Tagalog with her siblings at home in an English-speaking country, but she spoke English outside of the house, but I've also watched this video with this ethnically Japanese person who said she speaks French (they live in France) with her brother when they're by themselves.

Ayumu Murase went to school in America for a period of time, and I don't think he's retained much English at all (even though his accent is better than average). It just doesn't seem proportional to the amount of time he spent in California to the way he speaks English now, as a native English speaker. I think this is because when people go back to Japan, Japanese is the only language spoken there, and if a person feels no desire to go back outside of Japan, they probably won't use whatever other language they know. My mom said, "Anyone who thinks like that (forget their native language to become better at another) are stupid (because they don't work to maintain fluency in both)", but I think this is all down to a matter of necessity. If Kakki didn't need to use or remember the majority of his German while in Japan and needed to focus on Japanese to become a seiyuu, I think it makes sense that he would focus more time into that even if it means part of his native language fading.

With that being said, I only know one language. (Spoiler: it's English)

Kakihara Tetsuya.

Representative of all German people in Japan.

[itsnamjoonssi]

I only play these games ‘cause you’re playing them, too. | Suguru Niragi; part i

Title taken from “Blue Faces, Blue” by Bu|rrell

part i part ii part iii (preview)

Genre: suspense, romance, slight angst

Pairing(s): Niragi/Reader

Prompt: Niragi being an asshole but pulling through in the end lol

Summary: You didn’t know how Niragi knew English or why but at the moment you were relying on him, your knowledge of his native tongue fled your mind as you hung precariously over the spikes that were already littered with bodies.

Italics - Japanese

Normal - English

“Niragi!” You screamed. You, a spades specialist, screaming for that psycho.

You were currently suspended over sharp spikes, holding onto a rather slippery handle with just one hand as your other was rather occupied.

A sobbing girl held tightly to it, she was babbling and screaming in Japanese, the language you had never hated more than you did at this moment.

You were a foreigner, you could read and understand spoken Japanese fairly well but using it yourself was a little trickier. Usually, you did just fine and you were lucky that Chishiya spoke fluently and could translate for you and occasionally (rudely) correct you. Niragi did as well but, he was Niragi and he was an asshole.

No mistake you made while speaking his mother tongue went ignored, he was worse than Chishiya in the sense that he relentlessly made fun of you. It was more annoying than humiliating, it was an entirely new language, you were smart but you didn’t know everything. You stopped speaking to him for a week before you started up again just to make him leave you alone.

It was unfortunate that you seemed to like him. He was attractive and strong, he knew it too. The issue was he seemed to like you back and he was psychotic, you didn’t know what to do with that. And you disliked him enough that you could easily see his darkness and recoil. He was persistent though, as every time he addressed you he called you things like ‘baby’ and ‘sweetheart.’ Both in English and Japanese.

You didn’t know how Niragi knew English or why but at the moment you were relying on him, your knowledge of his native tongue fled your mind as you hung precariously over the spikes that were already littered with bodies.

“8 minutes remaining.”

“Niragi!” You screeched again, he had already gotten across and was watching your progress, or lack thereof, with a bored glint in his eyes.

“What.” He said flatly. You let out an annoyed huff of breath and struggled to tighten your grip on both the girl and the handle as her struggling made it harder to hold on.

“Tell her to— tell her to stop moving!” You shouted as the girl's struggles were growing more frantic and your muscles were starting to burn in exertion. Niragi let out a laugh at your request and turned his gaze to the girl before saying something that had her screaming and clawing at your hand.

Your brow furrowed in confusion and pain as you pieced together what he said.

drop… you. Your eyes stung with frustrated tears as you shook your head and murmured ‘no’ in Japanese, trying to talk to her. You knew you shouldn’t have said anything to him, it really was a game for him.

“I won’t drop you, please, just—“ you switched from Japanese to English again, still unable to remember what to say, “stop moving.” You groaned.

“6 minutes remaining.”

Niragi was laughing even as the girl raked her nails down your arm violently, drawing blood that made your grip all the more slippery.

“Niragi.” You called again, but you said nothing else as the handle you held jerked. Your eyes widened and you vaguely heard Niragi’s laughter come to an abrupt halt, the girl continued to scream but you couldn’t focus.

“Niragi…” you murmured, trying to keep the panic from your voice as your arms started trembling.

“Stop moving.” Came his hard voice, you looked to see him glaring at the girl who ignored him. You latched onto the phrase and repeated it pleadingly to the girl, who seemed to have decided she would rather drag you down with her than be betrayed.

“5 minutes remaining.”

“STOP MOVING! STOP!” You shouted as the handle jerked again, loosening your grip and making your hand start to slip from the sweat and ache of your muscles.

“STOP. MOVING.” Niragi repeated angrily, but the girl was too far into her fear. Your blood was under her nails and covering her fingers, her legs were kicking, mouth screaming and you didn’t know if you’d be getting out of this one.

Until you heard the cocking of a gun, you locked eyes with Niragi just as he fired his sniper rifle. The girl’s screaming cut off and she released you, the stress on your body lessening by one.

You didn’t look away from Niragi as he lowered the gun, even as you heard the thud of the girl's body hitting the spikes and her blood splatter.

“Now, baby. Climb. Don’t make me come and get you.”

“4 minutes remaining.”

You wasted no time, you had barely been halfway when she fell and latched onto you. Your arms burned as you quickly moved from handle to handle, swinging precariously every time you reached for the next one. You had 4 more handles left and it was these that proved to be a challenge. You grasped the first and let out a yelp of surprise as one end broke off from the ceiling.

“Fuck.” You cried as Niragi hissed the same from the safety of the platform.

“Move.” He snarled, “move now!” You complied and hefted yourself to the next one with some difficulty. Your hope was shattered as the last two fell from the ceiling before you could reach them.

“2 minutes remaining.”

You gripped the handle with both your sweaty, cramping hand and your bloody, stinging one.

“And this is only 9 of spades, huh?” You huffed a laugh that bordered on hysterical.

“Jump.” Your eyes snapped to Niragi once more, his face was stony and his eyes were dark but you could see something in them, anger, concern (for you?), fear (for you???).

“1 minute remaining.”

“I’ll catch you.” He tossed his sniper rifle behind him and the laugh you let out was disbelieving now.

“Who are you and what have you done with my psychopath?” He rolled his eyes as he widened his stance and held his hands out, preparing to catch you.

“Idiot. Just do it, already.” He snapped, jerking forward slightly as the handle lurched ominously in your tiring grip.

“Ha, how do I know you won’t drop me? Will you even attempt to catch me or will you betray me, as well?”

“I’ll catch you.” He repeated resolutely.

“You’ll let me fall.” You argued, knowing it wasn’t the time but feeling a little more than hopeless.

“I won’t.” He hissed viciously, his eyes blazing with rage.

“30 seconds remaining.”

“Jump, Y/n.”

“20 seconds remaining.”

You rolled your eyes, already resigning yourself to a painful death, but you began swinging back and forth.

“15 seconds remaining.”

You gained momentum as the clock ticked down.

10.

9.

8.

Niragi watched you steadily, his body bracing for impact.

7.

6.

Your hands were losing their grip.

5.

The handle was on its last leg.

4.

Niragi would let you fall, you were sure of it but you let go anyway.

3.

2.

1.

Your body crashed into his, your legs wrapped around his waist as your hands gripped his shirt. His arms had crushed you tightly to him as he stumbled back, almost tripping on his rifle.

You vaguely heard the ‘game cleared’ announcement but you didn’t remove your face from where it was buried in his neck.

[crestofshame]

The ramblings of an english major at 3am about Petra Macneary’s language development.

For awhile now, I have been trying to figure out what the language of Brigid would be analogous to. It’s hard to think too hard about it, especially considering that her speech patterns are localized, but it is definitely formulaic. Unfortunately, I cannot speak nor understand even a little Japanese, so this is just from the perspective of the localization.

For a while, I thought that the way Petra spoke was random grammatical errors to emphasize the fact that she was foreign. But, with 300 hours in Houses and 100 in hopes, I’ve noticed that other characters (Claude, Dedue, Nader) do not have this issue. Claude we can assume grew up speaking both languages because of his parents; Dedue and Dimitri exchanged languages; Nader briefly mentions how he learned it, but I fail to recall exactly what he said. Dedue is the most important one here; he admits to petra in their new support chain that he’s fluent because he had a teacher, petra had to study on her own.

While I do not speak Japanese as previously mentioned, I do speak another language (Turkish; not very well, but I can manage). One of the interesting things I found out was that there are things about a language that only non-natives will know. For example, my teacher knew the order that adjectives had to be organized in, which most native English speakers do subconsciously. I also had to relearn subject-object-verb placement, because it is totally different from English.

Petra seems to know subject, object, and predicate placement pretty well; most of her sentences are organized. What she struggles with the most pre timeskip is finding the right words (I assume she’s translating in her head as she is not fluent), and detecting satire. Both of these things are improved post timeskip, even if she mentions her frustrations with not being able to properly express herself, especially in Hopes. (She even detects puns, fires quips, and mentions new words that she learns.) Her confession letters as well as statements from her in Houses (especially after timeskip) reveal that she actually is more adept at reading and writing the language of Fodlan than speaking it. This is likely because she learned from books and because writing allows her to process what she is saying, rather than trying to translate fast for the convenience of maintaining conversation.

There’s one thing that makes her learning curve so unique and formulaic to me, and it’s typically what she gets ’wrong’ when she’s speaking and sometimes writing: Verb tense.

If there’s ever an ‘issue’ with her speech, it typically has to do with verb tense and grammatical parallelism, in which there’s subject-verb agreement and a consistent verb tense through a whole monologue. Petra tends to favor perfect continuous verb tenses the most. For example, instead of saying, ”I am excited,” Petra will say, ”I am having excitement.” In some cases, she will use just perfect tense (“I have excitement”). While this is technically correct as the suffix of the root agrees with the verb tense, this is just obedience of following grammar rules rather than the typical vernacular. Assuming that English is the Fodlani analogue language (for those of us playing localized), I’m stuck on why she gravitates toward using perfect verb tenses when speaking. Because she learned from a book and is likely translating in her head probably 70% of the time, whatever language Brigid speaks must have way fewer verb tenses.

It’s probably safe to assume that Brigid’s language has past, present, and future tense, but likely only has perfect and perfect continuous tenses. OR, a more likely answer, its language is lacking in tense and has direct translations to perfect tense.

My guess would be that its analogue is something like Malay or another Austronesian language, which would make sense if they were nodding to it by making Brigid an archipelago.

I love Petra’s character so much, and getting to see more of an extent of her frustration with being an incredibly intelligent and incredibly feeling person in a world where she cannot express the entirety of what she thinks and feels because of language and ignorance was such a good addition to her character in hopes. I love our Brigid princess! She loves and fights fiercely despite being faced with many troubles that are very unique from the rest of our cast.

Anyone who has any other suspicions for the language or someone else who has the perspective of the non-localized text, I would love to hear what you have to say! Feel free to correct if I’m wrong or add your own thoughts.

[xxiamtiebrousxx]

Hey M8! I saw the stuff you did and I would just like to sey “ thenk you “ ! I love your work and I think you should keep it up! ( or not your choice) I just would like a request!

the merc’s and there new recruit but they noticed that he can’t speak English at all ? (Make that language Japanese if you can? It’s for a friend!)

Alright! No problem! I'm glad you enjoy my writing! I hope you don't mind but I made the reader Japanese.

Mercs x Reader Who Speaks Japanese/Is From Japan

A/n: Sorry if it seems I'm stereotyping, I'm not. I did a little bit of research on the internet. If there's anything incorrect, please let me know so I can correct it!

Scout:

The minute you walked right through that door and greeted everyone in your native language, Scout dropped his comic and pushed everyone aside. He had been reading manga and watching anime and was excited to meet someone who could translate for him. He followed you around, begging for you to teach him. At first, he was annoying. He wouldn’t stop begging. Eventually, he became sincere. Reluctantly, you agreed. He was a fast learner, impressing you.

He shared with you his manga collection and animes he was watching. You even helped read it in both English and Japanese for him. The others thought you weird, since you two now switched back and forth in both languages. Of course, Scout got mad at them. You had to calm him down.

The administrator allowed you all to have one week off. Scout decided to visit Japan, where he impressed plenty of people with his perfect Japanese. He even impressed your family, who was also there at the same time. They recommended you date him which caused the both of you to turn red. 

Soldier:

When you greeted everyone, his first reaction was “WHAT?!?” Or “Nani?!?” as you later taught him. It was strange. He had never heard Japanese before. You gladly taught him some words, which he used on the battlefield. He used them in the wrong context, confusing you whenever you overheard him. He didn’t listen to your lessons on using words correctly even after two months of trying to teach him.

It took a while for Soldier to make sense of the out-of-context words he was crying out on the battlefield and took it upon himself to properly learn Japanese. On the way, he studied battle tactics samurai used. He learned that they were influenced by Sun Tzu, the man he knew herded two of every animal on a boat and beat the heck out of them, and immediately sought you out to train with you. 

It was good training, both physically and educational wise. Soldier finally learned proper Japanese and worked hard to perfect it. He got it right and stopped using words out of context so now whenever you heard him on the battlefield, it made sense. 

Pyro:

Pyro didn’t understand any languages at all, but was glad to at least learn some Japanese so you could have someone to talk to. Unfortunately, it didn’t work out with the mask. This loving merc taught you the language of “mmph” instead. To put it simply, he talked to you through the mask. You never knew what language he was speaking but you made sense of it. 

To make it easier to communicate with him, you learned sign language, both in English and Japanese. Pyro was quick to learn it. He tried to make “Mmmph” Sign Language a thing, but it didn’t work out as well as he thought. You both communicated on the battlefield, using your hands to sign commands and messages to one another. It was used a lot for secret ambushes Pyro helped you conduct. 

Pyro likes to draw. He watched the Godzilla film series with you every Saturday night. He once drew a tiny, adorable Godzilla fighting Kong and turned it into a whole story. He predicted the events in the movie that would be filmed later in the future. Of course, it wasn’t chibi like he had described it. For Halloween, the two of you went as Godzilla and his son. He might have scared some children in the neighborhood.

Heavy:

The Administrator set up a virtual meeting for you to meet. Heavy recognized you spoke Japanese. He did everything in his power to make sure you felt right at home. He did some research before your arrival, reading about customs and how things are done so he wouldn’t make a bad impression. He wanted your first day at the base to be a good start.

The first day you approached the base was a bit chaotic. Heavy was yelling at Soldier for not being prepared. There was a food fight that stopped the minute you entered through the door. Heavy calmed down and showed you around. He learned a bit of Japanese as well. It was a bit hard, but you helped him perfect it. 

Heavy was a great sushi chef. His temaki rolls were always big since his hands were big naturally. If you ever got homesick, Heavy would borrow either Engineer’s truck or Sniper’s van, and drive you to the nearest telephone booth so you could call your family. He was caring from the very beginning and you loved that.

Demo:

Eyelander is what brought him to you. He claimed to want to be in the hands of a master who could wield him with precise strength and agility. When the Administrator introduced you, she listed several abilities you had, including you were skilled with a sword. Eyelander was impressed and tired of the way Demoman wielded him.

Demo was mad that Eyelander would rather be with someone else. So he snuck out of the base and followed you around. He was amazed at how well you could wield Eyelander. You were like a modern day samurai, slicing the leaves that fell down the tree with Eyelander! He was even more impressed when you caught him hiding and accidentally sliced his eyepatch. He didn’t mind.

Demo showed you his samurai cosmetic items. He knew they weren’t authentic or anything, but he considered them quite fascinating.  He even lent you his items to wear out on the battlefield. In exchange for the kindness he showed you, you decided to take Demo on as your apprentice. After four months of training, he could finally slice leaves with ease.

Engineer:

Engineer was the first to greet you. He didn’t know you didn’t speak English until later. After that, he worked to create a translator to help him communicate with you. Eventually, he learned Japanese. He wasn’t fluent but he could speak full sentences that made sense. 

He heard of Japan’s advancements in technology and wondered if you knew anything. To impress you, he built a bullet train in the backyard. Scout ended up running into it. You told him of technological advancements. Engineer took some of these ideas and put them in his own inventions. You even helped create an invisible sentry, using mirrors, lighting, and some of Spy’s stolen watch pieces. You two never saw the sentry again. And Spy got mad.  

As a new project, you worked together to create a hovertrain. It took forever, but you got it down. It was faster than light and could get to places fast. It floated two feet off the ground and it required a stepstool to get on. Engineer let you be the first to take the train for a spin. Of course, you should have taken it easy because Scout hit the train again on reentry.

Medic:

He was a bit confused about your arrival. Wasn’t nine enough? He didn’t think ten would help his team win and ignored you a lot. If you called out for him, he would wait until you were out of health points to save you. He was a bit rude. So you confronted him and scolded him. He didn’t really understand what you were saying, but he made sense of it.

For a couple of nights, he couldn’t sleep well, thinking about how he hurt you. In the middle of the night, he decided to talk to you. You were half asleep and yelled at him. The next morning, he tried again. This time you listened and accepted his apology. 

To try to help you get adjusted to your new surroundings, Medic decided to help you learn English (and German on the side). He claimed to do it out of the goodness of his heart, which was true. He also found out you had an interest in medicine and decided to teach you the ropes. You slowly but surely began to understand everything and learned it all. Now, anyone strapped to the operating table would listen to a conversation happening in three different languages. 

Sniper:

There was a two week’s notice of your arrival. Everyone received a package on your information. Sniper wasn’t trying to be rude when you met him for the first time. He didn’t really understand, but he wanted to be polite and nodded to every word you spoke. You took a liking to him immediately. After returning to his camper, he screamed into his pillow for being such an idiot for not reading the package.

He tried to make it up to you. He turned to Spy for help and he did, in exchange for not getting jarate’d for a week straight. After two weeks after your arrival and lessons with Spy, Sniper was ready to reintroduce himself to you. Two weeks prior to that, you turned to Spy for help in learning English. You wanted to easily communicate with Sniper. So he agreed to teach you. 

You both laughed when you found out you turned to Spy for help. You got to reintroduce yourselves and have a good start together. One thing you both liked was the flying squirrel. You thought it was cute, Sniper thought it was cool. Your teammates watched as Sniper talked to you about the squirrel, explaining everything in English and Japanese. By the end of the day, the flying squirrel was your spirit animal.

Spy:

Spy was actually very fluent in Japanese. That was good for you, you had someone to talk to. He spoke it perfectly. He knew every custom. He showed you around the battlefields, the bases, and even Mann Co. He was always by your side, even during battle, translating for you and starting conversations with the others.

He had visited Japan before and was glad to share with you photos he had taken and souvenirs he bought. You also had photos and shared them with him. It was something you two bonded over. Another thing you two bonded over was drinking. Sometimes Demo would come over to try out wine and sake, but Spy would end up kicking him out.

After nearly a year of staying in Teufort, you got homesick. And then sick. Spy was very very concerned for your health. In the middle of the night, without the Administrator’s permission, he carried you all the way to his secret runway. When you woke up, you were in a different room. As a surprise, Spy took his private jet and flew the both of you back home. That man deserved a kiss.

Pauling:

It was easy for you two to communicate. She learned Japanese on a previous mission and decided to keep learning it. She had a feeling she needed to learn it. It came in handy and she was glad to continue learning it. 

On missions, when targeting the culprits/victims, she confronts them while you were hidden somewhere at a good range where you could snipe them. Over the earpiece, she lets you know when to shoot with a codeword in Japanese. The culprit/victim wouldn’t know what it meant and then they were dead.

The Administrator felt it was good to keep you around. Pauling was happy and less stressed out. Like Scout, Pauling owned a manga collection. After a successful mission, you would get together in front of the T.V and read. She would read it first in English, then you would read it again in Japanese.

[forgottenluck]

@traumamade​

Koun didn't know where he was. He didn't exactly know....when he was either, and that hurt his brain to think about. What year was it? What....country? He could tell he wasn't home. The ground didn't feel right.....the very earth under his feet felt unfamiliar. And then there was the stench.

He felt lost, and the smell of the very air around him wafted with death and corruption. It made every hair on him prickle and almost burn.....And the people! they all smelled.....dead. No....that wasn't true completely. Living but dead....Necrosis and mutation. It reeked. Made his head spin just from the smell.....The banes of having the olfactory of a canine. Vulpine, really but....

Back to the matter at hand.....he had no idea where he was. The last thing he remembered clearly was.....well....nothing. He'd fallen, dormancy he presumed. A shrine? Empty one, but somewhere safe.....he could only assume that he'd been forced into awakening by his own sense of self-preservation. This place...where-ever it was, wasn't safe. And the forced awakening had an adverse reaction; he was dazed, more confused than he should be. In those moments between wake and confusion, he'd become separated from his vessel.....It was somewhere here....somewhere...but with how dazed he was, he couldn't pinpoint it.

Once he'd managed to get himself into a semi-coherent state, he'd found the first empty room he could find; a storage room of some sort it seemed. His vessel wasn't here, but, it worked for a place for him to get his bearings. He'd have to search the grounds for the small scroll case, but that was okay.

He'd finally managed to get himself somewhere in a state of mind he could actually function when the sound of footsteps hit his sensitive ears. They were slow, cautious....but for the life of him he couldn't tell if they were human. The smell of this place had completely ruined his nose, and paranoia hit him like a ton of bricks. With a practiced motion, his sword was out, and he had hidden himself behind the door (making sure that there were enough illusions up on him to make him look completely human just in case the other was sentient), waiting for it to open....and when it did, the stranger was met with the cold steel of the blade pressed near the other's head. Close enough that within a single moment, a head would roll.....

But he did not make that movement.

"うごかないで" His words were thick, native tongue of Japanese slipping out. He still did not know what language this land spoke. Was it Japanese? German? English? Was this person even sane enough to answer him?

[concubuck]

((Is it okay to ask about the magical demon powers? I'm curious how he comes across while using it. Would that magic be noticeable to someone who's perceptive enough or knows what to look for? Is it a type of mind reading where he's essentially using the other persons understanding of language temporarily, allowing him to present any way they'd understand? Like very formal to very causal, basic to complex words, or having an accent like he's native or like a tourist? Is he able to notice puns and wordplay in other languages? Sorry if you didn't mean for anyone to put that much thought into it lol, I totally understand if it's just a "it works however it needs to" type of thing lol))

((Yes it's always okay to ask me ANYTHING about Alastor! There's, like, almost nothing that I'm not eager to talk about.

For reference to others, this question is a reply to this post from last week—I expected that this was gonna be a long answer so I didn't get around to answering it til now sdfgh.

I definitely think it's the sort of magic that somebody particularly psychically gifted or magically skilled could pick up on! Alastor usually bothers with high enough level magic to fool most people. People who are "sensitive" to magic or the supernatural are more likely to notice something's up or see through the magic entirely.

If this makes sense, I think the magic doesn't happen inside the target's head (like mind reading), but rather, it happens in the air between them. He doesn't, say, meet a Japanese person and temporarily reach into their head to know the right words to say in Japanese. He thinks in English and speaks in English but somewhere in between his tongue and the other person's ears the words become Japanese, and vice versa. (I use Japanese as an example because the one thread where he's used this power thus far was one where he was sent to investigate a vampire outbreak in a Japanese town.)

I tend to imagine that not even words are actually being conveyed, but meanings. When he talks, his target knows "what he said" as in what information he was trying to convey, but if asked for a quote, for the exact words that he said, they wouldn't remember it. Despite the target "hearing" Japanese at the time it's doubtful that any sound waves forming Japanese words were actually made, and certainly there was never any Japanese knowledge inside Alastor's head.

"Wouldn't he look like he's dubbed then, if his mouth is moving in English but he sounds like he's speaking Japanese—?" Since the magic changes the audial perception of the meaning of the sounds he's making rather than altering the actual sounds he's making, it can also change the perception of how it looks like his mouth is moving. Most people probably don't pay that close attention to his mouth/are magically "encouraged" not to pay close attention. If you STARE RIGHT AT HIS LIPS you might see his speech doesn't "match up" with Japanese—but if you're paying that close attention to what his lips are doing, you're ALSO probably paying very close attention to the real audible sounds of the words you're hearing, at which point the magic's liable to fall apart into gibberish because you're not accepting the meanings being magically conveyed to you.

If the target's asked later about how he spoke—like a native, like a tourist, formally, casually?—they wouldn't be able to remember clearly from his words how he sounded (the way that you might run into someone who looks so "normal" to you that you later can't remember anything distinctive about their appearance or dress, just an impression of normality), but they might get an impression from other parts of his demeanor how he "must have" sounded and unconsciously "remember" that's how he spoke. "He was very talkative and eloquent, but he acted like a foreigner in his manners and etiquette," and now they "remember" him having a very good vocabulary and sounding like he must have been well-educated in the language, but having a noticeable accent.

The best way for him to change how they "hear"/perceive his speech is by changing his body language, behavior, and the information he gives about himself to change the impression they get off of him. If he claims he came from England they might "remember" him having an British accent. What kind of British accent depends on what they think "makes sense" for someone "like him."

(And it's ENTIRELY subjective. So like, if the target once heard somebody speaking with a German accent and was told "that's a British accent," when Alastor says "I came from England" they might "remember" "hearing" him speaking with an accent that's actually German because THEY believe that's how someone British must sound.)

If he tells a pun in English, the other party "receives" the humor and finds it funny (or not, if they don't like puns), but if you ask them "hey, you laughed, what was funny," they wouldn't be able to remember the words he spoke to make that pun—"you know, I'm not sure, what was it about haircuts and bunnies that's so clever...?" If they happen to have studied English they might work out "ohhh, right, he made a pun about hair & hare. ... but hold on, that pun only works in English, was he speaking English? Why didn't I notice? Did he just switch to English for that one joke? How much English was he speaking? I didn't THINK he was speaking English—"

This could be one way that somebody affected by his magic could realize that something screwy's going on here, even if they aren't magically sensitive. But people are unlikely to do that unless they're given a reason to try really hard to remember the exact words he said, and how they sounded when he said them. It's more likely they'll go "ah, the joke was funny when he told it, I guess I can't remember what exactly he said." Most people don't remember conversations word-for-word unless a particular statement stood out to them, and if it's been long enough since someone talked to him they might end up imagining what he said & how he said it in their attempt to reconstruct the conversation from memory.

The magic works the same way in reverse: he receives the other party's meaning without actually getting the words, in either language. If someone makes a Japanese pun he understands that Humor Has Been Made but he doesn't know what the wordplay was. He could laugh at a pun and then later need to ask "so somebody made this pun about how easily konjac yams spoil and the joke was about divorce but I don't get it, does anybody who speaks Japanese get the pun?" to be told "the Japanese words for 'marriage' and 'konjac yams' are 'konyaku' and 'konnyaku.'"

If somebody records him while talking with this magic, in the recording they'd be able to hear him speaking English. But if he's speaking live through an electronic signal (talking through a radio, talking on the phone, using Zoom or Skype, using a walkie-talkie, etc), the magic works and they "hear" him speaking their language.))

[omo-time]

kazuha looked around, his eyes scanning for any sign of a bathroom. he and beidou were in mondstat for a visit although she was busy for the day and suggested he take the day with lumine.

lumine was more then happy to take him to the shops around mondstat. she happily lead him around mondstat, but kazuha couldn’t pay much attention, he was too worried about how desperate he was getting. so far all his time in mondstat was spent with beidou and he could speak enough chinese to converse with her. but lumine? the sweet girl could only speak english and a bit of other languages she picked up from the other nations. kazuhas english wasn’t great, being from inazuma his native tongue was japanese and he had learned enough chinese to be able to have conversations but that was it. he sighed, knowing he would have to try to speak up at some point, even tho he had no clue how to ask.

« and over here is good hunter! we can get food here if you’re hungry » lumine spoke as simply as possible, but kazuha still looked at her confused. she made a motion with her hands and asked « hungry? »

kazuha contemplated it, thinking maybe while she was busy eating he could slip away to a bathroom, so he nodded and they sat down. « paimon is sooooo hungry »

a bit later their food had arrived, paimon had ordered a lot of food and kazuha wondered how a small creature like her was able to eat so much. but he pushed the thought aside when his bladder sent a jolt of pain through his body and he winced, hoping the others hasn’t noticed. thankfully they didn’t and were still busy eating.

he sighed knowing if he waited any longer he would end up having an accident.

« i… » he started and lumine looked at him. « i want… » no thats not right « i need… » but he couldn’t think of how to say it.

« are you tired? » she asked, kazuha shook his head, tears threatening to fall.

in japanese he said « i need to go to the bathroom » but lumine only shook her head, not understanding at all. there wasn’t much she could do cause her japanese wasn’t good at all.

she started to get up, and kazuha internally cried, starting to get more upset but he got up as well. he tried to squirm subtly, he didn’t want lumine to know but at the same time he did. all kazuha wanted was relief, and soon.

as they walked around a bit more, kazuha was really starting to fall behind, pressing his legs together every now and then. lumine had noticed and stopped once more. « kazuha? are you in pain » kazuha barely understood what she meant but still, he shook his head again.

he was nearly in tears, it hurt so much and he knew if he didn’t find a bathroom in the next minute he was going to have an accident. he cringed internally just thinking about it.

« i need… » he started but felt a wave of desperation and quickly grabbed his crotch, knowing if he didn’t he would piss himself right there. thankfully lumine had realized what he needed. « oh follow me, i can bring you to a bathroom » she said and quickly started walking. the thought of release felt so good to kazuha, but he couldn’t walk fast. « just up these stairs »

he tried to walk up the stairs, but leaked after the first few steps, cringing at how damp his pants felt under his hands. nono please not here…. he had caught a glimpse of the bathroom sign and his body just started to dash towards it, but the sudden movement was enough to break all his control. kazuha could feel the piss dripping down his legs as a puddle forming below him. he moaned from the feeling of release, and let out a breath when he was done. although when he came back from the good feeling, he realized what had happened. looking up, the bathroom right in front of him and he started to cry. sinking down to his knees, trying to hide from onlookers.

lumine came up from behind him, « i’m sorry i didn’t realize what you needed » she said in broken japanese, hoping he could understand. « let’s go to my teapot and you can get cleaned up » kazuha nodded a little and she got out her teapot.

once they were inside, she lead him into a room and gave him a pair of clothes, then showed him to the bathroom.

kazuha took a few minutes to get cleaned up, feeling a bit better but still embarrassed. he came out after to found lumine in the living room.

« thank you… can go back to beidou? » his english was quite broken so he hoped she understood, thankfully she nodded and lead him out of the realm.

excuse my bad grammar but hopefully it makes sense (english isn’t my first language trying :’>)

-👻

YESYEYDGEYSEYSETESGTST SGSGHFHFHRGDHG THIS IS EVERYTUGNGTO ME I LOVW LANGUAGE BARRIERS AND KAZUHA IS SOCUWTGEHE IM LOVE THIS SO MUCH

ALSO UR ENGLISH IS RLLY GOOD!!

[langernameohnebedeutung]

What's the best and worst feature of all the languages you speak?

Let me illustrate:

Okay...in all ‘seriousness’:

The best thing about Swedish: Sin/sitt/sina vs. hans/hennes. If you have a sentence like: “He paints his house”, you don’t know whether he’s painting his own house or that of some other guy. But Swedish actually makes that distinction: If it is his own house, you would use sitt, if it’s someone else’s you use the regular possessive pronoun hans. Solves this whole “whose body part is this?” conundrum in writing. For a language almost as unsexy as my own, I appreciate this contribution to porn writing and think we should all adapt it.

The worst thing about Swedish: The prepositions for naming time periods are so counter-intuitive if you speak German and English (where they are pretty similar) 

For example, both German and English say in four weeks/in vier Wochen - so you would expect Swedish to say: i fyra veckor. But instead, it’s “om* fyra veckor”.  In fact, saying “i fyra veckor” means “for four weeks.” (Except if you want to say it didn’t happen - then it’s (Jag har inte pratat) på fyra veckor. - I haven’t spoken for four weeks)

*”Om”, on the other hand, sounds a lot like the German “um”, where “um vier Wochen” could mean: “(it takes) about four weeks.”

Then you have för/für/for - similar words that usually have the same meaning in similar contexts - except when you say the time in Swedish. As I said, you say “i” for "for”. If you want to say for four weeks/für vier Wochen - it’s the same in English in German, but in Swedish:”för fyra veckor sedan” means “four weeks ago”. I have already accepted that I will always fuck this up.

Best thing about English: I think having only one grammatical gender makes things a lot easier - that’s a lot of time saved when learning this language compared to the other ones on this list. Especially paired with hardly any conjugation (although Swedish beats English in that regard with even less conjugation)

Worst thing about English: Okay this is coming from a place of love for this language but why the hell are you so averse to using “one” to express “people in general”? German and Swedish do it with “man”. But in English, it sounds actually strange and unusual to say: “On Tuesdays, one goes to the supermarket” or “In the capital, one takes the train to work” - instead, it’s “you go to the supermarket” and “you take the train” - which “you” might not. It feels very awkward for me when I write some theoretical scenario and always have to accuse the reader of all these horrible things - or I write something fictional and I make a sweeping general statement about human nature and instead I’m making it personal by involving “you”. - or I just write around it and explain that I mean people in general each time. But that takes extra-words. It’s ridiculous.

okay let’s get to the languages who prefer death by grammar

Best thing about German: Not to toot our own horn here, but I do sometimes miss having modal particles in other languages. (To be fair, they exist in other languages too. Wikipedia lists Dutch, Danish, German, Hungarian, Russian, Telugu, Nepali, Indonesian, Chinese and Japanese as examples of languages that use them but I’m sure there are more and also I personally would argue that it it can be a bit hard to define when what serves as a modal particle and how many a language needs to be considered “using” them)

I’d argue that “pretty” is one in English: If you say a sentence like: “This chair is pretty expensive”, “pretty” no longer expresses beauty but instead loses its meaning in favour of changing the tone of the sentence. And German has a whole lot of those.

So if I try to translate a piece of dialogue and someone says something: “Der Schrank ist ja aber so halt noch nicht ganz fertig” - that would literally translate to: “The new cupboard is yes but like that stop yet not completely finished” but the tone is something along the lines of: “I'm not saying this because I’m mad that the new cupboard isn’t finished yet but after all, it’s clearly NOT finished and that is all I’m saying.”

One example from Wikipedia is: “Er liest ja sehr gerne.” (literally: He reads yes very much) = “(as you know) he likes to read." 

And in turn, if I get a sentence from spoken conversation and I’m asked to translate it from German or I want to subtitle a scene from a video it can be a bit difficult because you have to abandon the actual text in order to translate it. And if you explain your choice, it becomes even more difficult because modal particles are used in spoken language and are not very exact and if you translate them, you have to make a choice - and it will never be literally what those words mean. (If you asked a German, what “halt” means in a sentence like “Ist halt so” - I think it would be very hard to explain and you would get a lot of different responses) But if you’d just translate the words, it all becomes meaningless and random - but if you leave them out, the sentence loses its connotation and tone and the dialogue might stop making sense.

Worst thing about German: I could name the fact that we call “nipples” “breast warts” but since Swedish does that as well (call-out!) I’m going to say ... the whole gender dilemma. And before I get anyone’s feathers ruffled, no, I’m not saying “political correctness has gone mad we should just stooop!” - I’m just saying that at some point we have to accept that our language...is just very bad at this. At it’s probably the point where we have to add little glottal stops into our words to signify whether we mean “Kundinnen” (female customers) or “Kund*innen” (”customers of all genders”)  - which in turn we don’t want to confuse with “KundInnen” (Male and female customers). (And that is not to list all the written versions that exist)

Best thing about French: Listen, French gets a lot of shit on this website for the fact that you pronounce about three sounds in every word. But since we’re among the grammar fuckers now: if you have a native language where the ending of each word is hammered in like the last nail into a coffin, you learn to appreciate a language where you don’t. Especially when your teacher goes around and asks you to conjugate random words: As long as you know the general group that a verb comes from and how those endings generally go, you will be fine by just producing a vowel sound that vaguely aligns with that. (And even if you don’t -- you’ll get very far). I always appreciated that in school.

Worst thing about French: I mean, maybe it’s unfair considering French is a Romance language and not a Germanic one but...get a proper Saxon Genitive will ya? An expression that consts of 1 word in Swedish or German becomes 2 in English - fair enough, you’re just not connecting your compound nouns in the end and get a bit prickly if people get too creative with words - but then  it’s 3 in French (4 if the second noun is female and you write “de la”). That’s three extra-words! Plus, the word-order is so counter-intuitive. Switch ‘em around, drop the "de” is all I’m saying. (The Académie Française has sent out a hitman as I wrote this)

Now, obviously I don’t speak Latin but I didn’t do my Latinum to avoid insulting it so:

Best thing: Depending on your outfit choices, people think you’re smart - or trying to curse them. Both are fun.

Worst thing: Listen, the only words I learnt are about war, murder, executions, and slaves - and the only people I could talk to if I spoke it would be...monks and nuns. Who probably won’t appreciate this kind of talk. 

[mysticlibraryhushbats]

My language headcanons for the turtles that nobody asked for!

So, in addition to the obvious English, all of the turtles also know Japanese but to varying degrees.

Leo and Mikey are the most well rounded in all four skills (speaking, reading, listening, and writing) in Japanese. Even though they aren’t innately good at languages, they put in a lot of hard work and study to get where they are. This is largely due to their motivations. Leo wanted to be able to talk with Splinter in his native language, while Mikey was super into Japanese pop-culture, anime, and manga. As Japanese was something both were passionate about, this is the only language other than English they speak.

Raph, on the other hand, does have an ear for languages and can mimic what he hears really well on first try and somehow retain it. He never actively studied Japanese in the traditional sense beyond what Splinter made him do like Leo and Mikey though resulting in poor reading and writing ability. On the upside, he is the only one of the four that is truly multi-lingual. From childhood, he used to sit with Splinter while he watched Spanish telenovelas. He would get really into them and parrot the characters lines. This continued throughout his childhood and early teens until he eventually could have really detailed (and dramatic) conversations in Spanish. His Spanish is probably better than his Japanese. After he started going topside, he was exposed to a few other languages from hanging around areas of New York with large immigrant populations, and has picked up a little from a few but not enough to say he speaks them, but who knows, maybe some day!

Donnie sees language a little differently to his brothers. Being a man of science, Donnie views language as a puzzle, or a code to be cracked, rather than a tool to communicate or consume media. Basically, he’s more into the linguistics of it all, studying how each language is built and how to conjugate correctly etc. Therefore, Donnie put a lot more of his time into reading and writing Japanese, and thus, he is much more confident in those abilities than his speaking or listening skills. He also suffers quite a bit with language anxiety and fears making mistakes which has also hindered his speaking ability. He finds linguistics interesting and sometimes reads about it in his free time, or during breaks in his projects, so he has knowledge of a lot of languages and can recognize most languages just from seeing/hearing it.

So they all grew up learning Japanese from Splinter, but that does not mean they are native speakers as they pretty much always spoke to each other in English. If they were to speak to a native Japanese, that person would instantly know they didn’t grow up in Japan. Leo’s Japanese is quite stiff and formal because he usually only uses it with Splinter, a person he must show respect to, and so he finds it difficult to switch to informal Japanese when appropriate like when speaking to his brothers. The opposite is true of Raph. Though his pronunciation and intonation is flawless, he only uses informal Japanese and refuses to use or learn keigo, the honorific Japanese used with your seniors, therefore he comes off as extremely rude sometimes (but what’s new there!). Mikey talks like an anime character and is oblivious to it. He thinks it’s normal because that’s the type of Japanese he’s most exposed to, but a lot of the language used in anime is specific to anime and isn’t used by Japanese people in their daily lives. And finally, Donnie’s main give away that he isn’t a native speaker is his hesitance as he searches for the right word or sentence, but like Raph, his pronunciation and intonation are pretty good once he gets going. 

In addition to spoken language, the turtles also have system of hand signals they use to communicate when in the field as ninjas. This isn’t a complex system and can only be used to give directions when on a mission. Leo started developing it not long after he was made leader and all four turtles and Splinter can use and understand it. 

[bonny-kookoo]

Streetlight (JJK x Reader) 💜

💡Pairing: Jeon Jungkook x Reader

💡Genre: Drabble, strangers to lovers?, non-Idol AU

💡Warnings: none, it’s just a soft Drabble, all kid friendly!

💡Summary: sometimes the loneliest nights can bring you the brightest stars.

The door opened with the familiar jingle of the bell conveniently placed above it, letting you and other guests know that someone had entered the small bar.

The open mic-night at Hoseok's had always been a tourist magnet in a way, letting some people feel as if they could live their dream even just for a moment. And you had to admit, some people were talented, but the way they sometimes sank down on their chairs afterwards made you feel sad for them, knowing that tomorrow, they would all return to their respective jobs, never to be noticed again.

However, you did turn your attention from your glass in front of you to behind you, ignoring the typical sound of someone tapping a message on their phone. When a voice sang with so much emotion you rarely felt from a simple performance, people sometimes messaged and took videos, so it was normal. Maybe he really was a singer? It seemed like he was, considering how stable his voice was, even in breathier parts of the song. You also noticed the language he sang in- korean. Unusual, but not unheard of, since sometimes you could spot a drunk girl letting loose and playfully sing some anime opening song in japanese into the mic.

This was a serious performance however it seemed.

You could feel the meaning of his words on your fingetips, softly tapping onto your glass in the soft rhythm of his song, closing your eyes to listen more intently to his tunes. He was bewitching you in a way, and you didn't dare avert your attention from him, breathing in the notes as if they could be saved inside your lungs, kept a secret until you'd find them again, as a recording somewhere on the internet.

The song ended way too early, making you sigh before leaning your head on your hand, trying to drown out the talking around you. He'd ended with his regular voice, a little deeper, and a slight accent to his english- he probably was native to the language he'd sang in, which did make sense, considering his pronunciation. You didn't look at whoever sat down next to you, until the voice reached your ears, just like before, but without the help of an amplifier and a microphone. You didn't dare look however, simply listening to his words as he asked for something cold to drink, a request which Yoongi nodded at, going straight at it- but not before flicking your head playfully. "If you're tired, I'll call a cab, but don't fall asleep on my counter." He grumbled over the talking of other guests left and right from you. You chuckled.

"Technically, this is Hoseok's." You said, pointing towards the other bartender and owner a little further away, chatting with two men he seemed to get to know tonight. Being quite the opposite of the black haired man in front of you, he was a ray of sunshine, his social skills making it easy for him to talk to people. Yoongi preferred the quiet and calm guests, whereas Hoseok loved to converse and make friends. It was an interesting match, to say the least. The cat-eyed man in front of you simply scoffed playfully, before grabbing a glass, preparing the drink for who you assumed sat next to you.

"He couldn't run this shitshow alone and he knows it." He said, and you whined at him swearing, making him raise his hands in mocking defeat, and the guy next to you chuckle. You turned, and were greeted with the bright yet dark eyes of a young boy your age, maybe a bit older. He smiled, waving a bit as to silently greet you as he waited for his drink.

You smiled back. "Your singing was.. really good. Loved the song. You wrote it?" You said as you took a sip, making him chuckle.

"Ah- yeah, I wrote." He said with his endearing accent, and you smiled, nodding. "You eh.. Understood?" He asked, and you shook your head yes again. He seemed impressed. "You speak korean?" He asked with a voice raising in pitch to the end. Yoongi cut in, placing his glass on the counter.

"She understands more than she speaks. Her accent's kinda cute not gonna lie." He drawled in his thick Gyeongsan-Dialect to the younger one, ruffling your head before walking off to another customer.

"I'm Jungkook." He said, happily extending his hand to you. You found it cute, and shook his hand, giving him yours, even though you didn't quite understand why he would introduce himself to someone like you. If he noticed the way your way smaller hand fit almost perfectly into his, he didn't mention it. He rather continued in his charming accent. "I'm.. still learning, english, you know? Sorry." He said, tips of his ears a bit red.

You smiled again. "Thats fine." You answered, taking a sip of your beverage before turning towards him a bit better. "Tell me about you." You asked, and he seemed to think for a moment, his words a bit displaced. But you couldn't see anything bad in that, the sparkling in his eyes way too cute to look at.

"I'm from Busan. I moved, here, because uh.. work. Yeah, work, I work here- not here! But I.. work at studio." He said, trying to find the right word in his mind for whatever he was trying to explain to you. Until he snapped his fingers, leaning a bit towards you. "Dance-studio! I am dance instructor." He said, and you nodded, impressed.

"I thought you were a singer. Your voice is really nice. Very smooth." You said, crossing your legs.

He looked at them for a moment before catching himself, the view of your fishnets distracting him for a moment. "Ah no! I make songs on uh.. Youtube. I am Youtuber." He said, clearing his throat as he took a sip of his drink himself. "GoldenSingerJK." He said, almost proudly.

You smiled, for another time. "I'll be sure to check it out." You said, making him smile and nod, his hand running over one of his thighs for a short moment, as if he needed to think about his next words.

He got more and more comfortable with every word he spoke, and you weren't sure if it was pure confidence in his language skills, or if it was the alcohol seeping into his bones. "Can I have your number? So we, uh.. chat? Or maybe meet?" He said, and you pulled out your phone, unlocking it before sliding it over to him to put his number in. He seemed to fumble around a bit, before he slid it back, a grin ever so present on his face.

And you smiled again for that night.

And for many more to come.