Open Oh No! I'm Bad at French!

[Daithi Dawley]

Set at beauxbatons​

Daithi had finally arrived at Magical school. He had been somewhat disappointed to not go to Hogwarts Scotland where both of his parents had gone, but Beauxbatons was a pretty impressive school. At the very least it was very visually impressive. He had always seen picture of Hogwarts so seeing this entirely new place was entirely different. It was a true palace, grander than most places Daithi had ever been in his life. He’d visited a good number of grand places in paris, but this seemed to really take the literal cake of them. He’d greeted most of his dorm mates, in his usual bad french and was a little concerned that he was putting them off. He knew at least one of them had made a joke at his expense, but it was no matter. He was at a new school, there was much to explore and he couldn’t wait to just get to it all. He made his way out of ht dorm room having said quick good mornings to all the people who were awake and then headed to eat. He was a little nervous about the food, admittedly he’d not really grown accustomed to his step-father’s cuisine, and only hoped that much like the dinner of the night prior that there would be so much that he’d find something for him to eat. He took the first spot he could in the hall and glanced about, seemed normal enough. ​

 

[Élise Moreau]

Élise was excited to go to Beauxbatons. Her parents already told her bits and pieces about the school, but seeing it for herself was amazing. It wasn't an old musky castle, it was more grand and luxurious. Élise met up with her dorm mates and the other first years and hoped she could make this her new home for the seven years to come. Make some friends along the way and maybe get a position in the Quidditch team next year. Élise loved the sport and was definitely going to cheer for her team in the upcoming games. This morning she was actually up early. Normally she slept in, classes hadn't started yet and she did love her sleep. Soon she was up and going and made her way to get some food. She spotted another first year sitting semi alone and Élise decided to join him. She grabbed a croissant from the table and filled it with some raspberry jam. ''Hello'' Élise said while taking a bite of croissant. ''I am Élise, are you excited for the year to start as well?'' She said while smiling.

 

[Daithi Dawley]

Daithi hadn’t been sat long when he heard someone sit down with him at the table he was at, he looked up at her, and gave a little smile, but it was quickly faltering as she spoke in french to him. It would be a given, this was a french school and they were all supposed to be french speakers, though Daithi was hopeful that he wouldn’t be the only person at this school who was real terrible at the language they were supposed to speak. He could read it, and he could write some of it, but no matter how hard he’d tried speaking was the most difficult and her words had caught him off guard and passed rather quickly. He’d caught perhaps a name Elise, but nothing else, ”Hi” he began in french giving an apologetic expression, ”My french is not great, can you speak more slowly?” he asked in his very disjointed and heavily accented french. He knew that at the school he’d have no choice but to pick up the language, he didn’t know how many people did speak english and he couldn’t rely on that, he would have to get better, but hearing her speak so quickly and getting none of it, Daithi was sure he was about to face a massive learning curve. ​

 

[Élise Moreau]

Élise smiled encouragingly and didn't mind him having another accent. There were more kids on this school that didn't speak French as their native language. Élise guessed the accent was more of an English or American one. The words he said actually made sense, it was just a bit disjointed. ''I can speak both French and English, if you prefer one of those.'' Élise said slowly in a more simplified French. ''But if you want to learn French we can stick to that, I can even help you get better with the language.'' Élise tried to speak without her thick accent and pronounce every syllable and sound clearly so the boy could understand her.

 

[Daithi Dawley]

Daithi had expected her to react like quite a few others in his house and that wider french family he now had to more or less reject him now, most people didn’t have the time for him and they were pretty vocal about it, not that he understood. But, he smiled widely as she said she spoke both, that was good, he needed to improve his french, but it would be good to be able to just have it as back up. He nodded at the second statement, finding it easier to follow along with how much more force she was putting into her words. ”I need to improve my french,” he said, in slow purposeful french. It seemed fairly obvious too that he just didn’t have much confidence in it either. ”I’m Daithi,” he said in english, where it was obviously heavily accent irish. ”I’ve been learning french for like a year, it’s slow going,” There was a much more confident and rapid pace at which he spoke english, which of course made sense given it was his first language.​

 

[Élise Moreau]

Élise took another bite of her croissant and hoped this boy could become her friend at the school. She had been a loner at her old school, she was always interested in the world what was out there and thus she learned English to understand what was out there. Almost everything was in English and that meant she painfully had to learn it. Élise nodded when he said he wanted to improve his French. Then he started to talk in a very heavy Irish accent and Élise found it hard to keep up. Knowing the words and hearing them in an accent was different. Her eyebrow furrowed and Élise hoped she did understand him correctly. ''French is hard to learn for English speaking people, it is the same the other way around though.'' Élise said in very jumbled and broken English. ''I think I got an idea, I can learn you French on some days and you can teach me English on the others.'' She soon switched back to her mothers tongue, it was easier for her. ''Hopefully in a more slow pace, your accent makes it a lot harder to understand.'' Élise said in a very slow understandable French while smiling broadly.

 

[Daithi Dawley]

Daithi could almost laugh at the fact that he didn’t really understand her french and she struggled with his english. He knew this happened a lot, Daithi had thick accent because of his parents btoh having one, and the environment that he had grown up in where lots of people had one. He nodded at her english and smiled, he had definitely been finding French hard. He was getting better at reading and writing it, but there was just another difficulty involved in listening and speaking it. One unaided at times with his accent. He could tell, that not unlike how his first language was more natural to him, so was hers. Even when she spoke purposefully slowly. He had had high hopes when beginning to learn french that he would get to that point with ease, but it hadn’t yet arrived and now at school he was without the tutor his step father had provided and therefore in his mind swimming poorly in the deep end. He smiled at her idea and nodded, it took a moment to understand it, but it could help. He was helping her and she was helping him. It wouldn’t make him feel too bad to take her help without anything in return. ”Okay,” he said with a nod. ”Where in France are you from?” he said, keeping to the french, knowing it was better for him, even if he wasn’t learning it at that moment, to stick to french. He wouldn’t mind her correcting him either, but he needed to stick to french as much as he could. ​

 

[Élise Moreau]

Élise was pretty sure that her English sucked big time, but she was trying her best. It was hard to find native English speakers in French. Most French people didn't even know two words of English and the people who knew English had a very thick French accent under it like her. Élise had completely forget to give her name to Daithi. ''I am Élise'' She said to Daithi, a bit late, but it was something. ''I am from Nice'' It was weird that her city name was also a word in English. Nice was the capital of the French Riviera. She couldn't wait to get back in the breaks to see her family. She did miss her parents and younger sister. ''Where are you from?'' Each time she said something she had to make sure she said it slowly and understandable for Daithi.

 

[Daithi Dawley]

Daithi nodded as she introduced herself, Elise. He very purposefully repeated the name under his breath, making sure that he had it right. And that he was saying it right. He didn’t want to be constantly butchering the name of someone who was helping him. He nodded too as she said she was from Nice. He didn’t know where exactly that was, but he knew it wouldn’t be too far from where they currently were at Beauxbatons. ”Dublin,” he said with a proud tone, unable to help the hints of his accent that came through as he said the name of the town, it wasn’t something he even thought about, ”But I live in Paris currently,” he said in French, making sure that he was picking every word carefully. ”The weather in Paris is better than Dublin,” he said continuing the very slow heavily accented french, but it was clear he was really trying his best, ”But the weather in Nice is probably nicer than both...combined,” the last work in his sentence was in english unable to find the french word he was looking for. ​

 

[Élise Moreau]

Élise was excited and curious at the same time. She finally found someone to practice her English on, that was an actual native speaker and above that she had made her first friend at the school. Élise hadn't been very good at geology and she had to think really hard to link Dublin to an actual country. She was pretty sure he was English so that eliminated the non English countries. After a deduction she was sure it was a city in Ireland. ''Why did your parents decide to move or did you pick Beauxbatons over Hogwarts Scotland yourself?'' She knew you could go to whatever magical school you wanted so it could have been a serious option. She took another bite of her croissant and laughed when she said the weather was better here. She had heard that there was lots of rain in Ireland so the sunny weather here was definitely a plus. ''The weather in Nice is awesome, it is so warm and sunny'' Élise loved the hot weather and the beaches. ''Your French isn't that bad by the way, for a native English speaker it is pretty great'' Elise said encouragingly.

 

[Daithi Dawley]

Daithi realised that she probably wouldn’t understand much why a guy would move to France and not know any of the language without some explanation, and so he just shook his head, ”Ehh no,” he said beginning in english, ”My parents divorced and my mum remarried a french man and moved me to France, so now I find myself here,” Daithi explained having to pick his words carefully, he didn’t want to give much away about it but of course it was made difficult by the fact he struggled with the language. It wasn’t like he wanted to go into great detail when he was literally speaking to her for the first time.. He listened as she talked about the weather was like in Nice, and he thought it would be awfully different from how things were for him back home and he knew that wasn’t a good thing for him, he didn’t like those things at all. He couldn’t help but grin happily when she said his french wasn’t bad, ”Can I get that in writing? So I can show my step-father, he thinks I’m awful at french,” Daithi replied, again in his usual slow and purposeful french. He was quite pleased, his old french tutor had said he was getting better but no one had ever called it pretty good. He felt rather proud of himself. ​

 

[Élise Moreau]

Élise didn't know how she would feel when her parents would break up and then of her parents would move country. She would be devastated to not see her mom or dad every day on her break. She knew break ups happened, but this one seemed severe. It was a logical explanation for some from Ireland to end up in France. Élise nodded and shot him a look of sympathy. She grinned when the boy asked to get her statement in writing. For a foreigner he was great, but for a native he stood out like a sore thumb. But she could understand him fine and that was what counted. '''Sure, ill fetch some parchment in the next class'' Élise smiled. She hadn't thought of actually making friends at the school. Everyone always looked so French and here was Élise who looked like she her half Filipino part. ''For which subjects are you the most excited for?'' Élise asked in a slow french so Daithi could understand her.

 

[Daithi Dawley]

Daithi was pleased that he seemed to have explained it well enough that she dropped it, though he didn’t say anything about the look of sympathy that she shot him. He didn’t need the sympathy he just wanted to hang out with a brand new friend. He was pretty pleased that she at least went along with his joke about his step father, and if she did end up writing a note about how good his french was then he’d probably lie about who she was just to make him believe it more. He laughed lightly with her, and it was nice to think he was really making a friend here at hogwarts. ”Potions!” he said excitedly, in his excitement he had said in English, but was quick to then repeat it in French, though it wasn’t too different. ”You?” he didn’t really elaborate on why, that would be more words and this could be kept to a pretty simple exchange. Though he knew that the more he tried with his french the better it would be, but she had also wanted to learn english so the occasional english word would help her too. ​

 

[Élise Moreau]

Daithi seemed nice and Élise couldn't wait for them to share their lessons. A studying buddy would be great and it was also a plus she already knew someone that shared her year. Daithi seemed to be really excited for potions as he said it in English. Not that the word changed much, but you could definitely hear some difference in pronunciation. ''I am looking forward to Flying and Charms'' She was also looking forward to culinary arts and dance. She spoke in slow French and hoped Daithi understood her. ''Hopefully I can make the Quidditch team next year.'' Élise loved the sport, she loved all sports in general. She had also signed her up for the horseback riding club that the school had.

 

[Daithi Dawley]

Daithi nodded along, he hadn’t thought about flying, he’d never really done it much before, he’d had a child’s broom growing up but that was the extent of it. He had little else and hadn’t given it too much thought/ He nodded as she said she wanted to make the quidditch team too. He knew that the quidditch team had a game again the ilvermorny school soon, they were playing over there at the american school or maybe it was here, he hadn’t quite understood, but if it was at Beauxbatons he’d for sure go along. But he hadn’t thought about actually flying, maybe that would be fun. ”Can you fly already or are you learning from scratch?” Daithi asked her, his french still slow but his excitement seemed to make him talk a little faster - whether this was good or not remained to be seen. ​