[ P ] Language Lessons

"Ruith am madadh-ruadh thar a' mhonaidh," (The fox ran over the hill.) he repeated, this time a little more slowly.

He had returned to Vela's room for their lesson after his trip home and so far it was... going. He chuckled a little when she mispronounced things in and amusing manner, but kept urging her onward with kind and gentle words. "You're getting the hang of it," he said. She wouldn't know everything on day one but she was a quick and determined learner so he was confident she'd make good progress every time they worked together.

"Let's take a break," he said. They'd been at it since this morning and it was nearly midday already. He couldn't believe how fast time seemed to fly when you were having fun, and he was actually having fun doing this.

A few moments passed as he found a comfortable seat across from her, then his gaze settled on her momentarily before he drew in a big breath and sighed. "So how was class while I was gone?" he asked her.

“Ruith am..." Vela would glance at Gwydion every couple of words to gauge that she was repeating then properly. The language was exceedingly difficult, given that it was part memorization, part pronunciation, part conjugation, and many of the letters that were coupled made different sounds depending on how they were arranged. “...madadh...ruadh...thar a' muh...muh..." Her brows furrowed in frustration, nose wrinkling as she realized she'd already forgotten the last word. She sighed with defeat and looked at him with a woeful shake of her head to fly her flag of surrender.

The other student insisted she was getting the hang of it to which she responded by giving him an expression of unimpressed disbelief. “This is exactly why I am not majoring in linguistics..." She remarked, understanding that his words were meant to be encouraging, but they lacked honesty. “And why am I learning how to say something as useless as ‘The fox ran over the hill.’? When am I ever going to use that practically? Shouldn't I be learning other useless statements of idle conversation such as, ‘Nice weather we're having.'?"

It was evident that she was irritated, although it was aimed at her own inability to have something as simple in theory as Gaelic as a second language come easily to her like scientific formulas and mathematics did. When Gwydion announced a break, she could never have argued that with him. “Yes, that would probably be most beneficial for the both of us." She agreed, instantly moving herself away from any of their study materials and flopping down on one large comfortable pillow that served as a seat. Vela sunk into it and blinked over at Gwydion as he asked about her classes. “They are going as well as they can. I got into an argument with a professor, because I interrupted his lecture to correct him on an error in his presentation. He did not like that very much, but I find it absolutely abhorrent to carelessly give students incorrect facts. It's unprofessional and it's lazy and I told him so."

@Gwydion