Text; Don't judge.

[alphatar]

Hello evereaone. My name is Cora and I am seventean 17. Inglish is a lot more diffikalty than Chyneas. I am lurning it so bea paytient give mea tyme to mastur thea layngwuj. Numburs are easea at furst.

Thaync yu much. Avitar Cora.

Comments

[video]

[backinakidflash]

[There's a piece of paper being held towards the camera with a hieroglyphic sort of handwriting on it. It looks like this:



After a few seconds, the paper moved downward, and Bart gives the camera a wave.]

Hi Cora! Second languages are always hard. I think you're doing great.

[video]

[alphatar]

[The whole time the paper is there, Korra's face a mixture of confusion, surprise, and a tad bit of horror.]

Thanks Wally! I'm working on it. What the heck was that??

[Waaaaait.]

Oh my gosh, I'm so sorry! I thought you were someone else. They have fir- erm, red hair too.

[Smooth one Korra.]

[video]

[backinakidflash]

[Bart's eyebrows shoot up under his hair.]

I look that much like Wally?

[He glances down at his arms, like the resemblance is going to be there. But he doesn't have a mirror to consider this.]

I guess I do - hey, you speak English really good! The alphabet is tricky though. Too many letters do the same thing.

Oh yeah, and that was Interlac.

[video]

[alphatar]

I don't know anyone else with red hair, sorry. I have no idea what your name. [Everyone has dark hair back home, so anyone with a hair color outside of that is liek woah.] I'm Korra, but you kind of already read that...

That alphabet is so weird. You can practically put almost anything together as long as there's an "E" or "A" in there somewhere. Adding more letters gets more things, but why? It's much easier to just alter one character or just add one more. [Her eyebrow raises as she purses her lips.] Interlac?

[video]

[backinakidflash]

Don't worry about it. I look like him because he's my cousin. Real red hair's a recessive gene - that means you don't see it as much. A lot of girls dye their hair red back home, but mine's just me. Oh, duh. My name's Bart. I should have said that already.

Because the letters are for sounds and not things. Interlac's the same way. That's the language where I'm from. Well, more like when I'm from. Originally. This probably isn't helping the whole second language thing.

Okay. Forget that. Interlac is the language where I'm from. So much less confusing.

The English alphabet sucks. All the vowels can make the same sound.

[video]

[alphatar]

Oh wow, so you guys are family! That makes much more sense. So Interlac is your home’s language, but it’s all sounds? [That’s not weird at all to a girl from circa 1920 at all. Nope.]

Where sounds a lot better than when. YES! They all sound really similar. Why can’t everyone just read and write in Chinese? It’d be so much easier.

[video]

[backinakidflash]

[Oh, Korra. The family thing really makes no sense at all, but Bart will just nod rather than try to explain it.]

Yep. I know English though. Obviously, 'cause I'm using it. I meant that each letter represents a sound, and they only turn into words when you put them together.

Chinese is logosyllabic, right? Sorry. I didn't mean to use a big word like that. I mean that Chinese characters are for whole syllables. I can't think of an easier word for syllable.

[video]

[alphatar]

Then yeah, that sounds exactly like English. Just putting sounds together, except all the grammar and punctuation rules are killing me. I mean why have fifteen different ways to spell one word and have them all mean something different!? [Seriously English, stop it.]

I must sound really stupid on paper, huh? [Her expression is entirely flat.] Yes, it makes writing a lot easier than English. I think Bean may have his work cut out for me. Especially if I want to learn French next. Thankfully English uses a base ten numerical system. It's tedious, but simple.

[video]

[backinakidflash]

No! That's not how I meant that at all! Okay, a little. Maybe. But only because whenever I use words like logosyballic, everyone looks at me like I must've hit my head. Maybe they're not expecting me to know it, but I kinda think that every English speaker hasn't heard of it. I didn't mean to hurt your feelings. I'm sorry.

[He looks like a kicked puppy. He was only overcompensating to be nice with the 'big words' comment.]

[video]

[alphatar]

[Watching someone being nice by backpedaling is a surefire way to make Korra laugh.]

Haha! No, no. It's all right. So far both you and Wally have been pretty darn smart as far I'm concerned. Have you tried working for Tony Stark or that Bruce Banner? Bruce is doing a hydroponics garden if you're into that sort of thing.

[video]

[backinakidflash]

[He's not sure if she's laughing at him or not, but Bart's happy that she doesn't seem insulted. He wouldn't want to piss someone off before the end of his first week.]

Really? I know what a hydroponics garden is, but I've never done any gardening. Unless that cactus that I used to have counts. I, uh. Kinda drowned it.

[video]

[alphatar]

Most people haven't. Honestly, I haven't either. Not a lot of grass at the south pole back home, you know? But they have people who teach volunteers how to tend.

[Drowning a cactus gets an "I shouldn't be this impressed." look.]

That has to be a new record...

Re: [video]

[backinakidflash]

You're from the South Pole? Co-- awesome. [Yes, he stopped himself before the pun. You're welcome.]

For gardening incompetence? I think so. I was supposed to be learning about patience. It didn't go so well.

[video]

[alphatar]

[She made the pun on accident with Jack Frost so it's fine.]

Yeeeah, I'm not too big on the whole patient thing either. But hey, if it helps people it's worth a shot. Food doesn't grow on trees nowadays. [Well they did, just not really. Rationing sucks.]

[video]

[backinakidflash]

I do my best with it, really, but man is it hard.

Yeah, I guess there's really not room for tree roots on a turtle's shell. That's not as funny as I thought it'd sound. Okay, where do I sign up for this gardening thing?

[video]

[alphatar]

There's some trees here and there, but I really haven't looked when I've been outside the Metal Sector. No sign up, just go to the Earth Sector and [directions/location]. Just ask for Bruce Banner and they'll set you up.

And hey, when it's harvest time you get first picks just for helping. Not a bad perk if you ask me.

[video]

[backinakidflash]

Sounds good to me. Thanks for the tip, Korra!

[Bart waves at the camera.]

I'm gonna head that way and see if I can find him.

[video]

[alphatar]

Anytime, see you there!