#frenchbus

I’m always happy to talk about my soft trilingual boy ❤️

Scorpius learnt French and German the same way all babies learn languages: by being exposed to them constantly. Both Astoria and Draco were raised bilingual and they knew that languages had to play an important role in Scorpius’ education, so they talked to him in German/French (and English, of course), they read stories to him... They wanted all three languages to sound familiar to him, and it actually became a kind of competition to them: they wanted to see which foreign language he’d pick up more easily (spoiler alert: it was French and Draco was smug af for months).

So, thanks to his parents Scorpius became fluent in French and German more or less at the same time he became fluent in English. It was all very balanced with him because he was exposed to those three languages for an equal amount of time, more or less. He had some syntax issues every now and then because sentence structure varies a lot (especially in German), but he could express himself without too much trouble and he could understand his parents perfectly. As he got older, those problems disappeared and now he only makes that kind of mistake when he’s tired or distracted. He still struggles with vocabulary sometimes, though (true frustration is forgetting a word in one language and remembering it in another), much to his friends’ amusement.

And yes, he’s still fluent! He loves being able to understand and communicate in so many languages, so he practices by reading and talking to as many native speakers as he can (he’s got the Weasley-Delacours for French, and I’m sure there’s at least one German-speaking student at Hogwarts). It’s true that he stopped speaking German for a while after Astoria’s death because it was a painful reminder of his childhood and those long walks in the garden where she’d hold his hand and point at thing and teach him words that he’d chirp back at her, but eventually he grew to miss it. Now he thinks of it as a way to be closer to her and the Greengrass side of the family.

Draco is a lost cause where German is concerned. He can understand it well enough, but he just can’t be bothered to sit down and study it properly, so he can’t speak it. He used to complain about how awful it sounded compared to French, which of course made Astoria stick her tongue out at him and speak in nothing but German for the next couple of hours (which he found adorable, but a tad frustrating too). And it wouldn’t have made much sense for Scorpius to teach him, anyway: German was always a ‘Greengrass thing’ in the Malfoy household. Scorpius and Draco have French.

And Albus eventually learns French! It’s an important language in the world of potions and alchemy, and after dealing with a few inaccurate or incorrect translations he asks Scorpius to teach him some basic things. Scorpius is thrilled, of course. Albus will never be fluent and his pronunciation is atrocious (he does try, bless him, but it’s nearly impossible to get rid of an English accent), but he can hold a simple conversation and understand the kind of text he needs for his work, which is all he wants. At one point he jokingly asks Scorpius to teach him swear words, but Scorpius refuses because he will not swear in any language, thank you very much.