Voltron Language Headcanons
everyone gets to space in one piece, everything going exactly like in the show. except when they meet Coran and Allura, they have no clue what they’re saying. Shiro translates until they all get blasted by what Coran calls a “hyponixalanguifier”..... Lance dubs it a language gun.
every altean must learn altean. when they are 23 decaphoebs old, they are allowed to get blasted with the hyponjxalanguifier. (about 16 years old when compared to humans...)
the altean blast guns are a bit out of date, so they have to upgrade the gun and get blasted again. it may give some people a headache (read: Lance) but it works.
(sidenote: voltron wiki says coran is like... 600 years old??? i’m.... this is a shocking revelation. how old is allura then???? i’m guessing about 18 years old if she was a human but... how much is that in altean??)
Coran and Allura are both pulled in for way too many language lessons. they don’t mind.
he’s already used to all this alien bs
when Keith speaks a japanese phrase, even with horrible pronunciation, he almost cries because he hears his native language again. Shiro then teaches Keith more japanese when he asks.
the gun doesn’t translate japanese, so whenever Pidge is around Shiro swears in japanese if he really needs to. Keith sometimes overhears. it’s really funny.
the first time he hears Lance speak spanish Shiro instinctively rolls his eyes, before realizing... that’s extremely rude. Lance isnt his old spanish teacher. he apologizes, tells Lance about his old teacher, and they laugh over it. Lance even offers to teach Shiro spanish! Shiro nods. learning spanish for a third time wouldn’t be too hard, right?
Shiro’s “patience yields focus” phrase was originally in japanese, and the team (read: Lance) asked what it meant so he told them. then they asked how to pronounce it for future use. it’s now a common phrase that he hears muttering over the coms in tense, or even scary, situations.
was forced to speak galran at times, so learning the language completely was easier for him, if not traumatic.
once back from the astral plane, he taught the paladins more japanese phrases on their “road trip”, eventually turning into a whole class. oops.
one of the first things he says to Shiro is “I love you” in japanese. it’s awkward, and he definitely didn’t say it right, but he said it. that’s what matters.
Keith almost instinctively knows Galran. it’s easy to read and the syllables flow easy from his mouth when sounding out the words, Allura having insist they learn to read the script. it’s confusing and worrying, but then he learns who his mom is. oh.
Keith stops learning Galran, refusing to even read it at times, hoping his knowledge of the language would go away. he doesn’t want to know it. but then he joins the blades and it’s a must. he doesn’t actually enjoy the language until he meets his mom. maybe... maybe it’s not so bad.
Lance’s face when he perfectly pronounced a Galran word correctly on the first try is still his best memory of the language.
Keith, used to journaling, keeps journaling in Korean. Hunk sees it one time, and asks if he can speak it. Keith nods, mentioning how he can’t really understand anyone else though from lack of practice. Hunk offers to be a student. korean interests him and it gives Keith someone to practice on. Keith shyly agrees.
Lance gets jealous that Hunk’s learning a language without him, so Keith suddenly has two students, three if you include Shiro. and then Pidge overhears that he has classes and.... how’d Keith become a korean teacher in space?
all of them still practiced while he was away with the blade. it warms his heart.
Keith refreshed his mother’s memory of korean too! they were both fully fluent when returning from their 2 year mission.
Hunk and Lance still continue to speak spanish and haitian creole when alone, silently worried they’d lose their touch in it. they decide that one day is a spanish day, the next haitian creole, and repeat. they’d speak english with the rest of the team.
and then korean is suddenly in the mix. it’s harder, and Lance complains Keith is a terrible teacher, but he actually likes learning it. it’s fun to learn how to tease Mullet in his own language.
then Keith’s gone. while Lance was the worst student, that made him study the most and remember the language the most. he picks up the classes so they don’t forget what Keith taught them.
then Allura mentions altean more and more, how she misses her native tongue and... the paladins jump on the opportunity to learn altean too, despite already knowing how to semi-read it thanks to the cryopods and their connection to the lions. Lance, surprisingly, is a natural
unsurprisingly, he asks if he could add in some spanish classes too after Pidge shows interest. the others hop on the class with grins. Hunk is Lance’s teaching assistant, ofc.
never in his life did he expect to have so many languages running around in his brain. it’s sorta cool.
Hunk learns altean the quickest, having had to read things in the kitchen and using altean instructions for mechanics.
he never speaks haitian creole around the others unless he’s with Lance or swearing. he just doesn’t want to be like Keith, forced into teaching the whole team.
koreans fun. japanese is better tho. Hunk picks up the random swear words and phrases Shiro says and uses them as his own. Shiro politely corrects him every now and then, but he doesn’t teach Hunk. maybe he can fully learn the language after the war.
galran is something Hunk can easily read, but never can say.
Hunk gets pulled into being a Haitian Creole teacher and French teacher by Lance and Pidge. even though he didn’t want to be a teacher, he must admit it feels nice to have people interested in his languages.
she absolutely sucks at learning languages. Lance may have been Keith’s worst student behavior wise, but Pidge was the worst student learning wise.
how was Katie Holt being foiled by languages??? she knows how to code!
Pidge already knew a bit of Galran before Allura insisted on teaching them, so she was actually ok at learning it. altean, on the other hand... she doesn’t speak about altean.
Pidge, tired of not understanding what Hunk and Lance are muttering around her at times, demands to know what language they’re speaking. apparently it’s two.... two more that shes determined to learn. Hunk and Lance are patient with her, but it takes forever.
Pidge offhandedly mentions her discarded French courses. Hunk mentions his previous fluency. together, they work to refresh both their memories, hoping to gain some of their knowledge of the language back. Lance hops in, but only because it’s so easy, French being so similar to Spanish.
Keith comes back and Pidge forces him into their language courses too. The real Shiro joins.
japanese? korean? what’s that?
these humans have too many languages
Haggar is regretting the clone idea
again.... so. many. LANGUAGES.
how do humans even function?!?!
the team should’ve guessed that he was a clone when he stared at them after saying “patience yields focus”, completely confused.
Fluency levels after the war:
Shiro: completely fluent in japanese, english, korean, galran, and spanish. still learning altean, french, and haitian creole.
Keith: completely fluent in korean, english, japanese, and galran. still learning altean, french, spanish, and haitian creole.
Lance: completely fluent in spanish, english, haitian creole, french, and altean. still learning galran, korean, and japanese.
Hunk: completely fluent in haitian creole, english, spanish, french, and altean. still learning galran, korean, and japanese.
Pidge: completely fluent in english, french, galran. still learning spanish, haitian creole, korean, japanese and altean.
Allura: completely fluent in altean, english, galran, and korean. still learning japanese, spanish, haitian creole, and french.
Coran: completely fluent in altean, english, and galran. still learning korean, spanish, japanese, and haitian creole. (declined french lessons)
(they keep up their language lessons even after Allura dies. on her grave, they write loving messages both in their native languages and Altean. she was gone too soon.)
hi i’m still salty about allura dying but it also still hurts so here... take some small angst :D i hope you enjoyed my headcanons!
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