Asra Speaking Arabic Headcanons
I don’t know how I haven’t seen this yet, but I feel obliged to rectify it.
- he desperately wishes he spoke his mother language, but because he lost his parents (due to a certain goat) he doesn’t know it too well in his young age
- he tries, he really does, finding books to learn the alphabet, and read and write
- but it’s so different from the Vesuvian language, and he can’t just figure it all out
- plus, he doesn't have his parents to teach him any pronunciation, so speech and comprehension are both just out the window after a year or two
- his early years were spent just trying to survive, and the most beneficial language to know when you’re starving is the language of the place you’re currently in
- later on though, when his life stablized more, he finally began learning some in his travels
- he listened to the locals talk, spoke with children, wrote sentences he knew were completely wrong, and spent weeks at a time when he was in his home country so he could get used to hearing the language
- through years of work, passive learning, reading and talking, he could finally call himself fluent again
- you’d never even know really, he speaks like a native
- while he loves his language, however, there’s always a bit of melancholy to it
- he wishes his parents were there to speak to so much
- he also learned a lot of Arabic from poetry, and while it tends to be beautiful, there’s almost always a heavy sort of bittersweetness, the words ripe with regret and longing
- but when he hears it at any sort of festival/celebration, it’s the most vivid, lively language he could ever imagine
- also little known fact, when he and Faust communicate, it’s an Arabic
- yes i’m headcanoning that Faust is bilingual it’s not impossible
- if you don’t know the language and ask him to teach you, he will happily oblige
- won’t stress much on reading/writing because A) it’s a complicated mess and B) you won’t see it too much in Vesuvia anyway
- teaches you phrases he hears you say a lot, phrases he says a lot, domestic things like types of food, furniture, common items, etc.
- does not care if you butcher the pronunciation, he’ll just gently correct you. no condescension, no laughing, no shame
- he finds it endearing actually
- butchering the pronunciation means you’re genuinely trying, and attempting the word and getting embarassed when you say it wrong is infinitely better than just never trying it at all
- also before you look for that “curses in his mother language when angry” headcanon, i’m just gonna tell you that that does not exist for a lot of bi/multilingual people and it doesn’t exist for him either unless he can comfortably communicate with you in Arabic
- (i’m not saying no multilingual person does that ever though stop yelling at me in the notes)
- i will say though, if you can/learn to say his name in his native accent, you will unlock an entirely new level of intimacy with him
- and i don’t mean sexual intimacy i mean just straight up general intimacy and trust
- learning someone else’s language when you care about them is a huge sign of respect and commitment for the most part, so if you put in that effort he will be elated
- favorite nickname would for you would probably be “يا قلبي" (ya qalbi/ya albi)
- also im just gonna say, modern asra? he would be playing songs from Fairouz 24/7
- never took any Arabic courses in school/college but he’s on a first name basis with the all the teachers/professors for them
- he walks in at random hours in between classes when he’s bored and helps anybody who asks
- if you’re in a relationship with him, you’ll know when it becomes a serious one as soon as he starts calling you “habibi/habibti”
- is it cliché? yeah. but i’ll tell you this, he’s never called julian that. no friend-with-benefits gets that name
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