I want to talk about Leo and spanish, because I see a lot of "bilingual Leo" that doesn't make much sense.
Soooo, let me start with this: Leo was not born in a country that speaks Spanish. And only his family talked Spanish. Therefore he would know what the language is like.
But let's not forget that he lives in a place where people speak English.
Well, let me explain this theory based on my life:
I'm argentinian but my mother is Brasilian. Since I was little, Portuguese was spoken in my house. Portuguese was my first language because we were moving to Brazil and I spoke fluent Portuguese until I was 6 years old. But then we stayed at Argentina. So, I had a lot of problems because I did understand Spanish, but I had a lot of mispronunciation and I mixed words between Spanish and Portugues. Over time I had to adapt to speaking Spanish full time, almost completely forgetting Portuguese. Nowadays I'm almost 19 and I haven't spoken Portuguese for years, but there are a lot of words that I thought my whole life were Spanish and weren't.
Based on Leo's story, he might be similar to me in this stuff.
Having said this, let me tell you situations that happen to me with Portuguese that I think would happen to Leo with Spanish:
He forgot how to form complete sentences in Spanish. And even when he tries to relearn Spanish, it is difficult for him and he can't speak or write things in Spanish.
He almost completely understands if someone speaks Spanish to him, though. Maybe he would miss some words but he understands a lot reading or hearing.
He has Spanish words that he always thought were English.
"And then we went to the ferretería and... Why are you looking at me like that... I said something in Spanish again, didn't I?" "Yeah, you did."
Piper and Jason got used to it and know the words he always gets confused.
And there are other words that he refuses to say in English, probably the most common ones, just because he likes how it sound at Spanish.
So whenever he needs to talk about it, he asks Jason or Piper to do it for him.
"I want the... Jason, fresa" "Strawberry flavor, please" "Thank u so much, man"
There are a lot of words that sound funny in English because they resemble words in Spanish
"I'm embarrassed." "You're embarazaste?" "...Yes?" "Wow, Frank, what are you going to name the baby?" "I hate you very much."
Mispronunciations everywhere. But it's something that happens some days. But when it happens it is horribly noticeable.
I mean, he does speak English very well. But sometimes...
SOME LETTERS ARE REALLY DIFFICULT TO HIM SOMETIMES.
People bullied him when he started school because he mispronounced some letters. Like R.
(I think he would have the opposite problem than me, since I was pronouncing the r very soft or as a j without meaning to because in some Portuguese words it sounds like that. So I guess he would have a very strong R.)
Sometimes he would get angry with his mother for instilling Spanish in him so much and that's why the kids make fun of him for talk like that.
Now he miss that his mother speak in Spanish to him.
"DIOS MÍO.", "POR DIOS, JASON", "CHIN", "CARAJO", "JESÚS, MARÍA Y TODOS LOS SANTOS".
Sometimes he says a lot of things in Spanish and makes it seem like he knows how to say them but in reality he used the translator.
"is that a Spanish dictionary...?" "*Kick it under the bed* No, of course not, why would I have one? I know Spanish, muy bueno. Mucho."
"It's very plane." "What? It is not a plane, Leo." "Yeah it is? Like, It is not curved, it has no disturbances. Plane surface." "FLAT, LEO." "NO WAY IT IS THAT. THEN WHAT DOES PLANE MEAN?!#@+$-1(?!"
Now he understands why people looked weirdly at him when he said plane.
He also forget words in Spanish and remember them in English. When this happens he stares at the space and feels his whole soul had lost its essence.
'espanish'
As Spanish speaker, it's very difficult to say 'isn't'. #Team It is not.
"Taired. Terid. Teerid. Tarid. Tæ—" "Tired." "That thing."
"you know, the— the thing. El coso. The coso of the cosito of the cosa—" "You forgot in Spanish too, right?" "Shut up."
SONGS. MEXICAN SONGS THAT HIS MOTHER LISTENED BECAUSE HIS GRANDFATHER LISTENED BECAUSE THEM MAKE HIM REMEMBER HIS HOME.
He doesn't know most of this song, he never listen to this song like, wanting to. They were on the radio, or a CD that his mother was playing while working. But he has those songs on his soul and he recognizes most of them. He even knows how to sing them even if he didn't read the lyrics.
(I'm not Mexican, so please I want Mexican people to make a playlist of which songs he would know. Please I need to know)
He sometimes hears Nico speaking in Italian and for a moment he is there processing because he thought it was Spanish.
(also, this whole thing could apply to Nico and Italian).
