Something I think could be really interesting either as a crack fic or a more serious work, is Shane getting seriously concerned by Ilya relaxing his English around him.
By this I mean that a lot of people, when speaking in their second language, will relax how careful they are being to say everything right when they are in a very safe environment around people they trust. I do this around my friends with things like leaving verbs un-conjugated if it’s not necessary for comprehension, reverting to my native sentence structure, and using much more basic sentences and vocabulary than I would in a more formal setting.
This does not speak to an inability to properly speak the language, simply that in a relaxed environment, it can be really nice to just be able to talk to someone without putting too much thought into making sure your words are accurate.
This, coupled with that fact that they are hockey players, makes me think it could be really funny for Shane to start to notice Ilya’s English worsening slightly around him, leading him to start panicking that Ilya got a concussion or has some other head injury.
Shane doesn’t want to bring it up directly, because he doesn’t want to insult Ilya or drive him away, but he is quietly driving himself crazy with worry, all the while Ilya is living his best life knowing there is someone he does not have to worry about performing for.
Hi! Canadian, anglophone, French second language speaker here!
idk if this matters to anyone, except maybe for fic writing purposes?
re: Shane + the French language
tl;dr: in "Heated Rivalry" (TV), French, to show!Shane (and to Canada as a country) is not the same as what Russian is to Ilya (and Russia).
(just cause I've seen French language mentioned in some headcanons and fics in a way that made me go "huh..")
show!Shane is not as fluent in French as book!Shane.
The book makes a point to say that Shane is fluent in French and English, which is why Montreal is a good fit for him. In the book he also converses in French with some of his francophone teammates.
In the show, we only see Shane speak French one time, and it's with the reporter in ep 1. The way he speaks is kind of..halting. Like it's not super smooth and confident. And his accent is...not great. We never see him speaking French with his teammates, parents (Yuna's from Montreal, David went to university there) or even, for example, the bartender in ep 4 (in Montreal, at a restaurant with a French name, playing French language music).
If you've heard Connor Storrie or Jacob Tierney speak French, that's what French second language fluency sounds like. show!Shane cannot speak French like that. I don't think show!Shane is as confident in French as Ilya is in English (which makes Ilya's reaction to Shane speaking French in ep 1 so interesting because like Ilya baby you also speak two languages and even though it's only 2010 atp, you're arguably probably already better in your second language than Shane is in his).
(I've been speaking French for 27 years and I'm not as good as Connor or Jacob. Francophones tell me that I'm pretty good, but you can still tell that it's my second language (probably similar to how I've seen some Russian speakers talk about Connor's Russian) because I still have an "English tint to my voice". And show!Shane is not as good as me.)
all that to say--show!Shane wouldn't accidentally lapse into French during sex, or when he's tired or high like in the hospital scene in ep 5. And Ilya learning French would be nowhere near as intimate and emotional as Shane learning Russian.
book!Shane, idk. It's not really explored much beyond those two examples I mentioned above (and Shane making the Irina Foundation announcement in both English and French), so you can probably interpret or imagine book!Shane's competency in French any way you want.
Also, (and this goes for book AND show) French is not actually spoken that much in most of Canada. If Ilya meets another Russian player, he knows they speak Russian. If Shane meets another Canadian player from anywhere other than Quebec, they probably don't speak French.
Canada has 13 provinces and territories. Quebec is the only one with French as the sole official language. One other province and all three territories have French as one of their official languages (New Brunswick: English and French; Northwest Territories: 11 official languages including English and French; Yukon Territories: English and French; Nunavut: Inuktitut, English and French). The remaining 8 provinces have English as their sole official language, or de facto primary language.
Anglophones make up about 75% of Canadians and Francophones make up about 21%. About 18% of all Canadians are bilingual. Most bilingual Canadians are Francophones who can also speak English, not the other way around. About 48% of Canadian Francophones also speak English, whereas only 9% of Canadian Anglophones also speak French.
If someone is from Quebec, there's a very good chance (about 87%) they speak French. If someone is from New Brunswick, there's about a 42% chance they speak French. But if you're dealing with (white, settler) Canadians from any other part of the country, the chances they they speak French are probably gonna be about 10%. I would never assume that someone from Ontario, Alberta or BC could speak French. The Quebecois are generally surprised when any Non-Quebecois, (white, settler) Canadians can speak French (many Canadians who are immigrants speak French because they moved here from predominantly francophone countries, of which there are many in the Caribbean and Africa. Example: book!JJ, who is Haitian-Canadian).
So yeah. French language, to show!Shane (and to Canada as a country) is not the same as what Russian language is to Ilya (and Russia).
Transcript: "I have just been reading papers about how AAC is a second language, because of how it is learned, and because it has its own grammar and structure, also because it is part of a unique culture just like ASL is its own language with its own culture.
So congratulations to all my fellow second language learners. You are awesome!"
ok but until this morning i 100% thought that "locust" was an old timey word for lobster
my first encounter with the word was in asoiaf dany chapters and since english isn't my first language, i didn't bother to search every word i didn't know and just kinda threw it in a big bag with "grrm words" written on it, along with all the horse types and bits of armour
it isn't until today when i was reading a post about the plagues of egypt in the bible that i went "hold on, in english bibles god sent lobsters to destroy the crops and invade the houses but my french bible says "sauterelles" so shouldn't it be grasshoppers?"
lo and behold, a quick dictionary search let me know that locusts are in fact insects and not lobsters which???? you mean to tell me that strong belwas was poisonned by grasshoppers???? puny little insects???? and not cool awesome lobsters???? you mean to tell me my entire vision of daznak's pit is shattered???? thanks holy bible and also grrm
Ten. The pen is picked up, full of ink, it desires to be used. Hear its prayer, fulfill its purpose. The writer has no other choice but to oblige. Nine. With a slight tremor in his hand, the pen makes contact with a blank page, soon to be blossoming with another soul-wrenching piece. He makes no move. Eight. The room shrinks, the walls approach him with determined steps that echo, ring in his ears. Seven. He holds the pen tightly, as if it will escape the second he lets go. But both know it’s a lie. Six. The sound of his heart beating suppresses the marching of the walls, their chant: “Fulfill your task”. He can’t. He can’t move his hand. Five. The pen itself looks up at him with worry. His throat is dry. Four. The walls are getting closer, demanding to witness the completion. Three. The sweat drips down onto the page. Two. His legs weaken. One. The walls whisper in his ear “FAILURE”.
