Welcome to the Multi-Lingual Chaos (tag Jehan) No amount of letters could replace seeing his best friend in real life, and Dorian had known from the start of the summer that he couldn’t survive it without seeing Jehan. That, however, was tricky. He only saw his family for a handful of weeks each year, and he wanted to spend time with them too. Whilst he thought his parents would understand, even if he decided he wanted to go and visit Jehan, he wasn’t convinced that Émilie would. Salvation, however, came in the fact that Matthieu clearly did not feel the same way about precious family time. Early into the holidays, Dorian’s characteristically neat writing was upset by the obvious haste in which the opening of the letter had been scrawled.
Chèr Jehan,
Matthieu will be leave the 6th Julie, 8am for to go do Quidditch camp. Come to stay! He will be go for one week!
Perhaps it was a little selfish to expect Jehan to give up his own family when he himself was not willing, but Jehan got to see his brother at school, and his father seemed to be more of a chore than a pleasure, so Dorian had felt that this really was the best solution.
He waved his brother off happily on the morning of the sixth. Jehan was two hours behind him, and would not arrive until nine o’clock his own time, which would be eleven for Dorian. It seemed forever, but Dorian couldn’t tear himself away from the fireplace. As eleven o’clock approached, his mother brought her book in and settled in the living room, to keep him company and be ready to greet their guest. His sister perched on the arm of the sofa, quizzing him with questions that she already full well knew the answers to. He had been trying to stick as much as possible to English with Émilie in the weeks leading up to the visit. His sister was fine with the language really, but lacked confidence. He hadn’t noticed, but his mother had also been trying to sneak in more practise in advance of the arrival of an actual native speaker.
“When is your friend come?” Émilie asked.
“Soon,” Dorian replied.
“He will like me?” she asked, for the umpteenth time.
“Of course,” Dorian assured her again.
Further conversation was halted by the flames turning green, the familiar form of Jehan spinning into the fire. Dorian rushed forward, giving Jehan a firm hug which would also serve the purpose of stopping him losing his balance if he was disoriented from his trip, before kissing him on each cheek.
“It is so good to see you. Ah, Jehan, this is Émilie and my mother,” he added, getting past his excitement and remembering to introduce his family.
“Please to meet you,” his mother offered. Her accent was still distinctly Chinese, although it had developed a slight French lilt over the years, though both of these caused many final letters to be omitted in pronunciation, even if the grammar was remembered in her head - a fact which did not usually bother her, but which she was now acutely aware of in the presence of the American.
Émilie hung back, smiling shyly, trying to work up the nerve to say ‘hello.’ She had been keen to meet Jehan, and her eagerness battled with her reluctance to speak English, until the former won out. Well… to a degree.
“Salut, Jehan. Dorian a dit que vous pouvez parler un peu de Français?” she enquired excitedly. Émilie’s lapse seemed to be all it took for the linguistic floodgates to open.
“Dodo,” his mother addressed him “Wèn nǐ de péngyǒu xǐhuān hē bīng chá háishì níngméng shuǐ ma?”
“Do you want ice jasmine tea or lemonade?” he translated.
Once Jehan had answered, Dorian’s mother left to fetch their drinks.
“Sorry,” he apologised.”I don’t know why they be like this. They both can speak English perfectly good.”
“Hey! Ne parle pas de moi comme si je ne suis pas là,” protested Émilie.
“Ah, tu as compris, so you do speak English then?” he challenged her with a smile. Émilie pouted and shook her head.
“Pas assez bien pour parler avec un Americain,” she muttered, using the perfect childish logic of assuming that Jehan could only understand her when it was beneficial and she wanted him to.
(OOC - Details regarding the visit confirmed with Jehan’s author. His mother’s Chinese is more or less what he translated (‘Ask your friend whether he would like…’). The rest: Dorian a dit que vous pouvez parler un peu de Français? - Dorian said that you can speak a bit of French (using the polite/formal version of 'you'). Ne parle pas de moi comme si je ne suis pas là - Don’t talk about me like I’m not here! Ah, tu as compris - ah, you understood Pas assez bien pour parler avec un Americain - not well enough for speaking with an American)