05. (xanseop) linguistic deficiencies
linguistic deficiencies;
PG; kiseop/xander; fluff; ~1k words;
u-kiss party; prompt 04; past tense
It is Saturday morning that finds Kiseop sitting in Alexander's living room, the owner of the house making breakfast for both of them. He fiddles with his fingers for a while and tweets a gratuitous photo of himself, then pokes around underneath Xander's coffee table until he finds a book. Curious at the unfamiliar, though Asian, characters, he flips it open and is fascinated to find that he... doesn't understand a word.
When his hyung comes back bringing hot cocoa and cookies with him, Kiseop has stowed the book back in its proper place and focuses on breakfast for a while. Winter has arrived in Seoul and brought days that have been getting colder, so they savour the warmth of the cocoa, sipping at it in silence. After staring very seriously at Xander over the edge of his mug for about a minute or so, Kiseop speaks.
"Hyung," he begins, "I've got something to ask you."
"Shoot." The aegyo boy seems to think Kiseop's got something on his mind, so he says this with a straight face, fingers tapping gently on the tabletop.
"I don't know how to say this..." He twiddles his fingers a bit, then looks up at Alexander with the utmost sincerity. "I...want to learn Chinese."
"What." Alexander stares at him like he has turned into Eli and is pecking at the cookie crumbs on his plate.
"You know!" Kiseop has never been one for talking that much, really, so he flails about for a bit. "Chinese!"
Xander rolls his eyes, snickering at him. "I know what you said. What I mean is what for, you weirdo."
"Because," he explains painstakingly, "I only speak Korean. And apparently not very well, at that. Better than you, though," he adds, seeing the older about to make a snide remark. "And the only thing I can say in English is "good morning" on my twitter, so I was thinking.... why not start with an Asian language first, yanno? With characters and stuff."
Alexander squints at him a bit, like he wants to say "Why not Japanese?", but shrugs instead, easy-going as he is. "Okay, since we've got nothing to do, anyway."
The pupil-wannabe smiles brightly and instantly pulls a notebook out of his bag. "Ready, songsaengnim!"
"Wait a bit, would you," drawls the older, standing up and gathering their dishes. "Never seen you so eager," he adds, but it's not without a tinge of amusement, eyes curving into crescents.
Kiseop blowfish-faces him in reply.
-
"Okay, so the basics you must know would definitely be nouns. You know, like "me" and "you". And other things kids learn at a young age, like "mother" and "father". And "car". And "tree". And so on." Alexander lectures and writes down the characters 我, 你, 妈妈, 爸爸, 车, 树 as he speaks, sliding the paper over to his student so he can copy it. "And then there are joining words, like 和. It means "and"."
Kiseop dutifully copies down the foreign characters, head whipping between what he's copied and what his bandmate has written. "Your handwriting is dreadful," he comments helpfully, "Even if your Hangul handwriting is neat and all. I'm pretty sure this is atrocious."
"What?!" Alexander scoffs, feigning hurt at his dongsaeng's insult. "I am hurt; my handwriting, I will have you know, is beautiful."
"If I asked Dongho or Eli I'm sure they wouldn't agree with you."
"..." He has nothing to say to that. "My handwriting isn't what's important, helloooo."
"True that," Kiseop concedes. "So how does the grammar work? Like... how do you say "I'm going with my mommy to the market"?"
"Mommy," comes the snicker, which he studiously ignores. "Simply? 我和妈妈到市场去. Quite literally "I and mother to market go"."
"Okay." Kiseop makes another note, scratching the words slowly into his notebook. "Chinese is hard."
Alexander shrugs. "You're the one who wanted to learn it."
"True that," the ulzzang says again. "What if you wanna say you went with your mommy to the market?"
"More or less you just add a "刚才," in front. It means "just now". So it refers to having gone to the market with your umma just now."
"'Kay...does that mean Chinese has no past tense?"
Alexander considers it. "Kind of. You kinda hint at the past-ness of something instead of having a past tense, really." Like with the word "了" you can insinuate that something has been done, too. "我做了我的功课" is roughly "I do-ed (did) my homework"."
"What about something that's over?"
"No past tense in that aspect, not really."
"Hmm." Kiseop flips a page and jots down more.
-
Three hours later, Kiseop can construct shaky, pre-memorized sentences, and Xander is exhausted from the effort of teaching a language. "I'm tiiiiiiired," he whines, flopping onto his table.
"你觉得累," pronounces Kiseop proudly, pointing his pen at his teacher and sounding ridiculously pleased with himself.
"Well done," his hyung says dismissively, waving a hand at him. "My head hurts, stoppit. You. Ask. So many questions."
Kiseop shrugs cheerfully, evidently not caring. "I have three words for you, hyung!"
Alexander raises his head just long enough to give him a long-suffering stare. "谢谢你? You're very welcome."
The younger seems kind of agitated by the oldest member's nonchalance. "No! It's important!"
Xander quirks an eyebrow as if to say are you saying basic courtesy isn't important? "我很饿, perhaps? Help yourself, my kitchen's over there."
"Hyuuuuuuuuuuuuuung," Kiseop whines.
"Alright, alright." Alexander sits up and faces his junior squarely. "Yeah?"
"Ah...it's just...well - - 我爱你," he says shyly, barely bringing himself to meet his hyung's huge eyes with his own. The awkwardness is overwhelming, and he feels as if he might take back the words he took so long to get out. "And there's no past tense in Chinese, right?" he adds hopefully, when Alexander doesn't say anything.
"C'mere." Kiseop doesn't need to be told twice, edging around the table to squash himself face-first into Xander's embrace.
"You," mumbles Xander around a mouthful of his hair, "Are such a dork."
"我知道," Kiseop replies, "I know."
---
notes:
1. I've never actually seen Xander's Chinese handwriting, but his Japanese handwriting is dreadful, so I'm imagining his Chinese handwriting would be something along those lines. His Korean handwriting is pretty though.
2. I do speak Chinese, but my command of the language is abysmal. Truly. Even after learning it for about eight years.
3. Sorry if it was terribly corny!!! (u_u;)
4. Oops, as volatileflame pointed out, Xander would use traditional Chinese. My bad (^o^); Assume he's teaching Kiseop in simplified Chinese because it's simpler, 'kay?
PG; kiseop/xander; fluff; ~1k words;
u-kiss party; prompt 04; past tense
It is Saturday morning that finds Kiseop sitting in Alexander's living room, the owner of the house making breakfast for both of them. He fiddles with his fingers for a while and tweets a gratuitous photo of himself, then pokes around underneath Xander's coffee table until he finds a book. Curious at the unfamiliar, though Asian, characters, he flips it open and is fascinated to find that he... doesn't understand a word.
When his hyung comes back bringing hot cocoa and cookies with him, Kiseop has stowed the book back in its proper place and focuses on breakfast for a while. Winter has arrived in Seoul and brought days that have been getting colder, so they savour the warmth of the cocoa, sipping at it in silence. After staring very seriously at Xander over the edge of his mug for about a minute or so, Kiseop speaks.
"Hyung," he begins, "I've got something to ask you."
"Shoot." The aegyo boy seems to think Kiseop's got something on his mind, so he says this with a straight face, fingers tapping gently on the tabletop.
"I don't know how to say this..." He twiddles his fingers a bit, then looks up at Alexander with the utmost sincerity. "I...want to learn Chinese."
"What." Alexander stares at him like he has turned into Eli and is pecking at the cookie crumbs on his plate.
"You know!" Kiseop has never been one for talking that much, really, so he flails about for a bit. "Chinese!"
Xander rolls his eyes, snickering at him. "I know what you said. What I mean is what for, you weirdo."
"Because," he explains painstakingly, "I only speak Korean. And apparently not very well, at that. Better than you, though," he adds, seeing the older about to make a snide remark. "And the only thing I can say in English is "good morning" on my twitter, so I was thinking.... why not start with an Asian language first, yanno? With characters and stuff."
Alexander squints at him a bit, like he wants to say "Why not Japanese?", but shrugs instead, easy-going as he is. "Okay, since we've got nothing to do, anyway."
The pupil-wannabe smiles brightly and instantly pulls a notebook out of his bag. "Ready, songsaengnim!"
"Wait a bit, would you," drawls the older, standing up and gathering their dishes. "Never seen you so eager," he adds, but it's not without a tinge of amusement, eyes curving into crescents.
Kiseop blowfish-faces him in reply.
-
"Okay, so the basics you must know would definitely be nouns. You know, like "me" and "you". And other things kids learn at a young age, like "mother" and "father". And "car". And "tree". And so on." Alexander lectures and writes down the characters 我, 你, 妈妈, 爸爸, 车, 树 as he speaks, sliding the paper over to his student so he can copy it. "And then there are joining words, like 和. It means "and"."
Kiseop dutifully copies down the foreign characters, head whipping between what he's copied and what his bandmate has written. "Your handwriting is dreadful," he comments helpfully, "Even if your Hangul handwriting is neat and all. I'm pretty sure this is atrocious."
"What?!" Alexander scoffs, feigning hurt at his dongsaeng's insult. "I am hurt; my handwriting, I will have you know, is beautiful."
"If I asked Dongho or Eli I'm sure they wouldn't agree with you."
"..." He has nothing to say to that. "My handwriting isn't what's important, helloooo."
"True that," Kiseop concedes. "So how does the grammar work? Like... how do you say "I'm going with my mommy to the market"?"
"Mommy," comes the snicker, which he studiously ignores. "Simply? 我和妈妈到市场去. Quite literally "I and mother to market go"."
"Okay." Kiseop makes another note, scratching the words slowly into his notebook. "Chinese is hard."
Alexander shrugs. "You're the one who wanted to learn it."
"True that," the ulzzang says again. "What if you wanna say you went with your mommy to the market?"
"More or less you just add a "刚才," in front. It means "just now". So it refers to having gone to the market with your umma just now."
"'Kay...does that mean Chinese has no past tense?"
Alexander considers it. "Kind of. You kinda hint at the past-ness of something instead of having a past tense, really." Like with the word "了" you can insinuate that something has been done, too. "我做了我的功课" is roughly "I do-ed (did) my homework"."
"What about something that's over?"
"No past tense in that aspect, not really."
"Hmm." Kiseop flips a page and jots down more.
-
Three hours later, Kiseop can construct shaky, pre-memorized sentences, and Xander is exhausted from the effort of teaching a language. "I'm tiiiiiiired," he whines, flopping onto his table.
"你觉得累," pronounces Kiseop proudly, pointing his pen at his teacher and sounding ridiculously pleased with himself.
"Well done," his hyung says dismissively, waving a hand at him. "My head hurts, stoppit. You. Ask. So many questions."
Kiseop shrugs cheerfully, evidently not caring. "I have three words for you, hyung!"
Alexander raises his head just long enough to give him a long-suffering stare. "谢谢你? You're very welcome."
The younger seems kind of agitated by the oldest member's nonchalance. "No! It's important!"
Xander quirks an eyebrow as if to say are you saying basic courtesy isn't important? "我很饿, perhaps? Help yourself, my kitchen's over there."
"Hyuuuuuuuuuuuuuung," Kiseop whines.
"Alright, alright." Alexander sits up and faces his junior squarely. "Yeah?"
"Ah...it's just...well - - 我爱你," he says shyly, barely bringing himself to meet his hyung's huge eyes with his own. The awkwardness is overwhelming, and he feels as if he might take back the words he took so long to get out. "And there's no past tense in Chinese, right?" he adds hopefully, when Alexander doesn't say anything.
"C'mere." Kiseop doesn't need to be told twice, edging around the table to squash himself face-first into Xander's embrace.
"You," mumbles Xander around a mouthful of his hair, "Are such a dork."
"我知道," Kiseop replies, "I know."
---
notes:
1. I've never actually seen Xander's Chinese handwriting, but his Japanese handwriting is dreadful, so I'm imagining his Chinese handwriting would be something along those lines. His Korean handwriting is pretty though.
2. I do speak Chinese, but my command of the language is abysmal. Truly. Even after learning it for about eight years.
3. Sorry if it was terribly corny!!! (u_u;)
4. Oops, as volatileflame pointed out, Xander would use traditional Chinese. My bad (^o^); Assume he's teaching Kiseop in simplified Chinese because it's simpler, 'kay?