[ON HOLD] The Empress || Countryhumans AU

0.7

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【 Родной Язык 】
ᵐᵒᵗʰᵉʳ ᵗᵒⁿᵍᵘᵉ
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"Alright, Russia, this is going to be a long lesson and it'll take us at least 3 or 4 months for you to speak it with decent grammar, a year tops for fluency," America said, taking her Russian homework from years ago. "These are pretty old, I learned Russian when I was... At least 15 years old."

"You were 15 when you learned Russian?" Russia asked. "So you're fluent at it?"

"A bit rusty, but yeah," she said, grabbing more things: her books, her notebooks, everything. "I was supposed to conserve the language since it wasn't used anymore after the abdication. Now, let's start with the basics: first, you have to get used to listening to Russian things. For example, I'll try to say something in Russian and you'll have to tell me what you understand, alright?"

Russia nodded.

"Today we'll start with the alphabet: Cyrillic. It's different from the Latin one, instead, it has different symbols, and it varies depending on what language you speak, but for now, we're going to focus on Russian," she said, showing her the alphabet. "Are you ready?"

Russia nodded, sitting beside the princess. "How many letters are there?"

"Also depends on the language. Serbian and Bulgarian have the least, while Russian and Ukrainian the most with 33, 32 if you exclude the soft sign."

"I think I remember a bit of Russian," she said.

"Well? Why don't you tell me what you remember?"

Russia fiddled with her fingers. "Uhm... Меня зовут Россия, мне 19 лет, и я живу в Европе. [My name is Russia, I am 19 years old and I live in Europe.]"

'That was good!" America said, clapping. "We'll have to work on the pronunciation, but I'm sure it won't take long for you to re-learn it again! How do you say 'I am the princess of Asia'?"

"Я... Принцесса Азии...? [I am... The princess of Asia...?]" Russia said hesitantly.

"Correct! I guess you only need to re-learn how to read and be able to have conversations," the princess said. "And, we also need to make a speech for when you'll be crowned."

"A speech?"

"Yes! Have you seen my father's coronation? 'I will, to my power, cause Law and Justice, to be executed in all my judgments' and all of that? You'll have to do something similar."

"Isn't it better to... You know, tell a speech without depending on a written one?" she asked, "It just seems like we're following a script or something, wouldn't it be natural to just say one at the moment?"

"People need someone to look up to, someone who's perfect in every aspect, Russia," America said, writingthe alphabet on a sheet of paper, "They don't want to see flaws in someone, otherwise they'll stop trusting."

"But don't they need someone with whom they relate?"

"Don't they also need someone to trust?" America chuckled. "This is the alphabet. Try to remember the pronunciation."

---

"Подождите, повторите это! Повторите это! [Wait, repeat that! Repeat that!]"

"Нет! Ты будешь смеяться надо мной за это! [No! You'll laugh at me for that!]"

Canada was passing by her sister's studio and heard laughing inside. She slowly peeked through the door and saw the two women looking at a sheet of paper and writing.