• Solo • Back to School

[Seira Shiryu]

4th Cylus, 722


"I didn't know it then, but I'd walked into a nightmare." Seira sang, trying to keep the tempo of the unfamiliar song in her head.

She opened her mouth to sing the next line, and then stopped. She had forgotten the next line of the song!

"I didn't know it then, but I'd walked into a nightmare." she sang again, trying to jog her memory.

It didn't help. Seira growled in frustration. She had heard the song just the other trial! It was a new song, admittedly, but it was making its way through the city; especially the taverns. While she had heard it for the first time the other trial, she had heard it several times that trial. Enough to know that it was going to be a popular song. As a singer, Seira took it as a matter of pride to know all of the popular songs that were making their rounds through Rharne. Ideally she wanted to know every song that was sung in Rharne so she could better please the crowd when she played at a festival. But at the very least she wanted to master all of the more popular songs.

"I didn't know it then, but I'd walked into a nightmare."

Still nothing. Her mind was a complete blank. Seira began humming the song in an attempt to jog her memory. Unfortunately that didn't help either. She growled to herself again. Why couldn't she remember the next line?! She'd heard it just a couple of trials ago!

"I didn't know it then, but I'd walked into a nightmare."

"The tavern was full, but not a drop of beer could be found."

Seira looked up to see her sister standing in the doorway of her room.

"That's the next line of the song?" Seira asked.

Seri nodded.

"The tavern was full, but not a drop of beer could be found."

She repeated the line to herself a few times, determined not to forget it again.

"I didn't know it then, but I'd walked into a nightmare.
The tavern was full, but not a drop of beer could be found."

Her tongue tripped over the words, mangling the words in the process. Seri giggled.

"It's not funny!" Seira muttered, her face red with humiliation.

It could be worse. she told herself.

I could be making a fool of myself by mangling the song in public...

Seri frowned when she saw how upset Seira was getting.

"I'm sorry. Would it help if I write the song down, and we can practice it together? I think I remember the whole thing."

Seria nodded as she tried to rein in her emotions. She was angry at herself for failing to sing a song properly, and upset at mangling the song, but that wasn't any reason to take it out on her sister.

"I'm sorry too. I'd like it if we could practice the song together. Thank you."

Seira smiled at her sister gratefully before she spoke again.

"It will have to wait until later though. I have class at the Institute later, and I want to have enough time to eat and get everything I need together before I go."

"I'll have the song on your desk by the time you get home from class." Seri promised.

"Thanks, Seri."

[Seira Shiryu]

Seira got the things she would need for her class ready, then headed out the door. As she walked, she thought about the class she was about to attend. It was an introduction to Linguistics class. To Seira, who knew nothing really about the subject, it sounded both interesting, and important to anyone who wanted to study the subject. Strangely enough, Linguistics wasn't originally what she had planned to study when she decided that she wanted to attend the Institute. It wasn't even the second field of study she had planned to study.

Originally, Seira had wanted to attend the Institute to study medicine. As a member of the Order, she knew that it would be a benefit for her to learn as quickly as possible, and studying at the Institute in addition to working with the Order would help her to do just that. She had also planned to study alchemy since she had learned that alchemy could be used to make medicines more potent. Seira was very much interested in that. She was also interested in learning what else alchemy could do, and whether she could use it to help the Lightning Knights.

When she went to enroll at the Institute however...her plans had taken an abrupt turn. She had overheard a couple of women talking about a linguistics class they had just attended, and how they planned to learn Xanthea as part of a project they were doing for that class. A man had joined them, and teased them a bit in a friendly manner about studying linguistics. He told them that the only reason they were studying that subject was so that they could learn more languages and have more people to gossip with. The three of them had laughed over that for a few bits, and one of the women had punched the man's shoulder lightly. But then they calmed down, and one of the women explained that they were studying linguistics because learning more languages would help them with their primary field of study, which was history. She claimed that researching different events and eras was easier if you could understand the language that the original texts that the histories had been written in. She further explained that an understanding of languages and linguistics also gave insights into the culture of a people, and that in turn made it easier to understand why they did what they did in various historical events.

They had moved on quickly, and Seira had never spoken to them directly, but their words had left an impression on her. While she had little interest in studying history, she did want to help people. It might not be impossible to help them if she didn't understand what they were saying, but it would certainly be more difficult to do so. By learning more languages, she would be more able to help people who didn't understand Common. That might well prove invaluable to a healer.

From that trill on, her decision had been made. She would study Linguistics at the Institute, and learn as many languages as she could so she could better help her patients if they were unable to speak Common. She would learn medicine through working with the Order, and through self study. She would study alchemy on her own time as well.

Before she realized it, Seira was standing in front of her classroom, so she entered the room, and found herself a seat in the front of the room. She had just finished organizing herself when she heard a question that caught her interest.

"Professor Hallowswift, when I was on my way here, I heard several people talking in a language that I didn't recognize. I asked them what it was, and they told me that it was an old language once spoken by the tribe that originally settled in Rharne. I wanted to ask more questions, but I didn't want to be late for class. Do you know what language they were using?"

Seira looked up with interest, and saw a girl with long black hair that fell in a braided rope down her back. She couldn't help but want to know the answer to the question as well. She had been living in Rharne for a long time now, and she didn't know what language her classmate was talking about. If Rharne had a native language, then she wanted to learn it too. It seemed odd that she had never heard it spoken before, but if it was an old language, then maybe it wasn't spoken anymore. But if that were the case, that didn't explain why her classmate was hearing it spoken now...

"You must be talking about Gernevoir. Gernevoir hasn't been spoken much in recent decades. But if you're hearing it spoken now, it must be making a comeback. Languages have the tendency to do that sometimes."

"Will you teach us Gernevoir, Professor Hallowswift?" the girl asked hopefully.

"I don't know the language myself, so I'm afraid that I won't be able to teach it in class, Kelsey. But if you know anyone who has lived in Rharne all their lives, they may be able to teach you, or at least point you in the right direction."

Kelsey looked disappointed, but she went to take a seat in the back of the classroom. Seira wrote the name of the language down, hoping that she had gotten the spelling right. She wrote it the way it sounded, but that wasn't always the correct way of spelling a word. Many of her classmates had lived in Rharne their whole lives, and some of them were her friends. It was possible that one of them knew Gernevoir and would be willing to teach her.

More students had arrived during the conversation, and after a few bits, the professor cleared his throat to get the attention of his students. It was time for class to begin.

[Seira Shiryu]

"Welcome to my introduction to Linguistics class." Professor Hallowswift began as the classroom fell silent.

The professor glanced at his students to see if everyone was paying attention before he continued.

"Linguistics is the study of languages. When I say that, I mean that linguistics involves both the study of language in general, and the learning of new languages."

Seira began taking notes immediately as she continued to listen to the professor's lecture.

"You will be doing both of those things in this class. By the end of this course, it is expected that you will have studied at least one language that you do not currently speak now as well as studying languages in general. You will learn about the core aspects of linguistics, why we study linguistics, and much, much more. More importantly, you will learn that languages are alive. They grow and change over time as people speak them. New words and slang are introduced to languages as they are used while other words die out as they are no longer used in the trial to trial use of a language."

Seira found the idea that languages were alive fascinating, and she underlined it in her notes. It was an idea that she had never even considered before. A young woman sitting a few seats away from Seira raised her hand the professor paused to call on her.

"If languages are alive, does that mean that they can die too?"

It was a good question, and Seira waited eagerly to hear what the answer was. She wasn't disappointed.

"Yes it does...?

"Inara." the young woman replied to Professor Hallowswift's unspoken question.

"Languages do indeed die, Inara. A dead language is a language that is no longer used in everytrial life. They are found only in old texts that are valued by few other than historians and linguists."

Seira carefully copied this information down as well. She wondered if she would have the chance to learn any dead languages during her study of linguistics...or even if she would want to do so as her main interest in linguists was to learn more languages than she already knew so she would be better able to help others. Her thoughts were sidetracked when the professor called on another student.

"Yes...?"

"It's Kevril. Why do people study linguistics, Professor? I mean...I want to become a translator, so I am studying the field in order to learn as many languages as I can for the line of work I want to pursue. But you said earlier that linguistics went beyond just learning new languages."

The professor nodded.

"There can be many reasons for studying linguistics. One is that teachers need an understanding of linguistics if they are to teach it to their students. Another is that people who love languages often study the subject to be better able to understand the languages that they love. Can anyone think of another reason why someone might want to study linguists for itself rather than as a means to learn new languages?"

A few of the other students raised their hands and offered suggestions. Each one was acknowledged by the professor and discussed briefly before he moved on. During all of this, Seira took careful notes. Starting with very little knowledge of linguistics as she was, she felt as if she needed to catch up to the other students as quickly as she could, and in order to do so she needed to learn as much as possible in each class.

After a while, Professor Hallowswift guided the lecture back to the original discussion. He went into depth about what he was going to teach, and what his expectations of his students were. He told them that they would be required to write several papers throughout his class, and that there would be a lot of required reading involved. Finally, he told them that there would be a lot of independent research required for his class. He added that he would give them a list of books for additional reading that while he would not require that they read them, they provide them with a lot of information that would be valuable in the research they would need to do for their papers.

When he was finished speaking, the professor asked if anyone had any more questions. Seira paid attention to the questions that were asked, and the answers that Professor Hallowswift gave, but she also used the time to double check her notes to see if she had missed anything important. After a while, the professor assigned some homework, and dismissed the class. Seira thought about what she learned and realized that she was looking forward to her next class while she gathered up her things and headed home.

[Fate]

Your Review

Seira

Overview

Hello Seira. Thank you for the thread and the chance to read it. I did love how you incorporated the challenge into thread. It was a good basic introduction into languages and how Seira learns about the location Rharne dialect. Maybe as she progress with learning language she can combine that with her singing. On a side note please just PM Pigs directly about completing challenges so other reviewers confused on how to reward it. Thank you for the read. Fate.

Points

XP: 10
Renown: 0
Language: Gernevoir

Loot

IC:

Knowledge

Played To Skill level

Linguistics: Linguistics: linguistics involves both the study of language in general, and the learning of new languages
Linguistics: Linguistics: languages are alive; they grow and change over time with use
Linguistics: Linguistics: a dead language is one that is no longer used in everytrial life
Linguistics: Linguistics: there can be many reasons for studying linguistics; some are that teachers need an understanding of the subject if they are to teach it to their students, and people who love languages often study the subject to be better able to understand the languages that they love
Research: Research: books are a good source of information when researching a subject

If you have any questions or concerns regarding this review - drop me a PM.