Uma Musume: From Being Knocked Ten Meters Away

Chapter 617 Their faces turned green
"Spoken language? Well~ you can always understand by gesturing!"

Golden Boat, with a Pocky stick dangling from its mouth, waved its hand dismissively.
"Back in my day in France, I was able to get by in Paris with just 'Bonjour' (hello) and 'Merci' (thank you)!"
"Oh right, there's also 'Oui' (yes) and 'Non' (no)!"

"Adding a 'Baguette' at most would be no problem at all!"

I also visited the Zhongshan Festival, which had also run the Arc de Triomphe and even won second place.

"Foreign languages... I guess you need the right environment. For example, I knew some French for a competition back then, but I've basically forgotten it all now."

Similar to the Golden Ship, the Zhongshan Celebration participant was seen sucking on a lollipop.

"In short, it's probably hopeless for you to ask me or Ah Chuan about this... Of course, it's even less likely for you to ask her."

"I can at least speak a few words of French, and my English is passable too, but she..."

She glanced at the smug golden ship beside her and ruthlessly remarked:
"She really only knows those few words."

Then, with an apologetic and earnest tone, he said:

"However, I think that, just like in a competition, confidence is even more important than language skills."

"Even if your pronunciation isn't perfect, just speak up and communicate boldly. The other person will feel your sincerity. That's how I learned."

"Of course, it would be better to learn about some local etiquette and customs in advance."

"Other...masters, do you have any suggestions?"

Northern Genko and Satomi Kozumi eagerly looked at the Gold Master on the other side.

The goldsmith glanced over and snorted:
"My French isn't very good either; I was just focused on training at the time."

"My English is alright, I can even practice with you guys, but your spoken English... I mean, Xiao Bei, it's just too... too..."

She paused for a moment, seemingly unable to find the right word that wouldn't hurt, and then hummed again:
"In short, I can be your sparring partner. You should also improve your spoken English before we talk about overseas expeditions."

“…Uh, yes, Master sir…”

Feeling the undeniable pressure from the Gold Master, Northern Black Horse awkwardly twitched his lips and quickly agreed.

Besides the three Gold Masters, the Northern Black Horse also inquired about the Gold Journey and the Dream Journey.

The experiences of the seniors seem quite interesting, and their suggestions are more or less inspiring.

But regardless of the foreign language proficiency of her predecessors, their methods... did not seem to be entirely suitable for her.

For her, speaking a foreign language is still like an insurmountable wall.

However, the stubbornness and resilience inherent in the Northern Black Horse were fully unleashed at this moment.

No matter how high the wall is, it's not as far as the finish line; no matter how difficult the process is, it can't compare to the pain of pushing your physical limits day after day.

She had no intention of giving up.

During breaks from her daily basic training, she would take out a sticky note filled with words and sentence structures and recite them repeatedly.

On her way back to the dormitory after school, she often listened to foreign language broadcasts with her headphones in.

Even when she takes a bath at night, her stumbling monologues would float out of the tub.

She knew her methods were clumsy and her progress was slow.

But she firmly believes that, just like the improvement brought about by countless tedious training sessions, as long as there are enough repetitions, quantitative changes will eventually lead to qualitative changes.

The final exams came and went quickly, and the overall performance of the Northern Xuanju team remained stable with a slight improvement. They also passed the foreign language written exam smoothly.

My spoken English has improved somewhat, but I'm still quite far from being able to have a fluent conversation.

Undeterred, she continued practicing and sought advice from more seniors. That day, while attending a friend's gathering with Special Week and Silent Suzuka, Northern Genko met with the American-born Condor Heroes, who had won the Arc de Triomphe Prize second, as well as the ever-excellent student, Saint King Halo, and other seniors.

After another round of oral practice with little success, Northern Xuanju was somewhat dejected.

"Sigh...do I really not have the talent to learn languages..." she muttered softly, looking distressed.

Upon hearing this, the Divine Eagle immediately leaned over and put his arm around her shoulder:

"Well, well~ Xiao Bei, don't be too anxious! Speaking of which, have you discussed this with your trainer? Trainer Yasui seems very reliable!"

"Huh? Zhen?"

Northern Black Steed paused for a moment, then quickly shook his head:

"No, he's been extremely busy lately. After the Arima Memorial, there are a lot of follow-up matters to handle with the URA Association, the academy, and the sponsors. Meetings are coming one after another..."

"He'll probably be a little free around the Lunar New Year, so I figured it wasn't appropriate to bother him with something so trivial."

"How can this be a small matter!"

The eagle disapproved and raised its voice:

"Overseas expeditions are also part of the competition preparation. Language barriers are a big problem!"

"Are you going to do what Little Te did, in such a big event like the Japan Cup, in front of so many people, and say to your opponents 'La victoire està mo' (Watch out)?"

"Let me tell you, your little senior Trump was talking to a lot of opponents back then, and wow~ I saw it through binoculars..."

She paused, grabbed her cheeks, and pulled them outwards exaggeratedly:

Their faces turned green!

The surroundings suddenly became quiet.

Immediately, Zhou's face flushed red at a visible speed. She almost jumped up like a cat whose tail had been stepped on, shouting in embarrassment and anger:
"Wait! Little Eagle, aren't we teaching Little Bei a foreign language? Why are you suddenly bringing this up?"

She became more and more excited as she spoke, gesturing wildly with her hands:

"And I know perfectly well now, okay? It means 'Victory is mine,' not some greeting!"

Shenying was already laughing so hard she was doubled over, looking smug about her successful prank, which was clearly the purpose of her bringing up the topic.

Even the Holy King's Halo, who had been deep in thought, couldn't help but turn his face away, his shoulders trembling slightly, while the always lazy Qingyun Sky simply sneered.

Silent Suzuka smiled gently and reached out to pat Special Week's shoulder as a gesture of comfort.

Grasshopper looked at Eagle with a slightly reproachful look: "Alright, Eagle, stop bullying Little Te."

Then, she turned to the somewhat stunned Northern Black Horse, her tone gentle yet earnest:
"But what Xiaoying said is actually not wrong. Foreign languages... it's good to learn them if you can, otherwise it can cause misunderstandings and sometimes be quite troublesome."

Northern Black Horse nodded vigorously.

She had known these seniors for a long time, and during breaks in training and competitions, she had heard bits and pieces of this famous "anecdotes" from various sources.

Before the Japan Cup that year, Zhou, who didn't understand French at all, was deliberately tricked by the more knowledgeable senior, Shenying, who was familiar with the situation overseas. As a result, he mistook the provocative "declaration of victory" for a friendly "pre-match greeting" and loudly "declared war" on the strong European team, a senior, with great seriousness and energy, and even "declared war" on the entire circle...

Just imagining that scene makes the Northern Black Horse's scalp tingle.

Making a fool of herself is secondary; she's not immune to making fools of herself.

But if you accidentally offend the other person because of a language barrier, or even affect the game, that would be really bad.

(End of this chapter)