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“Your next set of exams includes foreign languages, I was thinking since you did so well at ancient language, we might focus on that. And you enjoyed studying it when Yuri tutored you, didn't you?”
Loid and Anya were ambling through the park with Bond. It was the weekend so they could take their time, but they were out early so Loid could fit in a mission later. The park was quiet at this time of day and Loid figured it was a perfect opportunity to work on an attack plan for Anya's upcoming midterms.
“Yeah, I guess so,” Anya yawned. She cursed her Papa's constant need to work, she was sure she should still be in bed right now.
“you get a choice of three different languages on your exam, is there any particular language you'd like to learn?”
Anya thought for a second.
“I want to learn westalian. So I can make world peace.”
“Is that so? Do you think that would help make peace?”
“Yep. I think maybe people in east and west just can't understand each other, and if they knew what they were saying, then they wouldn't need to fight anymore”
“Well, first of all, you do know the east and west aren't fighting? We aren't at war anymore.”
“What about the war of inframation?” Anya looked very seriously at Loid.
'Does she mean the war of information?' he wondered
“Where have you even heard of things like that”
Anya panicked for a second– she had definitely heard that from her father's thoughts. She forgot she can’t talk about spy things with Papa.
“Heard it from some grown ups or something…”
'I guess that makes sense,’ Loid thought, ‘people like to gossip.’,
“Well the war of information isn't an actual war, there is no fighting with guns or bombs. It's far more complicated than that”
“Do spies fight in the war of information?”
Loid thought carefully on how to answer that. He had to feign ignorance. Of course spies fought the war of information, they were the very soldiers filling the ranks on both sides. But a psychiatrist shouldn't know the details of what spies do.
But he also can't be too evasive, that might have the opposite effect, as though he is hiding something. And Anya would want a satisfying answer.
Speaking of Anya, she was currently staring into space, regretting having ever asked a question as she sensed her fathers thoughts beginning to spiral.
“I suppose they probably do.”
Disappointing answer papa,’ Anya thought.
“Well spies have guns and stuff, right? Like bondman! So there is fighting?”
This conversation felt like it was going in a dangerous direction. How had they even got here? They were supposed to be discussing Anya's studies, but Loid had decided to entertain Anya's questions about Westalis. It wasn't often he got to acknowledge his home country, but the innocent curiosity of a child was a good excuse that any observers would think nothing of. However, this hadn’t gone the way he expected.
He never knew what to expect when it came to Anya. Although in hindsight he should've known with her obsession for spy stories, this is what Anya would want to talk about.
“well if you ever meet a spy, ask them and let me know. But I don't think we need to worry about it.” Loid laughed, giving the perfect impression of a father amused by his daughter’s nonsense.
Anya nodded happily, she knew she had won this time. She knows papa uses guns sometimes, so she didn't need to ask anyone else.
“Anyway, I hate to burst your bubble, but the language between Ostania and Westalis is very similar. Almost identical, in fact. If you were to meet someone from Westalis today and have a conversation with them, you would likely understand everything they said to you. And vice versa.”
'The irony,’ he thought.
'Oh right’ Anya thought.
Anya looked up at Loid with confusion. “But that doesn't make sense. If everyone can understand each other, why are they still fighting?”
“Understanding someone's words doesn't necessarily mean you understand them.”
There are a number of other factors that can affect your understanding of other people and what they say. Not only can the intonation and emotion behind words change the meaning but some words have hidden meanings, or cultural influences, or dialect differences. People can lie or omit information, or they can believe what they are saying is true but really are lying to themselves.
Twilight had learned as much as he could about language as part of his spy training. He learned every dialect in Ostania, he learned to read body language, spot tells of lying, understand various codes and lip read, he even knew sign language. He never went into any conversation without as much information about the other person as was possible. And even then, he often felt he didn't understand people.
He especially didn't understand Anya.
His daughter was staring down at the ground intensely, kicking a twig along as they walked. She wondered if mind reading was the only way to really understand people. After all, it doesn't matter if someone lies to you when you can read their mind. But no. The more she thought about it, she didn't always understand people either. She didn't understand why mama didn't tell papa she loves him, or why Becky likes romance so much, or why Damian got so mad whenever she spoke to him. Maybe Papa was right.
"But I think you’re right. It doesn't make sense.”
Anya looked up in surprise.
“I am?”
“Sure. In an ideal world, we would just talk to each other. No more fighting. It would make sense.”
Papa looked kinda sad now. Anya took it as a sign that it was time to change the topic.
“...I think I'd like to study Hungarian for the exam.”
“That sounds like a good idea,” he smiled down at her. Conversations like this felt heavy, but maybe it would help them understand each other more.
“Can we go home now? My legs hurt. And I want to go back to bed.”
Loid laughed lightly. Some things about Anya were easy to understand.
“Sure, let's go home. You aren’t going back to bed though.”