Yuri On Ice languages

[theglassheart]

[ Information Origination Here ]

@tammaiya does linguistics, and I’ve lived on four continents. Together we go travelling and distract ourselves figuring out what languages the characters of Yuri On Ice would speak. (I was bored at work…)

Katsuki Yuri 🇯🇵
- Japanese (native)
- English. Very good/fluent; he studied in Detroit for years, and English would be the common language between the skaters on the world stage.
- Russian. Basic to moderate, but of course Victor is teaching him* so he’s levelling up quick.
- Italian? Basic only, whatever words Yuri picked up from his former coach.
- Thai? Basic only, he does greet Phichit in Thai when he calls up.

Victor Nikiforov 🇷🇺
- Russian (native)
- English. Very good to fluent, presuming he studied in school, he’s been on the international stage enough, and it’s his common language with Yuri.
- Japanese. Basic to moderate, but of course Yuri is teaching him*, plus he lives in Hasetsu for months, so he’s levelling up quick.
- French? Presuming that Victor has been in ballet training in Europe he’d come into contact with French.

(* Headcanon: after months living and training together in Hasetsu, by the time the international competitions start and they’re joined at the hip, Victor and Yuri are probably talking to each other in English liberally sprinkled with Russian and Japanese words and phrases. This combined with their obvious COUPLEDOM SHORTHAND probably makes for conversations and interactions that to observers can be impossible to keep up with let alone understand beyond THESE TWO ARE OBVIOUSLY BANGING.)

Yuri Plisetsky 🇷🇺
- Russian (native)
- English. Very good to fluent, he gets a message from Yuko in English.
- Japanese? Whatever basic words and phrases he picks up while in Hasetsu.

Christophe Giacometti 🇨🇭 (SO MANY LANGUAGES)
- Italian (native). He has an Italian last name, so presume his father is Swiss-Italian.
- French (native). He has a French first name, so presume his mother is Swiss-French. Also, his jacket says “Suisse” not “Schweiz”, which puts Christophe in the French side of the country, not the German side.
- English. Fluent, every educated Swiss person I met while living there spoke fluent English.
- Swiss-German. Presumably, and fluent because SWISS.
- German. Presumably.
- Romansch? XD

Phichit Chulanot 🇹🇭
- Thai (native)
- English. Very good to fluent, he studied in Detroit with Yuri.
- Japanese? Basic only; if Yuri can greet him in Thai then it’s a good guess that Phichit has probably picked up some basic Japanese in return.

Jean-Jacques Leroy 🇨🇦
- English (native)
- French (native). He’s got a French name, I’m going to presume he’s from Quebec. Headcanon: whenever JJ drops into French, Christophe and the other Europeans have to take a moment to attune to his Québécois accent.

Michele Crispino 🇮🇹
- Italian (native)
- English. Very good to fluent.
- French and/or Spanish. Basically I’m presuming all the Europeans have three or four languages.

Guang Hong Ji (do we ever find out the characters for his name?) 🇨🇳
- Mandarin Chinese (native)
- English. Moderate at best; he’s young and English fluency is not common in China. Likely he has enough to converse with the other skaters, but it’s going to be more stilted.
- Korean? Basic only; I’m making presumptions from my time living in Beijing where Korean pop culture is incredibly popular amongst young Chinese.

Seung Gil Lee 🇰🇷
- Korean (native)
- English. Moderate at best, same with Guang Hong; he’s young and English fluency is not that common in Korea.