"All right."

"Thank you. Might I be able to also practice language with you? It might go easier, if I can also say what I meant to say in Capital."

Iri doesn't understand what she's asking for and that's terrifying but Valanda did say she's not dangerously inclined toward Iri right now. Iri will just try their best to figure it out.

"Yes. Practice."

"Thank you." (Xie's scared again, but the rest of the situation features continue to hold, so, no clear procedure for addressing that. She is not about to do anything unpleasant on purpose and she will watch for information as she is able.)

It would be useful to ask about scheduling - she can schedule herself for learning between the not-video and translation and practice, but it would be of assistance if she knew if either of them had opinions on aspects of her going about that, or planned to ask her to do something else, or head off elsewhere themselves. But at her current level of language it is likely better to start acting and watch for responses and change, rather than try to ask.

She looks back at the not-video for a moment, thinks. Then turns back to Iri "Are these correct? Could you correct me, please, if they are not?" And she produces a few short sentences in Hari. 

"Correct." Now Iri thinks they understand what she wants. This shouldn't be too hard.

"Thank you." And, if no one appears to object to this, she will set herself into alternating between the not-video, sitting silently as she repeats words to herself, asking Iri for translations, and production practice. 

They leave her to it for a while but then Valanda gets her attention.

"You might not understand this so I'll translate it afterward. I have to go to work soon but before I do I should show you where to find the bathroom and get water to drink. In Capital, that's... you and I go, you know where, uh..." Valanda makes a vague gesture meant to convey that he can't really explain. "You and I arrive here, I go to do work, you here. Go?" Valanda opens the door.

She nods, stands up. "Thank you." Says it in Hari, this time.

The hallway is painted in vaguely naturalistic streaky non-patterns of dark green and brown. Light comes from a window at one end of the hall. There are lots of doors and there are stairs.

This floor's bathroom is accessible for at least five different species and not really optimal for any of them. They have soap and running water, though not sinks per se. Valanda demonstrates that the water is drinkable. There doesn't seem to be a way to run it hot.

Valanda is very relieved that they don't run into anyone and leads her back to his room before anyone has a chance to show up and take some kind of offense at her or wonder where she came from.

Access to restrooms and water is considerably preferable to absence of the same. "Thank you," she says again.

(Can she see how it seems to be working? Is there plumbing? What is the style of the stairs? What is the hallway floor like?)

The plumbing seems to be pretty hidden in the walls. There's nothing that couldn't be strictly mechanical. The stairs are within the range of acceptable heights for a human and there are handrails on both sides. The hallway floor creaks like wood and is covered in soft carpet in dull natural colors. It might have been tie-dyed but that would only explain parts of the design.

How does the metalwork look?

"Do I need to unlock and lock the door to go to the hall?" she asks Valanda back in the room.

it looks like they use silver for it, is how it looks.

"Unlock the door, go to the hall, arrive here, lock the door." The mechanical lock is a deadbolt. Valanda can lock the door from the outside with magic but doesn't know if Sheridan can.

That's certainly something.

So she does not need to lock the door from the outside, and he did not mention anything having to do with magic. (Sheridan cannot). "Thank you."

Yeah, he's just leaving the whole topic of magic for later when they can talk to each other better.

"I go do work," he says. The bird goes with him. "You lock," he says, pointing to the lock, just before he closes the door.

A new episode of Hari is the Language of the Empire starts.

"...I'm Mahan and I will be teaching you Hari. Today we'll talk about magic. This is Ariu. Ariu is an illusion mage. Ariu will show us illusion magic now." There's a good view of a bare patch of ground between them. And then projected on that patch of ground are twelve symbols. "This is an illusion of magic. We call it that because there are twelve kinds." ("Magic" and "twelve" are the same word in Hari.) "You are watching Hari is the Language of the Empire on an enchanted object. It is enchanted with illusion magic. This is the symbol for illusion magic." He points to it with his tail. "I am a void mage. Using void magic is against the law. Do not use void magic. This is the symbol for void magic."

A snake slithers into view. "This is Agi. Agi is a force mage. This is the symbol for force magic. Agi will do some force magic." Agi levitates. "Agi is levitating by using force magic."

Agi slithers off, to be replaced by another furry creature who does sun magic. The furry creature transmutes elements. The symbol for sun magic looks like a sun.

There are twelve kinds of magic and by the end of the episode not all of them will have been demonstrated but all of them will have been named and their symbols pointed out.

She locks the door and watches the not-video.

What a rather important episode. (Ah, she had noticed the homophone-(which-turns-out-to-in-fact-be-more-than-that). She does her best at understanding with her current capacity - fortunately this appears to be an episode with higher quantities of simple sentences and repetition and such. Twelve kinds of magic, each does something different. People appear to be identified as types of mages. Void magic is against the law ('illegal', like 'bathroom', and related concepts, are words she'd asked Iri for) but the speaker does not seem to be concerned about identifying himself as a void mage.  

(And ah, this appears likely to have been what her host had been attempting to get at with the numbers earlier. She thinks back to that conversation and its pattern. Had he thought she had appeared by (their) magic? ...Had he thought she might have appeared by magic she could do? That might explain the topic-patterns, and the excitement-then-dissapointment.

And - had she, in fact, appeared by their magic? He didn't seem to recognize her description, and the not-video had not shown anything like it, but it is not odd to have advances or experiments not known to everyone and not described in commonly-available educational materials.

Not much she is able to do with such a hypothesis. But she keeps it in mind.)

The transmutation explains the silver, she supposes. 

She copies down symbols and brief notes, notes questions.  

(Is the transmutation specifically elements? Has anyone been identified as more than one kind of mage? Has she heard a word that seemed to be not-mage? What were the other kinds? Are enchanted objects mentioned for any other kinds?)

The sun mage transmutes elements. A structure mage alters chemical compounds. No one has been identified as two kinds of mage or zero kinds of mage but it is possible that they wouldn't be featured in an episode like this, just to keep it simple. The kinds of magic are force, structure, illusion, sun, death, command, heat, knowledge, void, inheritance, green and defense. The symbols for these are, in order, an arrow, a bunch of circles touching each other, a vague squiggle, the sun, a horizontal line, an empty circle, a rectangle that's half black half white-outlined-in-black, a brain shape with a squiggle on it, a black square, an X, a leaf, an arc over a dot that looks a little like an umbrella.

The episode doesn't demonstrate heat, knowledge, inheritance or green magic. Command magic is demonstrated by pointing out that a gold bracelet was enchanted with it. It is not explained what the bracelet does. It looks like the ones Valanda offered her earlier. One of the mages who appears on the show is wearing four, one on each leg.

The explanations of the kinds of magic not demonstrated lean heavily on presumed familiarity with the twelve symbols. It's not really possible to figure out what all of them do.

...and he's Mahan and welcome to another episode of Hari is the Language of the Empire, today you'll be learning about the bloody wars of conquest that led to the existence of a one-world government! Aren't you so lucky to live in the Empire instead of a nation that isn't the Empire and would definitely be extremely bloodily destroyed. Modern conveniences like a total lack of alternative states sure are grand.

This appears potentially relevant to the level of pertinency of her chemistry knowledge.

She thinks she can form some conjectures about command magic. (She notices the bracelet similarly).

If she remembers correctly green magic was mentioned in the farming episode (as was... death magic? (This not-video could certainly be structured more conveniently, she lets herself observe. But she is well used to taking knowledge from less than convenient setups)). Heat she can guess at, though she may not be at all correct. Knowledge and inheritance not so much so. Void magic continues unclear. 

(She wonders why sun magic has that name; it seems an odd one out.)

She is from an Empire herself, and is long in the habit of not making facial expressions and the like at such pronouncements. She sets herself to paying attention to conquest-relevant vocabulary (and/or seeing if they got some language educational value, into their propaganda episode).

Of course the propaganda episode teaches vocabulary. Blood. Death. Fight. War. Cooperate. Peace. Safety. Law enforcement. They show maps of the continent with the polities that used to exist. They compare it to a modern map.

They mention minority languages and where they're spoken. The two biggest minority languages among people who can pronounce Hari are Ilan, spoken in the southeast, and Devin, spoken around the bay in the southwest. There's also Ereli, North Essi and South Essi, but people who speak those can't pronounce Hari. This is okay as long as everyone understands Hari and all the people who can pronounce it speak it. People can also watch Understanding Ereli to learn Ereli.

Isn't it so nice that the Hari Empire allows linguistic diversity to exist. Without them maybe people would go to war and all the speakers of a minority language would die. On the other hand, the Hari Empire also makes it easier for people to understand each other by teaching them all Hari. If you like languages, you like the Hari Empire! If you like transcontinental trade and understanding people from far away, you like the Hari Empire!

There's a little bit of math about the resources diverted to fighting wars and how not doing that leaves more for literally anything else, like inventing more efficient ways to farm or having regular flights from city to city, which couldn't happen if they were at war, now, could it.

It's a long episode and clearly biased but their treatment of the subject is detailed and includes lots of useful vocabulary words. A lot of effort is made to make concepts like "war" clear. An intermediate student would probably be able to understand everything and learn a lot of new words. Parts of it might go over Sheridan's head.

Parts of it do go over her head, but she appreciates their effort, detail, and vocabulary words. She also appreciates maps, and copies down quick details.

All other factors being equal she does approve of allowing linguistic diversity, trade, understanding people, and preferences for funding useful things over wars and for lack of genocide. (She of course is perfectly aware of bias being certainly present, and that lack of inclusion in a propaganda episode of elements such as 'war crimes' and 'less bloody alternatives that could have been chosen' and 'oppression' and 'various horrible things the government does and countenances' does not likely reflect the lack of such things in reality.)

What polities used to exist? Is one-world government literal? How about the other continents?

Is 'some people can't pronounce Hari' conveyed in a way she would understand? Are there any examples of speech in the other mentioned languages?

Is the math presented in a way to give her some information on their math notation?

Is the existence of flights conveyed in a way she would understand (for instance with images)?

There is no mention of any other continents anywhere in the episode. There is no mention of foreign relations involving anyone from any other continent. No other continents appear on any maps. Small islands near the coast of this continent appear on one map. Information on other polities is limited, there's only any detail on two larger ones, Anavel Sani and Thervigenia, the former now a state and the latter totally lost, and one tiny island one, the Sovereign Republic of Anemone Bay.

There's a sample of North Essi with a Hari translation. It isn't completely obvious that it's not produced by a vocal apparatus that could also pronounce Hari, but it might seem likely just from that sample. It's also mentioned that illusion mages can pronounce Ereli even if they're agerah or caralendri.

The math is all explained verbally, not written.

The existence of regular flights is illustrated with a map and a video of an airport in Mar Geru.

...and he's Mahan and he'll be teaching you Hari, today's lesson is about common materials! This is coal, coal is the sixth element, this is wood, wood's not an element, this is a candle, the candle is on fire, the fire is using vital air, vital air is the eighth element. This is steel, steel can't be made by a sun mage but can be made by a structure mage. This is silver, silver is the forty-seventh element, it can be made by sun mages. Silver's a common material for door handles, taps, things a lot of different people have to touch. This is gold, it's number seventy-nine. This is titanium. This is adamantite, three parts titanium to one part gold. This is platinum, very useful for a few very specific applications that Mahan doesn't go into detail on. This is glass, this is graphite, this is cement. Try to avoid lead. It's not safe to use lead for things people might eat or drink from. It's not safe to make elements that might be radioactive. Don't assume a compound is safe just because the elements it's made of are.

Mahan seems to have no trouble at all getting examples of precious metals to show people and "adamantite" is clearly an everyday word.

Totally lost?

Is this use of illusion magic demonstrated or only mentioned?

In that case she will note mathematics vocabulary. What math do they seem to be using?

Anything to indicate the existence of flights/transportation from said airport, or is it just 'bustling people'?

Useful vocabulary. (Incredibly useful and fascinating magic; she wonders if they might have made chemistry discoveries quite ahead of her world). She notes their chemistry knowledge. (Anything about coal vs diamond and such like?)

Yes, if one lives in a world where some can transmute elements she imagines that would lead to such a said-trouble-free state of affairs. 

The use of illusion magic to speak Ereli isn't demonstrated. The video shows a flight taking off, but unlike a nonmagical plane it takes off by heading straight up for a while first and the video cuts to something else before it starts moving any other direction.

They do have a separate word for graphite and seem to know which things are elements. They're a little sloppy about the purity of their examples of elements, but that might be because Mahan isn't a chemist and this show is about language.

Valanda is gone for hours. It starts to get dark. The show doesn't provide any quizzes or any pauses to let things settle. An average human would probably find it increasingly difficult to make any use of it. If spaced repetition is a concept this world has, there is no evidence of that in the design of the show.

Then that will tell her that they do have flight, while not apparently having electricity. Interesting. She makes a note of wanting to know if it uses the force magic, instead.

Is there any indication of what determines the form of an element a sun mage ends up with? Also, of how the transmutation handles amounts? Would a mole of one give a mole of the other, or does it match by total number of subatomic particles, or something else?

That would make sense, given that he went to work.

Is it harder to watch the show in the dark? Are there lights in the apartment?

She has noticed these features of the show; wonders dryly if they might appreciate advice on language education theory. 

She is not an average human, but for all the work various learned memory tricks and practice and the like can do, not in fact a perfect absorption brain unit. She takes breaks (preferably on episodes that seem comparatively less useful) to repeat and review vocabulary, practice production in as much as she can without anyone else present, engage in some limited-space physical activity and brain-restorative operations, get water.

Total number of subatomic particles seems to stay constant.

There are no lights in the apartment, but it's still twilight, not night, when Valanda gets back. He knocks.

"It's Valanda," he says in Hari. "Unlock my door."