Tintin's brain shifts gears somewhat violently. "Um. Yes, is a gun. My a-fin-i-ty is them."

"Your affinity is guns. I hope you manage to make that awesome instead of terrible."

He shrugs. "I make - okay - you speak French or Chinese? Better at them."

"Oh, sure," she says, transitioning fluidly to Mandarin. "Sorry, I assumed--usually white people in the Scholomance speak English."

"Singapore," he says in Mandarin. "Via Belgium. No English to be found - my parents thought it would be easy for me, so they spent my childhood neuroplasticity on Chinese and Malay. By the time they tried teaching me English it was almost too late."

"Oh no," she says, half-laughing sympathetically. "Had your parents never learned English? It's absolutely insane."

"They learned it in school and for international business! It was so easy for them! They had no idea! What if we did not teach you English and you were rejected by the entire Sinosphere and had no allies at all! Ridiculous. I have found someone to tutor me, and I will hopefully get better, if not good."

"I don't think they were wrong to teach you English but I do think they were wrong not to start early. You can learn a lot of languages if you start early."

"Yes - they did not want to go for tutors in language, they sent me to a boarding school and it turned out the school only did two languages at once, because mundanes do not want four languages, it makes their heads hurt. Even though it was in Singapore! Where four languages are spoken! Five if you count Singlish but I have been told never to look at Singlish for my own sake."

"That's probably wise. Mum married a linguistics professor and then paid for tutors on top of that later, people keep swearing when I tell them how many languages I speak."

"Well now you have to tell me."

"Twenty-three."

"P- is one of them French."

"Sadly, no."

"I will swallow my obscenity and ruin your streak, then. Twenty-three."

"You're not the first one who didn't swear," she admits. "It's a bit absurd. I speak Basque? Which is not at all related to French linguistically but France is one of the countries where Basque speakers live."

"A pity I am not French but Belgian."

"A pity I can't help you there. ...Belgians speak German as well as French, don't they? No, wait, I'm thinking of Switzerland, or possibly Alsace."

"We are indeed neither of those places, but some speak German and some speak Dutch. The country is more or less divided along invisible lines of those populations, and my parents were from the French bit."

"Well, I speak German, but it looks like you and I are stuck with Mandarin. Which is not so bad, it's a lovely language."

"It is! And useful, especially here - though I am looking forward to seeing what I can find in Malay."

"Sadly that is not on my list either. At least I got to surprise a few people by sharing obscure languages with them."

"They are not so obscure, for me. Singapore is a strange place that way. I speak only the languages I am expected to speak, and some of them not well, and this means I am in good condition for the Scholomance! Along with, well, a lifetime of training."

"Sure. What are you planning to do with your gun affinity?"

"Well, you see, I have this gun."

After a fruitful pause, he continues, "It's enchanted already, and I am taking alchemy so I can keep it supplied with bullets and oil, and I am hoping there are spells to go with it - someone has to have done something in this vein, no? My ultimate goal is to take point in someone's graduation team, but of course nothing can be planned so early."