Chapter 14. [Language Cheat Ability]

The school library.

I felt nostalgia for this place in two ways.

One is that they are old books.

Another reason is that it has been a long time since I used the library.

To be precise, this kind of room is also called a library, but don’t call it a library room.

Well, if it can be conveyed, I think that’s fine. Because it is more important whether the words are correct or not.

Of course, in most cases, correctness is not the same as ease of communication.

“Let’s see, what section is it in?”

The library was surprisingly well-stocked and authentic.

If I had imagined it would be divided into picture books, manga, novels, illustrated books, etc. But I was wrong. Roughly, yes, but they were divided into genres.

“Here is natural sciences? And over there is literature?”

Was the library so well organized when I was a kid?

Or did I not know that at the time? I guess I don’t know how blessed I am until I become an adult.

I looked around with the help of the guide, but I couldn’t find anything.

Some looked like it, but they were all slightly different from what I was looking for. They all seemed to be reading material.

“I’d prefer something more like a collection of problems. Excuse me! “I’m looking for a book like this!”

I asked a student who was probably a library committee member at the checkout counter.

But.

“Have you seen it before?”

“I don’t know. I don’t think so.”

“Maybe you should ask the teacher.”

I had a bad feeling.

Finally, the library teacher who came to me said.

“I’m sorry. We don’t have that kind of thing. You have to buy the problem books by yourself.”

Oh no, I didn’t expect this.

I guess I should have thought about it. If I lent out the problem books, they would be covered in writing in no time. And the loan period is too short for the student to solve all the problems.

I wonder if one of the listeners noticed and pointed this out to me.

Well, it was my fault for not checking it out.

I thought it would be a shame to come to the library and go home without doing anything, so I looked around the bookshelf.

I decided to check out a book or two.

“Oops.”

Among the books, I find an Hangeul book in the language section.

I casually picked it up.

Well, I couldn’t read it in the stream the other day.

It doesn’t mean I can read it now.

And, as is still the case, I should not read Hangeul.

“Well, I guess that’s true.”

I am a little relieved.

There is no way that I could have learned to read a foreign language before I knew it.

It’s not possible.

I’m not sure what I was trying to do.

Just for comfort, I flipped through the pages of the book.

“–What?”

My hand stopped at a page.

There was the so-called “syllabary table” of Hangul.

“Whoa!”

I felt my vision rapidly open up.

A voice leaked out unintentionally. My brain begins to spin rapidly, regardless of my intention.

“I can read it….”

I turn the pages of the textbook one after another.

Until a few minutes ago, they appeared to me as a string of unintelligible words.

But now, I could recognize them as sentences.

“So that’s how it is, huh?”

It was the result of my cheat-like language ability.

I have some ideas about this ability.

Based on my experience, there are probably three conditions for activating the ability.

1. A large amount of input.

2. An understanding of the language rules

3. Experience.

To be precise, I think input and rules are necessary conditions, and experience is the ability’s trigger.

Without such a condition, the timing of when I could understand is too mysterious.

And as for the rules, it seems that if you have a huge amount of input, you can screw them up.

Conversely, if I know the rules, I need less input.

It’s a trade-off of sorts.

And that’s getting a little complicated.

Take Korean, for example.

In my previous life, I listened to Korean dramas under my mom’s influence.

I had already gathered enough input through this.

However, the subtitles are displayed in Japanese.

Therefore, I did not have enough Hangeul input.

However, Hangeul is a phonetic alphabet.

Simply put, pronunciation and characters correspond one to one.

The relationship is similar to that between Japanese pronunciation and hiragana.

The letters themselves do not have their meanings, nor do their pronunciations change drastically from word to word, as is the case with kanji.

Although the definitions of consonants and vowels in Hangeul are different from Japanese.

Conversely, once I understand differences (rules), writing is easy for those who can speak.

I never studied Korean directly, so I didn’t know the rules.

That’s why I could speak Korean but not read Hangeul.

“This is not normal, even though it’s.”

According to the book, Hangeul is made by a combination of consonants and vowels.

Therefore, it is so easy to understand that I can memorize it in half a day.

In my case, it took me only a moment.

And I had no idea what I was supposed to understand in an instant until I looked at this syllabary chart.

In many ways, I feel an imbalance in my cheat-like linguistic ability.

Well, I’ve said a lot of things, but honestly, these things don’t matter!

What matters is.

“Let’s see. This.”

I find a Korean vocabulary book and open it.

I hide the Japanese part and look at it.

I still can’t read the words I don’t know.

But once I move my hand away and look at the Japanese translation, I never forget it.

Just by flipping through the word book, data is stored in my brain at a tremendous speed.

“Wow! This is amazing! This means–this means I can understand all the content of the Korean VTubers’ streams!”

After dying once, I realized that I had strange abilities.

But I never thought it would be this useful!

“No, wait?”

I picked up a nearby French vocabulary book.

I flip through the pages.

“Ooooohhhhh! Amazing! Now I can understand the banging French streams.”

I’m knocked over.

Aaaaaaah! I scream from the lending desk.

My vision was spinning.

My head was burning as it had overheated.