Quite Curious About Which Touhou Can Speak English.

[Gou the frog]

This idea came around when I was drawing Yukari (Damm, Frills), That is when it hit me that she wears very western-ish clothes. Meanwhile, her other dress is in Chinese style; the one that she normally wears. Maybe, just maybe, she can speak English and possibly other Touhou characters too?

• The Scarlet Devil Mansion was the first place to come in my mind. The Scarlet Crew moved into Gensokyo: Sakuya looks like a french maid, Meiling is Chinese etc. The mansion also has a western design. So, I assumed they can speak English very well?
• Suzunaan, Kosuzu have all the books in there, so, she could learn & speak English from the books? 
• Could Yukari speak it too? She has a very western dress and have access to the gaps that leads to the outside world.
• Akyu knows a lot about history as she studies Gensokyo and possibly other histories?
• Keine might also teach English in her school as she also gets reference from Akyu's studies. After all, she's associated with History.  
• Rinnosuke, typical merchant stuff, right? Things that got lost should come into Gensokyo, and since Morichika likes to keep unusual stuff, he is bound to come across some foreign items that will entice him.

 

Just a little thought I had when drawing.

 

[Darksymphony777]

My first thoughts would be elrin with how old she is and how she would make medicine that knowing multiple languages would make sense.

 

Hecatia because she's based off a Greek figure and is also the ruler of hell so she might as well know every language

 

And clownpiece to really trigger the lunarians with a flag wearing clothing speaking a language they don't understand

[Gou the frog]

1 hour ago, Darksymphony777 said:

My first thoughts would be elrin with how old she is and how she would make medicine that knowing multiple languages would make sense.

Interesting, I completely missed the fact she actively studies medicine. So, in her spare time, she might as well go around the earth and other places to make medicine.

1 hour ago, Darksymphony777 said:

Hecatia because she's based off a Greek figure and is also the ruler of hell so she might as well know every language

 

And clownpiece to really trigger the lunarians with a flag wearing clothing speaking a language they don't understand

Very good points. I believe I overlooked both of them. The next character to speak English would be Mamizou, considering she has lived so long and can travel in & out of Gensokyo. After all, she seems to be the kind of person to get a hold of new knowledge and keep it for herself. 

I think most of them won't bother to look into English even if the kappas created all-purpose language machine.

The pleasure is all yours for feeding my curious mind.

[buskerdog]

I had never considered what languages Yukari could speak, but now you bring it up I'm sure Yukari must be all kinds of multilingual simply on the account of her humongous brain. She can do all kinds of absurd mathematics, beyond even what Ran can do, and she's already leagues smarter than most humans, so to Yukari languages must be child's play. Her being in-the-know about what happens in the outside world would make it likely too.

I was also thinking about the SDM vampires. Since they are European yokai, speaking English is very much a possibility for them. But then again, they could be from any part of Europe, and back in ye-olde-mythology-days English was not as wide spoken as it is now. My personal headcannon is that they're French.

Kosuzu can absolutely read English since her ability is to decipher any text, but I doubt she would care to learn other languages when she can be studying SPOOPY DEMON BOOKS.

Rinnosuke... I feel like he's someone who thinks he can understand English but can't.

[Gou the frog]

2 minutes ago, buskerdog said:

 My personal headcannon is that they're French.

Mine too. 

5 minutes ago, buskerdog said:

Rinnosuke... I feel like he's someone who thinks he can understand English but can't.

Totally, he want to flex to Marisa.

6 minutes ago, buskerdog said:

Kosuzu can absolutely read English since her ability is to decipher any text

That slip past through my mind. Thank you for pointing that out.

 

[Darksymphony777]

1 hour ago, buskerdog said:

My personal headcannon is that they're French.

Mine is Romanian

[Paracausality]

Remilia, Flandre, and maybe Sakuya for sure. They are explicitly European vampires.

[Ka Takane]

In Alternative Facts in Eastern Utopia, Aya was known to have read about the 2016 U.S. elections, inspiring her to mimic Trump's slogan for her fake news about Miko. So Aya probably can speak English a bit.

[CountVonNumenor]

On 4/15/2022 at 5:19 PM, buskerdog said:

I was also thinking about the SDM vampires. Since they are European yokai, speaking English is very much a possibility for them. But then again, they could be from any part of Europe, and back in ye-olde-mythology-days English was not as wide spoken as it is now. My personal headcannon is that they're French.

Kosuzu can absolutely read English since her ability is to decipher any text, but I doubt she would care to learn other languages when she can be studying SPOOPY DEMON BOOKS

I think Forbidden Scrollery confirmed the fact English cam be used by both Remilia and Kosuzu. At the end of one of the volumes (need to check out which one - but it was after the story with the Tupai/pet Chupacabra), Remi sent a letter in English to Suzunaan. Akyuu was wondering whether Kosuzu understands the language. She said she does, but the gag goes that next time they met, Kosuzu is seen struggling to write a letter herself in English - "But I thought you knew English". She basically knew how to translate it, but had trouble writing back in that language - as in the panel Kosuzu is seen with several English dictionaries and guides. 

Also not to mention through FS, Suzunaan keeps getting books and magazines in English, sometimes brought in by Mamizou. That appears several times at least through the first 4 volumes (the ones I have read yet). 

Later, I might come with visual confirmation if I get my hands on the laptop (I'm not home right now) 

[Darksymphony777]

10 hours ago, CountVonNumenor said:

sometimes brought in by Mamizou

considering mamizou didn't even come to gensokyo until the events of TD, i would not be surprised if she learned english.

[SasaMisa]

On 4/15/2022 at 4:23 PM, Darksymphony777 said:

Mine is Romanian

Wasn't Remilia's link to Vlad Tepes revealed to be a complete lie though!? (^_~)

In any case, my two cents would undoubtedly include Alice as well, since she is not only much smarter than Marisa, she also happens to based on Alice Fairchild from Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, who herself was learning to speak French from her older sister Lorena before she went and disappeared down the rabbit hole and all the malarkey that followed afterwards. (^_^)

Edited August 11, 2022 by SasaMisa
Putting in an edit.

[Darksymphony777]

2 hours ago, SasaMisa said:

Wasn't Remilia's link to Vlad Tepes revealed to be a complete lie though!? (^_~)

yes it was but i posit the idea that no one took her seriously and heard about ol drac and decided to pretend to be his daughter for some charisma points

 

2 hours ago, SasaMisa said:

she also happens to based on Alice Fairchild from Alice's Adventures in Wonderland

fairchild? i thought it was liddell

[Reicirna_731]

I can't help but think of Clownpiece speaking English, I could be wrong about that, but that's just my theory at least.

[SasaMisa]

19 hours ago, Darksymphony777 said:

fairchild? i thought it was liddell

Oh cripes! I will keep doing that, mixing up all the various versions of her in my head. Fairchild is the one from Alan Moore's Lost Girls. To make matters worse, I don't think it's ever outright stated in the Disney version, but it definitely is in Through The Looking Glass by way of a poem. (=^_^=)

Even more embarrassing for me is that one of my favourite Japanese artists, Mizumo Nakamura, is an absolute Alice in Wonderland fanatic and he always calls all the sisters by their original family name in his writeups of them. (#^_^#)

[Shionne Imeris]

my first thought were both Renko and Maribel (if you count them) since they're not only from outside world but also from some kind of university iirc

second impression would be saki, mostly because how much she resembles western and howdy stuff!