multi-lingual incomprehension
Aug. 31st, 2005 09:46 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
trochee"Bonjour," says [French guy, we'll call him Jean], upon arriving in the office, to the South Indian [we'll call him Prakash] with whom he shares a cubicle wall.
Prakash looks back, blankly.
"Buenos dias," Jean tries again, gamely.
Another stare.
"Guten Tag, bon giorno," Jean tries, with a tiny note of desperation along with his accent. "Nii hao, hello!"
"Namaste," I add, perhaps unhelpfully.
Prakash pulls the tiny tiny earphones out of his ears and looks at us both. "What?"
Prakash looks back, blankly.
"Buenos dias," Jean tries again, gamely.
Another stare.
"Guten Tag, bon giorno," Jean tries, with a tiny note of desperation along with his accent. "Nii hao, hello!"
"Namaste," I add, perhaps unhelpfully.
Prakash pulls the tiny tiny earphones out of his ears and looks at us both. "What?"
