Re: OT: Conlangea Dreaming

At 10:14 PM 10/10/2000 +0200, you wrote:
>On Tue, 10 Oct 2000, Christophe Grandsire wrote:
>
>> Did anyone of you ever dream that he or she was a
>> person from the opposite sex?
>
Not the opposite sex, but I once dreamed I was a Japanese
man, named Watanabe.  I was a professor at an American college,
and I was trying to arrange a date between an American female
colleague and a Japanese one, Mr. Yosabe.

"Our colleague, Mr. Yosabe, has formed a favorable opinion of
you," I told her.

She replied, "Oh, thanks, but Yosabe doesn't have jerve."

What is "jerve", I asked.

"You know," she replied, "excitement, liveliness."

I replied "Ah-so" and at that moment knew exactly how it was
used: a rapid intake of breath on the "ah" to hide my
embarrasment for my colleague, followed by a long exhalation on
the "so" to indicate my acceptance and understanding.  I've never
heard "ah-so" used, don't even know if it is used or just a
stereotype, but it seemed perfectly right at the time.

I went on to ask her to be kind to Yosabe, since we Japanese
were a very sentimental people. "We can't even fasten a rivet
without tears," I told her (whatever _that_ means!).

-- Terry

http://www.geocities.com/teresh_2000
http://www.geocities.com/weseb_2000