A Russian friend unexpectedly asks me, "Do you like a Trump?"
"Well, er, um," I say, not wanting to lose a friend, "I prefer not to comment on politics".
It occurs to me that maybe she does not want to hear my opinion but to give me hers, regardless of mine. So I ask her, "What do you think of Trump?"
Her reply is the opposite of what I expected: "I like heem," she says. She concedes. "Many people do not like heem."
I nod silently.
She continues emphatically. "But I like heem. Hee is a strong-er man. We need a strong-er man."
"Yes," I agree. That settles it.
What a happy end to our conversation. I did not have to say, "Yes, I hear you." Nor did I need that conversational 'suspended sentence', (suspended metaphorically, in two senses), "Let's agree to differ."
The world will carry on, regardless of our conversation. Neither of us lives in America. Neither of us has a vote.
I always think it's silly for two people who are expats in one country, already at odds with another country, and each other's home country's language and culture, to disagree about politics in a third, far away country.
I do not comment on pronunciation. Stronger means more strong. She probably knows that.
After all, I know that the r is rolled in Spanish, but I can't get past a mixture of lisping and gargling.
The important thing is that my Russian friend and I, we are still friends.
I would never have succeeded as a politician. But I always wanted to go into the diplomatic service.
Footnote: No trumps is term from the card game, bridge, in which neither side is able to use a trump card to beat the others.
Author, Angela Lansbury, author and speaker.
Photo by Angela Lansbury.
