“Hen gao xing jiandao ni, Miss Cardiff.” He took her hand and bowed once more. This was more familiar territory for him. This whole heel-clicking and hand-kissing thing was how he’d been raised to greet women, and he was on much surer footing here. A genteel upbringing had not prepared him for the casualness that… well, the majority of the world was used to.
“Yes. I mean – er, no, but I don’t mind. Just something I’ll need to get used to. I’ve only been here a day, actually. And… not even that, really.” To the point, to the point! He pulled the data pad from udner his arm and tapped on it to show, inadvertently causing it to change languages again.
Mahir hastily brushed its surface and it reverted to English. “You aren’t any good with programming these things, are you? I never did figure them out,” despite several years of lessons on their use, he refrained from mentioning.