[Some of it is faking, certainly, repeating what others have said - Dame Ariel most of all, who is forever the only one who knows how to do anything right. But Kesara is also used to adults less astute and educated than herself, and the trouble of talking to those. And anyway Dr. House is a fine fellow and she thinks, in her limited perspective, that he might have been a lot like her when he was younger.]

I mean to write! The letters are the same, you know. [He certainly knows, but he should know that she knows.]

Dr. Stein has taught me Mandarin, but Lao Dian speaks every dialect you care to name and he'll teach me those. But if you know how to write it - [her voice shivers with excitement] I'll do anything. I have to keep learning. I've given up on English, I just use my memory tricks, and if I talk about some future kind or program they'll just say I'm acting the child. But Chinese is my chance and I have to keep learning!