Black Panther (dir. Jordan Peele)

1. Cub and Calf

N'Jadaka was a quiet child when he came.
Even if he had been fluent in any Wakandan language, T'Challa doubted he would speak at all. He hardly ever looked up from his book of Elementary Wakandan Mathematics, and continuously toyed with his new beads.

"Hey." T'Challa tried.

"Huh?" The boy jumped, realizing that he was being addressed.

" You like maths?" T'Challa asked in his thickly Wakandan English.

"Yeah... uh- d-do you?" the boy's language sounded like water being swilled around in a pan. The American accent made the Prince smile.

"I do. It's good. To learn it with them." He gestured at the algebraic sum that was animated to explain the concept better.

The boy nodded. "Yeah... yeah."

T'Challa sat down next to him.

"I'm sorry, I'm just... like, bad at conversations." He murmured, shyly bowing his head.

The Prince frowned, "I'm sorry, I didn't understand...?"

The boy scratched his neck in confusion and turned to face T'Challa "Like, uh what?"

T'Challa chuckled. "I didn't get it. I just learn from Baba, and Star Wars."

The American's eyebrows scrunched in puzzlement. "Oh... uhm, what exactly?"

"-and you need to speak slow, I don't run with English"

The boy stared, before laughing for the first time. "Run...? Like what are you on, man?"

"I'm not running. I forgot the word. What you are when you run."

"fast?"

"No, not that. Ukuthetha Kakhule."

"Fluent?"

"Ewe!"

The boy nodded. "Okay, I'll speak slow. Like, how slow though?"

"This is fine." T'Challa sat down next to him. "And why do you say that? 'Like'?"

"Do I?"

"Yes, but you are not comparising- compar- compare? whatever it is. You are not doing this-is-like-this; and you don't like it. You're just saying 'like'. For no reason."

The American barely caught on to what he was saying "Yeah like-"

"-See?"

The boy burst into laughter again. "That's just how I speak..!"

"But does it mean anything?"

"Not really... It's just like saying 'uhm' after each sentence... don't you do it?"

"I... yes, I do. Sometimes."

The boy didn't know what to carry the conversation with after that, and turned away awkwardly. But the Prince, being the diplomat he was training to become, didn't drop it there.

"So... what is your name?"

He raised an eyebrow "I think you already know that..."

"Eh," he shrugged. " Just tell me."

The boy smiled incredulously "N'Jadaka...?"

"Why are you saying it like that?"

N'Jadaka rolled his neck, "What am I s'posed to say it like?"