"AND WELL, I THINK I GOT SO GOOD AT IT BECAUSE MY ROOMMATE on my first two years in MIT before I bought an apartment close to the campus, was from Daegu, in South Korea, and she only spoke Korean with me."
"What was her name?"
"Tae Yoon-hee. She was five years older than me and treated me like a younger sister during the time we lived together. However she majored in quantum physics. It was awesome, because to study she would always give me free classes about what she was learning, and it was pretty cool. And her parents were the presidents of one of the Samsung branches in Daegu."
That made him arch his eyebrows is surprise, "Do you remember their names?" Is he testing me?
A nod, "Yes. Every time I went to South Korea, I stayed with them in their Daegu house, or in their Seoul apartment. Her father is Tae Jun-seok, and her mother is Do Sun-hwa." It's not like I'm lying, so it's just fine to say it.
He chuckled softly, "True. I know them." Then he turned to my grandparents, "This kid is something else," he spoke in English.
"How is your Korean so good?" Beatrice asked annoyed. "And what did you talked about?"
I turned to her and grinned, licking my lips in amusement, "Don't you feel ashamed of working in a British-Korean conglomerate and not speaking the mother language of the CEO? Don't you have branches in South Korea too? How will you talk to them? What if you get in contact with someone who doesn't speak English?"
She clenched her jaw, "They all know how to speak English. There's absolutely no problem with that."
"Oh?" My smile widened. "Dear sister, you understand that that says more about you than them, right? While you only speak English, they are more qualified and aren't condescending enough the world will rotate around them and learn their language if they want to communicate."
"I also speak Spanish," she counted feeling like she won.
"Oh, yeah? And why don't you work to a British-Spanish company then? Besides your Spanish is terrible, we all know it. To the point where if a Spanish native see you trying to speak, they will prefer to talk in English than hear you assassinating their mother language."
Bea growled, "Why are you so impossible?"
"Did I said anything wrong?" Then I looked at the others, "Do any of you, besides mom, dad, and our grandparents, speak Korean? You all work on the same company, guys."
Dean gave me a drunken smile, "Only you, dear sister. None of us can speak it. Although Marie is learning it."
"At least Kate, Dean, and Marie compensate it by speaking at least four different languages. That, yes, is very useful and important in a company of global reach," I met Jung-won's eyes. "Isn't that right, chief executive officer?"
He grinned, "For once I'll agree with the likes of you." Rude. "If all the people who work with the CMM Conglomerate spoke at least English and Korean, our work would become more qualified indeed."
"I'm sorry," Choi Min-hyuk said, "I think I caused some conflict between you. It wasn't on purpose. It's just that when Jung-won said she spoke Korean with him when she thought he couldn't speak English, I got curious to know how well she speaks." The man turned to me, "You are outstanding. What other languages do you speak, Freya?"
"Besides English and Korean?" A nod. "Spanish, French, German, Russian, Romanian, Italian, Brazilian and European Portuguese, Bengali, Hindi, Mandarin, Cantonese, Japanese, Thai, Indonesian, Greek, Afrikaans, Egyptian, Arabic, and Latin. I also learned High-Valyrian and Dothraki, the fictional languages of The Song of Ice and Fire for fun," it can't be helped, it was too good to refuse when I got the chance to learn it.
Choi Sun-min leaned forward, "That makes you a linguistic master, Freya. Why did you learn them?"
I ate a slice of my beef before answering her, "If I know how to speak all of them, it makes it easier to program Dove, my AI, to also speak other languages. At least all of these. Even before going to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, I had in mind that I wanted to created an AI called Dove. So, I just gathered all the skills I could manage and learned all I was interested in, so it would be helpful when creating her."
By how interested she got, I could tell she enjoyed technology like me. "When did you began working on it?"
"Right off the bat when I moved to Massachusetts in the US for college. It was the project I presented at end of my last year in college, and also the one I used when I got my Master degree. And physics just helps it all."
Her sister filled her glass with wine again, and turned to me, "And why the MIT?"
I licked my bottom lip, "I actually sent my documents to 11 different universities. Later I got accepted in all of them, and was able to chose the one I wanted, but the MIT was the one that attracted me the most. Everything about it. It was just the most attractive and that fit my goals well. Besides, it's the best for technology, you know?!"
Jung-won arched his eyebrows, "Which universities?"
"MIT, Harvard, Yale, Oxford, Stanford, Columbia, Princeton, London School Of Economics And Political Science, Hyogo College of Medicine, University of St. Andrews, and University of Cambridge," I finished my glass of wine and filled it up again. "I just sent my applications to try it out, I was actually interested in either MIT, Harvard, Yale, or Columbia. But the agents of all of them contacted me saying I got accepted and all, then I chose the one I liked the most."
"To think we almost studied in the same place," Jung-won exclaimed and looked scared as if he had seen a ghost.
"Where did you got to?"
"Harvard. I was 17. Meaning, we went to college around the same time. We stayed 8 minutes apart from each other for 4 years. That's just… horrifying. Thank God you chose MIT!" Why is he so rude?
I grinned, "Hah, you are lucky. If we had been in the same college, I would have taken all the attention you must have gotten."
Probably seeing how he clenched his teeth, Marie clicked her tongue, "Tsk. It's such a Freya-thing to apply to the eleven most difficult universities to get into in the entire world, even though you never intended on studying medicine, economics, or political science. Tsk. Tsk. Tsk. All to feed this hungry ego of yours."
I winked at her, "Ah, you know me so well," and my voice was filled with mockery. "I did it, because I could. I knew I was capable of getting into all of them with my brains. And well, I was right."
Jung-won scoffed, "Always trying to prove your are right."
"Who's to blame if I am right?"
Choi Min-hyuk smiled amused, "I like your confidence. Why don't you work with us too, Freya? I'm sure you would a precious addition to CMM."