On the subway platform, heading home, a drunk man approached me and mumbled a long stream of Spanish. I shrugged and said in English, “I don’t understand.”

He mumbled more Spanish. I put up my hands, as if to say, “Hey, what can you do, I’m American, I only speak American.”

He gestured forcifully at the train tunnel and then said, as if suddenly realizing, “No sabes.”

Automatically I agreed, “No sé.”

Then I thought, shit, now he’s going to talk to me. But he only nodded, and started walking away down the platform muttering, “No sabes, no sabes.”