I was at a party, sitting in somebody's living room and talking to some people I hardly knew. Other conversations were taking place in the next room.

I overheard somebody behind me talking with a lilting Oriental accent. I tried to imagine what she looked like:   5'2" tall, black hair, stocky, with a flat nose? I overheard somebody else talking with a German accent, and drew some conclusions about him as well.

And then I heard somebody laugh.

Have you ever realized that a baby has to learn how to talk, but nobody ever teaches him how to laugh? He's hard-wired for laughter; it's part of his human nature.

Some children are born with learning disabilities. They never learn words. They can never hold a conversation. But they can always laugh. A baby starts talking when he's around 11 months old; he can laugh almost from the day he's born.

And when a person laughs, it's never in a foreign language.