"I want that too! It was really useful and I miss it a lot especially now that I'm in a conversation with two different people at the same time and sometimes get asked several questions in a row and have trouble prioritizing which to answer first and sometimes can't say all of the answers in sequence while taking what I think is probably a reasonable length of conversational turn! Judging lengths of conversational turn is hard."

"How do aliens do it?"

"Both participants in a conversation can be speaking and listening on multiple tracks simultaneously! But even before I left I knew that humans can't speak and listen fluently at the same time, not even with only one track of each."

Bella lets them into the house. "Ned, I have invited an alien over for dinner!"

"She usedta eat brains but doesn't any more!"

"That sounds incredibly concerning even with the last clause!"

"I don't want to go back to eating brains! One of my favourite things about being human is all the brains I'm not eating! Instead I can eat human food which tastes better and has more interesting varieties and doesn't make me sad!"

"Well, the lasagna will come out of the oven in about ten minutes. Where did Bella find you?"

"In the grocery store!"

"She's working at the deli counter. She only recently became confident she is an alien."

"I was always confident I am formerly nonhuman but I only recently became confident I am from a different planet," she clarifies.

"Members of other species from this planet aren't aliens! It would be surprising if we discovered some of them were language-using sapients on or above our level, but I wouldn't call them aliens."

"Are humans from a different planet aliens, or not?"

"It's very weird for there to be humans on another planet and I'm not sure if I want to declare them aliens or not."

"Anyway I think it makes sense that when I was confident of being formerly nonhuman but not confident about whether I was on another planet when I wasn't human, I was uncertain about being an alien in an importantly distinct way than the way I would have been uncertain about being an alien if I had been uncertain about the formerly nonhuman part too."

"I suppose that does make sense."

"Why do you work at a deli counter?"

"When I arrived here I was curious about how I suddenly knew English and the first advice I got was to ask a neurologist and the first neurologist I found had a receptionist who told me I needed money to afford an appointment and a job to get money."

"I... guess that makes sense."

"Are you still planning to get a neurologist appointment?"

"Probably! Why, do you have an alternate suggestion?"

"I don't expect the neurologist to know, since aliens suddenly appearing and knowing English for no clear reason aren't a known phenomenon. Or for that matter non-aliens suddenly knowing English for no clear reason."

"That doesn't sound like an alternate suggestion to me!"

"It's not, but I think the neurologist would be a waste of your money."

"What else do you expect I could do with five hundred dollars that you expect would be worth more to me than a neurologist?"