When I asked why he came, he answered in slow and halting English, "I came because here in America everybody has a chance."

She listened to his eager, halting English, stoking it gently with more questions.

He'll offer you samples and make recommendations in somewhat halting English.

Her daughter, she explained in her halting English, was at her new art gallery, her second - a sign that business was booming.

She worries about her halting English and carrying on alone but says she has no choice.

"Yes," agreed Ms. Edono, in her somewhat halting English, "we'll be looking for lots of parties with free hors d'oeuvres."

He told his story in careful, halting English, looking occasionally to his son to provide the word he sought.

Karman, who has a degree in public administration from Sanaa University, learned her halting English in a four-month course there.

"I have been many years blind," she said in her halting English.

Mr. Yamamoto is done a disservice by his own halting English and by the film maker's tendency to overlay self-important constructs onto slight situations.