I didn't really notice a difference with which language was being spoken.

My Japanese colleagues came up with a joke (?). They'd ask me something mundane (like: did you eat yet?), but since I was so zombie-like for several minutes, they would slap a post-it on me.

I felt bad about this, but I was managing a 2M line code base (C), and they 'only' had to manage 250k-or-so transistors.

I now believe (for me) that if you (one) is debugging a large code-base, taking a moment to relearn human is to be expected.

It's a self-serving belief, but I have found little evidence that it is wrong...

As for the wife I have explained it to her on many occasions, but she thinks this is just an excuse that I have made up to allow me to ignoring her :)