E a la e a la

With all the languages in the world, one really has to prioritize vocabulary to learn. I've settled on a few key phrases, but perhaps none is more important than the answer to such questions as: Are you enjoying yourself?  How was your sleep? How do you like our food (our customs, our politics, our country)?  Can you understand our language?  How are you? There are many ways one can be, but only one expression conveys enough shades of meaning to cover nearly any circumstance.  What is needed is a phrase that indicates the most probable honest response to any unsolicited probing about one's mental and physical state-- that the situation while, to be expected, is not ideal, is neither so critical as to cause further concern.  That phrase would be: So so (or if you prefer: so-so.  For the purposes of this exercise, I don't).  The French counterpart is a more elaborate enumeration of the meaning: Comme ci comme ça - like this, like that.  (Like) so (like) so.

The technical term for "so so" and internally rhyming words like it (helter skelter, fiddle faddle, dilly dally) is reduplicative.  Because the rhyme in the phrase is the word itself, you could also say that there's intensifying going on.  But since the second "so" implicitly contradicts the first, let's not.  As the following list will show, a high proportion of counterparts to "so so" in the world's languages are reduplicative— which I would imagine is a reflection of the straddling nature of the concept being expressed. There is even an English synonym for "so so" that fits the pattern: Tol-lol.  This was news to me.

The list follows.  Use with caution and be edified when you're corrected or chastised (with my apologies).  I'll welcome any corrections or additions.  Transliterations or approximate American-centric pronunciations are in Italics. Literal translations are in parentheses where available and interesting.

Albanian: njëfarësoj; çka (chka)
Arabic: نص نص  (nuss nuss) (half and half); مش ولا بدّ (mish wala bodd) (neither one nor the other)
Basque: erdipurdika

Bengali: বিক্ষিপ্তভাবে (bikshiptabhābē)
Chinese: 一般般  (yiban-ban)
Dakota: ahececa
Finnish: niin ja näin (such and thus)
French: comme-ci comme ça.

German: so la-la

Greek: έτσι κι έτσι (etsi ki etsi)

Hawaiian: pela pela

Hebrew: ככה ככה (kákha-kákha)

Hindi: ठीक-ठाक (theek thaak)

Hungarian: is-is; közepesen; talán (s is pronounced 'sh')
Inuit (or more properly Inuttut): unnet 

Italian: così così;

Japanese: まあまあ (maa maa)
Korean: 그저 그래 (geujeo geulae)
Latvian: puslīdz (just thus)
Navajo: tʼáá yédígo (the closest I can get; means 'somewhat')
Portuguese: mais ou menos (more or less)
Romanian: treacă-mearga.  (pass-go);  amestecat (mixed)
Romani: mishto

Russian: так себе (tak syebye) (like myself)

Samoan: e a la e a la
Shona (Zimbabwe): kungodaro daro
Spanish: así así; regular
Swahili: hivi hivi

Swedish: halvbra

Thai: เรื่อย ๆ ครับ/ค่ะ (ruay ruay krab (m); ruay ruay ka (f))

Turkish: şöyle böyle
Xhosa: nege njenge

Yiddish: נישקשה (nishkoshe).

Yoruba: ki-ki

For extra spice, accompany the phrase with a gesture (a shrug, a pained expression,  a hand waver), and for emphasis perhaps an interjection (Eh! Bah! Meh! Mnyeh! Bof!)

I intend to update this list from time to time as I add more equivalents.  Watch this space.