> if you can't express yourself clearly or understand native speakers without them having to make allowances, then I don't think you should get credit for being

> if you can't express yourself clearly or understand native speakers without them having to make allowances, then I don't think you should get credit for being smart Why? Engineers have to "make allowances" for understanding what managers or people from other departments say all the time, even when it's said in perfectly-articulate, perfectly-accented English. I can't remember the last time I heard someone outside a technical department use "speed", "bandwidth" and "latency" correctly. And yet I've continued to write correct specifications and improve products -- even when that required entire meetings to get people on the same page, as opposed to a simple question to get me over the language barrier. Shall we stop giving credit for being smart to designers, marketing specialists and product managers, too? > This isn't me stereotyping, either Yes it is. Difficult communication is a major problem in our industry and it's an unfortunate reality even in teams where everyone is a native speaker of the same language. It's far less difficult for a designer or a product manager to learn correct usage of technical terms in their native language than it is for someone to learn a whole new language -- but you wouldn't tell a manager that the fact that they can't be bothered to learn what a few words mean is "at best a nuisance and at worst detrimental to productivity and working relationships", would you?