Funny thing: In my experience people with English as a foreign language all have a pretty much a common subset, the operational part of the English language. We

Funny thing: In my experience people with English as a foreign language all have a pretty much a common subset, the operational part of the English language. We non-natives also have an instinctual understanding which words and structures are more "advanced" and we can tone our language down to simpler structures when we feel that the audience needs it. In effect, non-natives are good at communicating in English with other non-natives. Whereas native English speakers occasionally mix in "difficult" words and grammar, thus making themselves less understood in the company of non-natives. Additionally, while most American accents are easy, many British accents range difficult to really difficult to understand, even for someone who's spent decades in international teams speaking English, but mostly with non-British. I remember one workshop, listening to talks by Chinese, Finnish, German, Indian, Russian, Swedish etc. speakers. The one native British presenter was the only one with whose talk I really had to concentrate, and maybe I missed some of the details. This can put native speakers (especially those with difficult British accents) to a disadvantage in international teams. People will not understand everything they say, but will probably be too shy to ask for clarification. https://www.bbc.com/worklife/article/20161028-native-english-speakers-are-the-worlds-worst-communicators https://www.bbc.com/worklife/article/20161028-native-english... https://www.ft.com/content/26692848-f59b-11e5-96db-fc683b5e52db https://www.ft.com/content/26692848-f59b-11e5-96db-fc683b5e5...