You can have a very low level of understanding in a language, as in no more than a few hours of experience, and understand what people are talking about. You do

You can have a very low level of understanding in a language, as in no more than a few hours of experience, and understand what people are talking about. You don't get the details or have the most basic conversation, but you can piece together the few words you understand. It is a cautionary tale: never assume that because someone doesn't speak your language, he won't get it if you are bad mouthing him. Here "blah blah, Stallman, blah GNU blah blah gnuplot" is enough for some not skilled in blah to understand what is going on.