A well-educated non-native English speaker will have a different kind of exposure to the language, mostly through reading. They won't always be able to articula

A well-educated non-native English speaker will have a different kind of exposure to the language, mostly through reading. They won't always be able to articulate themselves smoothly in everyday social situations, but they can usually write cohesive text that's mostly grammatically correct and semantically-sound. At least this has been my case as a non-native English speaker. I usually feel awkward in a conversation among native speakers. I can't always "get" their humour and cultural references and sometimes I need longer pauses to find the most appropriate next word. This makes me feel uncomfortable and turns me into a passive listener. When writing text however, these pauses are not visible and I tend to write only the stuff that has informational value, without all the wordplay and wittiness.