A thought just occurred to me as I was sipping my Saturday morning coffee.
There is language, but there is also the thought process and context behind it.
I worked in Taiwan for 6 years and I was exposed to colleagues from Taiwan, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Viet Nam, the Mainland, Australia and New Zealand. The level of proficiency with English for those who viewed it as a second language, covered a very broad range from rudimentary to very, very good. But, typically this is in a very mechanical sense. The best had good vocabularies and more of a flat, midwestern accent; completely acceptable.
However, a colleague, who had gone to college in the US and had very good English skills, put a question to me. He said that he used to watch Seinfeld on TV when he was a student, but he always felt that he was missing something and asked what he was missing. What that said to me was that the contextual part that he was missing was New York Jewish culture. For most of us, even though we didn’t grow up and live in New York City and are not Jewish, we do have enough context to have at least a reasonable understanding. But, if you are coming from a vastly different culture, you don’t readily have that contextual piece such that it all makes sense.
So, even though one may be very conversant with English from a mechanical viewpoint, not having the context is like having a cake with a piece missing. For me, had I not been immersed in another culture, I would have never realized this. Interesting how a simple question, upon more reflection, can reveal deeper truths.