Interesting point, I am not sure I fully agree.

I work for a company with operations across the world. Education systems that lead to citizens who are deeply literal and have any shred of critical thinking stamped out of them are a real problem with communications.

On the US side, I can and have adapted to communicate effectively with those colleagues, but it’s less about English being their third or fourth language, and more about our tendency to speak colloquially, and their tendency to not do so.

To their credit, if my livelihood was tied to working in a second or third language, I probably would have trouble with non-literal communications in that language as well.

Different systems, different work cultures, etc. make communication difficult.

OTOH, we have no opportunity to get to know each other and/or bond over food. Ribs, and something spicy from them, and a bit of time to chat would go a long way to resolving some of those difficulties.

Now that I think about it, I wonder how we can pull off an intercultural cooking exchange with those colleagues, without sounding like a giant racist when I post it on the internal social site. Seriously could build some bridges.