Reading all this reminds me of a Spantax DC6 that used to run into Heathrow on a nightky basis. One night the pilot was shall we say not a good english speaker and his hearing was just as excellent. On his first call he got a 3 item instruction from approach but he kept screwing up the cleared level. Finally the controller came back with "descend flight level eight zero. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, zero, readback."