sqwak.....
Your American controllers, that you are glad to hear are not without fault. In fact, the controllers in the USA are some of the most non-standard we hear world-wide.
They think everyone has local knowledge - clearances to places, not three letter identifiers (East Texas, Moro Bay). Look through the FM for that when your tired!
In addition, many are quite arrogant. If the controllers in JFK are non-standard, how can they give Air China a hard time when they don't understand. This is what happens however. I've heard it first hand. I could understand both of them, but they couldn't understand each other. And it wasn't soly the Chinese's fault.
I welcome these new controllers as well, but have no problems with our local controllers who are standard, and enable all nationalities to operate safely.