CRJ705, I dont think you and I disagree, you seem to have the same take on this but from a different perspective, as for "English speaking controllers", my home base operates entirley in French {or a bastardised version of same} and having flown into most parts of the world to have to deal with ICAO English level zero is not something I miss these days, around here these days being able to speak Manderin would make life much less interesting, I just cant imagine the work load these kids are under leaning to fly/ living in a totally different society/away from home and family/and doing all this in English!The quicker we get coded data link the better! As for asking "left or right", one has to adjust terms used to fit into the language skills and idiom of the other party, something that our friends to the South of us often dont do.