Foreigners speak terrible English and don't seem to integrate well with the local culture. Also they're awkward as fuck and it's impossible trying to hold a conversation with them that lasts for more than 15 seconds.

I had one supervisor. from Taiwan, whose head was shaped like Akira--no not tetsuo or kaneda; literally like Akira, an upside-down pear--and his english was so broken that the very first time I met him (with his own supervisor leading me), I had trouble understanding him at all.

As we spent time together, we developed a deep rapport, in spite of the language barrier. It was very weird and I guess hard to describe. It's like, to overly simplify and mechanize it, imagine his communication-level (independent of language) was at 8/10, but our language barrier lowered it to 4/10, but somehow we both realized the issue, and we managed to connect at 7/10 in spite of a deep language barrier.

Like, we both recognized and appreciated each others' expertise, and were able to communicate at that level through a very low bandwidth verbal link--but we respected the high understanding behind that low verbal link. We really got along and respected each other's expertise.

My only point with this (other than sharing a very meaningful personal experience I had) is that you can develop a strong, respectful relationship with a coworker or supervisor, even with a severe language barrier, if 1) you're both very bright, perceptive, and inquisitive, and 2) you're both sincerely interested in exploring and connecting with each other. It won't work if either of you are dumb or lazy. And it's absolutely not ideal. But otherwise there's a strong possibility for a very rich relationship there.