Kendall, thanks for the info.

I have had problems with foreigners who cannot speak English well enough to answer my questions. It's common for people to know a few keys nouns and to mumble rapidly, merely pretending to speak, through the other words which they do not know.

This just doesn't do the job when the topic is complicated, as it usually is.

In fact, I recently came across a book which advocated doing that. It said, "Speak Spanish fast! Learn a few important words and skate real fast over all the others!" I don't think so.