My T was not a native English speaker so there were times she didn't understand what I said; and I found that helpful, having to word things "simply" enough instead of convoluted like I tend to. Breaking things down to their basics.

Also, having to explain things a couple different ways until I hit on one that she could understand. She was dense though and had excellent English but we both had weird quirks to our wording of things (me convoluted :-) so concentrating on the communication was extremely necessary at all times.

When I was disappointed because she didn't understand something I also was able to realize she had tried to understand it, had listened hard and well and that was truly what I wanted; whatever story I was telling was just a story but I wanted mostly to be listened to and contact made with me; to heck with the story, one story is as good as another, I have a million of them but he quality of contact is what I was after. So, if the story had been understood all the time then I might not have gotten to that other level beneath it where I felt that I was cared for and understood.