I work with a guy that is Chinese, so he knows English as a second language.  Smart guy, but it takes him a little while to process and translate what he hears.

As a result, he is always 30 seconds behind the current context.

I'm that way with conversations in english on complicated subjects. Someone might be talking about a field I'm not an expert in. Or it's something I looked into a long time ago and I'm trying to remember some interesting fact. Or they are telling a story involving a large number of people I don't know, or historical events, and I'm trying to keep the names and events straight. So I might suddenly ask a question about something they said 10 minutes ago.

If it's easy to follow and I can interact in real time, it's a subject I already know well, or it's something I have a predetermined opinion about.

Years ago I was working in the Netherlands and went to watch ‘Crocodile Dundee’.

Back then because 1) everyone spoke English, and 2) their population size didn’t justify dubbing, the film was English soundtrack with Dutch subtitles.

It was very noticeable that I started laughing around 5 secs before everyone else.

> It was very noticeable that I started laughing around 5 secs before everyone else.

The Dutch were laughing at the stupid guy who was laughing at a stupid movie.

That's not a knoif...

...this is a knoif