[yonaguska]

Right, but that proofreader might not totally understand nuances in language and how words take on different meanings to different audiences, even if they are the same words used.

Back to the programming reality from the analogy, I've seen outsourcing happen, for businesses that revolve around American customer bases and rules and regulations- now the code is outsourced, but the basic understanding of how business logic related to the real world use was gone. So the offshore team, while technically competent, was not equipped to make decisions about software with the consumer in mind. If you were working on something and it didn't really make sense in a real world sense, as a dev, you could go to your product person and raise concerns. Without the cultural context- those concerns never get raised.

[thomk]

Agreed. So in that case, I would not use an outsourcer for that particular piece. The problem is American developers treat outsourcers like they are American developers. Don't do that.

Treat them like 1) there is a language barrier and 2) they will not know there is a language barrier and they will forge ahead in the wrong direction.

Some of the best developers and PMs I have worked with were born in a country you barely know about, it just took a little time to get to know them and their skillset.