[rbourke]

The author fails to interpret the word 'foreign' correctly and thereby fails in building a convincing main argument.

In this case, 'foreign' is not synonymous with overseas.

A foreign accent is any accent that is foreign to your brain - and obviously there is a multi-dimensional spectrum of 'foreign-ness'.

The author has erred in his judgement, however I can see now why other non-native-English speakers would easily make the same mistake.

The irony of misunderstanding a topic about the importance of communication!

[rbourke]

I.e. even within North America there are many different accents that would be foreign to others living elsewhere in North America.

Back in Australia there are many distinguishable accents - many I detest; yet just because I find them foreign in no way make me racist.

There is a fine, but definite, line to cross for a comment to be racist, and pg did not cross that line.