[jacquesm]

> But yeah, the inability to extract the words "I don't understand" or "I don't know" from foreign workers drives me utterly batty.

That's a cultural thing, and you're doing it wrong if you are trying to extract admissions out of people. That's the totally counter-productive approach. I understand that from a 'western' background admitting to failure, a lack of knowledge or even downright incompetence does not have to be a problem but in other cultures this can be a near impossibility.

I would like to suggest a different approach. Assume the "I don't know" or "I don't understand". Simply go over the thing for your understanding. This will take care of the problem in an elegant and face-saving way without having to torture co-workers.

[Pxtl]

I know, it's just hard. I hate dealing with an open loop - I have no feedback whether I'm explaining too much or too little.

[jacquesm]

You could ask for a re-telling, that will give you the closed loop. Just ask someone to explain the concept to you rather than the other way around.