Yet it is precisely this deceptive ease which makes language a victim of its own success, since in everyday life its triumphs are usually taken for granted.

How familiar those faces were to me now, after a year studying language arts together, testing one another, and learning to trust one another with varying degrees of success.

Communicating across a language barrier can be difficult outside of work, but it can be outright maddening when the success of a project depends on it.