Cultural Assimilation, Theory vs Practice

The other day, I read the following, shared 22,000+ times on social media:

"Broken English is a sign of courage and intelligence, and it would be nice if more people remembered that when interacting with immigrants and refugees."

This resonates with me, as I spent 10 years living on the other side of the world. Eventually I lost my accent in English, which took conscious effort and practice. These days I live in a majority French city and neighborhood, as a native Dutch speaker. When I need to call a plumber, I first have to go look up the words for "drainage pipe." When my barber asks me what kind of cut I want, it mostly involves gesturing and "short".

This is why I am baffled by the follow-up, by the same person:

"Thanks to everyone commenting on the use of 'broken' to describe language. You're right. It is problematic. I'll use 'beginner' from now on."

It's not difficult to imagine the pile-on that must've happened for the author to add this note.…