An engineer that can't communicate properly is a poor engineer, regardless of their coding ability. I've worked with too many great coders who were terrible at communicating. This includes engineers who were fluent at English. Communication is an extremely important skill.

This is a reality of life. If I moved to Nigeria and could barely speak the language, should I expect people to accommodate my poor communication skills? Or would I get passed over for a local who is possibly sub par in terms of coding quality but is more effective in all parts of their job?