benefit

One of the unexpected perks of living in a country where you don't speak the language all that fluently is the capacity to switch off your comprehension skills when someone decides to lecture you or yell at you or chew you out for some specious reason. Whereas in English my impulse would be to stick up for myself and engage in verbal battle, here, when someone gets officious or testy, I can just refuse to concentrate sufficiently to understand what is being said and can walk away without any residual ire. At least on my part.