> draw heavily on language skill, but also on deep cultural competency
I think high-level language skills includes deep cultural competency.
I think the improv suggestion is a good one. I was going to suggest doing a stint at stand-up; there are comics working in the UK who take advantage of their foreign accent (and thicken it up), but can do the timing and prosody, and can sell the joke very successfully. In a way, I think these comics have nailed British English in a way that a foreign speaker with an immaculate English accent, but no sense of humour, can never approach.
> I think high-level language skills includes deep cultural competency
Somewhat, but not in the sense needed for improv performance. Somebody can be very strong in a language without, say, having watched all of the junk TV from the audience's childhood.
> I was going to suggest doing a stint at stand-up
Have you ever tried this? It's an absolutely brutal experience even for people with the necessary skills.
Studying stand-up comedy? Great. Trying it? I think it's a terrible idea for somebody working on learning the language. And I think you're conflating "foreign accent" with "verbal communication lags far behind", which is super weird to me in this context.
> Have you ever tried this? It's an absolutely brutal experience even for people with the necessary skills.
No; I don't have the necessary skills. I'm not funny enough, and I'm not quick-witted enough.
I used to heckle standups (and people who thought their poetry deserved a public performance). I mostly regret that behaviour now; I think I figured that a good standup should be able to use a heckler as a foil, a way to improve their show. Certainly the funniest standups can atomise a heckler instantly; heckling a good comic is very risky.
The very best standups can deal with a heckle without destroying the heckler - for example, by improvising a joke on top of the heckler's line.
I think high-level language skills includes deep cultural competency.
I think the improv suggestion is a good one. I was going to suggest doing a stint at stand-up; there are comics working in the UK who take advantage of their foreign accent (and thicken it up), but can do the timing and prosody, and can sell the joke very successfully. In a way, I think these comics have nailed British English in a way that a foreign speaker with an immaculate English accent, but no sense of humour, can never approach.