That depends entirely on the speaker-listener relationship. My observations and personal experiences may be helpful in demonstrating these interplays. My ex, a French man with a PhD, is a very intelligent person with a sophisticated use of three or four languages. In academic circles, other intelligent people understand his French accent just fine. However. When he is speaking to some random American, that person automatically tunes him out because it is unfamiliar, and thus too difficult for this person to accommodate in their receptiveness to the unfamiliar. This is also the case with Asian-faced individuals. There has been a lack of representation of Asians in English-speaking media, and those that are featured generally will have an accent, regardless of their educational status or linguistic ability. Thus, it is often jarring when viewing an Asian speaking American, British or Canadian English fluently as one’s mind immediately wants to hear an accent or imperfections of some kind. That is, the language that is being spoken is not aligned with the language that is being received. That happens, too, in the literary world in which writers of color are assumed to write from an inferior position no matter how sophisticated their knowledge, language ability, or cultural situatedness is. The mainstream and historical dominance of British (and unfortunately white-identified) characters, themes, and subject matters also affects the reader’s reception (Gee).