And how many people drink an espresso every day and think it has an x in it.
I knew plenty of elite students who would make classic English blunders like "expresso" or "pacifically"
Arguably, "espresso" isn't an english word, but spelling it with an "x" as "expresso" isn't as incorrect as you may think. There's two main theories behind which word to use: "espresso" meaning to "press out" the coffee, or "expresso" meaning "expressly made for the customer" as it's quicker to make than a filter coffee. This is further confused by the Latin root being "exprimire" meaning "to press or squeeze out".
https://www.merriam-webster.com/grammar/espresso-vs-expresso...
Maybe language is fine if it conveys the intended meaning.
My point was addressing "tsinghua students..." and "Harvard students..." unless they were literary scholars or grammarians their wield of the language may be at the level of "educated" but still plenty fallible. I'm sure those of us who did any post grad would have met people who were smart in a given axis and otherwise very ordinary along the other axes.
Not ti mention spelling differences and even all the unique words in different English countries. Or within the uk
So it turns out that humans are rather flexible