Advice I received in high school

When I was in high school we had a subject called English that we all had to take. I'm not sure why, as everyone in the entire school was actually already capable of speaking English. When I pointed this out to the English teacher and asked why we were wasting our time with him, he said that we had to study English in order to be able to communicate. Personally, I thought that the conversation we were having was evidence enough that I already knew how to communicate and asked if I could go and finish my science homework instead of attending his class. He said that I had to stay and learn to communicate instead, because even if someone became the greatest scientist in the world, it wouldn't do him any good if he couldn't communicate his findings to other people.

I have spent a great deal of time pondering the words of my English teacher and have always wondered, how could anyone become the greatest scientist in the world if they couldn't communicate with other people? Did he think someone could turn up at a research laboratory and say, "Nerrrhhh! Urrrhhh! Murrhhhh! Dahhurrrhhhhhh!" And the laboratory technicians there would say, "Well I can't understand what he's saying, but he could be the greatest scientist in the world, so we'd better let him in to play with the expensive scientific equipment."