There’s a critical difference to explain the difference between the decisions made by those who are fluent in a foreign language and those who have a working knowledge at best. Fluent speakers have more than likely immersed themselves in the culture for an extended period of time learning not only the language but also understanding the mindset and values of that culture. This also creates a higher level of empathy to understand their point of view. Those who only have a limited knowledge of a foreign language have limited exposure to the culture thus its values and relate to them only to a particular level.

Thus the fluent person has a significantly closer personal connection to the fat man, perhaps because they’ve more than likely met someone like him during their past or current immersion vs the working knowledge individual who has merely a passing familiarity of him.

Think about how you react living in neighborhoods you live in populated with various ethnic groups. For example if you’re South Asian and you’ve lived or worked in France and are fluent,you have a closer personal connection to French-speaking residents living in your New York neighborhood than, let's say Germans, living in the same neighborhood, a language you don’t speak, despite being neighboring Europeans. It always comes down to a level of intimacy as the common denominator.