Using classroom data uniting linguistically and culturally varied groups of L1 American English and English L2 learning Chinese and Persian speakers, it is shown that the groups stretch the flexibility of the I think (IT) expression along three non-discrete, fluid continua of frequency, position, and cluster, to mutable levels and stop at choppy continua points. While L1 speakers are speaker-centred and confident, the Persians are listener-oriented and less assertive, and the Chinese occupy a medium position. Linguistic flexibility awareness appears vital to communicative efficiency.