Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP)
Communication Breakdown; Confusion; Time Pressure; Workload; Situational Awareness
ATC Issue All Types; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Clearance; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Published Material / Policy
Flight Crew Requested ATC Assistance / Clarification
Human Factors
We were in ZZZZ airspace; and had to deviate way east of course due to a large line of thunderstorms (other aircraft were deviating also with us). The controller kept asking us how much farther; and we told him; although communications were very hard to understand (the [foreign] voice is one of the hardest in the world for us to understand; as they talk very fast and at a frequency that is difficult and sometimes impossible to understand. Repeating things numerous times is quite common.). All of a sudden; we were told we had a reroute; but it was given so fast and again impossible to understand. We asked him to phonetically spell the first fix; and if he did; we could not understand it. We used our JEPPFD and paper en-route charts trying to find the fix and/or airway he tried to clear us on. After the third time we asked him to repeat it; so told us to 'Contact Radio.'  We were logged onto Oceanic; and when we queried them CPDLC; they just kept telling us to go back to VHF. The HF frequency was tough to understand; so while the First Officer worked with them; I called dispatch on Satcom and had him contact Radio too so dispatch could relay to us what they wanted. The First Officer (FO) work on HF and dispatch came back at about the same time; and we were able to get the new routing and reestablish contact.  Another flight behind us had the same problem; and we ended up relaying to them.
Boeing 777 Captain reported communication problems and difficulty in understanding the foreign Controller while receiving a re-route.