Ok, so we all agree not being able to communicate with 80% of your coworkers is a bad thing, so why is the trait a neutral (+0)? I think it should be a +1 trait.
Side suggestion; bilingual trait (-1) - your character can speak both galactic common and uncommon. Should balance things out.
Bonus trait: mute pact - start with mute mutation, and telepathy.
Not a fan of this suggestion, because SS13 is a roleplaying game, and the mechanics shouldn’t reward people for not being able to RP with 80% of the crew. Also it’s a moderately trivial debuff anyway, since PDA messages are all in Common, regardless if a character can speak Common or not.
Counterpoint: Mimes exist and don’t even have the PDA option.
Deaf also exists and has been used before for some interesting situations. Not often, but a certain clown was deaf and blind once and he made it into a pretty great gimmick.
Foreigner as listed opens up some pretty great options where you can feel alienated but have other foreigners you can count on and understand.
helen keller clown? how do you even turn that into a gimmick 
you cant do anything lol
You can still be really obnoxious, trust me. You don’t need to hear or see to use a megaphone to tell corny jokes until folks start screwing with you, and he played along with it pretty well once the latter started happening.
Clown shows up while ling is murdering someone and just keeps walking along and telling jokes because he can’t see shit.
Counter-Counter Point: The Mime is one slot, and is known to be a mute - as that is what the entire role is based around. I’ve noticed the station has been suddenly stricken by mutes who do not respond to me yelling at them for their incompetence, beyond an eventual garbled bit of gobblydeegook.
I’m not arguing against the quirk - as I think the more quirks, the better - I’m arguing against players being rewarded for not being able to coherently communicate with the crew, in a game that is partially based aorund communication. If the quirk was given even a single positive point, and since there is no direct negative in what one personally does, every single “no, I’m not powergaming I swear” player on LRP would take it.
As well as miscommunication.
Imagine being the bilingual traitor that’s acting as a translator.
I did edit that message you responded to. Thoughts?
Again - not against the perk. I’m against the perk giving points.
Yeah having it give points would be too powergamey imo. You shouldn’t be encouraged to pick this trait for gaming reasons, only for roleplaying.
But we need bilingual trait.
Or at least make HoP bilingual?
Hm… making the HoP speak Common and Uncommon is not a completely terrible idea…
He should also hide the Manual to Galactic Languages in his lockers, able to teach you both common and uncommon when read, akin to Codespeak Manual, except it doesn’t dissipate.