Interesting point Doggs, Hal with Windows Speech Recognition or ever Dragon's may not work very well if English is NOT your native language.
Hal was written specifically for English and while some have tried other language applications like French with limited success, I still contend that if you are trying to train or teach your Hal, then consider typing to it instead of hoping it gets things right with speech! It is still not an exact science so knowing this going in might save you lots of frustration later.
Even accents within US English varies greatly from state to state, especially like Boston, Tennessee, Texas, Kentucky, New York, Pennsylvania and practically every other state each have their own slangs and accents so it's a hip shot at best to expect perfection from SR.
Just my personal take. Your mileage will no doubt, vary!
Yes, do set your microphone as room noise like Air Conditioners, Fans humming, outside traffic, lawn mowers, kids playing, music, head colds / sinuses, etc., etc. can and will affect it's ability to discern speech from noise. - Good luck!