What is the toughest accent to learn/understand

[diznygirl]

My dad is Scottish. He's been in the states for years, so he's understandable. But the visitors - yowzers! They get all together and start talking and it's game over. Lol. I've noticed there's a rhythm to it, so you have to keep up.

So my "learned something new today" is....Scottish accents=hard to understand.

I honestly haven't been face to face nor over the phone with a person with a Scottish accent so I wouldn't have that kind of experience. My experience is limited to entertainment actors/actresses/singers

Actors clean up their accents a lot. Go look up an interview with David Tennant. Lol. He's from the same area as my dad.

 

[BigAlsGal]

Any accent that puts the em-PHA-sis on the wrong syl-LA-ble.

 

[Teresa Pitman]

I had a really difficult experience once in the ER with a doctor who had a very strong accent - I think he was from India or Pakistan - and I just could not understand him. I was trying to be polite because I really needed to know what he was telling me about how I should treat my health problem, but he was getting more and more annoyed because no matter how many times he repeated it, I still couldn't figure it out. I asked him if he would write it down and he got really angry and left the room. Eventually he came back and wrote out the instructions, glaring at me. I don't blame him for having a strong accent but it isn't my fault, either, that I couldn't understand him.

The other hardest to understand accent I can think of is my friend's husband when he's drinking. He's Irish, and normally he's pretty easy to understand. But the more he drinks, the stronger and less comprehensible his accent becomes. By the end of a night at the pub I no longer have any idea what he is saying.

 

[Gumbo4x4]

BTW, for those who enjoy the Scottish accent & have a warped sense of humor, check out "Scottish Pepa Pig" on YouTube - warning, very unDISlike language

 

[Marchand63]

Do you understand I have to go with Indian sorry but every time I call the call center I can I have to ask him to repeat things three or four times

Now as far as to master living in Boston every movie I see the Boston accent is ridiculous I have to say especially the departed it was so out there

 

[Gumbo4x4]

Do you understand I have to go with Indian sorry but every time I call the call center I can I have to ask him to repeat things three or four times

Now as far as to master living in Boston every movie I see the Boston accent is ridiculous I have to say especially the departed it was so out there

That wasn't the only thing awful about The Departed. What a disappointment.

 

[MataHari22]

We didn't have any trouble in Edinburgh, but the further North we got - oh boy! And my grandfather was a Scottish immigrant, so I grew up hearing it.

Agree! We were fine in Edinburgh and the other places we went. We even visited my friend's cousin who lives there, and we stayed the day and had dinner, and that was fine, we understood her. It was the Glaswegians that got me.

 

[kimblebee]

I don't really have a problem with accents. Maybe that comes from working in tons of call centres..getting exposed to a wide range of callers every day.

My dad is Australian and has lived in Canada for 35ish years. He still gets misunderstood sometimes lol

 

[bcla]

I had a really difficult experience once in the ER with a doctor who had a very strong accent - I think he was from India or Pakistan - and I just could not understand him. I was trying to be polite because I really needed to know what he was telling me about how I should treat my health problem, but he was getting more and more annoyed because no matter how many times he repeated it, I still couldn't figure it out. I asked him if he would write it down and he got really angry and left the room. Eventually he came back and wrote out the instructions, glaring at me. I don't blame him for having a strong accent but it isn't my fault, either, that I couldn't understand him.

The other hardest to understand accent I can think of is my friend's husband when he's drinking. He's Irish, and normally he's pretty easy to understand. But the more he drinks, the stronger and less comprehensible his accent becomes. By the end of a night at the pub I no longer have any idea what he is saying.

I've heard stories about that, even with South Asians with impeccable grammar. The one I heard was about a doctor who the patient thought was asking "are you still breathing?", which seemed a bit odd to her. After a few tries, she figured he was asking "are you still bleeding?"

 

[lizabu]

The only accents I've ever struggled with were certain British accents and certain Scottish accents. It's kind of funny because they are native English speakers. And so am I but it's hopeless. I do better with people to whom English is their second language.

 

[sasywtch]

I deal with applicants/licensees from all over and the most difficult for me to understand are those from Haiti, Jamaica, Nigeria and Ethiopia. They all have the same tone which I have a difficult time understanding.

 

[DisneyRobin]

Southern accents.

 

[aprilchem]

Two are really hard for me - Welsh and the accent of the area where I grew up in Virginia. It's a distinct regional accent from a very small area and you really have to concentrate to figure out what people are saying.

 

[ronandannette]

I had a really difficult experience once in the ER with a doctor who had a very strong accent - I think he was from India or Pakistan - and I just could not understand him. I was trying to be polite because I really needed to know what he was telling me about how I should treat my health problem, but he was getting more and more annoyed because no matter how many times he repeated it, I still couldn't figure it out. I asked him if he would write it down and he got really angry and left the room. Eventually he came back and wrote out the instructions, glaring at me. I don't blame him for having a strong accent but it isn't my fault, either, that I couldn't understand him.

The other hardest to understand accent I can think of is my friend's husband when he's drinking. He's Irish, and normally he's pretty easy to understand. But the more he drinks, the stronger and less comprehensible his accent becomes. By the end of a night at the pub I no longer have any idea what he is saying.

That is the worst; and even "worser" is being concerned that the medical professionals don't understand what you're trying to say to them. There's a big difference between having trouble discerning accents and actual language barriers based on fluency.

I work with a very large (and diverse) ethnic client base, many of whom are either new Canadians or have stayed insulated in their own communities and not become fluent in English. I'm constantly concerned that they do not understand the information they're given even when they smile and nod.

 

[Minnesota!]

My BIL is from the south, and when he gets drinking...you cannot understand a word out of his mouth. Seriously, I think the southern accent is very hard to understand.

A local priest is Indian, and I know a large chunk of the parish left when he started because they just could not understand him...

 

[VandVsmama]

For me, it's heavy Irish and Scottish accents. I understand most Indians, Pakistani, people from southeast Asia. Even Vietnamese people who are really new to speaking English, but Irish, Scottish, heavy Cajun accents do me in and I have a hard time understanding them.

 

[L&Lfan]

My BIL is from the south, and when he gets drinking...you cannot understand a word out of his mouth. Seriously, I think the southern accent is very hard to understand.

A local priest is Indian, and I know a large chunk of the parish left when he started because they just could not understand him...

Foreign priests serving in American parishes with their congregations finding them difficult to understand is becoming a big issue in the USA. Many dioceses have implemented accent reduction courses to address parishioners' complaints. Most of the guys are wonderful, devout men, but if the people can't understand them, you've got a problem...

 

[Minnesota!]

Foreign priests serving in American parishes with their congregations finding them difficult to understand is becoming a big issue in the USA. Many dioceses have implemented accent reduction courses to address parishioners' complaints. Most of the guys are wonderful, devout men, but if the people can't understand them, you've got a problem...

Exactly! The priest is a great guy with a fantastic sense of humor. But, the older people, with hearing issues already, who seem to enjoy the masses the most, left because they just could not understand him.

 

[tarheelmjfan]

Foreign priests serving in American parishes with their congregations finding them difficult to understand is becoming a big issue in the USA. Many dioceses have implemented accent reduction courses to address parishioners' complaints. Most of the guys are wonderful, devout men, but if the people can't understand them, you've got a problem...

I'm curious. Is there a shortage of American or at least native English speaking priests?

 

[NotUrsula]

My parents were from two different parts of Ireland, and Dad grew up Gaelic-speaking right across from the Ulster border. While his accent wasn't all that difficult for most people, his syntax was sometimes another thing entirely, especially when he got excited about something and sped up. He had a tendency to revert to Gaelic grammar when speaking English, and THAT is a bizarre thing to hear.

When I was a kid, people were always asking me if my parents spoke Gaelic when they didn't want we kids to understand them. They couldn't. Dad spoke a completely different dialect than the "school-Irish" that my mother learnt in school in her English-speaking county in the south.

Speaking of priests, I have a funny story. When my mother's younger sister died, the Irish priest from her (US) parish decided to deliver the Lord's Prayer in Irish Gaelic at the graveside service. He was from the northwest, and like Dad, grew up speaking it at home. After the service, my mother went up to him, and in her still-strong Roscommon accent, thanked him for the gesture. She said, "Father, that was just lovely. I didn't understand a word of it, mind, but it was lovely."