What is the toughest accent to learn/understand

[luvwinnie]

For this Yankee, some strong southern accents have been tough for me! THen again, I was in southern Virginia once (in college when we had to use pay phones!) and the operator said to me, "Could you please slow down? I can't understand a word you're saying." lol

 

[Gumbo4x4]

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...

I only struggle with the Southern accent if it's very exaggerated, they're drunk, or they don't enunciate.

Back when you could still keep shells from live hermit crabs, a Floridian was explaining how to remove the crabs from the shells. "Ya ballmount". It took him repeating himself slower & slower until we finally discerned, "you boil them out".

Of the times I've struggled with a strong Southern accent, it has ALWAYS been a man talking. With the Scottish, both sexes are equally difficult to understand