What accent do you find the hardest to understand?

Question

I was talking to a Scottish chap from Aberdeen tonight, and I could hardly understand a word he was saying.

What accent do you find it difficult to get to grips with?

Answer 1

I think Scottish too - although those from Glasgow and Fife are even harder to understand!!

Answer 2

I often find that I have a difficult time with someone's accent if he hasn't tried to eliminate it as much as possible, or if he has problems in other areas of spoken English, regardless of from which country he has come.

That said, the few times that I have heard some people from the north of England speak...whew! It's like, "Are we really both native speakers of the same language?" :) I also have trouble understanding strong ebonics, and I think some black people I've met must have thought that I was a bit thick because I kept asking them to repeat themselves. I probably no longer have the best hearing, either, which likely doesn't help.

It's amazing that a little difference or mistake in pronunciation can make for misunderstanding. In French, for example, not understanding the difference between the sounds indicated by "eux" and "aux" can mean the difference between saying that every morning you brush your hair or every morning you brush the horses! :D Also, I've been taking a little home course in Arabic, and in the book, it describes one of the vowel sounds in Arabic as being a "long A", as in "hair" or "heart". Well, where I come from, those are two completely different vowel sounds! :D

Answer 3

There are thousands of British accents and of course some are greater difficult to get exhilaration from than others. Daniel Radcliffe, who performs Harry Potter, and Hugh Laurie (in his extensive-unfold accessory, now no longer while he's enjoying "abode") communicate gained Pronunciation, the "expert" south east England accessory, that's the closest you may get to a "trouble-free" and for specific the least confusing to have an be conscious of-how of. The extra north interior the united kingdom you bypass, the fewer like that it gets, and that i even however i'm British have a capture 22 project with particularly a number of them. it would sound unusual that we've vast parts of accents in this type of small abode whether it is on condition that we've a plenty longer historic previous, for a lot of that factor long-distance transport replaced into no longer achieveable different than for the wealthy who had a horse, there was no television or radio so no one knew what somebody else gave the impression of, so each and every little project progressed its very own accessory. How do you're looking after Maggie Smith, who performs Professor McGonagall? She's Scottish, however for sure the greater suitable comprehensible style of Scottish. i've got disaster with some American accents - traditionally from the "deep south" in the event that they impart rapid. I take into consideration a case on elect Judy concerning women folk and adult adult males persons from Alabama which I had to hearken to very difficult to renowned what replaced into as quickly as going on.

Answer 4

Sorry to bring logic into this but obviously the hardest accent to understand is of someone who has hardly any grasp of English, no matter where from.

If you mean British accents, I think Newcastle, Glasgow and Belfast are the hardest for most people, of the accents still commonplace. If you heard a really strong accent from somewhere like Dewsbury, Wakefield or Barnsley in West Yorkshire, which you hardly hear nowadays, you wouldn't have a clue. It's dialect as well as accent. "E wain't 'av naw truck wiy it" means he wouldn't have anything to do with it. "Atta gooin' fot guw ert?" means are you going out?

The only American I couldn't understand was a 75 year old from the mountains of east Tennessee.

Answer 5

My native tongue is Russian, and I don't find it really difficult to understand other non-native speakers, with the exception of those from China, may be. The real trouble are native speakers! The strongest accent I've ever heard belonged to an old lady from Ireland who used to live in Wales for many years. It took me about 20 minutes to start understanding anything at all! Before that I was only able to nod and smile.
Funnily enough, I find it very difficult to understand people speaking broken Russian. I sometimes cannot guess what they speaking about at all.

Answer 6

If you are thinking about British English, then Liverpudlian is very very hard to understand. I think it runs equally with some Scottish accents (among which, Glasgowigian is pretty difficult, too!). In America, I find very difficult to understand people speaking with a Southern accent (such as Tennesee or Mississippi).

It also depends who these people are talking too. I was working in Dundee and if local workers were talking between them it was impossible to grasp a single word.

Answer 7

I have the most trouble understanding people with a Korean accent. I also have a hard time understand people with a Scottish accent and some trouble understanding French accents.

Answer 8

We have a lot of accents here in America but I can pretty much understand people regardless of where they're from. I'm less familiar with Australian and Great Britain accents and I sometimes have a hard time understanding people from those places. I was watching a movie recently and I think everybody had Irish accents and I couldn't understand a word they were saying. My brother's girlfriend is from London, however, and I can understand her perfectly.

Answer 9

I've grown up around a lot of Asian people, so that's not too difficult for me. I find people from the Irish & Scottish highlands the hardest to understand.

I know someone who went to Canada, but couldn't understand a word her host was saying. Eventually they could understand each other speaking French.

Answer 10

I find some accents from the west coast of scotland hard to understand. But I still love the place and the people.

Answer 11

I have to agree that it can be difficult to understand the scottish/ irish sometimes..
i also have problems understanding the Asians in general.
someone said Hungarians- that's funny!
my husband is hungarian but speaks perfect english but some of his relatives have dificulty with english but I can understand them - guess i'm used to their accents- darlink!