Having difficulties understanding certain UK residents

[WingsofLiberty]

Ok guys, so here's the deal. I've recently moved to my uncle till December(he currently lives in London) and today I went to eat something at Subway(it's one of my favourite fast foods) and I just figured that I couldn't understand one bit the employee(he was arab or maybe indian) was saying.

He had such a strange accent I was sort of startled and looked totally clueless while he repeated the same sentence like 4 times. Man... Did I feel dumb.

The last time a similar thing happened was like 4 years ago when I could hardly understand a chinese waitress.

Now, this is by no means racist or anything, but are some minorities' accents really that hard to understand, or is it just me? (I have absolutely no trouble understanding the rest of the people here or in the US)

[Independent voter]

I had to get subtitles for the English version of The Office. I'm serious.

[Deleted]

I understand completely, my local shop has a man from Bangladesh and he tries cracking jokes with me and I cannot understand a fucking word, the best thing to do is nod and smile.

[Dhrizzle]

I have the same problem with Geordies and Glaswegians.

[TheTaurenOrc]

Its the same in the parts of the US. Thing is people living in the larger foreign speaking communities literally don't have to speak the native language to anyone, except the native speaking population which are the minority in those areas.

[Kalis]

One of my old flatmates was from Lurgan in Northern Ireland, and I could only understand about a third of what he was saying.

[Forgettable]

I have this happen sometimes and usually it's because the person is speaking so fast that they combine all of their already difficult to understand words together into one giant incomprehensible conglomeration. I ask them to repeat it once, MAYBE twice, and then I ask them to say what they're saying slower because I'm hard of hearing (which is true). Sometimes they do, and sometimes they laugh and say something like "Oh yes my accent is very difficult to understand." I've never been a jerk about it and never had a problem.

[Netherspark]

Unfamiliar accents can be hard to understand.

With me, I have trouble with most accents.

[Vizardlorde]

You racist bastard!!!! I kid, some dialects/accents are more difficult to understand than others, for example I'd rather listen to an NC redneck than an Alabaman redneck or ghetto talk. It takes much less time to discern what they mean( though there are a few giggles here and there cause they sound funny tome) compared to the latter where I have to stop and analyze the situation to try to come up with an idea of what the person is trying to say.

[Deleted]

Nod and smile. Noodddd and smile.

[Activi-T]

It is all about what you are used to. If you are fortunate enough to be a Geordie, given the general speed and incomprehensibility of my older relatives' speech I find it pretty easy to understand the vast majority of accents, now that I'm older.

[Deleted]

fortunate enough to be a Geordie

Shit no-one says.

[Deleted]

It is all about what you are used to. If you are fortunate enough to be a Geordie, given the general speed and incomprehensibility of my older relatives' speech I find it pretty easy to understand the vast majority of accents, now that I'm older.

I challenge you to Doric.

[WingsofLiberty]

Well, that's a relief. For a moment there I felt like I was the only person in this world that has such problems understanding certain accents.

Yep, I guess I'll just nod and smile next time )

[The Glitch]

It happens I have a hard time understanding my fellow scots sometimes, but thats more of me thing, as I have troubles with multiple people speaking at the same time, I find it hard to zone in on one person, and it ends up all sounding like one big noise.

Best thing to do in that situation is politely ask for them to repeat and hope you can get it after a few turns, or just nod and smile the British way lol.

[Deleted]

i have worked with a guy from Pakistan for about 3 years now, still can hardly understand a word he says. same with when i place a chinese order over the phone, cannot understand them at all, so i just shout my order out, and say thanks, and hope it all goes well.

[Attackrabbit]

Bangladeshi guy in my local Happy Shopper (think it may be the last Happy Shopper in existence, I've certainly never come across another) is still pretty much impossible to understand even after I've been going there for at least 15 years, the one thing you can actually understand is when you buy alcohol and he asks 'You dancing tonight eh?'

[Miyani]

Problem is you went to london which 25% of the cities population is foreign, so depending on where they came from the accent can be a bitch. But no worse than if you visit birmingham, which most people in the uk struggle to understand themselves.

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Being from the midlands we are generally good at understanding people from all over the country, but when i went to uni myself and the other midlanders had to translate between the southerners and northerners since they couldn't understand each other!

[grimsanta]

I can usually understand accents, it's rare for me to not be able to understand someone.

But, slang country to country is rough. England was hard enough when I was there, but Jamaica? They speak english...kind of. All the words are there, but they use so many sayings, and some of the same words mean other things. Confuses me to no end.

[Deleted]

My housemate is half Scottish half Italian. Able to understand most of what she says now but when she first moved in the rest of us didn't understand a word she said, and after she speaks Italian with a family member she seems to lose all ability to speak English which always makes conversations fun! Other than that I haven't really noticed. Have no problem understanding Indian/Pakistani accents which seems to stump most people by the looks of things.