Does anyone else have trouble understanding accents?

[Unclewolverine]

I've always had trouble understanding anybody speaking with more than a slight foreign accent. I was watching Ms. Marvel with the kids tonight and couldn't catch half the dialog. I believe it's a processing problem, similarly I have trouble understanding songs unless I've studied the lyrics. Anybody else?

 

[Fino]

I have it to an extent, but I have a feeling mine is not quite as severe as yours, just because I haven't noticed much of an impairment for me.

 

[Aspychata]

I went to England. I liked a guy who had a cockny accent. His friends had to decipher everything for me at a get together. I remember standing at a train station, asking a bystander to tell me what the train representative just replied to my question. Lol

 

[Yeshuasdaughter]

It's funny, on shows that feature actors that don't speak with the same accent as I do (West Coast USA), I often exclaim, "Turn on the closed captions. They're speaking English again!"

 

[Suzanne]

Don't do too bad, because I live in France and have got used to different accent, however, since using zoom rooms, I have found the Welsh accent in a spiritual brother hard to understand and think it is also because he is black, he has that Welsh/African twinge, that really does make it hard to decifer what he is saying all the time and his wife is Welsh, but find it easier to understand her.

 

[RotanotNino]

I was a Navy brat when I was young and around quite a few Fillipinos on base and at command parties and a kid I hung around with in 2nd and 3rd grade was from Mexico so I learned early to distinguish speech patterns of people from different regions and countries. Being in the military a few years later stationed in Spain I noted that a Catalan woman I knew spoke different than her Andalusian friends and was around a few Brits, an Irish woman and an Aussie as well. Speech patterns and etymology are interests of mine though I haven't studied either in a formal sense.

 

[AprilR]

Yes. A lot of people where i live are from the country side and have different dialects. I struggle a lot with understanding them especially on the phone

 

[Irakus34]

I do have such struggle too. Spanish is damn rich with dialects or accents. It's so frustrating when everyone is understanding someone talking and suddenly I realize I'm the only one who can't descipher what they have just said even in my own language. It's a complete new story when it's about English or Chinese accents, I just give up and try a reading way.

 

[Au Naturel]

Per tests, my hearing is quite good but I still have a hard time with people who speak quickly or enunciate poorly or in a room with background conversations. I imagine I have a processing deficit. I can never understand anything but the clearest music lyrics, either.

After I've asked someone to repeat what they said once and I still don't have a clue what they said, I'll apologize and claim a hearing deficit. Another reason I prefer text over speech.

 

[Thinx]

Yes similar to @AuNaturel, I can't always pick out words when there's background conversation. And I also don't always get what someone speaking to me in a random situation, means. It takes me time, sometimes I would work it out later, or the next day.

When I went to university it was one where students from North and South of England would attend. I couldn't understand the northern accents and had to keep asking for explanations. Embarrassing.

 

[Judge]

In many cases I enjoy hearing most accents as a challenge to understanding them. Though to the contrary there are two particular (non-European) accents that annoy me to the point where I won't listen to them. Particularly on YouTube. I guess my patience has limits. My bad.

Recently I found another tech source where I could tell the person was from Northern Ireland, but that his particular dialect (Christopher Flannigan) was not so familiar compared to some of my "Falls Road" relatives. Interesting hearing him refer to "air cooling" (regarding computers) where it sounded like he was saying "ar-culling". Had to listen to him over and over to realize what he meant. I'm guessing he probably resides well northeast of my relatives.

Another fellow I enjoy hearing is an obvious Brit (Tom Logan). Reminiscent of Tom Felton's portrayal of Draco Malfoy. And yet another is an older guy (Leo Warnock) whose accent is quite easy to understand. All good sources for high-tech information.

The number of dialects in the British Isles one can run into remains astounding to me. Far beyond anything I've encountered in the states. Examples:

Christopher Flannigan

Tom Logan

Leo Waldock

Another one I like is a Parisian named Nicolas from "The Linux Experiment". Though his frame of reference seems more indicative of American English. Like Leo Waldock, he's easy to understand and can be at times quite amusing.

 

[Alaric593]

I've always had trouble understanding anybody speaking with more than a slight foreign accent. I was watching Ms. Marvel with the kids tonight and couldn't catch half the dialog. I believe it's a processing problem, similarly I have trouble understanding songs unless I've studied the lyrics. Anybody else?

Yes. I hang up and call back any time it's someone with an Indian accent. No chance I'll ever understand them. It's not their fault and all I'll do is get irritated with them.