Advice on dealing with coworkers with heavy indian accents!

[McLeo]

I'm a student working at a summer job, and my main duties are adjusting inventory on the computer system. The people I deal with mostly are the people in the warehouse, and a majority of the workers there are indians.

You see, my problem is that in many cases when they are trying to tell me something or ask me about something, I have the HARDEST time understanding what they are saying, due to their heavy accents. Usually, I would have this blank look on my face, and go "Pardon me?", and they would repeat what they say. 85% of the time I wouldn't be able to understand the second time around, and I would try to repeat the instructions they have just told me, hoping that they will nod in affirmative. If that doesn't work, I'll usually guess what they are trying tell me or sometimes just ignore what they said. In many cases, this turns out to be a very awkward situation, and it's sort of frustrating. And I also get a sense that they do not see the problem as because of their accent, but because I do not understand the instructions they are giving. And I also sometimes feel like I'm being rude or something because I had to make them repeat what they are saying 4 or 5 times. But what can I do? Please help!

[Kalhoun]

This is a problem for me as well. I don't know the answer. I respond the same way you do. Luckily, I don't have heavy interaction with people with accents. My suggestion is to explain the problem to your boss and ask if it would be OK to receive your instructions in writing, if at all possible. It's extremely frustrating, and no one's fault. What a drag!

[liirogue]

Just tell them that you are having a hard time understanding, and could they please repeat themselves a little slower.

Sometimes I have to do this with my husband (he isn't Indian though, he's Romanian). Many times, they, like us, get going when they talk, and start slurring the words. Combined with an unfamiliar accent, it gets really messy. If they know that you are trying to be patient and understand, they should be patient with you as well.

You may find that after you are around them for a while, you become for accustomed to their accent, and don't find them as difficult to comprehend.

[handy]

Why not ask them to write it down?

[Duke]

I will second liirogue's suggestion to request your co-workers to speak more slowly. I played cricket in Los Angeles for a while, and all but one of my teammates were from the sub-continent. They did tend to speak more quickly than your average Angeleno.

Once the speech-speed issue is taken care of, the Indian accent itself isn't too high a hurdle. Compared with, say, the Glaswegian accent, I didn't find it difficult to understand.

[fruitbat]

The only solution for me was to engage them in conversation on a regular basis. I know this is just as awkward, but you will find understanding becomes easier and easier.

If you find that too daunting you can also eavesdrop occasionally on conversations they are having with others. Once you start to get attuned to the patterns of speech you troubles will disappear.

[McLeo]

Thanks for the replies guys.

Well, the thing is, because they are warehouse workers, they will not have convienent access to paper and pencil all the time. And I would also feel like such a bother because all the other indian people can understand each other fine and I would be the only one needing little notes. (Why is that anyways? They speak english to each other but is it just because they know how to comprehend english with indian accents?)

Also, from the comment of telling them that I'm not understanding and telling them to go slowly, they DO go slowly after a few times, but it's just that their accents are SO heavy that I seriously would still not understand!
Argh this is so extremely frustrating I hope the summer ends soon.

[jjimm]

I work with a couple of Indian guys. My experience is that over time you will get used to their accent, and they will learn to speak more slowly, until you meet in the middle. Don't be embarrassed to ask them to talk slower.

[McLeo]

Oh and when they do speak in their language with each other, they speak like 50,000 words per minute! I speak cantonese as well, and when my non-cantonese speaking friends hear me speak cantonese, they say that I sound like I'm singing:p

[hawthorne]

Hang in there. With a little repetition you will get the ear for it. If you tell them that you "feel like you're being a bother" but you want to understand anyway, you'll get as much help as you need.

[ashtayk]

Indian in the US checking in (gosh! the number of times I have started a post with a line like that)

The Indian accent can be very tough to deal with. It also varies a great deal and depends on the region of India they come from. Each region has its own special accent. Also, if the person has some higher education, then his English is usually much better; this because almost all higher education in India is in English.

As far as advice goes, like most posters above, ask them to speak slowly and explain what they are saying in different words. Sometimes, its just no use asking someone to repeat themselves because the word could be so mangled that no amount of repitition is going to clarify it. Try asking them to write the very words they are saying, if thats feasible. That way, you will have an idea how their accent handles certain sounds.

For example, soome people from the Bengal region have great trouble in making the "V" sound, it comes out sounding like an aspirated "B". I have seen some Spanish speakers have the same issue.

[green_bladder]

You in Hong Kong by any chance, McLeo?

[green_bladder]

Ahh, right, number one SARS affected area outside Asia :smack:

[Gravity]

I had this problem in highschool. I was taking chemistry, and the teacher was from India. A brilliant man, he spoke like seven languages and had tons of schooling and was a science wizard... and I couldn't understand a word he said. I've run into it since then, too. It's like...when I hear someone with an indian accent speaking, I hear the tone and rhythm but not the words.

...I actually failed chemistry class. I was exposed to him all year, and it never got better. My guidance councilor asked me why I was doing so badly in the class, and I couldn't tell her. It was embarassing, I felt like a racist or something.

[McLeo]

Originally posted by green_bladder
Ahh, right, number one SARS affected area outside Asia :smack:

Haha... yes I'm from Toronto :D

[McLeo]

Originally posted by Gravity
I had this problem in highschool. I was taking chemistry, and the teacher was from India. A brilliant man, he spoke like seven languages and had tons of schooling and was a science wizard... and I couldn't understand a word he said. I've run into it since then, too. It's like...when I hear someone with an indian accent speaking, I hear the tone and rhythm but not the words.

...I actually failed chemistry class. I was exposed to him all year, and it never got better. My guidance councilor asked me why I was doing so badly in the class, and I couldn't tell her. It was embarassing, I felt like a racist or something.

Actually this happens in my university too, and combined with the profs accent + messy hand written notes, going to class is equivalent to staring at the wall.

But thanks for everyone's response, I guess i'll try to tell them that I have a hard time understanding and get them to speak slowly and try to use different wording. :)

[AskNott]

Practice, practice, practice. Explain to these folks that you're trying to learn to understand their accent. You are hindered by being attuned to your own native accent, and it will take some work. It will come to you, in small pieces. Your co-workers will probably appreciate your effort. Instead of shying away from these folks, force yourself to spend more time talking with them.

[Bippy the Beardless]

As people allready said, you'll get better at understanding. If you don't understand, ask politely for clarification, or just to speak slower. If correct understanding is vital, it is good to ask for an email (then again I would tend to ask for an email about any important details no matter how well I understand them talking). Oh and watch out for the sideways nodding of the head, this means an affermative yes in some areas of India, but looks a lot like a shake of the head to people not aware of this body language.

[Eve]

Lie. Tell them you're deaf as a post. "I'm sorry—I'm very hard of hearing, and didn't catch that." Nice, polite way of getting them to slow down and enunciate. I used to take the train in the morning with a very nice lady who had a totally impenetrable accent . . . At least, I think she was nice; she might have been saying, "you are an ugly old hag" for all I know.

[ParentalAdvisory]

I too have had issues with this. The best thing is to talk to them as much as you feel you can and It'll get eaiser in understanding them. I had to work with one guy and his native language was Gujarti. This combined with 50+ in age and only being in this country for 5 years, makes for a VERY thick accent. Over time, I was able to understand his syllables and put things together. Granted I still missed a few words, but with the ones I could hear, I could undestand what he was saying. He also wanted to talk about where he came from and what it's like over in India, and by talking to him it made it easier.

[DeadlyAccurate]

Most of the consultants in our company are from India, and I've had two professors also from India, one with a pretty thick accent. I became quite good at understanding the accent.

One of the things I've noticed most consistently is that the people I've known who speak with an Indian accent usually put the accent on a different syllable. So instead of "IM pro vise", it would be "im PRO vise". Once you start to catch on to the accenting of words, it becomes easier to follow a sentence. I'm usually a step behind, whenever I hear someone with a thick accent, as I'm "translating" their sentences in my head.

[3trew]

The call centre I work in takes calls from all over the U.S. I get to deal with American accents (which I'm not overly familiar with, being Canadian), plus the accents of just about every other nation and region in the world. The people behind the accents are usually not happy when they call, and that doesn't help. I've got to diagnose the problem and find a solution, which sometimes involves pushing a lot of buttons. It'd be easy if I was there to push them and read the screen, but I'm not.

It's basic troubleshooting, really. I take the parts of the sentence that I understood, rephrase them, listen to the response and pull a couple more words, ask a question, listen to the answer, and sooner or later it works out. When you hear the same accent or group of accents every day, you pick up on it pretty quickly.

My only fear is that the callers will think I'm mocking them because my own speech tends to fall into the patterns of the people I'm listening to. My French and German profs were always quite impressed with my accent. I never had the heart to tell them that I'd gotten them from Pepe Lepew and Sgt. Schultz. I can do a very good imitation of Brad Pitt's Mickey from "Snatch". It's sometimes fun to use, but the people hearing it don't know the agony I went through for the two days after the movie when I COULDN'T STOP DOING IT!

It's like anything else, McLeo, it gets easier as you go along.

[Johanna]

Indian languages are syllable-timed. Native English is stress-timed. These terms refer to how the units of speech are divided up according to the flow of time, comparable to the way musical notes are scored according to measures and time signatures. These are two very different ways of allocating speech sound to time measurements.

Indian English is spoken syllable-timed, which is the main reason it's difficult to understand for anyone not used to hearing this.

You are used to English spoken stress-timed, which like the poetry of Matthew Arnold can have any number of syllables in a given length of time, but only a certain number of stressed syllables. In spoken English, the unstressed syllables are de-emphasized and often slurred over. Our ears are used to catching the stressed syllables and constructing meaning out of those.

Indian English is so impenetrable to you because they don't really have stressed syllables the way we do. The audible signposts to mark out the flow of speech that you're trying to listen for just aren't there. Instead, Indian English patterns the syllables in a constant flow. If any stress is incidentally given to a syllable (often not the one you expect to hear it on, as DeadlyAccurate observed), it is not significant for the Indian English speaker. That throws off the native English-speaking listener.

My suggestion is to consciously focus in on each syllable and train yourself to hear the actual speech sounds being pronounced, and to forget for the moment about trying to catch the stresses. This is more akin to getting meaning from reading text, in which each letter is equal and stresses are not transcribed in the writing (at least, they're not usually transcribed in writing!).

A French professor told me once that casual French speech emphasises (like English) the pattern of stressed syllables, to the point where the talking-drum-like intonation conveys the meaning of familiar phrases, even when the phonemes themselves are slurred. He gave as the example somebody who gets onto a Parisian bus or taxicab and mumbles the name of a familiar place; the driver will know what the passenger is asking for just by the pattern of intonation, not by making out individual phonemes. The professor told us we will never sound like native French speakers unless we develop this intonation pattern.

So these Indian English speakers have no idea of the intonation pattern, even though that's what you're listening for. Instead, if you ignore intonation and stress, and listen for the individual phonemes and let your brain assemble them into words, that will convey the meaning to you.

[j.c.]

This is so sad - I love the sounds of the sub-continent.

Indian men are so charming. And the culture places a great value on joking and silliness. It's all good!

[Ace309]

A great many of my (very white, very American) parents' friends are Indian. My mother is a registered nurse, and there's a high concentration of Indian doctors in the area for some reason. I'd just like to echo everyone else who said that as you hear more Indian accents, it will be easier to catch on. Since I've been hearing the Indian doctors my whole life, the Indian university professors are no big deal now.