# Is a clear, well spoken English accent really difficult to understand for some Americans? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [November 30, 2009, 10:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-a-clear-well-spoken-english-accent-really-difficult-to-understand-for-some-americans/519528 "2009-11-30T22:29:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2009, 3:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-a-clear-well-spoken-english-accent-really-difficult-to-understand-for-some-americans/519528/41 "2009-12-01T15:45:10Z")
> [@Lobsang](#): > > without an accent. There’s your problem. There’s no such condition as “without an accent”, but you think you and your coworkers are in that condition. ---
**Author:** ![WOOKINPANUB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wookinpanub/32/132_2.png) [@WOOKINPANUB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WOOKINPANUB)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2009, 4:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-a-clear-well-spoken-english-accent-really-difficult-to-understand-for-some-americans/519528/42 "2009-12-01T16:05:18Z")
> [@jayjay](#): > > There’s your problem. There’s no such condition as “without an accent”, but you think you and your coworkers are in that condition. I don’t want to get into the whole linguistuics argument since I don’t know much about it, but common sense tells me he means as close to RP as possible. ---
**Author:** ![elbows](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/b3f665/32.png) [@elbows](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elbows)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2009, 6:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-a-clear-well-spoken-english-accent-really-difficult-to-understand-for-some-americans/519528/43 "2009-12-01T18:50:03Z")
Cadence is everything my friends. I’ve been exposed to lots of different kinds of English speakers, (West Indians, Asians, Brits, Amerikans, Aussies, etc), and it takes a little time and exposure to get the ear accustomed to the accent, no matter what. I had Asian and West Indian roommates at Uni and, at first, while I could understand whenever they spoke to me, once they all started speaking to each other I was lost. After a short time I had no difficulty at all. I love watching BBC and I also turn it up, but I think that has to do with recording protocols and back ground sound, but it definitely makes it easier to understand. Same thing though, I can follow along, but it’s easier after my ear grows accustomed to it. And there are still times when I miss things because they are speaking too quickly for me to follow. I was visiting in Georgia and called a theater for movie times, and had to call back three times to understand what was being said. They started out speaking slowly but as the speed increased it became more difficult to understand. I’ve done a lot of flying on Japan Airlines where the air hostesses all speak impeccable English. And I’ve heard the “Air bags will drop…exits on sides…yada, yada, yada” so often I can almost recite it from memory. But I am captivated every time I listen to it done on this airline. Because I know they are speaking English but by the third or fourth sentence it’s entirely unrecognizable. It’s a little exercise for my brain that I quite enjoy. I can recognize the odd word but they have picked up the speed, (no doubt as a result of having repeated it so often), and fallen into a very Asian cadence. No one is being condescending to you. Speak more slowly until people unfamiliar with your accent can catch up, it’s easy. ---
**Author:** ![Vihaga](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/b4bc9f/32.png) [@Vihaga](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Vihaga)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2009, 7:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-a-clear-well-spoken-english-accent-really-difficult-to-understand-for-some-americans/519528/44 "2009-12-01T19:03:18Z")
> [@TWDuke](#): > > I wonder if people who claim to have no problem understanding “BBC English” have listened to the BBC in the past decade or two, since even the current-affairs programs include a dizzying array of accents. It’s not all Received Pronunciation and hasn’t been for quite some time. I listen to BBC’s world service every morning, and I have no problem with it. However, a friend of mine married a guy from Manchester and it took me a while to understand him. I think the newscasters speak more slowly. ---
**Author:** ![jjimm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2009, 7:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-a-clear-well-spoken-english-accent-really-difficult-to-understand-for-some-americans/519528/45 "2009-12-01T19:15:10Z")
> [@Lobsang](#): > > I disagree that clarity is subjective. It might be a little subjective, but most people would agree that a BBC news reader is ‘clear’ and if _most people_ agree to that then it is not subjective. As I have said, our operatives speak a clear, almost news-reader-like way and without an accent. You’re being ethnocentric, though you don’t realise it. Just because an accent isn’t regional, doesn’t mean it isn’t an accent. Received Pronunciation, what has replaced “BBC English” in England, is thought of _by British people_ as neutral, but it isn’t - it’s just another accent. And it _absolutely_ isn’t neutral to non-UK speakers of English. E.g. we say “Pahk the cah” whereas non-New Englander Americans (and Irish and other UK dialects) say “PaRk the caR”. Very different, though you might not realise it, being used to hearing rhotic accents in the media. That and many other peculiarities of our accent are specific to our region, even if they aren’t specific to a single geographical point within that region. Someone who speaks ‘clearly’ by enunciating every syllable can _still_ be misunderstood if they’re speaking with phonemes that are unfamiliar to the listener. (I make an exception to this regarding accents where the speakers run syllables into each other, such as Kerry, west Cork, some Glaswegian, etc., where an additional complexity is added.) ---
**Author:** ![Lamia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/8e7dd6/32.png) [@Lamia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lamia)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2009, 12:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-a-clear-well-spoken-english-accent-really-difficult-to-understand-for-some-americans/519528/46 "2009-12-02T00:05:53Z")
> [@elbows](#): > > I’ve done a lot of flying on Japan Airlines where the air hostesses all speak impeccable English. And I’ve heard the “Air bags will drop…exits on sides…yada, yada, yada” so often I can almost recite it from memory. But I am captivated every time I listen to it done on this airline. Because I know they are speaking English but by the third or fourth sentence it’s entirely unrecognizable. It’s a little exercise for my brain that I quite enjoy. I can recognize the odd word but they have picked up the speed, (no doubt as a result of having repeated it so often), and fallen into a very Asian cadence. I used to teach English in Japan, and it was sometimes a struggle _not_ to start mimicking Japanese inflection (not accent) in the classroom. We’d been told in training to guard against this sort of thing because we were supposed to be serving as good examples of natural, native-speaker English. But outside the classroom being able to speak and understand English more like a native _Japanese_ speaker was a survival skill. It took a little while to become familiar with Japanese inflection, but once I was it became a lot easier to understand and be understood. ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2009, 6:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-a-clear-well-spoken-english-accent-really-difficult-to-understand-for-some-americans/519528/47 "2009-12-02T06:49:27Z")
> [@Lobsang](#): > > Whether intentional or not - it IS patronizing to be speaking clearly and then to be told by someone that you are not being understood. It is like they are (again intentionally or not) implying that your speaking skills are inadequate. “I’m sorry, I can’t understand you” is patronizing? It doesn’t say “you’re not speaking clearly,” it actually places the blame on the apologetic speaker! I don’t know whether I would or wouldn’t understand your coworkers, but I am pretty tired of saying “I’m sorry, I didn’t understand that, could you rephrase?” and getting a sloooowed doooown butstillunclearinthesamespots repeat. Sometimes the problem isn’t even the accent. It’s vocabulary (tomato/tomahto becomes note/ticket/receipt) or not knowing what is it the other person is talking about. Yesterday I called customer service for a program in my computer; I had to call twice. The first CSR asked for “your old account code,” the second CSR asked for “the account code” and when I asked “new or old” said “new.” Calls to BT could involve: my home postcode, my work postcode, the DSL account code, the customer account code, the phone line account code: if all the CSR asked for was “the account code,” I needed clarification - even if we happened to be speaking Spanish and were from the same town. ---
**Author:** ![Zoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/a4c791/32.png) [@Zoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zoe)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2009, 7:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-a-clear-well-spoken-english-accent-really-difficult-to-understand-for-some-americans/519528/48 "2009-12-02T07:22:39Z")
**Lopsang** , if I wanted to be patronizing, I would say something really rude like, “Spit those marbles out and try it again, wudcha, Sonny?” We Americans will leave no doubt at all when we want to insult you. Backwater? I live in Nashville. Now, would I have to say “ **Nash-ville** ” for you to understand me or could I say “Nashful” (which is the way I usually pronounce it)? Have you ever heard of Tennessee? I mean, it’s a big word. Tenn-es-see. (You know, Jack Daniel and all.) We’re close to Atlanta which is in Georgia which is on the Atlantic Ocean…The Sea. (C=a blue wobbly thing with mermaids) \ ---
**Author:** ![Lynn\_Bodoni](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e47c2d/32.png) [@Lynn\_Bodoni](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lynn_Bodoni)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2009, 7:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-a-clear-well-spoken-english-accent-really-difficult-to-understand-for-some-americans/519528/49 "2009-12-02T07:43:00Z")
> [@Jenaroph](#): > > Been on a Doctor-Who-watching binge over the past two months (good series, not sure how I didn’t get into it before) and my experience tells me it’s just a matter of acclimation. In the first few episodes I watched, while I had no trouble with most of the dialogue, there were a number of lines I simply couldn’t make out on the first listen, despite the foregone assumption that these people are speaking clearly enough, being actors on a major TV series and all. I don’t even have an especially backwater American accent myself and have seen plenty of British TV before. Having watched the whole series, I’ve gone back to the first few I watched, and found that the bits I’d had trouble with the first time were as clear as a bell. I’ve grown accustomed to the pronunciations, and the accents are much easier to decipher. > > I can easily believe that these people are not just being obstinate, especially if their own accents are pretty thick and they don’t get much chance to talk to many Brits. This has been the case in my experience as well. I had to learn to understand the actors on Benny Hill, Red Dwarf, and Are You Being Served?, for instance. When I first started watching the shows, I missed as many words as I understood, especially when Benny used a fake accent for some reason. However, as I watched more episodes, I learned how a familiar word might be pronounced by someone who isn’t from the US, and specifically from the southern or western US. And I watched shows that I’d previously seen before, and I was able to understand the speech better, because I’d learned to understand the accent. Also, if it’s primarily old people…well, as people get older, they tend to lose some hearing acuity, that’s all there is to it. They tend to lose the ability to hear higher frequencies, and they tend to need a louder volume, and they tend to need have speakers use crisper pronounciation. “Speak up, sonny!” is maybe a bit patronizing, but it’s also aggravating to have to TELL someone to speak up. I usually say, if I’m having problems at the beginning of a call, that I’m about half deaf and would appreciate it if the other person would make a special effort to speak loudly and clearly. I’ve also noticed that it’s hard for me to understand anyone, even my own daughter, if she’s using a Bluetooth device, or even a regular cellphone, because the damn things let in a lot of background noise. The mouthpiece is just not close enough to the speakers mouth. ---
**Author:** ![AboutAsWeirdAsYouCanGet](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/22d042/32.png) [@AboutAsWeirdAsYouCanGet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AboutAsWeirdAsYouCanGet)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2009, 9:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-a-clear-well-spoken-english-accent-really-difficult-to-understand-for-some-americans/519528/50 "2009-12-02T09:19:49Z")
> [@](#): > > UK standard: Mey-eye HAV yr u-k’hAHNT nembeh, PLEES? I’m hard of heairng and have no problems with London “Brit” accents. However…maybe its due to the " professional speaker" aspect. I rememebr in high school for French listneing quizes we’d listen to tapes. Even the hearing kids couldn’t understand it b/c it was so overenuicated. ---
**Author:** ![Princhester](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3e96dc/32.png) [@Princhester](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Princhester)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2009, 9:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-a-clear-well-spoken-english-accent-really-difficult-to-understand-for-some-americans/519528/51 "2009-12-02T09:28:14Z")
> [@WOOKINPANUB](#): > > I don’t want to get into the whole linguistuics argument since I don’t know much about it, but common sense tells me he means as close to RP as possible. So what you are saying is he is freely admits to a very strong RP accent? ---
**Author:** ![jjimm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2009, 9:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-a-clear-well-spoken-english-accent-really-difficult-to-understand-for-some-americans/519528/52 "2009-12-02T09:30:39Z")
> [@TheFatKid](#): > > yr u-k’hAHNT Are you callin’ me a k’hAHNT?! ---
**Author:** ![jonbvn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/5f9b8f/32.png) [@jonbvn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jonbvn)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2009, 11:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-a-clear-well-spoken-english-accent-really-difficult-to-understand-for-some-americans/519528/53 "2009-12-02T11:00:09Z")
As a native Brit speaking estuarine English, when I lived in Texas (outside DFW) over 20 years ago I had no problem being understood. In fact it, it was especially attractive to female Texans;) ---
**Author:** ![WOOKINPANUB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wookinpanub/32/132_2.png) [@WOOKINPANUB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WOOKINPANUB)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2009, 3:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-a-clear-well-spoken-english-accent-really-difficult-to-understand-for-some-americans/519528/54 "2009-12-02T15:06:04Z")
> [@Princhester](#): > > So what you are saying is he is freely admits to a very strong RP accent? I’m guessing he trying to say he speaks in a what he considers, for lack of a better word, a “neutral” manner. I realize you’re just trying to push forth the old “we’ve \*all \*got accents” thing but instead of getting into a linguistics debate I’m trying to clarify what he’s trying to get across. Not that I believe anyone is actually confused about it. ---
**Author:** ![TheFatKid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/34f0e0/32.png) [@TheFatKid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TheFatKid)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2009, 12:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-a-clear-well-spoken-english-accent-really-difficult-to-understand-for-some-americans/519528/55 "2009-12-03T00:02:51Z")
> [@jjimm](#): > > Are you callin’ me a k’hAHNT?! Yeah, that was an unfortunate but necessary rendering. Can’t type in phonetic script, and even if I could no one would be able to read it. I’m not very happy with it as it came out on the screen. Oh well. But in any case, I certainly can call you that, if you’d like. Or I could call you “Flower”. Whatever’s cool for you. ---
**Author:** ![elmwood](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmwood/32/3060_2.png) [@elmwood](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elmwood)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2009, 12:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-a-clear-well-spoken-english-accent-really-difficult-to-understand-for-some-americans/519528/56 "2009-12-03T00:28:21Z")
> [@TheFatKid](#): > > I can’t prove this, but I would bet that Brits are much more likely to encounter foreign accents, on average, than are Americans, except for Americans in large urban centers such as New York, DC, and Los Angeles. Maybe in London and larger cities, but what about smaller cities and towns? I would imagine their exposure to different accents isn’t much greater than someone living in … oh, the rural South, who will probably find themselves hearing a regional Southern accent, AAVE, Midland Northern (the US equivalent of BBC RP), Mexican Spanish, and maybe Indian (hotel owners, doctors). More than an hour listening to NPR or watching PBS, and they’ll absolutely encounter BBC RP at some point. In Buffalo, which is in an economically depressed backwater region in upstate New York, I can count on hearing the following flavors of English during my day’s travels: - Buffalo English (extremely strong Inland Northern; Buffalo is where the Northern Cities Vowel Shift supposedly got its start). - Midland Northern - AAVE of various varieties ranging from crusty old black guys to young adults emulating rappers. - Canadian/Southern Ontario - New York City regional accents (Long Island, Brooklyn/Queens) - Indian - Yiddish - Southern UK regional - Chinese It’s also not that uncommon to encounter the following accents: - Puerto Rican - Jamaican/Caribbean - Arab - French Canadian - Vietnamese - Irish (especially in South Buffalo) - Hebrew (mall carnies) - Buffalo English / Poiish ethnolect (_mainly amonk dem der olter eastern suburbanites der, gutdemmet_; unfortunately, it’s dying out.) Outside of the broadcast media, in Buffalo you won’t often encounter a Mexican accent (Buffalo’s Mexican immigrant population is close to nil), or southern or Texas accent. ---
**Author:** ![Zsofia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/7bcc69/32.png) [@Zsofia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zsofia)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2009, 2:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-a-clear-well-spoken-english-accent-really-difficult-to-understand-for-some-americans/519528/57 "2009-12-03T02:05:17Z")
What you’re forgetting is that for the rest of the world, a pretty big percentage of their media comes from the US. Not so here in the US - that’s “foreign films”. ---
**Author:** ![TheFatKid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/34f0e0/32.png) [@TheFatKid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TheFatKid)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2009, 3:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-a-clear-well-spoken-english-accent-really-difficult-to-understand-for-some-americans/519528/58 "2009-12-03T03:08:33Z")
> [@Zsofia](#): > > What you’re forgetting is that for the rest of the world, a pretty big percentage of their media comes from the US. Not so here in the US - that’s “foreign films”. Exactly. That’s what I was referring to. American English is much more normalized in other parts of the world than other varieties of English are in USA. ---
**Author:** ![elmwood](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmwood/32/3060_2.png) [@elmwood](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elmwood)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2009, 6:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-a-clear-well-spoken-english-accent-really-difficult-to-understand-for-some-americans/519528/59 "2009-12-03T18:30:20Z")
> [@TheFatKid](#): > > Exactly. That’s what I was referring to. American English is much more normalized in other parts of the world than other varieties of English are in USA. The US, though, has reached such a level of diversity that even in remote regions, one is likely to hear several different accents, some of them foreign, in their normal day-to-day life. Yes, it might be difficult for someone with a native Southern/Ozark accent in Toad Suck, Arkansas to understand the very strong Indian accent of their doctor, but they’re exposed to it. It’s not like someone in Gillette, Wyoming is going to encounter nothing but clenched-mouth cowboy accents all the time, even in the media. ---
**Author:** ![gigi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a587f6/32.png) [@gigi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gigi)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2009, 6:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-a-clear-well-spoken-english-accent-really-difficult-to-understand-for-some-americans/519528/60 "2009-12-03T18:57:19Z")
> [@Lobsang](#): > > “Can I have your account number please” is an example of a phrase that people have a problem with. Well, there’s your problem. A polite Southerner would expect “May I have…” [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-a-clear-well-spoken-english-accent-really-difficult-to-understand-for-some-americans/519528.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-a-clear-well-spoken-english-accent-really-difficult-to-understand-for-some-americans/519528.md?page=4)