Shyra said:

jone70 said:

However, being a "Northerner" I find it slightly annoying when I call somewhere for customer service and it ends up being the south or the midwest. There's no rush and everything is so drawn out, and chit-chat about the weather, etc. etc. A two-minute phone call ends up taking 5 or 10 minutes.

Whenever I call customer service, I always end up getting someone in India or Pakistan. I can usually understand their accents, but sometimes it just gets on my nerves when they don't understand me! Once I got a guy in Saskatchewan, which shocked me. I didn't think people lived there!

[Edited 6/24/11 12:16pm]

Oh, I hate those calls. With me, it's the opposite. They can understand me but I can't understand them. But nine times out of ten, when I answer the phone and it's an Indian, it's usually a bullshit call. Bullshit call, meaning telemarker or a creditor harassing you.

I almost fucked up one time though. There is an Indian man that owns a pizza place up the street and I order pizza from him all the time and have him deliver it. He's the nicest guy you would ever want to meet and I'm a regular customer so he already knows what I want when I call. Anyway, one day he called me back to tell me he was running a little late and to apoligize for running late. When I answered the phone and heard that Indian accent, the first thing I thought was..."Hell, this is another one of these damn telemarketers or credit card people"....I was just starting to get rude with him and then I recognized his voice. He did his apologizing for being late and I did my apologizing for getting rude and explained why. He said he fully understood though and laughed about it.

I met this crowd from County Kerry in Ireland one time, and whether despite or because of the vast quantity of drink consumed, some of them were practically indecipherable. F'woo'ga space boards? = Have you got Sky Sports?

Here's some working class Glaswegian for you-

low talkers.

I am from New Zealand, and I find all the following hard to understand

1. Indian (Speak too fast)

2. Aussie (Drawl and call each names like Dicko and Bazza, or by surnames like Farnsie and Warnsey)

3. Brooklynesque (Like Frain Drescher)

4. The Mancunian accent, where they say "Ere its cold oot" and "I am going to do some sing ging"

5. Alabama style drawl

6. Ebonics

7. New Zealand Maori Vernacular "Gidday yuse fullas, yuse wnat to get sum fush and chips" "Thaaasss jus the way it is"

Ottensen said:

Shyra said:

Are you talking about that show "Swamp People" or something like that? Yeah, their accents can be a bit challenging.

Shyra, I'm talking about Toya's reality show

I could understand her just fine when she had the show with Tiny in Atlanta, but once she went into her N'awlins dialect with her family & friends for the new show I had to shut that down. I couldn't understand a damn thing

Lord, what on earth btw is the show Swamp People about???

Ohhhh! You're talking about Fantasia's show? Is there a new season? I thought after that mess with her "suicide attempt" the show ended.

Joyinrepatition said:

Shyra said:

Who was the chick that Simon Cowell fired from the X Factor before it even airs here in the states? They showed a clip of her talkiing, and I couldn't understand a word she said, and she was speaking English!

That was Cheryl Cole she's a (Geordie) from Newcastle, a tough accent to understand...wey aye man!

[img:$uid]http://i215.photobucket.com/albums/cc1/Joyinrepatition/e09b259c.gif[/img:$uid]

Yep, for me it'd have to be the Geordie accent too.

I live in England and I really have to listen really hard to understand what she has to say, I can't even imagine how difficult it must have been for American's to understand!

We have quite a few sucessful 'television personalities' who have 'Geordie' accents such as Ant & Dec, but Cheryl Cole's accent is very broad, very difficult to understand.

I used to struggle to understand the Glaswegian accent but I can understand it quite well now - but it could definetly be considered one of the most difficult to understand.

Joyinrepatition said:

Shyra said:

Who was the chick that Simon Cowell fired from the X Factor before it even airs here in the states? They showed a clip of her talkiing, and I couldn't understand a word she said, and she was speaking English! I find that Asians can be quite difficult to understand if they have thick accents, but of course, I digress. That wasn't your question, huh? I think Aussie's can be tricky.

That was Cheryl Cole she's a (Geordie) from Newcastle, a tough accent to understand...wey aye man!

[img:$uid]http://i215.photobucket.com/albums/cc1/Joyinrepatition/e09b259c.gif[/img:$uid]

For me she is a lot easier to understand than most people with a West Indian accent. Maybe because at school I learned British English and not American English .

You're only thinking of Cheryl Cole because of the recent X-Factor publicity stunt she bore the brunt of. Her drone might be tiresome, but it shouldn't be a problem for any competent English speaker.

I had no idea who she was so I googled her... Absolutely GORGEOUS! I didnt have a problem understanding her one bit.. But then Ive been watching alot of My big fat gypsy wedding

Also a British Historian called Peter Ackroyd (no relation to Dan), who spweaks wike Elmer Fudd, his shows are hilarious, especially the one about the Thwames, his wiver of herwitage. Even funnier about Mr Ackroyd, is that he claims he was gay when he was 7 years old (I believe he still is).