How do you tackle not being able to understand an accent?

[FindingMeno]

Particularly in settings such as medical ones where its important to understand what is being said?
I am always so worried about appearing rude, especially if I have already said I'm having trouble following what is being said and I then still don't understand.
How is the best way to deal with this? What do you do?

Seriously?

If that person has been employed in the role I assume the employer has decided that their accent is not an issue.

I lived in London for decades, used the NHS on many occasions & was cared for by people from all over the world and had zero issues understanding any of them.

The only accent I struggled with at the beginning was a colleague who was from our Glasgow office.

I am not sure where you are going with that thread...

Try going in to an NHS ward. The lack of language skills and elocution is often atrocious. It really shouldn't be allowed.

I have a hearing problem so really struggle with accents. At a medical appointment I will always take my dh if I don’t know the doctor. Having said that, my dh has perfect hearing and even he struggles with particularly heavy accents.

Yes. Seriously.
Why do you assume it is exclusively "foreign" accents that I struggle with?
It's a simple question asking how I can be respectful whilst still communicating my problem.

Well it is a bit of a weird OP tbh, but...
You pretend to understand even if you don't, like most people would in this situation.
You will look either rude or thick if you ask for clarification.

I also have hearing impairment and try to take someone else, but I can't always, and sometimes, like you, the person who accompanies me also can't understand.

I just don't understand why it's weird.
And how can you go away having missed important information?

You can't pretend to understand in medical settings.
I would just say you have a hearing probpem and could they write down any important information they think you need.

It’s not at all a weird OP. I have a Masters in accent and dialect, a seriously good ear and even I sometimes struggle with pronunciation of specific words until my brain clicks into how it’d be pronounced in my accent.

I just ask the person to repeat what they’ve said and we usually reach an understanding in the end.

If you have a hearing impairment, say so and ask them to write it down.

Its a very delicate subject but IS sometimes a problem. I have so much respect for anyone who speaks English as a second language but more so when they are medical professionals. I am rather deaf and particularly struggle with understanding anyones speech. May I suggest you tell a little white lie? Say you are a bit deaf so please can they speak slowly and a little louder. This will give your brain extra time to process their words. It seems so disrestful to keep asking people to repeat themselves and I cringe inside.

You pretend to understand even if you don't, like most people would in this situation.
You will look either rude or thick if you ask for clarification.

In a medical setting? You don't understand what the doctor is saying so you pretend to understand?

What if the doctor doesn't understand your accent? Is it ok if s/he pretends to understand, and so you don't get proper treatment?

What on earth? Of course you don’t just pretend you understood! You ask them to say it again, or you repeat back to them what you think they said and ask if that’s right, or you ask them to write it down, or you ask if there’s a nurse or someone else you could speak to to help you understand, etc etc.

Everyone has an accent. Including you.

I can only suggest if it’s a particular accent that troubles you, you try listening to that accent on YouTube or similar. Exposure helps.

I will say in 15 years in medicine I haven’t been unable to understand anyone but I have witnessed multiple situations in which someone born overseas speaks perfectly clearly and apparently can’t be understood by some patients or staff.

It is not bloody racist to not be able to make out strong accents like some are implying!! I am also part deaf so it definitely makes it harder. To avoid trying to offend though I put the “blame” on my hearing and just ask people to repeat.

In Teams meetings I use captions which is not always accurate if someone has a strong accent but it tends to give me more of a clue! In person it is hard, particularly if in a large meeting room or somewhere with background noise.

Unfortunately even when I say I have a hearing impairment and they try hard to help me understand I still often don't. It isn't just to do with my hearing loss though, since, as I say, others who accompany me with perfect hearing are also lost.
Asking it to be written down is a good call but not a particularly workable one if you have questions or you are trying to understand nuance.

It's not weird at all. It's not rude to genuinely struggle to understand someone with an accent. I don't know why some people insist that it's never an issue and can only be racism.

My autistic child has real trouble with this and we have had to swap tutors for this reason. But obviously you can't usually do this in adult life.

One option is saying you're struggling with your hearing at the moment.

I don't know why some posters are being so mean. It's a thing. I'm not saying you're autistic OP but my son is. It's a social communication disorder, he has extra barriers in social communication and that includes difficulty "mapping" a less familiar set of speech sounds to his own. He:s been in speech therapy for years. He's allowed to find this hard.

Start every appointment with that. Explain you have a hearing impairment, so you need them so speak more slowly than they would normally and allow you to ask them to repeat things. If needs be, ask them to write things down for you. It's a perfectly reasonable adjustment for your disability.

My FIL was in hospital last year for months and I played translator for him a LOT. Multi-national staff, a cantankerous old man with limited exposure to any accent other than Westcountry ones, and who refuses to wear a bloody hearing aid. Absolute nightmare, especially with his senior neurosurgeon who is from Pakistan, been in the UK over 20 years and who even I found difficult to follow at times because he was so heavily accented. Extremely competent and highly qualified and experienced man, hard to understand in English.

Also one male nurse who was from Jamaica and had the most wonderful floral speech patterns but because he drawled and all his words flowed together it was impossible for FIL to make out separate words when he spoke.

Collectively the issues of accents and lack of consideration for his deafness caused a lot of grief and FIL spent a LOT of time nodding and having no idea what was going on with his care or around him - blood tests and urine tests frequently took him by surprise because he hadn't understood what they had said. He was incredibly isolated by this and I had to chase up every single day to get someone to talk us through the last 24hrs so I could explain it to him again.

You’ve got a hearing problem that’s 90% of it. Tell the person that you have a hearing problem first of all and say it helps if you speak a little louder and slowly. This will give you more time to process what they’re saying.

Focus on listening for key words in the sentence and repeat the word back to the patient/nurse/doctor to clarify your understanding. Slow the conversation down to increase the time you have to process what is being said. Try to get as much information as you can each phrase and then ask pertinent questions. Basically just active listening.

So as a foreigner (native English speaker) I had this many many many times when I moved here. I struggled most with Brummie and Glaswegian - both lovely accents I just wasn't used to maybe some of the terminology as well?

First, I got really used to watching facial expressions and concentrating on what they were saying. We are all a bit lazy listeners so this helped.

I would then say 'I'm sorry I didn't quite hear that would you mind repeating?'. If they did and I still didn't understand I would give us both an out and say 'I'm really sorry it's so loud, or I have a cold and my hearing isn't great this week, or the like....'.

If it's medical you could say 'I have a hard time remembering things in these situations would you mind writing it down'.

You can ask about twice before it becomes rude, but you don't want it to be that you are questioning their accent so try the above.

But there you go. Everyone has an accent, including you. Recognise that, and you’re off to a good start with coming to terms with struggling to understand key information from someone whose accent you find difficult.

It's quite abelist to assume op is being racist, can people not comprehend that others may have their own health or medical issue that makes communication difficult.

Agree it's completely mad someone has suggested that rather than just politely asking for clarification! Might be fine in a random chat in a cafe but not in most settings!

OP I agree with others, if you've tried asking politely a few times for things to be repeated to the point it's getting awkward I might just invent a blocked ear or something as well.

I dont think people need to be so paranoid about causing offence though - I have a UK regional accent and speak quite fast and have been asked to slow down before - no offence taken at all. The posters jumping on to say "must be racist" are, if anything, revealing more about their own prejudices if they are the ones making an automatic link between " accent= must be foreign"* *