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?

In a work context I usually ask people to summarise their points in writing.
In a personal context, I agree it can be difficult.

It really, really, really isn't rude.

You need to get over yourself.

@Greenwitchartyes. Seriously.

Your assumption is just that: an assumption. And it’s wrong: a fact to which many on this thread have testified.

Just as you can’t understand Glaswegian, so others struggle to understand, say, strong Nigerian. Don’t know what’s so difficult for you to grasp.

But it’s unlikely to understand either. That sort of technology works best on neutral accents and clear speakers.

But it’s unlikely to understand either. That sort of technology works best on neutral accents and clear speakers.

Even then, it often doesn't work. See what a pig's ear it makes of live subtitling on tv sometimes - even with newsreaders who do speak clearly and don't generally have very strong accents.

Oh gosh I had this with one of my consultants when I was pregnant with my daughter. She was a lovely lady and clearly knew her stuff back to front and upside down but fuck me, I couldn’t understand half of what she was saying, her accent was so strong. I think half the trouble in medical situations is that you can’t rely on context as well as in many other social interactions, like there’s words that I’d struggle to understand in any accent sometimes, and obviously you can’t just guess or ‘get by’ missing bits as it’s quite crucial to understand! I just had to keep asking her to repeat herself, somewhat embarrassing (hopefully just for me!) but we got there in the end.

Live subtitling isn’t done like that, though.

I had this problem when attending a meeting on Zoom concerning a disabled relative - the person I had to deal with had such a strong accent they were impossible to understand. I informed them that it was difficult and asked them to speak slowly - they said "I can hear you fine." Completely oblivious to the problem. It did not seem appropriate to say that obviously my speech was far clearer than theirs!
I can only hope I don't have to deal with that person again - if I had to it would have to be in person (have never had problems with Zoom apart from that).

A Swedish friend’s son who came to work in London had a lot of trouble with accents at first - he’d largely learnt his English during a year in the US.

His mother, who’d lived in the U.K. for many years, told him to watch Coronation Street and East Enders!

This is a really useful explanation!
My hearing loss is low frequency. This means I struggle with male voices in particular. Male voices with strong accent are tricky.
I say at the beginning "I'm a bit deaf so would you mind speaking a little slower".
Most people try for a sentence or two then carry on as normal.

My sister has quite severe deafness and can only hear if you are facing her and speaking very loud. She finds medical settings quite distressing because even without an accent most people just don't make allowances even when they know you are deaf.

It's a problem when someone can't understand the question being asked or the information given.

I was on a video assessment last week and the assessor said the word 'azeeden' it took 3 attempts for the person being assessed to realise that it meant 'accident'. Every time they asked the person to repeat it, they still said 'azeeden', just slower, because that's what the word sounds like in their accent.

I find that closing my eyes a little helps. It allows my sensory system to prioritise hearing.

I say at the beginning "I'm a bit deaf so would you mind speaking a little slower"
Most people try for a sentence or two then carry on as normal

That's the sort of thing I meant about the hearing impaired being expected to beg, @BareGrylls ... really not pleasant

I have auditory processing issues and tend to find that asking people to repeat themselves tends to result in me missig the same point again. My best strategy against that is to paraphrase back with what I picked up as it improves the odds of the answer being altered in wording rather than regurgitated.
I also have a delayed reaction so by the time it's repeated, half the time my brain has logically joined the dots.

Strong accents (including within 5 miles of where I was born) don't help, but the worst trait is mumbling so there's no lipreading. Plus background noise.

It can be really exhausting trying to get through a conversation with someone who has very indistinct speech.

I work in an environment where we get calls from very fast speaking people. Some are heavily acccented. I just tell them that I have an issue with my hearing and please would they mind slowing down their speech so I can make sure I've understood. 99.9% of the time it works. The only barrier to a job should be based on whether someone has the ability to do it, not whether their accent is too strong. Most people can be understood with a little effort on both sides.

This is just… insane advice 🫣
For anything, but especially anything medical!

if you’re really struggling I’d ask them to write it down because you’re “hard of hearing”.

And how would you know just what accent you will encounter at your next doctor's appointment, should you be happy enough to get one?

The onus is on the NHS to provide good enough care.

I'm just loving the number of people on this thread who have never had a problem themselves telling those of us who have experienced problems that it's all our own fault for not understanding enough accents.

Yes, and the tired old The NHS Saved My Life, So No-one Should Ever Say Anything Bad About Them trope.

The only barrier to a job should be based on whether someone has the ability to do it, not whether their accent is too strong.

In many situations the ability to do the job is strongly linked to whether the majority of people to whom you have to speak can understand you.

On Wednesday this week I had to ask 3 times before I understood that a nurse was telling me to sit in a chair so she could put an eyedrop in . I am not very deaf, and not at all with with my hearing aids on, and they were. She had a very strong accent. There were 3 of us there, and later another 4. I was not the only person struggling to understand.

Most people can be understood with a little effort on both sides.

I'm at a loss to understand what "effort" would make it possible to understand people who are pronouncing words in a way where you can't identify what they are saying.

I would suggest that it makes a lot more sense for people in these roles to be trained to speak with a more "received pronunciation" so that more people can understand them without effort.

Sick and stressed people in a hospital should not be being told to make more effort.

Bizarre thread.
Surely you just say ‘I’m sorry could you repeat that please’

Have you actually read the thread?

Being deaf, even with hearing aids is a little bit like having earplugs in. You can hear but it's muffled. Add a strong accent into the equation and a medical setting where you are probably nervous or anxious about what the doctor is telling you.
How many times would you think it's ok to say ‘I’m sorry could you repeat that please"? What's your advice if it's still impossible to understand or hear clearly after they have repeated themselves several times?

I have indeed read the thread.

how about, ‘I’m having trouble hearing you, please could you write that down for me’
if ’please could you repeat that’ is not working.

I dispute the fact that this is a thread about hearing issues. It is (yet another) thread on here designed to both spread and elicit negativity around immigration and/or public services such as the NHS or BBC

I’ve lived in london all my life. I’m used to hearing a large variety of accents - be they from different regions of the U.K. or from abroad. The racist connotations implied by some on this thread are doing my head in - two people can be from the same country and I can understand one and not the other, depending upon how strong their accents are. It’s ridiculous to suggest that everybody speaks clearly or that strong accents are always easy to understand. Yes some people can be racist dicks, but to assume that as a go to on a thread where people are asking for ways to understand whilst not causing offence is a giant leap.

Ten times? Twenty? How long before it causes offence? (Hint: most people get pissed off by the second request and some others may find being asked causes anxiety and they clam up completely).

It isn't always 'just' an accent that makes it difficult, it can be mumbling and/or turning away, wearing a face mask, speaking through a perspex screen (often whilst also turning away or not looking at you in the first place because they're looking at the screen) - or the worst one of all in my opinion, lip filler and botox.

Whilst I would very much have liked to inform the woman kicking off last year because I'd asked her to repeat something three times before asking somebody to come and take over that it wasn't because I was an ignorant fucking posh (I'm not) bitch, it was because 5ml in and around her lips and a face like Cromwell's Death Mask meant I'd have more chance of being able to lipread an unopened packet of Richmonds in the Co-op fridge than I did her. Or that's what she told the receptionist at any rate, seeing as I couldn't make head nor tail of what sounds she was trying to make behind her teeth. But she was already offended by my not understanding despite having already said I have hearing loss.