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?

This is just dangerous in a medical situation!

OP, just ask clarifying questions. Make notes and then read them back to the doctor and ask them to confirm. The less often you hear a particular accent the harder it will be to understand - once you meet someone a few times it will become more familiar.

Phone appointments are the worst for this as there are no visual clues. My mother, who has very poor hearing plus some cognitive decline, has a telephone appointment for a medication review. As she struggles to process what is being said in a phone conversation with her own family (this is not solely linked to the fact that she often forgets to wear her hearing aids), I hope the pharmacist is up for the challenge. I am fed up with trying to point out to her GP that phone appointments are of no value, so will leave them to work it out for themselves.

I remember a poster, on another thread, who said that her husband’s oncologist was Chinese, and there was a significant language barrier.
So much so, that her husband had to mime ‘tingling’, because the doctor simply didn’t understand him.

In a clinical setting, that’s downright dangerous.

Are we that hard up for doctors in this country??

The virtue signallers can piss off and polish their haloes.

I have this with a good friends husband. He's from a country that I have never visited and also never learned the underlying European language. So although he is effectively fluent in English I struggle to understand much. Professional settings can be easier to ask for clarification.

I work with a fabulous colleague and friend. have for years. It was only recently that I spoke to her on the phone rather than in person and i said to her 'oh my goodness! I had no idea you had an accent!'. She's from Hull. I'd never clocked it in person. She just laughed and said 'what about yours?' (I'm Australian).

Christ, do people mumble. 😫

I speak a second language and sometimes it really is my pronounciation that is the problem tbh.

@CremeEggThief

Pretending to understand could be bloody dangerous in a medical setting.

@FindingMeno
I just say sorry I didn't quite catch that can you repeat please.
I have just had this morning a really difficult time with two people on a helpline. I find call centres staffed by Asian people really difficult. Call centres are hard anyway because they rattle through scripts.

I stopped them several times because I just couldnt understand them.

During COVID I moved at work to WFH in a new job with lots of lovely women from the north east with a range of newcastle/Sunderland accents. It took me a while to get my ear in, but once I did it was OK. But again in the first few weeks I just said sorry I didn't catch that

That's the point...

I have a long term health condition and the past ten years spent a lot of time in A&E and NHS Wards in London. No issue whatsoever with understanding any of the staff.

I actually agree , its dangerous for medical professionals to be unable to communicate with their patients. If more people asked to see someone else it would highlight the issue

Throw into this (not unusual) situation, patients with cognitive issues (eg dementia) and hearing loss, and it it’s a really difficult patient issue.

It's hard in medical settings or in any actually important settings. I had asked number of times to speak to someone else on phone because I just could not make up what they were saying fully.
In f2f the only thing you can do is just ask to speak clearer and repeat. It is worrying if you cannot fully understand about your health, so just keep asking for clearer and repeating. Keep pointing out hearing impairment too.

I attended a job interview years ago for an engineering firm. I was warned in advance that the Indian guy leading the interview had a very very strong accent. I thought nothing of it as I had worked all over the place from the far East, West Africa and Central Asian in the 'Stans' so had a very good ear for accents and understanding them. But in this case I literally could not get my head around anything what he was saying, completely incomprehensible, it got really embarrassing and awkward as it got to the point where I was just constantly saying "sorry, can you repeat the question". He was getting really frustrated and eventually I just had to stand up and say "I'm very sorry but just dont understand what you are saying, I think we should finish the interview, thankyou for your time".

I am generally good with accents - foreign or local - so have the assurance that if I can’t follow it is not a ‘me’ problem which helps with my approach. I simply say, l’m sorry i didn’t catch what you said, please could you repeat it? Several times if required (The issue is usually people speaking too quickly). If I still don’t get it, I say so: I’m sorry I’m still unable to understand what you are saying’. Up to them how they would like to resolve the situation, the important bit is that they are aware I have not taken the information in. We can’t pussyfoot around ignoring it to be ‘polite’ or to avoid spurious accusations if it is due to a foreign accent. Facts are facts. I don’t understand and I need the information in clear English. Also agree that some communication capabilities on NHS wards are absolutely woeful.

I'm very surprised you've never spoken to one person and found them difficult to follow.

I have spent many many years working with distressed people of all sorts of nationalities both in person and over the phone, with all sorts of accents and plenty of language barriers requiring 3rd party translators, I've lived in several UK countries and had a moving accent of my own as a result. These days I'm terribly middle England with no discernable regional accent but that haan't always been the case.

I still struggle with some people's speech and accents including in person.

OP you should have made it clear the issue is the fact that you have hearing problems in your original post.

In which case you need to either take someone with you to support you or make it clear to the staff that you need things written down or get a better hearing aid.

I assume the problem is with struggling to hear what anyone says rather than focusing just on people with accents...

Lucky you. Your post doesn't really help the OP though does it?

I have the same problem OP, and unfortunately get called racist for it too! I struggle with any accent that's not my own tbh and have often wondered if I've got a medical condition. I wouldn't even know what to ask to be checked, as I can definitely hear the voice but I usually can't understand what's being said! In most settings I ask for clarification or for something to be written down. Or if I'm with DH/DM/DSIS I ask them what was said afterwards.

You ask the person if they'd mind speaking slowly to you as you sometimes have difficulty catching everything said. If you vaguely imply it's you not them it saves your embarrassment at feeling 'rude'.
When they've finished speaking you paraphrase back to them to make sure you understood. You note down key things such as the name of the condition or medication, then ask them to check/correct what you've written down or write it down for you.

As is being demonstrated on this thread, it's not really permissible to discuss and if you try you will be called stupid and racist, overtly or covertly.

There are some things that are not allowed and this, for some reason, is one of them. I lived and worked for many years in a massively international context and everyone spoke Business English with a wild panoply of accents and vocabulary. It's much easier in this context to ask for people to repeat themselves as everyone is doing it. We're all also getting pronouns wrong: men become women, chairs become men, saying everyone's name wrong, and resorting to whiteboards in moments of complexity. Now at home I find the same issues but this curious social code against handling it.

Again I am sharing my experience.

Also I think you are confusing two different issues: people who speak very little English (in which case communicating is going to be difficult) and people who speak English well but have an accent which is not usually a massive issue.

“I have a hearing impairment and am struggling to follow, could you please speak clearly/slowly/write it down”

generally I find dr’s will draw pictures if you say you are having difficulty following. Most find this the easiest way of communicating and also avoiding the confusion of medical language. As most people don’t speak medic, never mind accents.

I have this problem with my DF ‘s cardiologist. I went with him to his last appointment asDF was in such a muddle about what was said at the previous one. I couldnt understand 1 word in 5. He had a strong accent, mumbled and was looking at his computer while speaking so we couldnt even get clues from his face. Plus a lot of the cardiology terms and prescription names are very convoluted and novel. DF has cognitive decline and a hearing aid, it was a nightmare

My solution was a recording app on my phone that provides instant transcription. So you can see the words being said. If the phone cant catch one you can ask for that to be repeated. I put the phone on a chair between us so the consultant could see if it was transcribing correctly, it did actually help to get him to speak more clearly and stop mumbling as he could see when the app got his words and when it didnt. The app then saved the entire conversation so we couldnt even look back at it later, which was also very helpful for when we couldnt remember the exact specifics on a couple of things

I am not good with accents, we have had some very awkward moments on holiday in the North East and Cumbria because I just have no idea what people are saying 😅 I don't live in a particularly diverse area so I don't hear a range of accents day to day maybe that is the problem? Practice definitely helps, my brain seems to need teaching how to interpret different accents! Also facing people so the sound is travelling directly towards you.

The only accent you've ever had problems understanding was Glaswegian? Aye right!🙄

OP, if you're not sure what's been said, summarise or repeat it and ask the doctor to confirm you've understood correctly. This works for me with medics here in France (my French is definitely not as fluent as it could be). It's really important you understand what's being said in any medical setting and don't just nod along.