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?

I had this too OP but I was on a ward. I felt awful for them but I just couldn’t understand 2 of the staff

I agree. This thread has happened coincidentally as I've just visited my GP for a problem I've had for several months. It was a locum I've never seen before and the communication was tortuous. He misunderstood what I was saying and I couldn't understand very much that he said. I left without any resolution. I've made another appointment and asked for my regular named GP in 3 weeks time

This has happened before with one of the lovely nurses at my GP, I just said "I'm so sorry I couldn't work out the last bit, please can you repeat it" and she said it slower for me a second time. If you still struggle just say you are hard of hearing and could she write down the important bits etc.

This. No one wants the hassle of repeating themselves and the discipline of watching your words turning into text on a screen forces us all to slow down and speak more distinctly.

Everyone has an accent of some sort. In a medical setting it's even worse because there's all the jargon, the latin names and the shorthand that doctors in particular fall into for names for tests etc. You can google them yourself at home if you have the actual spelling. I'm surprised the NHS doesn't routinely use them now, it's an easy way to write up what's been said at appointments and they definitely use AI for electronic dictation in some hospitals now.

So @FindingMeno I would simply say that "I am hard of hearing, would you mind if I use this app to ensure I understand you, and can ask questions if needed? I've also brought my friend / relative along as a second pair of ears"

Top Apps for Hard of Hearing on iPhone

• Live Transcription & Conversation
• Otter.ai: Highly accurate, real-time transcription for meetings and conversations.
• Hearing Helper: Transcribes speech-to-text, allowing for 1-to-1 conversations by, for example, making text large and easy to read.
• Speechy: An app specifically for converting live speech to text.

It's ridiculous to pretend that there's no such thing as a strong accent which will be more difficult to understand for the majority of people.

I used to 'translate' for British colleagues with strong regional accents by just repeating what they said. Nobody ever had to do the reverse for me. It's not a value judgement, just a fact that my accent is not so strong.

So I'm racist?

What's wrong with just saying 'I'm sorry but I'm struggling to understand your accent'? I've had it said to me but I don't take everything personally.

Ask them to follow up with an email. I'm currently dealing with 2 consultants on behalf of my Mil. Both have very heavy accents and their manner is 'brisk'. After several occasions asking them to repeat themselves which just caused an awkward atmosphere and clearly pissed them off. I ask now that they follow up with email of what was discussed during the appointment.

Just ask them to slow their speach as you are struggling to understand, some dialects are spoken extremely quickly and if you aren’t use to it, can be really hard to follow.

The ‘brisk’ bedside manner just exacerbates any issues, in my experience.

People on here are pretending there isn’t sometimes an issue - there is and I have experienced it first hand with the Carer who came to help my Mum three times a day. Great lass, Mum liked her but her very strong Nigerian accent was very hard to understand plus she spoke quite loudly and (without meaning too I’m sure), aggressively. This was a barrier to communication.

It's bloody ridiculous to just shout racism for not understanding and accent. OP I myself would just say, look I'm hearing impaired and I'm finding it very difficult to understand what you are saying because of your accent. Please could you maybe speak louder but slower or write down any really important bits I can't get at all. It's not offensive to not understand an accent and it would be stupid to just pretend to understand so you don't appear racist 🙄

I struggle too OP so I try and take DD to help translate but sometimes even she can't understand. I struggle with Asian and Mancurian, sometimes brummie, the most but I also get sidetracked with some accents as they are just too melodic and beautiful and I listen to the beat rather than the words (eg carribean) but sometimes it's not the accent but that they don't enunciate the words properly or mumble.

I've found asking them first to repeat, second that I can't understand, third I lean forward and point my ear rather than my face towards them. Then they get the fucking hint that they need to speak more slowly and clearly. That usually works.

I think you should ask for clarification. Push through the embarrassment if its still not clear. Polite persistence shows that you value what this person has to say. Not understanding someone is not in any way discriminatory, but not making the effort to reach an understanding definitely is.

@ChimpanzeeThatMonkeyNews I agree. My Mil has Alzheimer's, she's terrified to begin with. Then we go into the appointment with a consultant who seems incovienced by our very presents and to top it off I can barely understand what's being said. It really makes a bad situation worse.

Quite frankly this is offensive.
The person I brought with me also failed to understand (with perfect hearing) in the situation I am talking about.
Certainly my hearing loss probably makes it harder for me to understand accents but I wasn't asking your opinion on my hearing loss and what I can and can't hear.
I was asking for help in not causing offense and not being rude.
Perhaps you could do with a few lessons in that?

Sorry but I'm having difficulty understanding you. Could you repeat that?

Or if it's really impenetrable, Sorry, I can't understand you. Could we get someone else in to explain that so I understand?

What a strange reply. You'd rather pretend to understand someone and you think asking for clarification makes you appear "rude or thick"?
Even if that were true, I'd rather get all the information!

Op can you ask for written confirmation or notes?

Asking politely for the person to repeat themselves slowly isn't rude and you won't be the only person needing to do so.

Your Masters subject is very interesting.
I don't understand how an accent could actually be "dropped". I'm not trying to, but even after 22 years people sometimes ask where I come from.
(Communist Czechoslovakia).

I just keep asking them to repeat themselves. I live in Wales and I struggled to understand any of the NHS staff when I went I to hospital for an op recently. They shouldn't be employed if they can't be understood or take offence to being asked to repeat themselves multiple times.

Thank you! I found it fascinating.

Voice coaches can teach people to move from
their native speech system towards RP. There’s a thriving business in this type of work for voice coaches.

@Greenwitchartis being (for those in the cheap seats)

DE-LIB-ER-ATE-LY OB-TUSE.

Does it happen when you say something smart or are in position of authority?
We know ehy they don't 😉

It isn’t as unlikely as you think and ive been in London my whole life. It is a delicate problem but a real one. Two of my children have struggled in secondary school (with 2 separate teachers) where they simply couldn’t make out a lot of what the teachers were saying. Both teachers from completely different parts of the world, fluent English, but strong accents. No idea of the answer, I didn’t feel able to speak out a parent as I’m aware it could sound racist. I just supported one child at home with the (core) subject until they got a new teacher the following year. The other child just sat it out and determined not to choose that (non core) subject as a GCSE option.

So she should risk taking the wring medicine / undertaking the wrong medical advice because a dead patient is better than asking a medic to clarify?