to think that if you dont understand someone because they have a different accent to you, it's just ignorant

[lostboysfallin]

And maybe a little bit stupid
I know some accents are difficult to understand, but fgs try.

That's bollocks. Just nothing but chippy bollocks. Ridiculous. Get over yourself.
Hope I have made myself clear.

(that was to the OP by the way.)

Its ignorant to not attempt to understand someone

Yes, it is. But I can't imagine very many people set out deliberately to not attempt to understand someone.

...to try, not to write them off as stupid and therefore unimportant because they don't talk the same as you

Er, yes, I agree. But that is a whole separate issue, and not at all what you intimated in your opening post.

Er, I lived in Newcastle for four years and I never could understand much of what proper Geordies were saying to me and they struggled to understand my West Country accent too. I'm not stupid or ignorant (and neither were they I assume). I've got bits of paper to prove it.

It's a gross generalisation to say that just because one doesn't understand something that is said, that one is generally lacking in education or sophistication (which is what "ignorant" means).

I had a phone conversation with a woman yesterday, and to my utter embarrassment (and frustration) I had to ask her to repeat what she said about four or five times, and eventually I gave up trying to understand most of what she said, and settled for the bare bones of it, because it was becoming awkward and I did not want to offend her.

'Neckarst mond. Neckarst mond. Neckarst mond. En da Op reel mond.'

Any clue about that OP? Or are you just ignorant and perhaps a bit stupid?

No one has the divine right to proclaim that thier accent is right and everyone elses is wrong. there should be far more tolerance and understanding.

No, they don't but they will be rather unrealistic if they expect foreigners who have been taught English using Received Pronunciation to understand them.

That is why RP exists. It is supposed to be accentless, regionless and unambiguous. for some people (mostly Home Counties and the south East of England) their regional accent will not be a million miles away from the basics of RP and therefore easier for foreigners to grasp, but for others (strongly accented Scousers, Geordies, Aberdonians to name a few) it is expecting too much of a non-native English speaker that they should always understand you clearly. It is not a slur on you, or your region, just a simple fact of life. Get over it.

I worked in a call centre for our major telco here in Oz and always made the effort to get my ear around accents, but some are just unintelligible, especially some of the more dialectic ones where the speaker uses a local turn of phrase. Glaswegian, Jordie, some of the broader English ones like Michael Socha who plays Tom in Being Human and comes from Derbyshire or Johnny Vegas who's from Lancashire and has a shrill squeally voice to boot. My strategy at the call centre if I was having trouble was to apologise and say I'd just come back to work from an ear infection so could the customer please bear with me and speak a bit more slowly and quietly. It generally worked a treat.

I am Scottish married to an English man sometimes people genuinely can't understand someone. If this is what you are referring to then YABU.

However I have met people who hear I have an accent, automatically decide they won't understand me so don't listen. That is rude so in that case YANBU. For example the lady in the bakers claims I sound the same when saying white or brown so won't serve me unless I right it down. I have yet to work out how the words white and brown sound the same .

'Neckarst mond. Neckarst mond. Neckarst mond. En da Op reel mond.'

By the way, in case any of you were wondering, that turned out to be

'Next month, next month, In the April month.'

See? Not easy - especially on the phone.

I also frequently have to speak to women wearing full-face niqabs and it's really hard to decifer a strong accent when you cannot see their mouths move.

Is it always ignorance. Dunno. I can understand people from overseas talking incorrect english because that's who's in my life but I cannot understand someone from some Scottish parts or people from the north east of england. I try and I fail.

YANBU.

I am from Manchester and live in Stoke.

You'd be AMAZED at the amount of people who don't understand me.

I struggle with accents having been deaf in my early years. I don't get new words easily, but I'm a whizz at maths

Dh I fantastic at languages and can understand English spoken with a thick accent. He struggles with maths.

Neither of us are stupid, ignorant etc but I let him phone the Indian takeaway as I can't understand them. It's my failing but I need to see facial expression as well as hear the words to have any chance of understanding

Accents are difficult for people who haven't come across them before. A court interpreter once asked me what was wrong with the judge! He had a very strong welsh accent. Any questions from the judge had to be translated by me to the interpreter into sarf London speak before the interpreter translated it into Dari. Op I would say Yabu- patience required all round.

Um, either you do understand somebody, or you don't. That much is out of your control.

If you don't understand somebody, you can choose how helpfully/politely you react to them however...

yabu. I have quite a strong accent (so i am told by mil ) and i do speak very quickly. I'm always getting asked to repeat myself/talk slower/more clearly ect ect sometimes i can repeat myself 2 or 3 times and the person i'm talking to just smiles, nods and gives up ! I don't think its ignorance or rudeness of the people i talk to. Just one of those things. Meh

"But I can't imagine very many people set out deliberately to not attempt to understand someone"

i think some people really don't try. I work in a call centre. amusingly, someone once had me slow down to a snailspace and repeat things because 'my accent is so strong'

they were from darkest Wales. I have a fairly un-accented English voice. it was funny :)

then there are my colleagues who call foreign call centres and complain endlessly about not being able to understand. most of those are understandable if you try..

it is a case of hearing the Indian/ sri lankan/ Czech/Polish accent and switching off from trying to understand that is - not ignorant - but a waste of time (and a bit xenophobic?)

I think it is ignorance if you're assuming that the accent implies stupidity. My wife has a strong accent and also struggled a lot with the local dialect in the beginning. She felt totally patronised at work on occasions, which was amusing as she had a better education than 90% of the workforce and a better vocabulary in her second language than the people who were treating her badly. I do still giggle about her being excitedly returning with haggis after shopping once. Took me a fucking age to realise she meant nappies :)

I work with some highly intelligent people and have frequently been on conference calls with colleagues in the Spanish office with my boss on the other end. We're both Scottish, but he has a much stronger accent than I have and speaks much more quickly. I can hear that he is toning his accent down and speaking really slowly for him, but I still have to translate a lot of it for my Spanish colleagues. I find it most amusing. They are most definitely not stupid or ignorant. YABU.

YABU. I am fluent in five languages, but I can't understand Scousers AT ALL. I had to stop going to a quiz night because the question guy had such a strong Scouse accent.

Incidentally, are you using the word "ignorant" to mean "rude"? It actually means
"lacking [factual] knowledge". HTH :)

I cannot understand broad Glaswegian unless it is spoken very slowly to me! I am not ignorant or stupid.

I'm really surprised at the numbers who seem to struggle with a Glasgow accent.
I'm Glaswegian and am now wondering if I've been talking to myself when I'm with folk from other parts.

YABU. If people are going to do a phone-based job then they need to learn to speak English to a high enough standard to make themselves understood. This includes working on their accent if necessary.

YANBU, despite the flaming you are getting. I have two stories about this. The first is meeting my American friend's American mum in the USA and telling a story about how many people said they couldn't understand me, and I spoke clearly and slowly, and repeated myself, and they still professed ignorance, til I put on an American accent (very badly) and they understood me. And she said" "They just weren't listening, honey"

The second is my brother speaking to a Southern English person on the phone in the course of his work. She kept saying she couldn't understand a word he was saying. He did all the usual, speaking slowly etc, then got fed up and was insulting to her in a very broad accent. She immediately said she would report him. His response was " Oh, you fucking understood that, didn't you?"
She didn't report it. Accents aren't hard. Just listen.

Aunt Margaret, I do listen, till my head hurts, but sometimes I just can't understand. What I don't do is assume the other person is thick because I can't understand them.

I can understand the Glasgow accent slightly better as dad grew up around there. He's lived all over the world, but the moment he's on the phone to his family it all comes flooding back

I am lost in Glasgow

Always utterly and irrefutably lost

Does that make me ignorant?