Is your accent a problem here?
#16
Re: Is your accent a problem here?
It may well be your accent, normally I don't have a problem but occasionaly I come accross someone who, when I open my mouth, I can just see the shutters come down and I may as well be talking Swahilli.
Then I have to repeat myself, substitute words, draw pictures etc.
If you have one of these as an interviewer good luck!
Then I have to repeat myself, substitute words, draw pictures etc.
If you have one of these as an interviewer good luck!
#18
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Joined: Sep 2009
Location: York, PA, USA
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Re: Is your accent a problem here?
#19
Re: Is your accent a problem here?
Yeah couple the accent and speed up the speech and drop a letter here or there and it gets very difficult for Americans that are not used to any accent other than their own to understand someone.
#20
Re: Is your accent a problem here?
I found the Glasgow accent the hardest to understand on our last trip. Not impossible by any means, but I had to listen closely.
#21
Re: Is your accent a problem here?
I will admit that in rural Ireland I asked someone to repeat themselves three times, then thanked them and left, with no idea what they'd said!
I found the Glasgow accent the hardest to understand on our last trip. Not impossible by any means, but I had to listen closely.
I found the Glasgow accent the hardest to understand on our last trip. Not impossible by any means, but I had to listen closely.
When I went into the campsite office to get a couple of pitches for 2 nights, the site owner and myself resorted to sign langauge and hand gestures because we couldn't understand a word the other was saying.
#22
Heading for Poppyland
Joined: Jul 2007
Location: North Norfolk and northern New York State
Posts: 14,541
Re: Is your accent a problem here?
I don't tink it's so much your accent, but more that you're accent is foreign. The Southerners are people that tend to look out for their own first especially. At least that's my experience as a "goddamn Yankee" visiting the South but no I would say it's because you don't sound like any sort of American, and you are competing with USCs for the jobs
#23
Re: Is your accent a problem here?
Posh...that's funny...we always get that comment when we meet Americans. 'Where are you from? I love your accent...you sound so posh'.
#28
Forum Regular
Joined: Sep 2008
Location: USA
Posts: 264
Re: Is your accent a problem here?
I work in a call centre in Pensacola Florida, I have a very neutral accent, I'm from Cardiff but just have a general accent, you wouldn't think I was Welsh but then it's not obviously an English accent either.
A lot of my callers think I'm Australian like the Geico gecko (LOL hilarious), I then proceed to talk in an Australian accent so they can see the big difference.
I can understand most accents in the US apart from the real southern strong accent in MS and LA and also black men who put on this ghetto accent (as my wife says) and use a lot of slang and don't pronounce words properly, ask = axe, four = foe, nine = nigh there are more but I'm not perfect either just gotta get used it. But everyone is very polite which is nice!
When someone doesn't understand me, they just say - sir, first time this happend I thought they wanted to say something.
I get a lot of compliments about how clear I speak and how it's nice to hear an accent that anybody can understand.
A lot of my callers think I'm Australian like the Geico gecko (LOL hilarious), I then proceed to talk in an Australian accent so they can see the big difference.
I can understand most accents in the US apart from the real southern strong accent in MS and LA and also black men who put on this ghetto accent (as my wife says) and use a lot of slang and don't pronounce words properly, ask = axe, four = foe, nine = nigh there are more but I'm not perfect either just gotta get used it. But everyone is very polite which is nice!
When someone doesn't understand me, they just say - sir, first time this happend I thought they wanted to say something.
I get a lot of compliments about how clear I speak and how it's nice to hear an accent that anybody can understand.
#29
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Joined: Sep 2009
Location: York, PA, USA
Posts: 856
Re: Is your accent a problem here?
oh I know my accents, I now the difference between the different regions. I used to not know, but I know several different accents, and the difference between normal speech and posh unlike most Americans