accents again, no one can understand a boody word i say

its getting me down so much, i panic if i have to use the phone or go into a shop and ask an assistant for help (actually i would now never , ever do this, believe me i would do without) I now never go to the bank, post office, etc, infact anywhere i may have to speak, honestly i start shaking,!!!

went to the docs today and ended up crying before i went in coz i was so uptight abot this problem, thankfully the doctor was an indian lady, who had no probs.

work...............this is the worst, i can work with up to 50%-100% of asian colleagues who, and i mean DO NOT HAVE A CLUE what am saying, i have to write down most things for them.............work is crap, but this doesn't help, thankflly the medical staff have no probs as most of them worked in the uk at some point.
Don't even start me about usuing the phone at work, pointless, as i usually have to ask someone to come and repeat what am saying.

I have even thoght twice about going to the curry night tonight, coz i am already panicking about speaking to people!!!!!!!! thank god there will be some scots there

Aw mate.

Don't let the b'tards get you down, just talk to them r e a l l y s l o w l y and make them feel like idiots

Wendy its really bad, and i know i am beginning to get it out of proportion

My missus had problems with this - and (without wishing to 'diss' her) she could read the shipping forecast on Radio 4. Ended up repeating things several times to shop assistants and the like - would make me answer the phone. It's improved over the course of the last year though. Chin up, Mags.

thanks Hutch, thing is i always thought my hubby had a much broader accent than me, but i think its coz its a man talking they make more of an effort to listen

Never mind, they'll soon learn not to, when they realise all men talk shite anyway

Oh you've met my husband then?

It wasn't me - honest

Aw Margaret... don't feel bad about it.

Of course, on the up side of things, it means you can call them whatever you want and they won't understand a word.

I don't even have a regional accent and sound a bit like a Radio 4 presenter too (but a cool one) and someone asked me where in Ireland I was from the other day!

If one more person calls me Irish....I might just flip!

(I am from Edinburgh)!

Take revenge. One of the many courses we got sent on ZZZZZZZZ covered how to deal with persons from a foreign land The aussie trainer looked straight at my phillipines/hong kong colleague and said now you'd have problems wouldnt you

We then went on to learn to look the foreigner in the eye, speak S l o w l y and clearly using as little language as possible, ie as few words as you need to to deal with them she added we also should not use australian slang in case they didnt "get it". If we felt confident we could also use our hands or mime or demonstrate the action, at this point I was under the table with laughter but never mind.

Take revenge try it on a aussie, preferably the stuck up moron that did our course

It will get better hunni....I used to be the same....I just learned to speak really really slowly, it does piss you off though, cos you feel a right nugget. I would never fone for a taxi cos I always had to spell out the name of the street Hermes as in the Greek God....I would spell it out and they would say oh yeah...Herms Street........naw its ****in Hermes....have you ever heard of greek God called ****** Herms. And when ye say a they think its friggin e....no a fir arse no e fir egg....Hubby used to piss himself laffin at me!!!! bastard!!!!!!

After 3 years its OK unless I am talkin to another Scot...in which case you get that WTF are they saying look.

Take a chill pill....and also remember that half the time you are asked to repeat yourself...its because they like your accent and want to hear it again.

I'm from Cheshire.

So easy to confuse the two...

One of my Aussie friends can't understand me and I have no regional accent either

Adam gets it all the time and he has a strong Bristolian accent!