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Thread: British people are hardest to understand?

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[quote=TOMSPENCER,266046]The chap in the FT article who said that English people were the worst, seemed to be talking about conversations between European businessmen using English as the common medium. The point made was that those from European countries who do not have English as a first language tend to speak more slowly and use simpler words, making communication relatively easy.

My girlfriend is Chinese. She teaches Chinese to foreigners and English to Chinese people. She also does interpreting jobs from time to time. When we watch TV she is easily able to understand the Americans, but often comments about British TV that "they're all talking too fast!".

None of the foreigners with whom she works is a Brit, coming instead from Holland, Denmark, Isreal and other places where English is learned as a second language. She really struggles to understand them sometimes, even though they use quite simple English. Essentially, it seems, their pronunciation can sometimes be so wildly different from what she's learned that she can't even guess which words they're trying to communicate to her.

As a Brit, I pride myself in being able to understand the English language spoken in just about every accent (though it can take a few moments with some very strong accents). I believe this is because of the different cultural influence to which British people are exposed in their daily lives. Whether it's day-tripping in continental Europe, watching 'Neighbours' on TV, listening to reggae, ingesting yet another Hollywood blockbuster, or just visiting your local curry house.[/quote]

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