Very strong foreign accents

Hang up because they are usually trying to sell something I don’t want or they are scammers.

I find it very difficult to understand some accents especially when ringing banks etc. I don't want to offend by saying I can't understand what you're saying so always revert to the' it's a very bad line can you speak more slowly please'. Doesn't always work but if not I ring again later and hope for another assistant. Very frustrating.

As a hearing aid wearer I'm completely lost with the accents on TV (all accents) unless I have the subtitles on.

I am from Northern Ireland. I accept that some of our accents are difficult. People from country areas talk very fast. There are many accents in Ireland, just like England.

I have exactly the same problem with Virgin Media. I got really fed up - I have a hearing impediment also. Virgin Media asked me for feedback as they do often so I let them have it - 0 stars and why I gave that score (they don't like negative feedback!) Someone contacted me to ask more about it and I told them - the upshot of this wS they put a 'flag' on my details to reflect I had a hearing impediment. Time will tell if that makes any difference whatsoever. I sincerely doubt it. They are just not interested and only pay lip service to wanting your feedback. It's just a box ticking exercise to these multi national companies.

nanna8

Hang up because they are usually trying to sell something I don’t want or they are scammers.

The OP is referring to when you phone a help-line, so hanging up wouldn't be very sensible.

I say, politely, I hope . "Excuse me, I am a little hard of hearing, would you speak more slowly and a little louder please?

I find this usually helps.

If it is an accent that is causing the trouble I make no bones about saying, "Did you mean so-and-so or such-and such? " or even saying that i find their English hard to follow.

If they are offended that is just too bad, but I rarely feel that I have offended anyone asking them to repeat themselves.

I had trouble recently when put through to a call centre in the US or Philippines. Two people who answered had very strong Spanish accents. Unsuccessful requests asking them to repeat what they had said and to speak more slowly led me to tell them I still couldn't understand them and that I would end the call and phone again.

My D used to take orders for a friend who didn't speak English. D had most problems with Irish accents. When she was in Denmark learning Danish the other people in the class understood the Indian person in the class rather than my D's correct and carefully pronounced English.

When did S become sh as in' Oshtralia" where our girls are playing football?

PS we have been advised not to answer or speak to scam callers as our voices can be recorded and manipulated to call other people when the scammers want to impersonate us. Safest to not answer and see if they leave a message. The scammers never leave a message.

What a relief to "hear" about difficulties with landline ( usually) accents. Since having to use hearing aids in my late seventies the problem has got to the almost hopeless stage. Talk talk's respondents seem to be mostly South African and almost unintelligible. Alas some UK accents present me with great difficulties as well . I try to be very clear when speaking slowly to the unfamiliar respondents but they generally take no notice. I was brought up in Edinburgh , but my Scots accent is very slight after living in East Anglia for most of my life and,to my chagrin, some Scots accents are now difficult, usually Glaswegian. The worst accents seem to be from parts of India. Also, when strangers phone, they often announce their name and business in a fast gabble and I have to ask them to repeat this often more than once. Was I like this when young? Quite possibly. Businesses communicating by phone need to monitor and retrain the accents they are using. I much prefer email, but many businesses want you to phone in with problems, rather than write. They seem to think this will be more acceptable, but often is not, particularly if the wait for a reply to the phone call is lengthy.
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Riverwalk

nanna8

Hang up because they are usually trying to sell something I don’t want or they are scammers.

The OP is referring to when you phone a help-line, so hanging up wouldn't be very sensible.

Oh oops- that’ll teach me to read it properly. With a help line I wouldn’t hang up of course. I just have to keep asking them to repeat. Sometimes I say I am hard of hearing ( I’m not )

I usually say ‘I’m sorry but I can’t understand you’, and end the call.

To blame this on "foreign" accents is rather racist sounding. Especially when many British accents are just as difficult, if not more so, to decipher!

What is a strong foreign accent? Northern Irish, Southern Irish, Scouse, Geordie, Glaswegian?

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Somebody has no accent at all? No. Everybody has an accent. When I first met my husband's grandmother she congratulated me on the fact that though I was Scottish, she could understand me. I said that I could also understand her. She was offended. She had a little Buckie in her manner of speaking , I would say. Me dook. And things like that. She was a wonderful woman. I loved her dearly.

Wow, she was offended when she dissed it first?

I began wearing hearing aids last year but still manage the phone with the speaker on - foreign accents in some call centres are beyond me now because there are no visual clues - I am honest and say I can’t understand what is being said, could it be repeated and if necessary could the person spell the word I’m struggling with. I do always say I’m a little deaf but honestly some companies need to be told that there should be a minimum command of the English language and that includes the ability to pronounce words in an understandable accent. As an ex-academic I often had complaints from overseas students that they couldn’t understand the different accents of the staff in my department and we found that speed was a factor. The big issue in call centres is that agents are told to deal with calls in as short as time as possible.

RP is one accent among many. A public school friend said he found it difficult to understand my French because of my Scottish accent. French people find it easy because there are very similar sounds in both Scots and French which don't appear in RP. Some people tend to assume they are the norm and the other person is the divergent.

I have often given up and resorted to writing a letter. I don’t have a mobile phone but my land line phone does show which number is calling me and if I don’t recognise the number I don’t answer it.
What annoys me is the fact that they call me by my first name which I think is not business like.
However the good thing I have noticed that when calling companies now instead of having to hang for hours they offer to call you back. Saves the cost of the call to you too.

For me, its less about the accent and more about the quality of the phone line.
I had to speak to M&S customer services today. I'm guessing it was an Indian call centre as the woman with whom I spoke had a strong accent. The phone connection had a slight time lapse so I could hear my bit of conversation with the operative after I'd finished speaking. That plus some interference on the line, made it a really annoying phone call.

Speed as well as a strong accent have me baffled. When I was fitted with my hearing aids a couple of years ago the lady said that she noticed I was already lip-reading so I rather dread telephone calls.

In M&S the other day I was using the self checkout for a few items and it stopped working.A young guy, assistant came over and said lots of things real fast to me, all I could make out was the word ‘temperamental’ which I hoped he meant the machine and not me😄 he got it working and I said thanks to which he again said things so quick I didn’t get a single word.
He wasn’t foreign!

And I’m not deaf btw