Very strong foreign accents

My heart also sinks when I have to deal with a foreign accent on my land line, as I too wear a hearing aid. It is usually hit or miss, but I find that generally a female accent is easier to follow than a male one.
I recently had to phone Talk Talk ( I use them as they now are the only ones who give 24 hour free calls on land lines), I have been a customer for over 10 years). I had run out of contract and needed to negotiate a new one so the call was important to me. The 1st male I spoke to was absolutely useless and I hung up and redialled. The 2nd male was much better, I could understand him and was given a new price of £7 per month more for 18 months. When I failed to get the new contract as an E mail as promised, I rang again. This time I spoked to a female who was fantastic. I could understand her, she offered me a contract of under £30 per month over 2 years and a new fibre system which I accepted.
She was definitely head and shoulders above those 2 males I had spoken to. So sometimes I think it is a gender problem as well as an accent thing.
Another problem I had was during the pandemic, when we had to wear face masks. Being deaf, I do lip read, and I found it very difficult to understand foreign people who wore masks in a medical setting. One was in a phlebotomy clinic and the person at the door was Phillipino. I could not understand her, but she thought I was being racist, another person had to come to take my details. Another time was in a mobile Breast Test Clinic with an Asian receptionist, she too thought I was being racist. Both times I felt really embarrassed.
Another thing that has always bugged me has got nothing to do with accents, but the timbre of a person's speech. There is a male weather person on the BBC, who starts of his sentences in a normal tone, but by the end of the sentence he is practically whispering. Why this hasn't been brought to his attention, I'll never now. Thank goodness for sub-titles, although they are often a couple of sentences behind, or use goobledegook.
Anyway, I'm sorry if you think I've gone off subject, but rant over

Just a thought - I do find these as strong accents quite debilitating and having discovered red I am by no means the only one, I have written to my MP - no idea why he could do about it, but though if enough people contact their MPs, then they have to do something about it!

It's frustrating because some Asians really do have very pronounced accents, and if you don't immediately catch what they are saying, you have to ask them to repeat it - frequently sometimes - and that makes you seem racist... and that's the problem. One that's been foisted on us by companies cutting costs to the bone in order to maximise profits.

The other day, my Swedish OH was on the 'phone to one such individual. My OH understands and speaks English well - though he does himself have an accent. The Asian gentleman had a really strong one and my OH just couldn't understand him. They were on speakerphone so that I could jump to the rescue if necessary.

My OH said to the man, in his frustration, "as you can probably hear, English is not my native language". To which the Asian gentleman replied, "as you can probably hear, neither is mine - we'll just have to help each other out".

... I left them to it.

Gwenisgreat

Just a thought - I do find these as strong accents quite debilitating and having discovered red I am by no means the only one, I have written to my MP - no idea why he could do about it, but though if enough people contact their MPs, then they have to do something about it!

Gwenisgreat
I can see that idea going down well.
Dear Mr Branson ( and all the other providers) it’s come to our attention that customers are having a problem with your foreign call centres. Please be advised that you will bring your call centres back to the uk.

Reply from the above 🖕 and btw, there will be no more contributions to the Conservative Party.
That’s the way business works.