British Accent

[tylerhuynh]

Hi, I'm living in the U.S. now and English is my second language. I found that British accent is very difficult to hear. Is it just me or are there other people getting the same hitch?
ps: Don't get me wrong. I'm not saying which accent is better than other. I just want to know if you have a hard time understand British accent.

 

[xtina937]

Well, for starters, there are loads of British accents, you can go less than 10 miles anywhere in the UK and already be hearing different accents. Usually Received Pronunciation ( RP) accents, those in and around London are easily understandable but yes, there can be loads of accents in the UK that are hard to understand. The accents of Newcastle and Yorkshire come to mind- those who are not native speakers of English, or those not born and raised in England usually have a pretty difficult time with them. What are you having trouble with? do you interact with people from Britain a lot?

 

[Tdol]

And you might be saying the opposite if you were living in the UK. However, to be honest, if you can understand American English, you shouldn't have much of a problem with a standard form of British English like RP. Try listening to some more to get used to it- watch the news on BBC World. :up: