• Mike D.
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    94 months ago

    My ex learned English as a second language and was fluent but she had a very hard time with any heavy accent.

    • @jaschen@lemm.ee
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      64 months ago

      My wife too. She grew up in Taiwan and moved to America in middle school.

      She can’t understand understand British or Australian accents, where I can hear the differences between the two.

      She literally can’t understand Indian accents. It’s like they are not speaking English at all.

      • @Probius@sopuli.xyz
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        64 months ago

        I’m a native speaker and have absolutely no issue whatsoever with Australian and British accents, but people with a heavy Indian accent still sound like they’re not speaking English to me.

        • @jaschen@lemm.ee
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          34 months ago

          I think we were exposed to more Brit and Aus influences. Thinking Steve Erwin, Crocodile Dundee, and a bunch of British actors.

          For Indian speaking influence, nope. Even today, the only exposure to Indian accents is at work and even then, its limited.

          • @Probius@sopuli.xyz
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            64 months ago

            You can get better at understanding accents by listening to them more, so yeah, that’s probably why.

        • @nandeEbisu@lemmy.world
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          4 months ago

          It doesn’t help that Indian English often still uses a lot of colonial terms, like Capsicum instead of bell pepper. That being said most Indians in the US will adjust to the local vocabulary pretty quickly.

      • Lovable Sidekick
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        14 months ago

        I absolutely LOVE Indian accents, especially with a very sing-song speech pattern.

    • tiredofsametab
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      44 months ago

      My first language is English and some accents/dialects are very difficult. Certain Indian speakers, Scottish speakers, Newfies, and West Virginians (which has a lot of Scots and Irish roots) can take me some time to acclimate to.