Not understanding things-

I'm sure this must have come up before but instead of reviving an old thread I thought I'd start a new one.

When I've been to England before I have understood most of what is being said. Sure there are bits and pieces here and there I don't 'get'... but heck, that happens to me in the US too, more than I care to admit.

When we went to Scotland I was quite sure a whole other language was being spoken, I hardly understood a single word. I just figured it was a drastically different accent and felt 'thank goodness we are moving to England and not Scotland'.

Thing is I have always sort of prided myself on understanding well... English, lol. The British accent has always been clear to me, I 'get' it.

But then last night my 16 year old daughter and I watched "Angus, Thongs and Perfect Snogging".... numerous times I wished there were subtitles. I just didn't get a fair amount of what was being said. My daughter understood everything (she's American and has always only lived in the US -minus a short spell in Sweden-) and couldn't understand why I didn't get all of it. Is it the movie or have I lost my ability to understand British English or was I just very wrong all along about my abilities? Thing is most other British things I watch I understand, is it the age of language being spoken? The accent? I'm pretty sure my daughter just thinks I'm getting old and losing my hearing... it's not that, it's that I just hear foreign garble when I try to understand. What happened to my brain?!
And more (well, maybe not more... lol) importantly, will I have this much trouble when we move there?

Maybe it was a generational thing??

I hear you though -- it is hard to understand what people are saying a lot of the time. I had to talk to the Pension Services offices in Edinburgh and could understand only about half of what she was saying!  I've even had trouble in Yorkshire (and I've lived there over 20 years!)

Well, you first have to allow for the fact that there is no 'The British Accent'. There are many, many different British accents (which includes Scotland and Wales, etc. not just England!) and some of them are just easier to understand than others.

For instance, most people have no trouble with the posh BBC presenter accent (which is what most Americans think of when they think of an English accent), but I personally struggled with a broad Scouse or Geordie accent, which are also English accents.

The longer you live there, the more programming you watch or listen to on the radio, the better you'll get at understanding different accents, and you'll even be able to start placing them eventually. I wouldn't worry too much!

My husband has a watered down Geordie accent due to living in Southampton and then Nottingham for the last 10 years. For the first 9 months of our relationship, I constantly had to ask him to repeat himself. When we went to Newcastle, it was a lot easier to understand the accent. However, he has a friend from Crieff, and I have the hardest time understanding him. I sometimes have to look to my husband and ask him what the friend just said.

There was one time, his friend was over at the house. We were watching tv and the friend said something. I didn't understand one word of what he said. My husband said something back to him. I thought what he said was kind of mean so I said something about it. The friend said that my husband was just defending me. I said, "Oh, I had no idea what you said." We all just laughed it off.

will I have this much trouble when we move there?

Over the years I've come to think of it as retuning your ears. Like a radio, when you change channels you are bringing in a new sound that your ears, and by proxy brain, are trying to recognize. Like trying to understand the lyrics in different types of music.

Give it time, and I'm sure you'll get used to all the wonderfully different dialects! But you should feel absolutely no shame in not understanding all of them, especially when local slang comes into the equation.

In the mean time you can always start "studying" - I recommend watching "The Guard" and "In Bruges" as their fast talkin' Irish will really test your brain! (And Brendan Gleeson is amazing in both!) Oh, and my UKC spouse said that even "Trainspotting" gave him a run for his money.

My husband is Irish and I have no problem understanding him. His parents on the other hand. Whew! When we first started dating I told DH that if his parents ever ask me something and I don't reply, give me a nudge because I can't understand them! It's definitely gotten better over time and I don't have much trouble now.

Just give it time. Just because you don't understand one dialect doesn't mean you won't understand another one. It can be exhausting because you have to really concentrate at first, but you'll get it eventually!

There's not even just one Scottish accent, there are loads depending on geography, class and even gender. After nearly a decade, my mum now understands 99% of what my husband says, even over the phone; she's always understood my MIL and SIL, and she still only catches 60% of what my FIL says. Crieff is usually a rather subtle accent (Ewan McGregor is from there), but working class Weegie usually gets subtitles on English telly

I work with 3 Irish, 2 Scottish, 1 Welsh, and loads of English people.  Having lived in Manchester, Nottingham, Leicester, London, working in Hertfordshire, and meeting people from Everywhere, I'm getting to the point where I can pinpoint people's regional backgrounds-- For me, it's a lot like what dels said about fine-tuning your ears to different dialects.  But it's definitely an ongoing process!!

Talking about Burns Night/Haggis the other day, the word "Poem" was translated down the table from Glaswegian Scottish --> Northwestern Irish --> whatever version of American I currently speak, so that I could understand.   I had NO idea what the Glaswegian had said and normally joke with her that I only catch about every 5th word that comes out of her mouth.  Previously, I literally made her spell the word "Girl" because I thought she was saying "Ghetto".    So personally, when I don't understand, I simply ask! (But mostly, I just stare blankly until we laugh about it together later). 

My tips? Don't worry about it!  I think your ears will naturally adapt to the funny nuances of British speech patterns, so what seems strange now, might sound normal to you later.   Do you know where you'll be moving?  I find the Posh Southeastern and London accents to be the easiest to interpret.  Good luck!

I have a lovely neighbour who's fairly chatty, and whenever my father comes to visit, I have to go outside with him if the neighbour is out.  He loves to chat with my dad, but my dad can't understand a word of his Welsh Valleys accent.  So we have kind of a system where we all sit and chat together and I kind of sneakily find ways of working his questions to my dad into my statements, so Dad can answer him.  Poor Dad always sits there with this look of total bewilderment on his face whenever this man speaks to him.

Various strong Scottish accents are the only ones I have trouble understanding. But those are nearly impossible!

A couple of years ago I did a job up in Bolton (I was living in London at the time, and did not know where Bolton was when I agreed to the job.  Imagine my surprise when I got off the phone and checked Google Maps).  My Cotswolds-based inlaws went on at some great length about how I wouldn't be able to understand anyone, and I laughed them off as I'd been in the UK for several years at that point, and figured I wasn't some rube off the turnip truck.

To this day, I still don't know what the guy at the hotel said to me when I walked up to the desk to check in - I'm guessing some variation of "Hello, can I help you?," but whatever it was was completely lost on me.  (Strangely, everything he said after that I could understand.)

That night the crew went to the pub, and at least two women asked me if I had a light (I must look like a smoker), but I didn't understand either of them.  The conversations went like this:

Girl: Hrubla poopity hoppy dript?
Me: Huh?
Girl: [slower, louder] Hrubla poopity hoppy dript?
Me: [Points at coworker] You should talk to him; he's from Sheffield.
Coworker: She wants a light!
Me: Oh! [to girl] Sorry, I don't smoke.

I literally made her spell the word "Girl" because I thought she was saying "Ghetto". 

Haha! I sit across from a Glaswegian at work. I rarely have trouble understanding her, but I have also thought I heard "ghetto" when she says "girl". Glad to know it's not just me!

To this day, I still don't know what the guy at the hotel said to me when I walked up to the desk to check in - I'm guessing some variation of "Hello, can I help you?," but whatever it was was completely lost on me.  (Strangely, everything he said after that I could understand.)

That night the crew went to the pub, and at least two women asked me if I had a light (I must look like a smoker), but I didn't understand either of them.  The conversations went like this:

Girl: Hrubla poopity hoppy dript?
Me: Huh?
Girl: [slower, louder] Hrubla poopity hoppy dript?
Me: [Points at coworker] You should talk to him; he's from Sheffield.
Coworker: She wants a light!
Me: Oh! [to girl] Sorry, I don't smoke.

Love it! That reminds me of a flatmate from Nottingham. He kept saying something like "ey hu uup mi da"

I made him repeat it enough times for me to guess that it's "hey, you up mi duck?" which I translated as "hello, how are you, duck?"  I don't think I'll ever know for certain

I remember saying to friends back in the US on a skype call, "do you have any idea how many times a day I get called duck?" 

Love it! That reminds me of a flatmate from Nottingham. He kept saying something like "ey hu uup mi da"

I made him repeat it enough times for me to guess that it's "hey, you up mi duck?" which I translated as "hello, how are you, duck?"  I don't think I'll ever know for certain

It's actually 'Ay-up, me duck' .... with 'ay-up' meaning 'hi' or 'hello', so in this case, it basically just means 'Hello, dear' or 'Hello, mate' .

However, 'ay-up' can have different meanings as well:

'Ay-up!' can also be used as an expression of surprise, as in 'Hang on a minute!', 'What's going on?' or even 'Bloody hell!'.

And it can even be used as a warning to watch out for something, like: "Ay-up, mind that step!"

I remember saying to friends back in the US on a skype call, "do you have any idea how many times a day I get called duck?" 

Not sure I'll ever get used to people calling me "chicken" as a term of affection. :-)

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