well every pub has a tv...

**madmacs** · 13th February 11, 12:40 PM

Which i could understand if translating to a different language... but for just an accent it's a bit much...

**Coinneach** · 13th February 11, 01:54 PM

I have a good friend who is German and whose English is flawless. She was thrilled when DVDs came out so she could turn on the subtitles when she needed them.

**Tobus** · 22nd February 11, 09:29 AM

Originally Posted by madmacs

Which i could understand if translating to a different language... but for just an accent it's a bit much...

Sometimes an accent is so different from what a person is used to hearing that it might as well be a different language, which is to say that the person can't understand a word.

I, for one, appreciate subtitles. For some reason I have a hard time understanding people on telephones, radio, and television, even when they're speaking in the same dialect and accent as I do. Factor in the noisy background of a pub (or any other noisy place where the audience isn't focused solely on the television) and subtitles can be quite a blessing.

**English Bloke** · 22nd February 11, 09:37 AM

A've nae-bother wi' Rab C but tha' Taggarrt gadgie, thass murrrderrr!

**English Bloke** · 22nd February 11, 09:43 AM

Don't forget Taysiders in Space.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bLxLmFhROqY

and the missin' waean.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iR23_8cuPG8

There's loads more "Chewin the Fat" and "Karen Dunbar" on you-tube but I doubt I could post much of it here.

**EagleJCS** · 22nd February 11, 10:53 AM

Originally Posted by Tobus

Sometimes an accent is so different from what a person is used to hearing that it might as well be a different language, which is to say that the person can't understand a word.

I can attest to this. Back in 2007, I was attending the World Scout Jamboree in Chelmsford, England. We were camped next to a Scout unit from the area around Waterford, Ireland. A couple of the boys had a VERY thick brogue, so much so that their fellow Scouts had to interpret from time to time. I'm not sure if they were deliberately speaking in a 'thicker' accent than some of the others (a couple of the boys were from time to time - trying to be funny, I guess), but some of our more 'sheltered' Kentucky Scouts - those that lived in more rural areas of the state - couldn't make heads or tails of even the more intelligible Irish Scouts. (And some of the Irish Scouts had a hard time understanding some of the Kentucky, particularly the 'Pahkvuhl' - Pikeville - accents

. )

I can understand most accents fairly well, as long as the speaker is trying to be understood. In those instances they're speaking a little more slowly and deliberately than when they're just making a quick observation/quip.