Can most British people understand a Scottish accent?

This is hilarious. I understood it with no issue.

The MP who can't understand the Scottish accent is actually from New Zealand. The Scottish MP is hard to understand and is also speaking fast. It's not that easy to grasp his actual question.

[quote] The Scottish MP is hard to understand and is also speaking fast.

He's cute, too.

Who is he?

I'm American and I also understood him the first time.

I'm from New York and I understood him the first time around. But I listened attentively, anticipating some type of possible difficulty in understanding him, based on the title of this thread. I could see why others might not understand him if they weren't expecting to hear such an accent.

SNP MP David Linden

Omg R6, he's adorkable!!

Is he straight?

Aye.

There are some accents, if very strong, which other people from the UK can struggle with. Geordie being one of them. I think people struggle when there is a lot of dialect as well as the accent to contend with. However, this man’s accent is not particularly strong or hard to understand. He was speaking quickly but that is all.

SNP are horrible.

Hearing the laughter in the background, made this even funnier.

Which means that this must be a pretty common occurrence, with Scottish people.

David Linden has a clean West of Scotland/Clyde accent. The Tory, Paul Beresford, is a bit of a cunt. Led the Wandsworth borough council during some of its Thatcherite years…. Nasty.

I went to visit a friend in Scotland (Edinburgh specifically) around a decade ago and could not understand a word of what some of the people there were saying. My native language is Spanish but I speak English with native proficiency as well (no one has ever been able to tell it’s my second language) so I wasn’t anticipating that difficulty.

[quote] Can most British people understand a Scottish accent?

Nae.

I (American English speaker) had no trouble understanding him at all. He was clearly asking for a recipe for New Zealand bacon-and-egg pie.

I got the gist of it, but there were a few words I couldn't get.

I bet if all the people claiming they could easily understand what Linden was saying wrote it down they would all write something different.

Now, this guy's accent is more challenging to understand.

(WARNING: This video shows the wretched conditions he lives in, along with effects of his deteriorated health.)

He speaks very fast and has a very heavy accent. I understood only 1/3 of what he was saying.

Funny, the reaction, but as others have said, I understood him perfectly.

Can most English or English speakers understand him? It depends.

If you travel a lot; if maybe you watch films and TV from other countries but in your same language; if you have friends and acquaintances or business colleagues who speak English as a second language or with with a markedly different accent you become attuned to listening and understanding. Maybe it takes a split-second for your brain to tune in and listen, but some people who don't have that experience will take a second or two to shut down and stop listening, stop trying to make any sense if what they hear.

Everytime I watch the video, it gets funnier and funnier.

Could the problem be their difference in age, as well?

And the first time the older guy stood up to say something, I couldn't quite make out what he was saying either.

Partly because he was using words that I didn't quite hear or understand.

Did anyone pick up on what he said?

I find it remarkable that the guy, after being told to repeat the question, didn't make any effort to speak clearer or slower.

He's speaking too fast for the old guy. I get it though, I'm from Chicago and we do that too.

R21: The older man asked, "I'm sorry, it must be something to do with my antipodean background, but could you please repeat the question because I couldn't follow it."

He tried to be a little clearer by adding more words in, but he didn't slow down much, that's for sure. I'm American and caught pretty much all of it without problem.

Thank you, R24!

Antipodean. That's the word I didn't get.

I'll have to look that one up.

Dear lord, R24.

Who would ever use that word?? I have never, ever in my life heard of it, nor would I find a use for it.

Especially when he could just as easily have said "given my New Zealand upbringing."

However, I can see why he would make a conscious effort to use the word 'antipodean," as it conveys just how diametrically opposed they are to each other, in terms of not only geographical upbringing, but also political views, as well as age.

So I guess the old codger really did use the precisely right word to convey his thoughts.

Well done.

Fascinating how new languages get created. The Scottish accent hardly seems English anymore. I understood him, but with some difficulty. A heavy Aussie accent perplexes me sometimes. In America, I think the deep southern accent and the Mainer accent are on there way to becoming new languages. Maybe Black English, too? I guess we used to call that 'Ebonics'.

R27, "the Antipodes" is an old-fashioned and somewhat humorous word for Australia and New Zealand because their location is very roughly antipodal to Europe and the North Atlantic.

(For example, the antipode of New York is a point in the Indian Ocean several hundred miles southwest of Perth, Australia.)

I don't think politics entered into his usage at all. I think he was just trying to be clever and self-deprecating, which is hardly unusual in Parliament.

"Wah wairk hus bin dun mek wurk ma axsuble tuh cawligs wi' dussabulty?" Now say this as fast as possible.

This is how Glaswegians sound if they don't leave the city (Linden left school at 16).

(The 1998 Ken Loach film "My Name is Joe" had to have English subtitles to make Peter Mullan's accent comprehensible).

The Scottish accent is definitely... tricky.

Wow, R30.

I just googled that movie, and I can't understand even one sentence. Just a word here and there.

I understood everything he said, but sudsed out some worlds from context and was paying rapt attention because I knew it would be difficult.

He speeds way too quickly, given that the accent is obviously an issue. That would annoy me pretty quickly. He should work on than. He’s very appealing, though.

^ sussed out

R33, what's your native language?

I'm guessing it's not English.

I'm not criticizing you.

Just curious.

I could make out more than about three words.

This voice activated elevator skit kills me every time.

I love the Scottish accent.

Scott Vernel (Bala Tik) from Star Wars: The Force Awakens, is 100 times sexier because of his accent.

It doesn't help that the acoustics are really bad and that there is a lot of reverberation in the room.

I love the Scottish accent.

It's so unique.

I knew he would be from Glasgow. I spent many months in Edinburgh and I never had an issue understanding local accents but I struggled with accents from Glasgow. I could understand the guy in the video but it required active listening.

Fockin

The antipode of Sydney is in the middle of the Atlantic ocean.

[quote] The antipode of Sydney is in the middle of the Atlantic ocean.

The MP is from New Zealand, as R2 pointed out.

I’m not a native English speaker but lived in London for 10 years in my 30’s and therefore am used to various local accents from all over the UK. I could understand the Scottish MP pretty easily, although I recognise he spoke very fast and see why it would be a challenge to get it. The Tory MP was a cunt to not make the effort to try to understand him. Tory MPs are cunts no matter what though.

R45, the Scottish MP wasn't helping, though. He added more words, but he didn't slow down his speech, which was the main problem causing the difficulty in understanding. It's as though he thought the Tory MP didn't understand the substance of his comment, when really it was his accent and rapid speech that was the barrier to understanding.

[quote]Omg [R6], he's adorkable!! Is he straight?

Was married with 2 kids and left his wife for a bisexual Christian Labour MP.

Linden is a typical nationalist and talks populist bullshit.

I understood him, but he does speak quite quickly and also mumbles a bit. So I'd say his accent is only half the reason the older guy didn't understand him.

Also he didn't even attempt to speak more clearly or rephrase his question the second time, which made me wonder if he did it at least partly deliberately.

Scots can be ‘bilingual’ - even those with the broadest accents. . When it’s apparent we’re not being understood most of us can slow down and enunciate clearly enough. This MP was possibly a tad charged up on adrenaline and excited at both being on live TV and being on the floor of the House of Parliament, asking a question. Most MPs submit questions in writing and many don’t bother to attend unless they have to. They are not all confident public speakers.

Award winning actor/director Peter Mullan, r30 r32, was educated at Glasgow University and can deliver speeches like a classically trained Shakespearean pro.

R50 I loved him in Mum. One of the few roles where he doesn't play a villain. And I could understand every word he said.