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PaperclipPerfector  1mo ago (text post)   2275 thread views

Small-Scale Question Sunday for May 31, 2026

Do you have a dumb question that you're kind of embarrassed to ask in the main thread? Is there something you're just not sure about?

This is your opportunity to ask questions. No question too simple or too silly.

Culture war topics are accepted, and proposals for a better intro post are appreciated.

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I don't mind listening to Indian women speak English with heavy accents, but I must admit I can't say the same of Indian men. (Apologies to @self_made_human.)

That being said, if I may be permitted to stretch the definition of "foreign" a bit, Multicultural London English (that mish-mash of Pakistani, Afro-Carribean, Arabic and Indian accents and slang spoken by urban youths throughout the Yookay) is verbal sewage. "Wha' you lookin' at bruv? I wiw fucking kiw you bruv! Watch yourself, innit." Give me a thousand "don'd dell me whad do do"s over that. Unlike the former case, there's no gendered element to it: I honestly don't think I could bring myself to have sex with an otherwise attractive woman who spoke with this accent.

My read was that MLE was largely restricted to north-east London. In my bit of south-east London accents assimilate to Estuary, or occasionally to RP among upwardly-mobile privately-educated 2nd and 3rd generation immigrants. Old-school "sarf-east London" is going the same way as Cockney for the same reasons.

Are there any studies from linguists what makes the Indian accent so hard on the ears? Btw - I expect this to change in generation or two - everyone is immersed in english media now from birth, so more kids learn english simultaneously with their maternal one.

Honestly, I do think that's basically cultural prejudice. Coupled with perhaps an unusual amount of time spent with other ESL speakers.

I've known Russian professors etc. who were basically incomprehensible, the Indians have no monopoly on that. Rather that than chavvy London accents.

100% I've never had to translate a Russian accent over a shit quality phone line, while most of my formative experiences with Indian accents were telemarketers and frustrating interactions with IT/customer service. Whenever I had incomprehensible professors in college I'd just skip the lectures, and I grew up in Southern California so Hispanic accents always just sounded normal to me. Indian is the only foreign accent I consistently interact with under almost exclusively unpleasant circumstances I have no means of avoiding. We'd probably all hate Italian accents if Italy was where all the call centers were located.

100% I've never had to translate a Russian accent over a shit quality phone line,

It's not much more comprehensible in a lecture theatre.

Are we talking about Russians who live in Russia or ones who've spent some time living in the west?

I know a fair few Russians and can't say I've ever had any problems at all understanding their accent. Occasionally challenges with their English knowledge but nothing related to pronunciation.

Yeah, but I could always skip the lectures and get by spending that time in the library and relying on the TA. And since I wasn't STEM, most of my professors were home grown American communists who unfortunately were quite articulate.

I find listening to Slavs or people from post-Soviet countries speaking English quite endearing. "Why you have to be mad? Is only game!"

The flat cyrilic intonations make russian speakers incredibly easy to listen to compared to tonally variant nordic sinic and indic languages. Slavic ASMR is practically digital melatonin for my sleep cycle, but maybe the lack of comprehension helps.

It is not about comprehension. Heavy Indian accent speakers are way easier to understand than some other.

Heavy Indian accent speakers are way easier to understand than some other.

That... really hasn't been my experience. At a previous job much of the IT was outsourced to India and we always dreaded having to speak with them because it was complete crapshoot whether we could understand anything they said. We had no such problems with the ones who'd moved to Europe nor with any of the native Europeans.

French speakers from gulf of africa are on the top of my list.

I knew a very nice Japanese girl with impeccable middle-class credentials. She spoke Japanese with a pleasant Tokyo accent (which the Japanese equivalent to RP these days) and she spoke English impeccably... except that she'd been to university in Plymouth and had picked up an incredibly gutter accent and speech patterns that she seemed to be completely unaware of. It was incredibly disorienting.

I don't have an Indian accent. Quite the opposite. I get asked, almost every day, where I'm from. By people talking to me in person too, mind you.

So far, people have told me I sound American, Canadian, Dutch, German and god knows what else. The standard consensus seems to be from exactly wherever they're not, so Americans wonder if I'm Canadian/European, and Europeans wonder if I'm from the other side of the pond.

In fact, this happens so frequently I have a whole canned speech ready. Surprisingly LLMs can usually still tell I'm probably Indian from pure audio logs, last time I tried was with Gemini 2.5 Pro. I sound very slightly Scottish when very inebriated, but I avoid picking up another accent since at that point nobody would understand me.

Funny and very recent story: I had a date with my Emotional Support Lesbian yesterday. I took her to the shady gay pub that's my usual haunt. The other Lesbian at the counter (much worse at the emotional support bit) could understand precisely what I was saying, and couldn't understand the white woman with the upperclass British accent. Well, she admits that she sounds like a "posh Tory cunt", and that is all the proof I need.

For what it's worth, I hate Indian accents too, they grate on my ears, and I mostly grew up there. I do agree Roadmen sound atrocious, and I'd walk into traffic if I see them on the streets.

Holland and New Zealand tends to give the most ‘neutral but not local’ English accent, so I'm surprised those arent the top two guesses by a million.

I find Philippino accents incredibly grating, far worse than Indian, for what it’s worth- although to flatter our Indian readers, I will say Pakistani accents tend to be worse than standard Indian.

I don't think there enough Kiwies around for people to pattern match to that one.

what is this new zealand you speak of. The maps dont show any such country.

The map is not the territory, and I believe there's some acknowledging being done about it.

I don't have an Indian accent.

"It pays ten thousand!"

I'd do it for $9,999, just Indian like that.

The next indian guy in line will do it for 9998 and then the first guy will counteroffer and next thing you know the ad agency finds a guy on fiver to just do the read

I get asked, almost every day, where I'm from. By people talking to me in person too, mind you.

So far, people have told me I sound American, Canadian, Dutch, German and god knows what else. The standard consensus seems to be from exactly wherever they're not, so Americans wonder if I'm Canadian/European, and Europeans wonder if I'm from the other side of the pond.

... are you me? In my case, it's the result of years of speech therapy when I was young.

No, I don't think I'm you. Too handsome for that, and given the username, possibly less German or Dutch?

I didn't get any speech therapy. I give the speeches and the therapy. I just learned to speak English while in the States and it stuck and morphed into something so neutral it's remarkable.

Huh, that's interesting.

Apologies to @ self_made_human.

He has mentioned that he actually does not have an Indian accent.

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