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PaperclipPerfector  2d ago (text post)   1586 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?

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What's the worst-sounding foreign accent in English? Right now I think it's Mandarin, but I am open to suggestions.

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.

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.

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