I'm always surpised when I read Sensi's posts because she "sounds" like anyone down the street from me here in California. In person, however, I have a hard time understanding some Scots. I was doing business with this guy in Scotland once and I could barely understand a thing he said. The first time I talked with him on the phone he said a couple of sentences and I was like "Um, excuse me, I know your speaking English but I didn't understand a thing you just said" He just laughed and said it slower, without any slang, and gradually I caught on.

What's really weird about accents in that people will have the same accent no matter what language they are speaking. What I mean is, when someone from England is speaking English they will have a distinct accent. But if they are speaking Chinese they will still have an immediately noticable English accent. Weird.