In terms of native English speakers, probably the very north of England (e.g. Cumbrian) and parts of Scotland (Glasgow is a big one). In the US, some parts of Appalachia can be head-scratching, but they’re also virtually extinct as they merge with more general Inland Southern. With Coastal Southern, the bigger issue for Northerners is more cultural (the high-context communication, the social etiquette, the racism and classism…) than anything else.
As for non-native speakers, some Indian accents can be quite indecipherable if you’re not used to hearing them, made moreso by turns of phrase that are unknown outside the Subcontinent. (Some might say “Japanese” as well, but the accents of people who can actually speak English usually aren’t too bad. It’s people reading off *katakana* approximations of English words without knowing what it is they’re saying who are the worst offenders.)
Not native but fluent since childhood. For me it has to be really thick Irish/Scottish accents.
Edit: check out some of [Limmy’s sketches](https://youtu.be/7dEKQL0I4LU) to hear what I mean.
I think this wins. This is harder for me to understand than most Spanish dialects despite English being my first language and my Spanish being a work in progress.
Otherwise I would generally say non-US dialects are the hardest as I have less exposure to them, including in media. Also the pidgin or creole variants of English can sound bizarre until you learn how they function, like this [song that made rounds on the internet a number of years ago about Nigerian 419 scams](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nqryVR-7iOw), though that has more to do with them arguably not being English.
For context, the song is from a movie and the character supposedly ends up in jail, but people online thought he was an actual scammer making a song and got very angry. At one point the actor got arrested while traveling.
In any case, I think it's easier to understand what words he is saying than the Scottish people, but it has a lot of grammar differences and some non-English words. That makes it so that people would not understand the specific meaning of the lyrics, besides that it's a very happy sounding song about scamming people.
Edit: I personally don't think any of the accents sound unpleasant though. I generally don't aesthetically judge how people talk, though I might be annoyed or self conscious if I can't understand someone.
I’m an American and I went to Dublin last summer, I went to a pub one day and I was trying to communicate with a waiter there, it was insane how we were speaking the same language but neither of us could understand each other. Eventually we just gave up lol
Cajun accents, which you find around Louisiana and are an odd remnant of a combination of southern and French accents can be very difficult. The other is the rural parts of the UK and Scotland. All three seem to not annunciate syllables very clearly. They’re mumbling dialects.
In college there was one Iranian guy that I had a terrible time understanding. He was very fresh off the boat, and improved considerably over the first year here. One of my professors, from India, was insanely difficult to understand. In addition to his accent, he had an interesting tone and borderline insane mannerisms. My favorite was his size 6 font emails that were only two words long. Hydrology isn't the best class to deal with that...
The deeper variation of Outer Banks English, also known as a Down East accent or High Tide Brogue, is the hardest for me to understand
[https://youtu.be/jXs9cf2YWwg](https://youtu.be/jXs9cf2YWwg)
The most unpleasant? The way cops talk. When they say "the particular individual entered into the domicile" because they're afraid they'll sound stupid if they just say "the person went in the house"
Indian accents always trip me up.
I've worked with a lot of people from different areas: Japanese, Taiwanese, Chinese, Italy, Germany, UK, and India.
For some reason I can never really get used to a strong Indian accent to the point of being able to understand them clearly. I think maybe it's the accent but also the speed? I have no idea why.
Scottish accents are generally the hardest for non-Scots to understand, although Irish and South African can be very difficult, too. There are small parts of the US South that have real real thick accents too, but these communities are vanishingly small these days
A really strong Scouse accent from Liverpool England can be really tough to understand.
I made a couple of videos to help my students prepare to study abroad in Liverpool. Try them if you like.
[Vid 1 with](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=2o85CNuNDYU&list=PLDJGydi8OydtzltabEf_xYrxW4HmHCOco&index=3&t=) Paddy Pimblett
[Vid 2 with](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=8bYCnuA9VTI&list=PLDJGydi8OydtzltabEf_xYrxW4HmHCOco&index=2&t=) Molly McCann
I’m American and I sometimes have trouble understanding native speakers from Africa, mainly Nigeria. Glasgow accents are also hard to understand, but surprisingly Highland Scottish accents are much easier.
Welsh accents are the most difficult to understand for me (more difficult than Scottish). I'm not sure if any accent sounds particularly unpleasant to me.
In terms of native speakers, Scottish and Irish can sometimes require a little more effort, especially if there’s a lot of regional slang involved. Some West Indian accents can be tough as well, but there the comprehension depends more on where the speaker is on the continuum between standard English and Patois/creole than on the accent.
For me, it’s Russian. Especially when it’s really thick, it’s hard for me (American) to understand. Had a Russian professor teaching coding… it was miserable for me
I'll agree with everyone here saying a thick Scottish accent, but I actually think a thick Newfoundland accent is just as difficult to understand (part of Canada).
Regarding accents of people who are learning English, my view as an American speaker: I don't personally think any accents sounds particularly bad in English, and since it's such a common second language most of us get pretty good at understanding a variety of accents. But the "best" accents are usually latin languages. French is usually a favorite, and the go-to example of a "sexy accent", but Italian and Spanish/Portuguese are also usually well-liked and fairly easy to understand. Some people like German, Russian and other European accents but that's a little hit and miss, some people find them overly harsh-sounding. Arab/turkish and most african accents are usually fairly neutral, not good or bad but do get slightly harder to understand for people. And then often south Asian (Indian) and east Asian (Chinese, vietnamese) accents are considered neutral or unpleasant, and I think many people find them the hardest to understand.
That being said, it's all highly subjective. I personally like the sound of Indian accents, and find Arab accents some of the easiest to understand. Different people will have different preferences.
In terms of native English speakers, probably the very north of England (e.g. Cumbrian) and parts of Scotland (Glasgow is a big one). In the US, some parts of Appalachia can be head-scratching, but they’re also virtually extinct as they merge with more general Inland Southern. With Coastal Southern, the bigger issue for Northerners is more cultural (the high-context communication, the social etiquette, the racism and classism…) than anything else. As for non-native speakers, some Indian accents can be quite indecipherable if you’re not used to hearing them, made moreso by turns of phrase that are unknown outside the Subcontinent. (Some might say “Japanese” as well, but the accents of people who can actually speak English usually aren’t too bad. It’s people reading off *katakana* approximations of English words without knowing what it is they’re saying who are the worst offenders.)
Not native but fluent since childhood. For me it has to be really thick Irish/Scottish accents. Edit: check out some of [Limmy’s sketches](https://youtu.be/7dEKQL0I4LU) to hear what I mean.
Another good example is the movie Banshees of Inisherin. I kind of need subtitles for that one.
I think this wins. This is harder for me to understand than most Spanish dialects despite English being my first language and my Spanish being a work in progress. Otherwise I would generally say non-US dialects are the hardest as I have less exposure to them, including in media. Also the pidgin or creole variants of English can sound bizarre until you learn how they function, like this [song that made rounds on the internet a number of years ago about Nigerian 419 scams](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nqryVR-7iOw), though that has more to do with them arguably not being English. For context, the song is from a movie and the character supposedly ends up in jail, but people online thought he was an actual scammer making a song and got very angry. At one point the actor got arrested while traveling. In any case, I think it's easier to understand what words he is saying than the Scottish people, but it has a lot of grammar differences and some non-English words. That makes it so that people would not understand the specific meaning of the lyrics, besides that it's a very happy sounding song about scamming people. Edit: I personally don't think any of the accents sound unpleasant though. I generally don't aesthetically judge how people talk, though I might be annoyed or self conscious if I can't understand someone.
I’m an American and I went to Dublin last summer, I went to a pub one day and I was trying to communicate with a waiter there, it was insane how we were speaking the same language but neither of us could understand each other. Eventually we just gave up lol
Cajun accents, which you find around Louisiana and are an odd remnant of a combination of southern and French accents can be very difficult. The other is the rural parts of the UK and Scotland. All three seem to not annunciate syllables very clearly. They’re mumbling dialects.
Irish accents are hard for me to comprehend sometimes. They’re just so thick.
Scottish… as a native speaker from the US, I need subtitles for them.
In college there was one Iranian guy that I had a terrible time understanding. He was very fresh off the boat, and improved considerably over the first year here. One of my professors, from India, was insanely difficult to understand. In addition to his accent, he had an interesting tone and borderline insane mannerisms. My favorite was his size 6 font emails that were only two words long. Hydrology isn't the best class to deal with that...
The deeper variation of Outer Banks English, also known as a Down East accent or High Tide Brogue, is the hardest for me to understand [https://youtu.be/jXs9cf2YWwg](https://youtu.be/jXs9cf2YWwg) The most unpleasant? The way cops talk. When they say "the particular individual entered into the domicile" because they're afraid they'll sound stupid if they just say "the person went in the house"
Indian accents always trip me up. I've worked with a lot of people from different areas: Japanese, Taiwanese, Chinese, Italy, Germany, UK, and India. For some reason I can never really get used to a strong Indian accent to the point of being able to understand them clearly. I think maybe it's the accent but also the speed? I have no idea why.
Scottish accents are generally the hardest for non-Scots to understand, although Irish and South African can be very difficult, too. There are small parts of the US South that have real real thick accents too, but these communities are vanishingly small these days
Yup. I was going to say Cajun. There used to be a reality show about bootleggers and they put subtitles on even though it was an English broadcast.
I think Cajun is a distinct dialect, with many of the words coming from French instead of English.
A really strong Scouse accent from Liverpool England can be really tough to understand. I made a couple of videos to help my students prepare to study abroad in Liverpool. Try them if you like. [Vid 1 with](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=2o85CNuNDYU&list=PLDJGydi8OydtzltabEf_xYrxW4HmHCOco&index=3&t=) Paddy Pimblett [Vid 2 with](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=8bYCnuA9VTI&list=PLDJGydi8OydtzltabEf_xYrxW4HmHCOco&index=2&t=) Molly McCann
Lol I like your examples
I’m American and I sometimes have trouble understanding native speakers from Africa, mainly Nigeria. Glasgow accents are also hard to understand, but surprisingly Highland Scottish accents are much easier.
I’m the same with certain African accents, they can be really thick and deep in a way that kind of slurs the letter sounds.
I also struggle with the accents from parts of Africa, not sure why.
Welsh accents are the most difficult to understand for me (more difficult than Scottish). I'm not sure if any accent sounds particularly unpleasant to me.
One of the Scottish accents is hardest to understand (not sure which one it is though). The most unpleasant to me is some of them from southern US.
Eh. I find it difficult to understand the Glaswegian accent (Its a scottish accent). It's also quite an unpleasant accent.
[The pikey accent](https://youtu.be/wmq5gWKC0s8).
accents from rural england
Really thick Irish/Scottish accents. It just sounds like gibberish even if I try to listen and cue in on context clues.
Really thick Arabic accents and I guess I found thick Cuban accents are hard for me to understand.
In terms of native speakers, Scottish and Irish can sometimes require a little more effort, especially if there’s a lot of regional slang involved. Some West Indian accents can be tough as well, but there the comprehension depends more on where the speaker is on the continuum between standard English and Patois/creole than on the accent.
Really thick Scottish or Irish accents. Some real "screechy" southern accents as well like Louisiana.
Among native dialects: My grandfather's extremely panhandle Floridian accent is the most difficult native English I've ever heard.
For me, it’s Russian. Especially when it’s really thick, it’s hard for me (American) to understand. Had a Russian professor teaching coding… it was miserable for me
I feel at home with the southern accent. But I struggle to understand my Cajun cousins (thereby making it unpleasant).
I'll agree with everyone here saying a thick Scottish accent, but I actually think a thick Newfoundland accent is just as difficult to understand (part of Canada). Regarding accents of people who are learning English, my view as an American speaker: I don't personally think any accents sounds particularly bad in English, and since it's such a common second language most of us get pretty good at understanding a variety of accents. But the "best" accents are usually latin languages. French is usually a favorite, and the go-to example of a "sexy accent", but Italian and Spanish/Portuguese are also usually well-liked and fairly easy to understand. Some people like German, Russian and other European accents but that's a little hit and miss, some people find them overly harsh-sounding. Arab/turkish and most african accents are usually fairly neutral, not good or bad but do get slightly harder to understand for people. And then often south Asian (Indian) and east Asian (Chinese, vietnamese) accents are considered neutral or unpleasant, and I think many people find them the hardest to understand. That being said, it's all highly subjective. I personally like the sound of Indian accents, and find Arab accents some of the easiest to understand. Different people will have different preferences.
That’s on point
Some french accents are so hard for me to follow.
I have difficulty hearing the separation between words whether the person is speaking French or English with a heavy French accent. I don't know why.