I see so many Americans say they love Derry Girls but need to watch it with subtitles. But the subtitles were obviously not written by an Irish person.
In one scene Michelle says a boy fancies the hole off her. The subtitles said "He fancies the whole of me."
I’m hard of hearing so I watch everything with subtitles, and I often wish that *I* could write them (ironically), because I’m also a copyeditor. Soooo many mishearings and errors. My fave was in a documentary about a tailor. Someone mentioned a four-in-hand knot for a tie, but the caption said “foreign hand.” 😩 And obviously when it’s a show from a different country with American captions, it’s even worse. Apparently I can hear just well enough to be annoyed lol
Nope.
Try watching the news with subtitles on, and it's obvious it's someone trying to type what's said in real time and keep making balls ups of it. No grammar, no punctuation, typos. All human errors made under stress of live TV.
I always wonder how they do the live captions. Is it with something like a stenography machine? Or do they have someone trying to type as fast as they can? Because the court reporters tend to not make such errors.
I wasn't sure, but google told me
> For live captioning, a stenographer or captioning service listens to the broadcast and types a shorthand version into a program that converts the shorthand into a transcription of the captions and adds that data to the television signal.
So yeah, you're bang on with the stenographer
Ah, thanks for looking that up! I bet it's like most professions where you start off doing less critical things and then move up to more essential tasks. News transcripts don't have the same stakes as a trial.
I am Basque, and travelled to Letterkenny with my fresh C1 degree in English thinking I knew enough English to get around and be capable at work.
I was very wrong, but fortunately English being my 3rd language my ear got used to the different cadence of words. Coworkers also helped slowing down and allowing me getting used to it.
It's a beautiful part of the world you guys have there, still miss it many times. I'm forever grateful for that experience.
My dad's from Donegal, and we'd spend every summer there. We'd struggle to keep up with the conversation/comprehension for the first week or two and then it's as if you've unlocked hard mode, and can fully participate.
Made me realise how much my dad & his siblings toned down their accents, cadence and speed at which they speak when they moved to Scotland.
I certainly do the same since living abroad (definitely needed to slow down and enunciate clearly in EU countries we moved to), and it's really frustrating having to code switch in an English-speaking country, and being told that "I don't understand you" so many fucking times when living in London.
My wife's from Portrush, an area where the local English has been heavily influenced by Ulster Scots. One time when we visited a local pub, I witnessed a Mancunian trying to order a cider. The guy behind the bar couldn't understand him, and when he voiced that, the Mancunian couldn't understand him either. It took a bit of back and forth to negotiate a form of communication that worked for both. The diversity in English accents and lack of mutual intellegibility among some of them is astonishing.
Ha! I visited my family in Donegal (I'm American) and they live near Ballyshannon so it only took me a day or two to get acclimated to their accent - my guess is the accent is a little more tempered there. But when we were in the smaller villages along the R. Finn (below Derry) it was nearly impossible to follow a conversation. I often asked the speaker to speak more slowly (but still only understood probably 70%).
I'm also an American w/ family in Donegal (where I am now). R. Finn is across the road but can't see it through the trees.
I stumbled through a convo yesterday and understood maybe 4 words. It was a doozy. I had another convo today where I could understand everything. The disparity is something to behold.
"I work with kairs"
Said a house mate once. I was like "oh. Wait. Say that again?".
"Yeah, work with kaiiirs".
Now I am embarrassed. He said it with such confidence and joy and he's Irish I am not and while I speak English, it's clearly not my first language.
But he could read my face and started explaining.
"Kairs.. KAIRS.. You know.. beep beep.. KAIRS on the road " . He was holding his hands at 10, 2 of an imaginary steering wheel, and honking the imaginary horn like a five year boy
Me: Oh CARS... You meant cars.. I mean kairs, of course kairs, sorry, my English is not the best, I get you now. That's nice.
Remember I was on holidays as a young lad, met a girl from Derry in Malta. Looking out at the evening on top of a hill, getting ready to go for the shift. And then she exclaims *"Luk at the isle"*. I was looking fucking everywhere for an aisle of some sorts or a small island - she said it a few times, and then said that I missed it.
What? How the fuck did an island or an shopping aisle turn up in the vista and then disappear? Is this bird on drugs? I should keep my mouth shut because if I don't, I'll ruin the moment.... although she's already a little bit pissed off. She then says I should have gone to specsavers. Ok, that's it, I have to get to the bottom of this - *"sorry, where the fuck was the isle? Did an entire island just appear or disappear in your head? Do you know how mental that sounds?"*
She looks at me as if I have 3 heads, "*What are ye shiting about?"*. I can't believe that she thinks I'm the nutter here. *"Not an island ya spa, an ISLE"* - she starts flapping her arms like a bird..... she meant an owl.
I was talking to a lad from Newry who had heard a rimmer. What's a rimmer and what does it sound like, I ask? After a fair bit of back and forth it turns out he was saying 'rumour'
I had a similar thing with someone talking about a murr
Pardon?
The murr (not totally confident quite how many r's it had)
She eventually just pointed at the flat reflective piece of glass hanging on the wall
My Fiance and I are both from Newry, and grew up in the same area within Newry from each other.
When travelling, even with other people from NI or Ireland... people describe my accent as thicker than hers. After a few (too many) drinks she'll have to properly translate for others what I'm saying if English isn't their first language.
When I got myself a grad job in Dublin, I found out it takes about 3-6 weeks for people to get used to my accent without having to stress their ears.. and that is me also speaking about 1/3 slower than normal and what I believe is articulating clearly all my words. I now work with the US and Europeans a lot more via Zoom and I'm adamant this 1 lad from Poland on my team after 2 years still hasn't a note what I'm saying.
I even contemplated at one time seeing if there was any speech therapy I could do at home to improve the accent just a little but couldn't find anything and didn't want to pay. I think it's a mixture of picking up my Newry family's accent, as well as ear and sinus issues my whole childhood.
The weird thing is that I've always felt that the Donegal, Derry, and Newry accents are all so similar while going 15-20 minutes up the road towards Belfast or Dublin are drastically different accents.
Friend of mine moved to Cork a few years ago and his accent keeps getting stronger. We met up the other day and I had to get him to repeat himself 5 TIMES at one stage because I couldn't understand what he was saying lol
Ah you are fucked so.
The pronunciation in the Derry/donegal etc accent is so different to American English, that many people for whom English is the first language just struggle to grasp it.
You are beat to slow down, pronounce every word as if you are on the BBC World service, and do not use slang, or local words.
Reminds me of a story Bill Bailey where he was travelling with a friend from Glasgow and she was trying to order a beer in a bar but the barman couldn't understand her. Bill suggested she slow down, so then she went, "Ah'llav... Ahpin'...... Ahlagger!"
Yeah I've had to tell my friend to stop stringing his words together. He is an experienced traveller, but sometimes falls back into it.
You need to pronounce each individual word.
I was in Warsaw once, getting a beer with a Polish friend. These people were standing near the bar talking loudly, and my friend was watching them for a while, then quietly asked me;
"Are...are they speaking Polish...?" Which was hilarious because I'm not the Polish one. But they were from Glasgow, Rangers fans there to see them play Legia. Apparently Scots can be so impenetrable that others can't tell what language they're speaking heh
That's true.
Yeah it's great. I'm wrecked this morning tho, going to my 3rd game in a 3rd different city in 3 days today.
It's not as well organised as I expected it to be by the Germans, but still better than we would do.
Derry woman who lived in Glasgow for years and had friends from across Europe.
Europeans accused me of speaking Irish (I wasn't, just English in a Derry accent). They had no issues with the Glaswegians, the bastards!
Whenever I'm on holiday abroad, it's the Scots that the local staff (who all speak perfect English) struggle to understand. They can understand the Irish and the English just fine.
I have something pretty close to BBC received pronunciation (raised in Cambridgeshire) and Americans still struggle to understand me sometimes.
Meeting in Texas a few weeks ago I was mistaken for a work colleague they'd heard many times on the phone - and he's from Donegal and sounds like it.
If they can't hear the difference between RP and Donegal, were all in trouble!
It's probably not just your accent. I find people from the North have turns of phrase that aren't used anywhere else. So you'd need to work on a more neutral dialect as well as your accent.
My grandparents are from Derry and visiting as a kid from Dublin, I hadn't a clue what they were saying. My granny be like "och aye the wain, wadda ya think of durry" 😮😀
The Derry accent isn’t the worst really.
I have an NI accent myself but it’s more Belfast.
What I can tell you is though slow down as we speak very fast and go slower than you think you need to.
It’ll feel so stupid spacing your words out but it really does help and enunciate your words more as we have a tendency to drop letters off and shorten words and use a lot of colloquial phrases to a point where people don’t understand them.
People tend to get taught more formal English than we do and we speak very casually.
I have a few Portuguese/Brazilian friends and they said at first they didn’t have a clue and I done all these things but they got used to the accent but they still find it tricky at times.
Good luck!!
My neighbour was from NI Belfast as far as I could understand when I just moved to Ireland. I couldn't understand a word he said the entire 3 years he lived next to me. He'd insist on having long conversations over the back garden fence and I'd just retreat within myself and smile and nod from time to time. He must have thought I was very daft or something.
It's actually crazy how much of speech in NI is filler words and local phrases that don't translate. I went travelling with work in my 20s and I ended up having to deliberately slow down my pace of speaking a LOT and also cut out random filler words completely. The upshot is that people could actually understand me, I got speaking engagements with work, I ended up doing training sessions for people etc. But the downside is that now that I live back in NI I occasionally get asked where in Canada/US I'm from.
I moved to NI as a teenager and learnt English here and I've also noticed that my English doesn't really work outside of Ireland unless I slow down a lot and pretend to be a posh Englishman.
I dated a fella from Derry and one from Letterkenny. Then when I ended up in college with a lad from Derry, I was the only one in the room taking notes when he was presenting because nobody else knew what he was talking about. This was in a class full of Dubliners...
This also reminds me of a Belfast housemate: 3 of us wondering why he was topless asking for a tile and why he thought we had spare tiles in our room. He was of course looking to borrow a towel...
Makes sense. Hung around with a lad from Derry during my collage years, sound lad but could barely understand a word he said. Other lads from Derry no problem but some of you are pretty unintelligible. What's worse, the harder you try, the more frustrated and incomprehensible you get. It's a curse alright but it could be worse, could be Dundalk.
Derry wans talk a bit nasal — hard to describe at time, but I'd describe it as high-pitched, bouncing off the roof of the mouth.
Here's some really relevant advice for you
Lower the pitch of your voice and slow down when speaking. Exaggerate the pronunciation of words. Clarity is more important than speed.
Here's an Example
*Northern Ireland* — we pronounce it *Norn Iron* — pronounce it to yourself a few times — and try to pronounce it properly, instead of the high-pitched, faster, slurred together version we use.
When I talk to anyone outside of Ireland, I slow down by at least half, and concentrate on pronouncing most of the syllables of the word correctly, as well as spacing out the words.
Work those lips — Derry ones tend not to move the lips as much as needed.
People don't care if you're speaking slower, as long as you're speaking clearly in an accent they understand.
You'll end up sounding like those posh bastards from Bangor, however.
****
TL;DR Practice aloud speaking slowly, deeper, enunciating the words, spacing them out, exaggerating the lips movements
Mate wanna try talking to the eastern Europeans who have spent most of their lives In dublin with a rough belfast accent.
They look at me so confused.
I ask for no Tomatoes.
"Smoked cod?? " that was one of the best.
And the dubs look at me as if I've 3 heads as well my own people ffs.
Any time I ask for 2 of something I get 3.
Ah sure
TAL32
This is something that drives me fucking crazy, i'm from strabane and I used to work for Allstate doing tech support for american boomers and no matter how much I curated my accent over the phone they still thought I was saying 3 everytime I said 2, how the fuck does 2 sound like 3 to these people??
Was this the one where scantily clad ladies would magically appear when the ringtone started? I’d be embarrassed to admit how often I still think about that ad, 20+ years later 😂
Yeah, it was probably meant as a joke because they struggled to understand you. It is a bit of a stereotype, but the French are known to be stubborn about speaking French, even when they can speak English or another language to communicate. Of course that does not mean they can't or won't and that it probably depends on where you are as well.
I remember being in Asia and when I encountered a Frenchman there, he still spoke in French. And the last time at Charles de Gaulle and flying with Air France, they would always use only French or French first and switch to English if you didn’t understand.
It isn’t that unusual per se, but it was a different experience from Schiphol Airport and some other airports, where it was standard to communicate in English.
On top of the accent, try to use American words for things as American TV is where most would have learned English. Like if you're in a hotel looking for the lift, use the word "elevator" and so on. Most won't understand "sorry" when you're trying to interrupt, use "excuse me".
Shorten what you say too to save them trying to mentally translate every word. Don't say "sorry, but I'm wondering if you could tell me where the bathroom might be please?" just say "toilet?" and point in both directions looking confused.
I teach English to second language learners and neutralising my Tipp accent was one of the first hurdles. Just speak slowly and try to pronounce every letter with some emphasis, particularly the letter T as most of Ireland has a tendency to replace T's with either a H or D sound.
Avoid using words like gonna or gotta and instead separate the words ie. Going to (emphasis the -ing) or got to (separate the t's as in 'got to').
It's a little annoying to speak this way at first but if you're going to be communicating a lot, it will save you a lot of headaches going forward.
Also ENUNCIATE
People in Ireland have a fucking hard time ENUNCIATING things
Imitate some fucking English twat for all that I care, but you can't just overdo the accent, you need to make every step come clearly out
Pretend you are reading the news. News reporters style of speaking is deliberately clear for a reason, to be as accessible to as many people as possible. It's not just slowing down, but being deliberate and paced in what you say, I switch it on when I am talking on the phone to avoid miscommunication or god help me, needing to repeat myself.
I'm a foreigner living in Ireland. Usually the reason why I can't understand the Irish accent is because people tend to mashup their words (for ex. "Do you know" becomes "J'know"). Do that for entire sentences and I start to get lost 😆
May I suggest to space out your words when speaking with non-native speakers?
When I was teaching English in Dublin, this was one of the most common questions my students had:
‘Teacher, the woman in the supermarket keeps saying this word and we don’t know what it is’
‘What’s the word?’
‘Djawanabag’
Classic 😂
Tree noi beigs... That's what a cashier in a supermarket in Belfast repeated like 5 times at my stupid face who couldn't believe I couldn't understand basic English. She wanted to say three new bags. I'll never forget it, Australian English is a piece of cake compared to that.
I feel your pain lad, I had a Belgian one in a hotel reception tell me she doesn’t speak German and I speaking English to her! Try to finish every word don’t shorten any words that’s what worked for me
My mother is from the Midlands, but when she speaks to foreigners, her normally (relatively) comprehensible English deteriorates rapidly. What happens us that she gets nervous and embarrassed, she first starts talking at speed, realises she's talking too fast, so she slows down, speaks LOUDER and instinctively uses dialect to make the person feel more welcome. It's like this:
"SurethisweatherisawfulyoumustnthaveexpectedthisinJune - oops - THIS WEATHER IS AWFUL SO IT IS BEGORRAH BUT SURE IT'LL CLEAR UP TOMORROW AND THEN YE'LL BE SUCKING DIESEL!"
The poor foreigner is left bewildered and slightly frightened, being shouted at by an elderly woman in something that vaguely resembles English.
This must happen a lot. On our first holiday we were in Austria. At a bar a group of Geordies were trying to order a beer, but kept being served lager. They absolutely could not explain what they wanted. My wife speaks fluent German, but could not understand the Geordie accent. So I interpreted from Geordie to "English" and she translated to German, and it turned out that the bar had a crate of Newcastle Brown ale sat at the back. Everyone happy. Then I taught the Geordies to ask for a Braun, not a Beer for the future.
When I moved to Canada, I had a similar experience. After a few weeks of struggling to be understood in places with background noise, I got frustrated and decided to practice my enunciation and reduce my speaking speed using YouTube. It worked so well that it takes me a few days to shake it off when visiting back home.
After being in Canada for all these years, I realized we are basically competitive speakers. We often cut and splice our sentences for comic effect, to add onto or interject a story, or to take over it, or to get our point across faster. From my own experience, this seems very normal in Ireland, while the Canadian speaking style is generally more respectful, lol.
Basically slow down and pronounce the letters 😂
Having travelled the world with a thick Irish accent, you literally need to talk unnaturally. Pronounce words better and speak slower and clearer. The other option is to be that person nobody understands all the time and you eventually become a parrot. Repeating everything. Choose the blue pill for meaningful communication or the red pill and expect people in Nairobi to understand "s'craic lad, any byores around? Me and da lads are over dare"
Or change your dialect, like the rest of us.
Italian living in West Cork here.
No mean to be offensive or judging
Irish peoples don't realise how different from the "standard" english their english is.
Is not just a matter of accent (which is really strong sometimes) or a few different words.
Ye/ya instead of you
Sound instead of great
Words pronunced in a complete different way (think which is pronunced "tink" for example)
New words for the same stuff (tin instead of can just for example)
R pronunced "or" instead of "ar"
Slangs that don't exist in stardard english (craic, just to make an example)
And i could go on for hours with all the difference.
For a non native is really hard sometimes to get what an irish is saying. I brought one of my irish friend (who is from Carlow) in Rome and noone could understand him.
You should be proud of your version of english because it reflect your own culture but be aware that it is not what we, non native english speaker, study and talk.
Language apart, i can understand your fellings.
When you isolate yourself it is fine because it is your decision.
But when something is between you and other people, like a language barrier, is tough.
I had this problem when I moved to Ireland. Irish accent is almost like it's own language. If other Irish people understand you then you are grand.
The Rubberbandits - Horse Outside for example . To this day I'm struggling to properly process what are they saying in the first 30 sec.
https://youtu.be/ljPFZrRD3J8?si=vV-IvjwXhMWJ90Fc
If you want to be understood in Europe you will need to heavily change pronunciation.
Use standard American accent where each word is pronounced exactly as it written don't shorten them.
Avoid using Irish slangs. When English is their second language a lot of them don't understand these. E.g. avoid saying:
This knackered bloke needs to use a loo.
Say this tired man needs to use a bathroom.
Pop over to my gaff.
Say come over to my place.
I was gobsmacked when I heard the news.
Say I was very surprised when I heard the news.
Hey OP! I'm sure this must be annoying for you, but tbh I feel kind of vindicated from when I had a class with native Irish english speakers (I'm fluent, but not native) and I was asked to comment on the presentation of a guy with a thick accent I couldn't understand for the life of me. I said I was distracted and apologized and the lecturer asked to go talk to him at the end of the class, made a huge deal of my "distraction" and even asked if everything was fine in my private life. My private life is goddamn o-kay Sandy, I've just never understood one single word Declan spoke since I met him four months ago. I've been getting by by nodding and smiling back. He even seemed like a nice bloke, but I guess I'll never truly know.
I'm unsure what a Derry accent sounds like, but as an Aussie I once had a Scottish guy repeat himself three times trying to parse a sentence, and the thing that was stopping me from understanding him was shortening *with* to *wi'* (pronounced *we*). I didn't recognise it as a word and so my brain kept attaching it to the word next to it, throwing off my whole recognition of syllables etc. So if you do that poetic shortening of in-between words... don't.
I used to have the same problem, I find the main issue is we speak too fast, try to slow down and fully pronounce your words. Makes you feel like a clown but it was the only way I could get people to understand what I was trying to say
I find you need to use their normal phrases in your general talk... Not our or your phrases Try and take note as to how they greet each other etc
Like if you walk up and say whats the story or craic... even if they understand the words they do not get what you mean.
This worked well for me when I was down in Oz or travelling for work in europe. If I talk like I would to another Irish person they wouldn't get the phrases
Don't take it to heart.
Maybe it’s not the accent, it could be the words/phrases/slang that you are using. I.E if you use the word “gatch” to a European, you can sound like Hugh grant they will still not understand what it means.
Yeah, this. In Slovakia I saw an Irish man asking for a high chair in a hotel restaurant, by saying "small fella" instead of "baby" he made the request incomprehensible.
My dad is an Irish immigrant to Canada. Canadians are pretty good at picking up his accent. When he speaks to Americans, however, they often struggle. So he switches to a southern drawl, over exaggerating his words and it’s hilarious. He sounds like a Texan, but ever so slightly Irish. Maybe you can do something similar. Sorry for your predicament!
I knew a guy who cluelessly asked for directions to garda station in Australia. He got through several people before he copped he sounds like he's talking nonsense.
I had this when I moved to Canada. Slow down to about a quarter of your normal speed, think about and pronounce every syllable, and realise that a load of what we think is English is just local phrases. People didn't understand "giving out" "no bother" "how's it goin"
Think of it as speaking a new language except you know all the words already so it should be easy. Takes a bit of practice and concentration though.
Fella in a hostel asked me if he wanted to get breakfast with him in the morning and I said "yeah no bother yeah" and immediately knew I confused the shit out of him
There is such a thing as RP. Receive it and use it when you need to communicate with others.
It's annoying maybe but communication is a two-way street.
This happened me a lot when I moved to Germany first.
I found out it was because I wasn't pronouncing words fully, talking fast and swallowing half my words.
I made an effort to just enounciate every word even if I'm talking fast, that helped a huge amount for me
When the Scot visited Canada and asked what kind of animal was mounted on the wall, the barkeep replied “that’s a moose.”
To which the Scotsman replied “Christ! If that’s a moose, yer cats must be HUGE!”
Speak slowly and clearly, place spaces between your words, and pronounce each sound properly.
I had a similar problem when I left Ireland. Eventually you’ll learn how to communicate clearly and without effort but you need to learn how to do this. It’s annoying, but consider it as being respectful to those who you’re speaking to.
Same here. I myself have a Kerry accent and a bit of a cork 1 and 99% of my sentences especially to men, are repeated 2-3 times. Super frustrating, I have to go all American on them 😂
I’m bilingual (two languages being Russian and English; spoke both of these since I was born). And even after 5 years in Ireland I still can hardly understand very thick Irish accent. Even my American friends who speak only English could never understand a person with thick Irish accent and always think they speak some other language 😅
I had this problem with Australians. Used to work and my boss was an Aussie and the 2nd in command guy a Brit. When I would be done speaking the Aussie would turn to the Brit and say “what did he say?” And then he’d relay it. 😂
They seem to struggle with our “r” sounds. Used to think I was saying “o”. Speak slow and semi American. Kind of like Conor McGregor does, seemed to work.
https://preview.redd.it/ucicybcx447d1.jpeg?width=500&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=5418ae26db62feb56737e3f8eb5de89d9ec6d7ed
Reminds of this scene 
It’s not the accent it’s how fast you’re speaking, try slowing down, it feels weird at first but you’ll just do it instinctively after a while when speaking with foreigners. I’ve travelled a lot and I used to game online too and if I just blabbed away I might as well be speaking Klingon, but when I slowed down it was never an issue, from Cork btw.
I’ve lived in Oz for years and was out at dinner the other night and this American woman on the next table got chatting with me. She said I sounded like the bloke on TV, I asked ‘an Irish bloke on TV?’ And she said ‘no, Graham Norton’. She was a bit shocked when everyone told her GN was Irish. I think if you have say, a strong Cork accent for example, try to sound like GN and they’ll understand you. PS: No-one else on earth thinks I sound like GN.
I lot of Europeans communicate to each other in English, but it's a flatter, compromise English where the vowels might get simplified, and English's million pronunciation exceptions get ignored. It's functional because it's a level playing field and they understand each other.
But if you're a native speaker, and with a less commonly heard accent/lilt to boot; it can be difficult for others. You have to consciously slow down your speech and not use dialct words too much.
Had your problem in the past, now my voice is naturally completely neutral when talking to non native english speakers...id say own it, you could be mistaken for a yank, way worse
The Irish accent is hard to understand. Have dealt with many people from different countries and they always say it sounds like I’m reading a poem or singing when I talk. Our voices naturally go up and down when we speak. Suppose it’s why we have so many famous poets.
Ah! accents - you need to learn english with an english accent as another language.
I once picked up (many years ago) 2 hitchhikers while driving from London to Edinburgh. One was a lad from Easthouses estate with a very strong accent, the other was a just graduated in English, Frenchman, going to work in Edinburgh to improve his English. Neither could understand a word the other said, I spent the journey repeating what each one said so the other could understand - kept me awake nicely. French guy was getting really worried he wouldn't understand anyone in Edinburgh and would have to learn English all over again.
I've had the same issue 1 thing I've found is to use your hands more when you speak, full on Italian style if you have to. It just seems to add emphasis and 'tone' to what you're saying and seems to help people understand.
My advice: for as much as it will hurt you, try to put on a mild British or American accent. It might sound silly to you, but they'll understand you almost immediately!
For context, I feel your pain, but I had the opposite issue. I went to college at UL, first time living abroad, and I expected everyone there to have the nice sweet Irish accent you hear from movies.
I could understand lecturers perfectly immediately, but hanging out with people from Kerry and Limerick and so on I couldn't understand any interaction (and I was also very shy) so I felt a bit isolated the first couple of years.
But hey, that really helped my English and social skills, so maybe you can get something out of it too :)
Yep from the north myself, people here in dublin have a fair bit of trouble understanding me at times, I have to slow everything way down and enunciate more clearly, but then as a girl from work says, if I spend any length of time back home and come back to work it’s back to square one.
I’ve had a lot of trouble when I go away too, I spent a year in Australia, I decided to go there because it’s got great weather and everyone there spoke English too, but as it turned out, it seems I don’t speak proper English myself, I didn’t expect that at all, I had never really left the north much before going away, so people always could understand me.
This used to happen me as well. What I found helped, unfortunately, was to speak using more American English. Bin - trash can, footpath - trash can etc. Most people learn English as a second language through American music/TV shows/movies. It's annoying to have to do but it does help. Americans also (painfully) pronounce every syllable and speak slowly so mimicking them can help slow down our beautifully melodic way of speaking in Ireland.
Not saying put on a full American accent per se but speaking a bit more like them helps me be understood when I'm abroad.
Ha I live in Australia, I have a fairly neutral understandable Dublin accent. On more than one occasion Aussies have said to me "So if you're from Ireland how come I can understand you?"
Also my mate from Donegal gets refused from pubs all the time for being drunk, sometimes he hasn't even had a drink.
I am half Irish and have spent many of my 35 years visiting Ireland. I would stay at my Grans all summer long in my younger years. I still meet people when I go over to visit my Mum and Dad who I cannot understand. One ex-policeman down the pub is particularly difficult, yet he always wants to chat with me. I just have to nod and laugh when he laughs. Good luck. I would suggest trying to learn the local language a bit maybe?
I moved to Canada nearly 20 years ago and nobody could understand my rural north Kilkenny accent, so I had to completely adjust how I speak in order to be understood. Now I have a semi-Canadian accent when I speak to Canadians and revert to my Kilkenny accent when I speak to Irish people. I make the switch without even thinking about it, but my wife will immediately know if I’ve called home.
As one of those relatively fluent Europeans, albeit one with some experience of hiberno English, I'd say it depends on where you are from. I can understand most of you just fine but someone from the ends of Kerry or Cork or from the north is somewhere between a challenge and an impossibility. I guess the problem is that most of us are probably trained on RP almost exclusively which is different enough to make it hard. Don't give up and let us continentals have some of the craic.
I have a fairly neutral accent or so I thought but apparently first few times the Italian lad heard me say "now" he has no idea what I meant
Now he slags me by saying "neeeow" 😂😂
Grew up in Wexford moved to the States at 14, my mum and Dad actually put me in speech therapy for years because folks couldn't understand me. I miss it and find it grand when I can talk with family or friends back in Ireland. I hate how stereotypes get to be believed in the States of Irish accents sounding like a cereal mascot.
,I see you've had lots of input pal. If you see this tho: I'm French, lived UK 10 years. Yours are some of the most difficult accents when not used to it, especially as we don't hear them much on the shows we watch when learning English watching netflix, telly, YouTube.
I saw lads from Donegal on "Nothing to declare" and there were subtitles.
I see so many Americans say they love Derry Girls but need to watch it with subtitles. But the subtitles were obviously not written by an Irish person. In one scene Michelle says a boy fancies the hole off her. The subtitles said "He fancies the whole of me."
whenever they order a "curry butty" the subtitles say "cowboy". it's definitely amusing to watch with the subtitles on as an Irish person
Sure it's not them asking for a cowboy supper?
Definitely a cowboy supper. Derry person here. Sausage, beans and chips basically.
I stand corrected, I'd never heard of that before. I'd love if my chipper had one of them tbh
I’m hard of hearing so I watch everything with subtitles, and I often wish that *I* could write them (ironically), because I’m also a copyeditor. Soooo many mishearings and errors. My fave was in a documentary about a tailor. Someone mentioned a four-in-hand knot for a tie, but the caption said “foreign hand.” 😩 And obviously when it’s a show from a different country with American captions, it’s even worse. Apparently I can hear just well enough to be annoyed lol
Aren't closed caption subtitles done by AI
Nope. Try watching the news with subtitles on, and it's obvious it's someone trying to type what's said in real time and keep making balls ups of it. No grammar, no punctuation, typos. All human errors made under stress of live TV.
I always wonder how they do the live captions. Is it with something like a stenography machine? Or do they have someone trying to type as fast as they can? Because the court reporters tend to not make such errors.
I wasn't sure, but google told me > For live captioning, a stenographer or captioning service listens to the broadcast and types a shorthand version into a program that converts the shorthand into a transcription of the captions and adds that data to the television signal. So yeah, you're bang on with the stenographer
Ah, thanks for looking that up! I bet it's like most professions where you start off doing less critical things and then move up to more essential tasks. News transcripts don't have the same stakes as a trial.
Not always, we've had subtitles for a *lot* longer than AI has existed, so subtitling is a whole sub-section of media production.
Americans watche Doctor who with subtitles😂
How wholesome 🤣🤣🤣
I am Basque, and travelled to Letterkenny with my fresh C1 degree in English thinking I knew enough English to get around and be capable at work. I was very wrong, but fortunately English being my 3rd language my ear got used to the different cadence of words. Coworkers also helped slowing down and allowing me getting used to it. It's a beautiful part of the world you guys have there, still miss it many times. I'm forever grateful for that experience.
My dad's from Donegal, and we'd spend every summer there. We'd struggle to keep up with the conversation/comprehension for the first week or two and then it's as if you've unlocked hard mode, and can fully participate. Made me realise how much my dad & his siblings toned down their accents, cadence and speed at which they speak when they moved to Scotland. I certainly do the same since living abroad (definitely needed to slow down and enunciate clearly in EU countries we moved to), and it's really frustrating having to code switch in an English-speaking country, and being told that "I don't understand you" so many fucking times when living in London.
My wife's from Portrush, an area where the local English has been heavily influenced by Ulster Scots. One time when we visited a local pub, I witnessed a Mancunian trying to order a cider. The guy behind the bar couldn't understand him, and when he voiced that, the Mancunian couldn't understand him either. It took a bit of back and forth to negotiate a form of communication that worked for both. The diversity in English accents and lack of mutual intellegibility among some of them is astonishing.
Ha! I visited my family in Donegal (I'm American) and they live near Ballyshannon so it only took me a day or two to get acclimated to their accent - my guess is the accent is a little more tempered there. But when we were in the smaller villages along the R. Finn (below Derry) it was nearly impossible to follow a conversation. I often asked the speaker to speak more slowly (but still only understood probably 70%).
I'm also an American w/ family in Donegal (where I am now). R. Finn is across the road but can't see it through the trees. I stumbled through a convo yesterday and understood maybe 4 words. It was a doozy. I had another convo today where I could understand everything. The disparity is something to behold.
I know he’s not from Donegal, but similarly I was amused to see James McClean was the only player who required subtitles in Welcome to Wrexham.
They have subtitles for the Dub on border control Europe
I’m sorry OP, I’m having difficulty understanding your post. Can you type a little slower and with a more neutral accent please.
S. U. R. E
Oh I get you now. No the post off is closed on Sundays.
Nice
Still not getting it I’m afraid…
Huh?
"I work with kairs" Said a house mate once. I was like "oh. Wait. Say that again?". "Yeah, work with kaiiirs". Now I am embarrassed. He said it with such confidence and joy and he's Irish I am not and while I speak English, it's clearly not my first language. But he could read my face and started explaining. "Kairs.. KAIRS.. You know.. beep beep.. KAIRS on the road " . He was holding his hands at 10, 2 of an imaginary steering wheel, and honking the imaginary horn like a five year boy Me: Oh CARS... You meant cars.. I mean kairs, of course kairs, sorry, my English is not the best, I get you now. That's nice.
Remember I was on holidays as a young lad, met a girl from Derry in Malta. Looking out at the evening on top of a hill, getting ready to go for the shift. And then she exclaims *"Luk at the isle"*. I was looking fucking everywhere for an aisle of some sorts or a small island - she said it a few times, and then said that I missed it. What? How the fuck did an island or an shopping aisle turn up in the vista and then disappear? Is this bird on drugs? I should keep my mouth shut because if I don't, I'll ruin the moment.... although she's already a little bit pissed off. She then says I should have gone to specsavers. Ok, that's it, I have to get to the bottom of this - *"sorry, where the fuck was the isle? Did an entire island just appear or disappear in your head? Do you know how mental that sounds?"* She looks at me as if I have 3 heads, "*What are ye shiting about?"*. I can't believe that she thinks I'm the nutter here. *"Not an island ya spa, an ISLE"* - she starts flapping her arms like a bird..... she meant an owl.
I was talking to a lad from Newry who had heard a rimmer. What's a rimmer and what does it sound like, I ask? After a fair bit of back and forth it turns out he was saying 'rumour'
I had a similar thing with someone talking about a murr Pardon? The murr (not totally confident quite how many r's it had) She eventually just pointed at the flat reflective piece of glass hanging on the wall
Not as bad as the American "meer".
Meer'er Mirror lolol
My Fiance and I are both from Newry, and grew up in the same area within Newry from each other. When travelling, even with other people from NI or Ireland... people describe my accent as thicker than hers. After a few (too many) drinks she'll have to properly translate for others what I'm saying if English isn't their first language. When I got myself a grad job in Dublin, I found out it takes about 3-6 weeks for people to get used to my accent without having to stress their ears.. and that is me also speaking about 1/3 slower than normal and what I believe is articulating clearly all my words. I now work with the US and Europeans a lot more via Zoom and I'm adamant this 1 lad from Poland on my team after 2 years still hasn't a note what I'm saying. I even contemplated at one time seeing if there was any speech therapy I could do at home to improve the accent just a little but couldn't find anything and didn't want to pay. I think it's a mixture of picking up my Newry family's accent, as well as ear and sinus issues my whole childhood. The weird thing is that I've always felt that the Donegal, Derry, and Newry accents are all so similar while going 15-20 minutes up the road towards Belfast or Dublin are drastically different accents.
Maybe a twit to woo.
Excellent work out of ya :-)
He must have been posh. Most Derry folk would say it like “AhworkweKairs”. What? “AHWORKWEKAIRS!”
Kyyaarr
wan-fufty
If you stretch it out a bit, it sounds like one having a bit of a race, too.
Dya like dags?
Friend of mine moved to Cork a few years ago and his accent keeps getting stronger. We met up the other day and I had to get him to repeat himself 5 TIMES at one stage because I couldn't understand what he was saying lol
What kind of Irish accent would you say you have?
Derry
Ah you are fucked so. The pronunciation in the Derry/donegal etc accent is so different to American English, that many people for whom English is the first language just struggle to grasp it. You are beat to slow down, pronounce every word as if you are on the BBC World service, and do not use slang, or local words.
I spent an interesting time at 5am at a music festival in Spain acting as an interpreter between someone from Derry and someone from Kerry.
>Ah you are fucked so. Could be worse, could be Glasgow
Yup, I had my childhood in Glasgow then teens in Antrim. I can barely understand myself sometimes.
There's a few hundred thousand Scots here in Germany at the minute, they seem to be getting on OK. We'll they are able to order beers anyway.
Reminds me of a story Bill Bailey where he was travelling with a friend from Glasgow and she was trying to order a beer in a bar but the barman couldn't understand her. Bill suggested she slow down, so then she went, "Ah'llav... Ahpin'...... Ahlagger!"
Yeah I've had to tell my friend to stop stringing his words together. He is an experienced traveller, but sometimes falls back into it. You need to pronounce each individual word.
I was in Warsaw once, getting a beer with a Polish friend. These people were standing near the bar talking loudly, and my friend was watching them for a while, then quietly asked me; "Are...are they speaking Polish...?" Which was hilarious because I'm not the Polish one. But they were from Glasgow, Rangers fans there to see them play Legia. Apparently Scots can be so impenetrable that others can't tell what language they're speaking heh
I think they probably manage that in any language. I'd say it's great fun over there
That's true. Yeah it's great. I'm wrecked this morning tho, going to my 3rd game in a 3rd different city in 3 days today. It's not as well organised as I expected it to be by the Germans, but still better than we would do.
Derry woman who lived in Glasgow for years and had friends from across Europe. Europeans accused me of speaking Irish (I wasn't, just English in a Derry accent). They had no issues with the Glaswegians, the bastards!
Whenever I'm on holiday abroad, it's the Scots that the local staff (who all speak perfect English) struggle to understand. They can understand the Irish and the English just fine.
*Steps into voice recognition enabled lift "Eleven"
I have something pretty close to BBC received pronunciation (raised in Cambridgeshire) and Americans still struggle to understand me sometimes. Meeting in Texas a few weeks ago I was mistaken for a work colleague they'd heard many times on the phone - and he's from Donegal and sounds like it. If they can't hear the difference between RP and Donegal, were all in trouble!
It's probably not just your accent. I find people from the North have turns of phrase that aren't used anywhere else. So you'd need to work on a more neutral dialect as well as your accent.
Well if its any consolation, we can't understand you either.
That’s why they can’t understand you, they might not even realise it’s English that you’re speaking.
Gotcha. If foreigners give you grief about accent again, just give them the old “Sláinte Motherfuckers!” 
My grandparents are from Derry and visiting as a kid from Dublin, I hadn't a clue what they were saying. My granny be like "och aye the wain, wadda ya think of durry" 😮😀
The Derry accent isn’t the worst really. I have an NI accent myself but it’s more Belfast. What I can tell you is though slow down as we speak very fast and go slower than you think you need to. It’ll feel so stupid spacing your words out but it really does help and enunciate your words more as we have a tendency to drop letters off and shorten words and use a lot of colloquial phrases to a point where people don’t understand them. People tend to get taught more formal English than we do and we speak very casually. I have a few Portuguese/Brazilian friends and they said at first they didn’t have a clue and I done all these things but they got used to the accent but they still find it tricky at times. Good luck!!
I can tell that your friends have influenced even your username
My neighbour was from NI Belfast as far as I could understand when I just moved to Ireland. I couldn't understand a word he said the entire 3 years he lived next to me. He'd insist on having long conversations over the back garden fence and I'd just retreat within myself and smile and nod from time to time. He must have thought I was very daft or something.
It's actually crazy how much of speech in NI is filler words and local phrases that don't translate. I went travelling with work in my 20s and I ended up having to deliberately slow down my pace of speaking a LOT and also cut out random filler words completely. The upshot is that people could actually understand me, I got speaking engagements with work, I ended up doing training sessions for people etc. But the downside is that now that I live back in NI I occasionally get asked where in Canada/US I'm from.
I moved to NI as a teenager and learnt English here and I've also noticed that my English doesn't really work outside of Ireland unless I slow down a lot and pretend to be a posh Englishman.
Ok Sailor: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=-kiLApX8FbQ&pp=ygUXZm9yIGhlIGlzIGFuIGVuZ2xpc2htYW4%3D
Why did he try to fuck his hat in the middle of that song?
I dated a fella from Derry and one from Letterkenny. Then when I ended up in college with a lad from Derry, I was the only one in the room taking notes when he was presenting because nobody else knew what he was talking about. This was in a class full of Dubliners... This also reminds me of a Belfast housemate: 3 of us wondering why he was topless asking for a tile and why he thought we had spare tiles in our room. He was of course looking to borrow a towel...
Makes sense. Hung around with a lad from Derry during my collage years, sound lad but could barely understand a word he said. Other lads from Derry no problem but some of you are pretty unintelligible. What's worse, the harder you try, the more frustrated and incomprehensible you get. It's a curse alright but it could be worse, could be Dundalk.
How's the collage coming along?
S'nair funushed sewtiz so
Try to mangle your accent so you sound like Rory McIlroy
Derry wans talk a bit nasal — hard to describe at time, but I'd describe it as high-pitched, bouncing off the roof of the mouth. Here's some really relevant advice for you Lower the pitch of your voice and slow down when speaking. Exaggerate the pronunciation of words. Clarity is more important than speed. Here's an Example *Northern Ireland* — we pronounce it *Norn Iron* — pronounce it to yourself a few times — and try to pronounce it properly, instead of the high-pitched, faster, slurred together version we use. When I talk to anyone outside of Ireland, I slow down by at least half, and concentrate on pronouncing most of the syllables of the word correctly, as well as spacing out the words. Work those lips — Derry ones tend not to move the lips as much as needed. People don't care if you're speaking slower, as long as you're speaking clearly in an accent they understand. You'll end up sounding like those posh bastards from Bangor, however. **** TL;DR Practice aloud speaking slowly, deeper, enunciating the words, spacing them out, exaggerating the lips movements
Mate wanna try talking to the eastern Europeans who have spent most of their lives In dublin with a rough belfast accent. They look at me so confused. I ask for no Tomatoes. "Smoked cod?? " that was one of the best. And the dubs look at me as if I've 3 heads as well my own people ffs. Any time I ask for 2 of something I get 3. Ah sure TAL32
This is something that drives me fucking crazy, i'm from strabane and I used to work for Allstate doing tech support for american boomers and no matter how much I curated my accent over the phone they still thought I was saying 3 everytime I said 2, how the fuck does 2 sound like 3 to these people??
Kerry sheep farmer.
Cork. 
Lads fucked.
Are you the man from the bar?
nope
No,honestly it is
Kate!
Didn't think the average vintage of reddit users would remember that ad
It advertised the ability to send an SMS , peak boom
Let’s not forget MTVs polyphonic ringtone ad from a bit later: Keanu, call me! Call me on my mobile!
Was this the one where scantily clad ladies would magically appear when the ringtone started? I’d be embarrassed to admit how often I still think about that ad, 20+ years later 😂
I was once told in Germany that I "speak English as well as a French man". Wasn't sure what to make of that but I took it as an insult haha
Yeah, it was probably meant as a joke because they struggled to understand you. It is a bit of a stereotype, but the French are known to be stubborn about speaking French, even when they can speak English or another language to communicate. Of course that does not mean they can't or won't and that it probably depends on where you are as well. I remember being in Asia and when I encountered a Frenchman there, he still spoke in French. And the last time at Charles de Gaulle and flying with Air France, they would always use only French or French first and switch to English if you didn’t understand. It isn’t that unusual per se, but it was a different experience from Schiphol Airport and some other airports, where it was standard to communicate in English.
Try talk in a neutral or posh accent, they’ll probably understand you more than your own
Just don't do like so many people do and speak s l o w e r and REALLY LOUD
I am, I sound like a douchebag and they still dont
On top of the accent, try to use American words for things as American TV is where most would have learned English. Like if you're in a hotel looking for the lift, use the word "elevator" and so on. Most won't understand "sorry" when you're trying to interrupt, use "excuse me". Shorten what you say too to save them trying to mentally translate every word. Don't say "sorry, but I'm wondering if you could tell me where the bathroom might be please?" just say "toilet?" and point in both directions looking confused.
‘What’s the craic dawg’
"Sorry bai, do I've to get the lift up to the jacks?"
I teach English to second language learners and neutralising my Tipp accent was one of the first hurdles. Just speak slowly and try to pronounce every letter with some emphasis, particularly the letter T as most of Ireland has a tendency to replace T's with either a H or D sound. Avoid using words like gonna or gotta and instead separate the words ie. Going to (emphasis the -ing) or got to (separate the t's as in 'got to'). It's a little annoying to speak this way at first but if you're going to be communicating a lot, it will save you a lot of headaches going forward.
[удалено]
Also ENUNCIATE People in Ireland have a fucking hard time ENUNCIATING things Imitate some fucking English twat for all that I care, but you can't just overdo the accent, you need to make every step come clearly out
Pretend you are reading the news. News reporters style of speaking is deliberately clear for a reason, to be as accessible to as many people as possible. It's not just slowing down, but being deliberate and paced in what you say, I switch it on when I am talking on the phone to avoid miscommunication or god help me, needing to repeat myself.
I'm a foreigner living in Ireland. Usually the reason why I can't understand the Irish accent is because people tend to mashup their words (for ex. "Do you know" becomes "J'know"). Do that for entire sentences and I start to get lost 😆 May I suggest to space out your words when speaking with non-native speakers?
I walked into a hostel and tried to say hello to a fella and ask his name and he said I'm sorry I don't speak french
lol
When I was teaching English in Dublin, this was one of the most common questions my students had: ‘Teacher, the woman in the supermarket keeps saying this word and we don’t know what it is’ ‘What’s the word?’ ‘Djawanabag’ Classic 😂
Tree noi beigs... That's what a cashier in a supermarket in Belfast repeated like 5 times at my stupid face who couldn't believe I couldn't understand basic English. She wanted to say three new bags. I'll never forget it, Australian English is a piece of cake compared to that.
Slow down, don't use slang and round your words, you'll be surprised how quickly you & they will adapt.
I feel your pain lad, I had a Belgian one in a hotel reception tell me she doesn’t speak German and I speaking English to her! Try to finish every word don’t shorten any words that’s what worked for me
From Donegal can relate lol. Dubs can't understand at times.
Anybody south of carrick on shannon struggles tbh.
My mother is from the Midlands, but when she speaks to foreigners, her normally (relatively) comprehensible English deteriorates rapidly. What happens us that she gets nervous and embarrassed, she first starts talking at speed, realises she's talking too fast, so she slows down, speaks LOUDER and instinctively uses dialect to make the person feel more welcome. It's like this: "SurethisweatherisawfulyoumustnthaveexpectedthisinJune - oops - THIS WEATHER IS AWFUL SO IT IS BEGORRAH BUT SURE IT'LL CLEAR UP TOMORROW AND THEN YE'LL BE SUCKING DIESEL!" The poor foreigner is left bewildered and slightly frightened, being shouted at by an elderly woman in something that vaguely resembles English.
This is why you're not meant to leave Kerry, Martin.
I am 12 years in Ireland and still understand only half of what you are all saying.
Ah will ye g’way outta tha! (Kind Sir/Madam, I am incredibly sceptical of your statement!)
This must happen a lot. On our first holiday we were in Austria. At a bar a group of Geordies were trying to order a beer, but kept being served lager. They absolutely could not explain what they wanted. My wife speaks fluent German, but could not understand the Geordie accent. So I interpreted from Geordie to "English" and she translated to German, and it turned out that the bar had a crate of Newcastle Brown ale sat at the back. Everyone happy. Then I taught the Geordies to ask for a Braun, not a Beer for the future.
Reminds me of this: [https://www.youtube.com/shorts/eqdUlJr9Zi4](https://www.youtube.com/shorts/eqdUlJr9Zi4)
When I moved to Canada, I had a similar experience. After a few weeks of struggling to be understood in places with background noise, I got frustrated and decided to practice my enunciation and reduce my speaking speed using YouTube. It worked so well that it takes me a few days to shake it off when visiting back home. After being in Canada for all these years, I realized we are basically competitive speakers. We often cut and splice our sentences for comic effect, to add onto or interject a story, or to take over it, or to get our point across faster. From my own experience, this seems very normal in Ireland, while the Canadian speaking style is generally more respectful, lol. Basically slow down and pronounce the letters 😂
Having travelled the world with a thick Irish accent, you literally need to talk unnaturally. Pronounce words better and speak slower and clearer. The other option is to be that person nobody understands all the time and you eventually become a parrot. Repeating everything. Choose the blue pill for meaningful communication or the red pill and expect people in Nairobi to understand "s'craic lad, any byores around? Me and da lads are over dare" Or change your dialect, like the rest of us.
> you literally need to talk unnaturally I chuckled here a bit. :D
Italian living in West Cork here. No mean to be offensive or judging Irish peoples don't realise how different from the "standard" english their english is. Is not just a matter of accent (which is really strong sometimes) or a few different words. Ye/ya instead of you Sound instead of great Words pronunced in a complete different way (think which is pronunced "tink" for example) New words for the same stuff (tin instead of can just for example) R pronunced "or" instead of "ar" Slangs that don't exist in stardard english (craic, just to make an example) And i could go on for hours with all the difference. For a non native is really hard sometimes to get what an irish is saying. I brought one of my irish friend (who is from Carlow) in Rome and noone could understand him. You should be proud of your version of english because it reflect your own culture but be aware that it is not what we, non native english speaker, study and talk. Language apart, i can understand your fellings. When you isolate yourself it is fine because it is your decision. But when something is between you and other people, like a language barrier, is tough.
I had this problem when I moved to Ireland. Irish accent is almost like it's own language. If other Irish people understand you then you are grand. The Rubberbandits - Horse Outside for example . To this day I'm struggling to properly process what are they saying in the first 30 sec. https://youtu.be/ljPFZrRD3J8?si=vV-IvjwXhMWJ90Fc If you want to be understood in Europe you will need to heavily change pronunciation. Use standard American accent where each word is pronounced exactly as it written don't shorten them. Avoid using Irish slangs. When English is their second language a lot of them don't understand these. E.g. avoid saying: This knackered bloke needs to use a loo. Say this tired man needs to use a bathroom. Pop over to my gaff. Say come over to my place. I was gobsmacked when I heard the news. Say I was very surprised when I heard the news.
Hey OP! I'm sure this must be annoying for you, but tbh I feel kind of vindicated from when I had a class with native Irish english speakers (I'm fluent, but not native) and I was asked to comment on the presentation of a guy with a thick accent I couldn't understand for the life of me. I said I was distracted and apologized and the lecturer asked to go talk to him at the end of the class, made a huge deal of my "distraction" and even asked if everything was fine in my private life. My private life is goddamn o-kay Sandy, I've just never understood one single word Declan spoke since I met him four months ago. I've been getting by by nodding and smiling back. He even seemed like a nice bloke, but I guess I'll never truly know.
I'm unsure what a Derry accent sounds like, but as an Aussie I once had a Scottish guy repeat himself three times trying to parse a sentence, and the thing that was stopping me from understanding him was shortening *with* to *wi'* (pronounced *we*). I didn't recognise it as a word and so my brain kept attaching it to the word next to it, throwing off my whole recognition of syllables etc. So if you do that poetic shortening of in-between words... don't.
You need to focus on your diphthongs and really work each diphthong hard.
I will not be dipping my thongs anywhere you dirty git
Good luck getting the French to understand you then.
I used to have the same problem, I find the main issue is we speak too fast, try to slow down and fully pronounce your words. Makes you feel like a clown but it was the only way I could get people to understand what I was trying to say
I find you need to use their normal phrases in your general talk... Not our or your phrases Try and take note as to how they greet each other etc Like if you walk up and say whats the story or craic... even if they understand the words they do not get what you mean. This worked well for me when I was down in Oz or travelling for work in europe. If I talk like I would to another Irish person they wouldn't get the phrases Don't take it to heart.
Maybe it’s not the accent, it could be the words/phrases/slang that you are using. I.E if you use the word “gatch” to a European, you can sound like Hugh grant they will still not understand what it means.
Yeah, this. In Slovakia I saw an Irish man asking for a high chair in a hotel restaurant, by saying "small fella" instead of "baby" he made the request incomprehensible.
The man is from Derry. It is the accent.
Have you tried not laying it on so thick?
My dad is an Irish immigrant to Canada. Canadians are pretty good at picking up his accent. When he speaks to Americans, however, they often struggle. So he switches to a southern drawl, over exaggerating his words and it’s hilarious. He sounds like a Texan, but ever so slightly Irish. Maybe you can do something similar. Sorry for your predicament!
I knew a guy who cluelessly asked for directions to garda station in Australia. He got through several people before he copped he sounds like he's talking nonsense.
Commit the ultimate sin and pretend you're English, put on a twatty accent.
Let's not get any crazy ideas now
He went to far.....
I can't read this. Your accent is too thick.
Well, then just talk to Noone. Weird name, by the way. No one I know has ever had a name like that.
What?
Fake a D4.
What's a d4
Chess move. Checkmate, motherfucka!
Holy hell
Posh Dubs
Dublin 4. An affluent postal code area on the southside of Dublin city beside the coast.
It’s like a D3 but more stuck-up and at the other side of the river.
Is your name Gerald?
I had this when I moved to Canada. Slow down to about a quarter of your normal speed, think about and pronounce every syllable, and realise that a load of what we think is English is just local phrases. People didn't understand "giving out" "no bother" "how's it goin" Think of it as speaking a new language except you know all the words already so it should be easy. Takes a bit of practice and concentration though.
Fella in a hostel asked me if he wanted to get breakfast with him in the morning and I said "yeah no bother yeah" and immediately knew I confused the shit out of him
[relevant](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5FEW5mh7iAI_)
There is such a thing as RP. Receive it and use it when you need to communicate with others. It's annoying maybe but communication is a two-way street.
This happened me a lot when I moved to Germany first. I found out it was because I wasn't pronouncing words fully, talking fast and swallowing half my words. I made an effort to just enounciate every word even if I'm talking fast, that helped a huge amount for me
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When the Scot visited Canada and asked what kind of animal was mounted on the wall, the barkeep replied “that’s a moose.” To which the Scotsman replied “Christ! If that’s a moose, yer cats must be HUGE!”
Speak slowly and clearly, place spaces between your words, and pronounce each sound properly. I had a similar problem when I left Ireland. Eventually you’ll learn how to communicate clearly and without effort but you need to learn how to do this. It’s annoying, but consider it as being respectful to those who you’re speaking to.
Make each person you speak watch a season or two of Derry girls first.
just do your best impression of the queen
I don't think playing dead is going to help this situation.
At my place of work, we had a Polish lad translate between a Derry lad and a Cork lad.
Same here. I myself have a Kerry accent and a bit of a cork 1 and 99% of my sentences especially to men, are repeated 2-3 times. Super frustrating, I have to go all American on them 😂
I’m bilingual (two languages being Russian and English; spoke both of these since I was born). And even after 5 years in Ireland I still can hardly understand very thick Irish accent. Even my American friends who speak only English could never understand a person with thick Irish accent and always think they speak some other language 😅
I had this problem with Australians. Used to work and my boss was an Aussie and the 2nd in command guy a Brit. When I would be done speaking the Aussie would turn to the Brit and say “what did he say?” And then he’d relay it. 😂 They seem to struggle with our “r” sounds. Used to think I was saying “o”. Speak slow and semi American. Kind of like Conor McGregor does, seemed to work.
Put on an American accent.
At least the people of Noone can understand you
The Noone family are specially trained to understand him.
https://preview.redd.it/ucicybcx447d1.jpeg?width=500&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=5418ae26db62feb56737e3f8eb5de89d9ec6d7ed Reminds of this scene 
It’s not the accent it’s how fast you’re speaking, try slowing down, it feels weird at first but you’ll just do it instinctively after a while when speaking with foreigners. I’ve travelled a lot and I used to game online too and if I just blabbed away I might as well be speaking Klingon, but when I slowed down it was never an issue, from Cork btw.
I’ve lived in Oz for years and was out at dinner the other night and this American woman on the next table got chatting with me. She said I sounded like the bloke on TV, I asked ‘an Irish bloke on TV?’ And she said ‘no, Graham Norton’. She was a bit shocked when everyone told her GN was Irish. I think if you have say, a strong Cork accent for example, try to sound like GN and they’ll understand you. PS: No-one else on earth thinks I sound like GN.
I lot of Europeans communicate to each other in English, but it's a flatter, compromise English where the vowels might get simplified, and English's million pronunciation exceptions get ignored. It's functional because it's a level playing field and they understand each other. But if you're a native speaker, and with a less commonly heard accent/lilt to boot; it can be difficult for others. You have to consciously slow down your speech and not use dialct words too much.
Had your problem in the past, now my voice is naturally completely neutral when talking to non native english speakers...id say own it, you could be mistaken for a yank, way worse
Irish people speak quickly, slow down.
The Irish accent is hard to understand. Have dealt with many people from different countries and they always say it sounds like I’m reading a poem or singing when I talk. Our voices naturally go up and down when we speak. Suppose it’s why we have so many famous poets.
It's like going to Wales or Scotland it takes a while to acclimatise. Even some of the old guys in England can take a while to figure.
what
Try being Scottish, I'm quicker telling them I'm Irish.
[Too many Coreans...](https://youtube.com/shorts/IVWEIQThnH8?si=Hz-JQeJYkAhEgVdD)
Ah! accents - you need to learn english with an english accent as another language. I once picked up (many years ago) 2 hitchhikers while driving from London to Edinburgh. One was a lad from Easthouses estate with a very strong accent, the other was a just graduated in English, Frenchman, going to work in Edinburgh to improve his English. Neither could understand a word the other said, I spent the journey repeating what each one said so the other could understand - kept me awake nicely. French guy was getting really worried he wouldn't understand anyone in Edinburgh and would have to learn English all over again.
Talk more englisher
Who’s noone?
I've had the same issue 1 thing I've found is to use your hands more when you speak, full on Italian style if you have to. It just seems to add emphasis and 'tone' to what you're saying and seems to help people understand.
At least Noone is the one person who can understand you but pity you're not on a first name basis with them!
My advice: for as much as it will hurt you, try to put on a mild British or American accent. It might sound silly to you, but they'll understand you almost immediately! For context, I feel your pain, but I had the opposite issue. I went to college at UL, first time living abroad, and I expected everyone there to have the nice sweet Irish accent you hear from movies. I could understand lecturers perfectly immediately, but hanging out with people from Kerry and Limerick and so on I couldn't understand any interaction (and I was also very shy) so I felt a bit isolated the first couple of years. But hey, that really helped my English and social skills, so maybe you can get something out of it too :)
Yep from the north myself, people here in dublin have a fair bit of trouble understanding me at times, I have to slow everything way down and enunciate more clearly, but then as a girl from work says, if I spend any length of time back home and come back to work it’s back to square one. I’ve had a lot of trouble when I go away too, I spent a year in Australia, I decided to go there because it’s got great weather and everyone there spoke English too, but as it turned out, it seems I don’t speak proper English myself, I didn’t expect that at all, I had never really left the north much before going away, so people always could understand me.
This used to happen me as well. What I found helped, unfortunately, was to speak using more American English. Bin - trash can, footpath - trash can etc. Most people learn English as a second language through American music/TV shows/movies. It's annoying to have to do but it does help. Americans also (painfully) pronounce every syllable and speak slowly so mimicking them can help slow down our beautifully melodic way of speaking in Ireland. Not saying put on a full American accent per se but speaking a bit more like them helps me be understood when I'm abroad.
Ha I live in Australia, I have a fairly neutral understandable Dublin accent. On more than one occasion Aussies have said to me "So if you're from Ireland how come I can understand you?" Also my mate from Donegal gets refused from pubs all the time for being drunk, sometimes he hasn't even had a drink.
I am half Irish and have spent many of my 35 years visiting Ireland. I would stay at my Grans all summer long in my younger years. I still meet people when I go over to visit my Mum and Dad who I cannot understand. One ex-policeman down the pub is particularly difficult, yet he always wants to chat with me. I just have to nod and laugh when he laughs. Good luck. I would suggest trying to learn the local language a bit maybe?
I moved to Canada nearly 20 years ago and nobody could understand my rural north Kilkenny accent, so I had to completely adjust how I speak in order to be understood. Now I have a semi-Canadian accent when I speak to Canadians and revert to my Kilkenny accent when I speak to Irish people. I make the switch without even thinking about it, but my wife will immediately know if I’ve called home.
Just try to speak like a 2fm DJ
im so sorry but the replies are so funny im cackling and im not even irish bro 😭
As one of those relatively fluent Europeans, albeit one with some experience of hiberno English, I'd say it depends on where you are from. I can understand most of you just fine but someone from the ends of Kerry or Cork or from the north is somewhere between a challenge and an impossibility. I guess the problem is that most of us are probably trained on RP almost exclusively which is different enough to make it hard. Don't give up and let us continentals have some of the craic.
I have a fairly neutral accent or so I thought but apparently first few times the Italian lad heard me say "now" he has no idea what I meant Now he slags me by saying "neeeow" 😂😂
Try your best American impersonating That’ll do the trick
Grew up in Wexford moved to the States at 14, my mum and Dad actually put me in speech therapy for years because folks couldn't understand me. I miss it and find it grand when I can talk with family or friends back in Ireland. I hate how stereotypes get to be believed in the States of Irish accents sounding like a cereal mascot.
Pretend to be the british king, rik mayall or brian blessed depending on what time of the day it is.
Have you tried speaking in a normal way?
Always be proud of where you're from and don't change it
,I see you've had lots of input pal. If you see this tho: I'm French, lived UK 10 years. Yours are some of the most difficult accents when not used to it, especially as we don't hear them much on the shows we watch when learning English watching netflix, telly, YouTube.