Jimmy Wales wrote:
I talk to a lot of people who speak English with
different sorts of
accents, and it is very seldom a barrier to communication at all. It
might be a bit surprising to listen to an English article read by
Anthere, who speaks with a distinct French accent, but she's still very
easy to understand.
This depends partly on where you're from, because if you change small
bits, and then change small bits again, and so on, the overall
difference gets quite large. Most people who speak English with a
middle-of-the-road American or British accent are one degree away from
most accents you'll encounter. A German who learns English, for
example, almost always learns from a UK or US English role model---not
from an Indian or Singaporean role model. So the Indian or Singaporean
is two degrees of accents away from the German speaking English, while
the American or Briton is only one degree away.
I know from personal experience that while most American students can
understand nearly all the foreign-born professors I've had, albeit
sometimes with some difficulty, many of the international students, even
those who were born in English-speaking countries like India, have much
more difficulty, especially with some of the European accents.
Although it smacks of a bit of accent imperialism, the most widely
understood accents are probably some sort of middle-of-the-road American
accent (i.e. not a strong New York, Southern, or Texas accent), and some
sort of middle-of-the-road British accent (i.e. not Cockney). Of
course, we could always provide multiple readings...
-Mark