Problems with Accents

[u/thslightofmine]

I have an online friend from Scotland. She’s one of the sweetest people I’ve ever had in my life, I love her with all of my heart. But in all of honesty, I’m having hard times, I may only understand like >75% of what she’s saying whenever we have phone/video calls, due to her thick Scottish accent

English is not my first language, I still have a very long way to learn. I have communicated my difficulty with her, and she took it very lightheartedly, telling me to not hesitate to ask her repeat her words if I didn’t catch something. I’m learning to accustom myself with Scottish accent and I’m getting better and better. But it still pains me to this day, knowing that if I may have another friend with accent, I may not understand them right away

Dear native English-speaking people, what do you think / how do you feel when a non-native frequently ask you to repeat the things you said because they didn’t catch it?

And to those who might have similar experience, how do I get better at understanding different accents?

Thank you in advance

[u/Even-Yogurt1719]

I'm a native English speaker, American and have an Aunt from Scotland so I can understand the accent pretty well, but when you get to some parts of Scotland, like Northern, it's much thicker and harder to understand for me. What helped was actually reading a novel by a true Scot author, Irvine Welsh. He spells out the accent and celtic/Scottish words that are still used in some places...like in Trainspotting and Porno (not an actual porn book) his 2 best sellers I think. Maybe try that if you like to read and don't mind the gritty side of life lol