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/ClevelandWomble]

As someone from northern England, I once feared I was going to be punched because I could not answer this man's question at the railway station. He was asking for the exit but all I heard was, "werezoot?".

Some Scottish accents are very refined; others are designed for drinking half a bottle of whisky and waving a claymore about.

[u/LanewayRat → u/ClevelandWomble]

Actually this happened to me in Australia. As a city boy I was out in the bush (the countryside) with some mates bushwalking. After the long hike we stopped in a tiny country town and went to the only pub for a few drinks on the way home. I nearly started a fight at the bar because I couldn’t understand one of the locals commenting on us being covered in mud and was asking him to repeat himself.

• Y’bin walkin’ up ‘em blagreeks? (You been walking up them black creeks)
  
• Sorry, what?