Education: The Universal Dialect

I am often asked which English accent is most difficult to understand for an American. Whether it is a thick Glaswegian accent, or a slow southern drawl, I wasn’t able to decide. The truth of the matter is that difficulty in understanding English speakers around the globe has less to do with accent and more to do with education level. I have had long friendly conversations with English speakers from all over the UK without any difficulty. There have also been time where the distinction is more pronounced, and we are reduced to a bizarre and frustrating form of pantomime. The root of our difficulty is rarely the accent, after a few minutes of careful listening it is easy to pick out the peculiarities of regional accents. The root of the problem is often education level. From my experience, I would argue that education level is directly related to ease of communication. With a lower level of education one is more prone to use poor grammar and colloquialisms. Use of colloquialisms does not indicate a lower level of education, but when a person is unable to find synonyms for these local sayings, it does implicate the education level. This is true for non native English speakers. Tourists from Germany and the Nordic countries often speak perfectly understandable English. Though there is usually a marked accent, the implied level of education necessary to speak another language helps them to be understood. Through my experience at the tourism office, I would say that understanding English speaking tourists depends largely on their level of education.