Indian accent, especially when they talk English.

They probably think the same about your accent.

It's one of those accents that just make your ears bleed. It's no one's fault really. It's just so radicaly different that I can't decode it efficiently enough. Makes my brain stop dead in It's tracks

It's a matter of respect for me to pronounce English words correctly, even if I sometimes screw up the exact sounds the words remain intelligible in this way. I consider this the entry barrier to international discourse, and I'm very happy to note that the vast majority of Indians abroad think the same way.

Unfortunately, the same cannot be said about Brits, who are to discourse in the UK as French people are to international discourse; making language into a question of pride and refusing to comply with the standard to the point where only their fellow locals can understand them.

The sound of Indian English is tiring, but at least you can understand it if you're paying attention.

@kamen how is this a counter point? “No, you!”

Being from the American Midwest*, the same can be said about nearly the entire rest of the English speaking world. Northern or southern states, east or west coast, UK, Canada, or Australia, you all talk funny.

* Apparently the only place in the world that treated the rules of phonics as serious business and everyone sounds like news casters.

** This becomes less and less true the longer the internet is around. Now spoken English around the country is normalizing to sound like a midwestern high school drop out.

@ibfalvy, the truth about French people is that we get shit English education, and because we are not as immersed into the English speaking world as much as other countries most people don’t bother. What you see as pride is a facade to hide the fact they just can’t speak English very well, and for some reason it’s a shame here. So they never try and all have a terrible level. Although I will say that it’s much better than it used to be some decades ago.

@Earu I think maintaining a façade of pride to mask the fact that you don't speak languages, even if it is fake of which I'm not convinced at all, is the finest evidence of misplaced pride.

@Earu I think the sense of superiority is sincere because they act with the same hostility towards foreigners trying to speak French. If they actually regarded not speaking English as a flaw, they'd be supportive of foreigners learning their language like Italians are.

(All of this is of course heavily generalized, I'm talking about what one might encounter on a visit to a country, where it's easy to overlook even a 20% minority)

you do know there are more people in an Indian city than the entire population of Australia, an English speaking continent, right?

and if you hear some south Indian talking in English, then do doubt yourself first: most of those folks pronounce more correctly than some native English speakers

@aviophile Whatever accent you have seems the most neutral to you - you probably don't even register it as an accent. The very same thing would be very noticeable to anyone with a different accent.

@kamen false. Doesn’t change the fact that indian accent is nail on a chalkboard

@Ibfalvy it’s kind of a vicious loop actually. Foreigners who absolutely massacre French tend to make French people not have the patience to deal with it, and then foreigners get less support to learn French and the cycle goes on. The correcting your spelling and grammar is kind of culture thing tho, we do it among each other’s so it’s definitely not targeted.

I personally don’t have any friends or any person close to me convinced that we should be proud to speak French because it’s typically an attitude that I despise (nationalism etc…). I can’t speak for everyone but whatever you’re mentioning is definitely dying out with the older generations

It, does not matter the accent, as long as the receiver understand's it.

Have you heard some British speak, you will not believe that they owned English

@Ohiorenua indian accent borders on incomprehensible to requiring extra effort to understand. Accent matters. A german accented english and indian thick accented english are objectively different.

The indian accent is very tuneful, I have no difficulty understanding it. In the UK we have many distinct regional accents, Scottish being one of the most difficult to understand. I was once on the phone to an adobe rep they spoke a thick Scottish accent after the fourth time of asking to repeat themselves and pretending it was a bad line I just gave up and ended the call.

@helloworld Scottish is weird but they at least pronounce things; as a foreigner it's easier to get used to strange pronunciation than none whatsoever. My bane is the Birmingham accent, aka. English Lite with 75% fewer phonemes

Come to Italy if you wanna hear a funny accent

I don't struggle with the Indian accent, it's the speed. My brain just can't keep up. And I tend to speak too slowly for them to follow up.

It was a pain to have a help desk in India due to this. xD

But when both take the other into consideration, it's just fine.

@Manuch i will in close future. I plan to talk like peter in family guy.