Coping with accents 听不懂口音怎么办
"All the English programmes have been trying to teach us received English. However, when we talk with foreigners, they are more likely to speak English with strong local accents. As a result, I can't understand anything. What should I do?"
Peng Xiao, Harbin
Learning English in the classroom can be very different to the experiences you may have when using it in 'real life'.
收听与下载
It can often be difficult to understand what someone is saying, especially if they speak quickly or have a very strong accent.
So what can you do when speaking to someone with an accent or dialect you cannot understand?
In this week's Question and Answer of the week, Jen and Li give some tips on how to politely request people to repeat, speak more slowly or explain what they mean.
Try listening to some of Great Britain's Olympic and Paralympic athletes - how much can you understand? The transcript is available on the script if you get stuck!
If you want a question answered too, just send it to questions.chinaelt@bbc.co.uk
