> native speakers are excellent at understanding accents when compared to other nations where non-standard accents are not as common Interesting to read this;

> native speakers are excellent at understanding accents when compared to other nations where non-standard accents are not as common Interesting to read this; I had developed exactly the same hypothesis about French speakers: that they're less accustomed to a variety of accents (with the obvious caveat that it's even more risky to generalise from an anecdote than from data!).