When you grow up on an island (like Britain), where the accent changes every 20 miles or so, you get used to hearing a wide range of accents and being able to p

When you grow up on an island (like Britain), where the accent changes every 20 miles or so, you get used to hearing a wide range of accents and being able to parse what is going on, so I think you're right. But even for me, as a North Derbyshire/South Manchester type who had family from all over, Rab C. Nesbitt is only intelligible with subtitles. I wish that wasn't true, and I feel bad about it... even worse when I meet Scottish family and feel like an idiot. Americans in particular are very, very easy to trick. As a teenager, when visiting family in Northern California, my step-brother and I could basically speak in "secret code" and be unintelligible to all Americans around us, by putting on a very, very mild Scouse lilt... absolutely hilarious.