Accent Communication Barriers

Your accent is how you speak; pronounce what you say and the words that you use that are unique to the area of the country that you come from. This can act as a barrier to communication.

For example, if you come from Yorkshire you tend to drop the “H’s” in words and not pronounce them so “house” would be “ouse”. If you went into Currys and PC World in London and started speaking to an assistant in a Yorkshire accent, especially if you had a very broad accent, they wouldn’t be able to understand some of the words you were saying due to how you pronounce them. This would act as a barrier to communication, rendering your inquiry futile.

To overcome this barrier to communication you could try to speak without your accent. You could also write down what you were trying to say so that they could read it. The same could be said for the assistant if you could not understand what he is saying due to his regional accent. This would resolve the communication barrier and ensure clear communication between individuals from different areas of the country.