I’m a native speaker and have absolutely no issue whatsoever with Australian and British accents, but people with a heavy Indian accent still sound like they’re not speaking English to me.
It doesn’t help that Indian English often still uses a lot of colonial terms, like Capsicum instead of bell pepper. That being said most Indians in the US will adjust to the local vocabulary pretty quickly.
My ex learned English as a second language and was fluent but she had a very hard time with any heavy accent.
My wife too. She grew up in Taiwan and moved to America in middle school.
She can’t understand understand British or Australian accents, where I can hear the differences between the two.
She literally can’t understand Indian accents. It’s like they are not speaking English at all.
I’m a native speaker and have absolutely no issue whatsoever with Australian and British accents, but people with a heavy Indian accent still sound like they’re not speaking English to me.
It doesn’t help that Indian English often still uses a lot of colonial terms, like Capsicum instead of bell pepper. That being said most Indians in the US will adjust to the local vocabulary pretty quickly.
I think we were exposed to more Brit and Aus influences. Thinking Steve Erwin, Crocodile Dundee, and a bunch of British actors.
For Indian speaking influence, nope. Even today, the only exposure to Indian accents is at work and even then, its limited.
You can get better at understanding accents by listening to them more, so yeah, that’s probably why.
I absolutely LOVE Indian accents, especially with a very sing-song speech pattern.