Do Americans have problem understanding Indian accent?

[Maureen Sharib]

Interesting LinkedIn question here with many answers coming in fast.

[Nikhilesh Chand Mathur]

I am an Indian who has always worked with cross border teams, initially in India and since across the world. I have always been told my English is as native as an American or Britisher. No problems there. I guess it would be incorrect to generalize.

Indian accents can vary from region to region... much like any other language in a large country. Within the US one can find accents which are almost impossible to understand. It just needs a bit of flexibility to understand who you are dealing with. As someone said on the LinkedIn post, some Spanish or French speak english which sounds no different from Spanish or French.

I guess this has more to do with the call centres in India. Sadly, for the sake of cost saving they end up hiring individuals from Grade B or C metros where emphasis on English is not that strong. And nuances of a language are not that easy to teach. They would only come from experience...

[Jeff Madigan]

In my experience they do. We run an accent reduction training center. While we get all kinds of backgrounds, Indian, Russian, French, Chinese, Filipino, Iranian, ... I have noticed a distinct difference in how a British or Aussie accent is viewd compared to the Indian accent. In Punjabi, for example, the T and D have more variations than in English. As a result, it is one of the main sound areas that creates an Indian accent. With training and practice, it isn't too hard for a Punjabi accent to sound more American.