You can't study English in Scotland, 'cause you won't understand the accent!

[acroyear]

Story from The Scotsman:

A Russian student refused entry to Scotland to study English was told by Whitehall officials she would have found the Scots accent difficult to understand.

The extraordinary statement was made in documents sent to the un-named women by Foreign Office officials when they refused her entry to the UK last summer.

"You cannot satisfactorily explain why you have chosen to attend an English course in Scotland rather than your options of Oxford or Cambridge, where you should face less difficulty understanding a regional accent," officials stated.

The visa request was refused on other grounds as well (like she hadn't studied english in Russia either, and her financial means were suspect), but still, it shows quite a bit of gaff on the part of London which though they acknowledge was an error on their part, they won't apologize for.

Comments

[kiltboy]

Having gone drinking in Scotland (as I'm sure you have as well), I've found the accent very difficult to understand. And I do a good Scotish accent myself. I'm used to the southen accent in the US, the "common" British accent (monty python mostly), Cockney's a bit easier, but Scotish is a hard one to grasp, and I'm familiar with it.

[acroyear70.livejournal.com]

well, there are actually 3 core accents in scotland, and oddly enough, the highland accent is the easiest to understand. in edinburgh, not too many people still speak burns-ish scots, so its reasonable as well. sterling's touristy enough to have the edinburg accent for the most part, and by then we'd been in the highlands for almost a week.

glasgow, on the other hand? i did have to translate for cyd a couple of times. I've been listening to billy connoly since the 80s, so it wasn't *too* much trouble.

[juuro.livejournal.com]

I used to think I'm reasonably fluent in English. Then, in 1990, I was visiting Edinburgh. Oh, no problem at the receptions and the touristy places (Holyrood, Princess St. (?) and suchlike), but wandering a bit offside... I did have to concentrate quite a bit, and still was asking for repetitions.