[Sciencefriction]

I don't have trouble with British accents in general, or many others. Maybe it's because I grew up listening to a lot of British music from the 60-80s, and spent a lot of time listening to their lyrics and watching interviews. For example, I always read about how Mick Ronson (guitarist in the 70s) from Hull was very hard for people to understand. Every interview or recording I've heard of him speaking hasn't been hard for me to understand at all. So I think part of it is familarizing yourself with people's dialect and colloquialisms. If you rarely hear British people speak then it's not surprising that it could give you trouble (depending on the thickness of the accent). Once you are used to hearing it you probably won't have as much trouble. Now if they just have a problem speaking properly that's a whole different issue entirely. There are plenty of fellow Americans who I struggled to understand because they slurred when speaking, or mumbled, or some other issue.