You asked: Which UK location had the funniest accent?

I have a particular affinity for the UK and their accents, so I don’t know that any of them struck me as particularly funny, but there were a few that stuck out significantly in one way or another. 

The employees at our hotel and the restaurant we ate at in Glasgow win the prize for the most difficult to understand. I pride myself on my ability to comprehend most UK accents, courtesy of numerous viewings of British films and Jane Austen adaptations. However, even I had to ask them to repeat themselves and pause for five seconds of contemplation to translate their thick Scottish burrs into American English. They were very kind and considerate, smiling at our inability to comprehend. I even suspect it secretly pleased them to be so incoherent to us Americans.

The good people of the Northumberland town of Berwick-upon-Tweed possessed a most charming accent, a folksy blend of Scottish and northern English.  This curious inflection likely developed during the centuries of border warfare between the two countries, when Berwick’s nationality switch sides many times as the boundary between England and Scotland shifted north or south. Softly lilting, but delightfully rustic, the Berwick voices seemed ideal for storytellers and bards.

Overall, southern Englanders were easiest to understand, while, as to be expected, the Scottish brogues took more concentration. Even so, my favorite accent that we encountered on our journey was in Pitlochry, Scotland, midway between Edinburgh in the south and Inverness in the north. Our guide at the Blair Atholl Distillery had the distinctive Scottish burr we all here so much about, with just enough rough cadence to prove its authenticity and still be perfectly recognizable. I also adored the little old lady who checked us in at Dunster Castle in Devon, England and her lovely, rounded country accent.

Interestingly enough, we received more than a few comments on our own American accents and phrasing, usually positive. The owner of our B&B in Eastbourne, East Sussex told me how he loved the American phrase, “I’m good,” when at breakfast I replied so to his query whether I needed anything else. A man at Bodiam Castle, also in southern England, told me he enjoyed American tourists because “at least he could understand us, even if we didn’t always speak the same language.” Our hosts in Lynton, along the western edge of Exmoor, told us of their excitement to return to America for vacation. Having already toured Los Angelas, they had set their sights on Texas as their next destination and were eager to hear our advice on the Lone Star state. They wondered whether people there truly dressed and talked like the cowboys and other stars in movies do. 

What accents have you encountered in your travels outside the US? Were any of them funny or difficult to understand? Which were your favorites? What were the foreigner’s perceptions of Americans and our accents?