>Ha! Don't hold your breath on that one. After almost two decades, I have
>given up on the hope of U.Sers learning to speak English. In my previous
>trip to India, I met an Indian woman who was one of the U.S
>English/accent "coaches". She joked that the first difficult problem in
>her job is to make the kids unlearn English so they could be taught
>American.
>
Actually my two favorite accents in English are the ones from India and
the ones from Virginia. The Indian accent is not the problem -- it is a
delightful combination of clippedness and melody, but what does make it
tough is the speed at which they speak, often very, very fast. In
person, it's not that big a deal, but over the phone, it can be a problem.
In my work I have to work with foreign engineers all the time. I consider it the best part of the job. The most difficult one to understand is the chinese woman engineer who also happens to be the smartest engineer, the best reviewer, and the most detail-oriented and exacting engineer. The phone is hopeless unless I can formulate all my questions to elicit yes or no answers. So, when I need to talk to her, I do the one-hour drive. It's worth it.
Joanna