Strange conversation

That is awesome. I am a relocated Yankee to NC since 1978. There are still times when I am conversing with a real down-east Carolinian that we both have no idea what the other one is saying. "Say again", "What?" "Repeat that please", I swear some of my best friends speak with marbles in their mouths. Now I on the other hand speak faster than my brain can think and when I am on a roll, my mouth runs 100 miles a minute. My buddies southern brains simply cannot handle the speed. My wife says, "Stop getting all yankee on me".

Yankee vs. Southern is tough enough - I can't imagine Mandarin vs. Southern.

I knew a married couple in the military. He was from Brooklyn, New York - she was from Rome, Georgia. Each one's accent made the other laugh early and often.
I am from Alabama via the midwest. My wife is from South Carolina. Her accent is delightful but sometimes funny. I can do her and her sister's speech pattern well after all these years.
They always say, "Don't mawk me." but I can't help it.
toots

I come from Wales (next to England not part of it just like Scotland) and the national language is Welsh not English.  Granted the majority of Welsh people don't speak Welsh but legally all government signs and forms and street signs have to be in English and Welsh.  We also have our own TV and various radio stations dedicated to welsh.  I can't speak it but I can understand the basics when it's spoken to me slowly.   

Strangely a friend of mine who speaks welsh fluently went to Northern France on holidays and they were amazed to find that if the French person spoke slowly and clearly they could undertand them.  Apparently this only works the the french spoken in Brittany and Normandy.