Do You Understand British English w/o Subtitles?

I’m just curious, but do American people or people in other English speaking countries (except for the UK) understand what the characters are saying in movies or series where they speak British English?

I’m a native Japanese who was born and raised in Japan, yet I prefer to watch anime with Japanese subtitles. I recently watched Harry Potter movies and I’m wondering if people can really understand English with a different accent than their own.

I’ve been learning rather American English in school, so I hardly understand when people speak English with a quite strong British accent... (as well as other strong accents. I can understand English with a strong samurai accent tho XD)

If you’re an English speaker and not from the UK, can you understand everything what the characters say in Harry Potter movies without subtitles?

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SW-User

I’m British English. I’m from southern England so I don’t have much of an accent. I find it hard to understand always what Scottish people are saying on tv or Welsh. Even Yorkshire accents and up north I sometimes miss the odd word. We all speak the same language but up north and in Scotland there are sayings that Southern English people do not know or understand.

ArishMell · 70-79, M

@SW-User LOL! So am I, and we [i]do[/i] have accents!

It's just that we don't notice our own when most of those around us everyday have basically the same accent.

I have friends in Yorkshire and I certainly sound different to their ears. Though I've picked up a few of their mannerisms like "were that" sentence suffix as an emphasis-maker (E.g. "It were a good do, were that!") ; and I know a few of the Norse words in Northern English place-names, like "fell" and "beck".